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Date: Saturday, July 31, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The story of the Lord's adventures is all nectar. It has no other component,
no other taste, no other content. Everyone can drink their fill from any
part of that ocean of nectar, just as sugar is sweet irrespective of whether
it is eaten during the day or night. For, it is day or night only for the
person who eats, not for the sugar. Sugar behaves uniformly always. So too,
the love of God and the love for God are both eternally sweet and pure,
whatever the method of accepting or attaining them. The same sweetness
exists, everywhere, at all times, in every particle.
-BABA
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Date: Friday, July 30, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
It is a very difficult task to secure a good Guru. Sishyas (disciples) can
become exemplary persons only when a real Guru accepts them. When
pure-hearted, unselfish and non-egoistic students approach a Guru, the Guru
exults in ecstatic delight. Parikshith, the Emperor, renounced everything
and decided to realise God, and, right at that moment, Maharshi Suka
appeared, to guide him straight to his goal. Similarly, when the good
Sishyas get good Gurus, they succeed not only in attaining Bliss but also in
conferring peace, prosperity and joy upon the entire world.
-BABA
Date: Thursday, July 29, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
It is mentioned that "Success begets success." But how is success to be
achieved and what is the success you should aim at? The Bhagavad Geeta
declares: "Shraddhavan Labhathe Jnanam" (The persevering seeker secures
wisdom). This means that without perseverance and earnestness no success
can be achieved. Man is not able to make significant progress towards
the Divine because of absence of strenuous striving in the spiritual
sphere. Without spiritual practice, reading religious books and
listening to spiritual discourses have no value. Study of scriptures and
reciting God's names may be good acts in themselves. But, if there is no
love, which is the basis of all Sadhana (spiritual discipline), they are
of no use.
-BABA
Date: Wednesday, July 28, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
It is creditable if you behave as a human being and even more creditable if
you behave as God would. But to behave as a demon or a beast is indeed
despicable. Human beings were long born as a mineral, then became a tree; in
the process of evolution, got promoted to an animal, and finally rose to the
status of a human being. It is a great shame if an individual slides into
the beast or a beastly ogre. One deserves praise only if one rises to the
Divine status. That is the fulfilment of one’s destiny. Avoid contact with
the vices and develop attachment to virtues. Transmute your heart into an
altar for the Lord. Destroy all the shoots and sprouts of desire. Then, your
heart will be sublimated into Ksheerasagara, the pure ocean of milk where
Lord Vishnu reclines. Your heart will be transformed and you will discover
endless delight.
-BABA
Date: Tuesday, July 27, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Thapas (penance) does not mean positioning oneself upside down, head on the
ground and feet held up, like a bat. Nor is it the renunciation of
possessions and properties, wife and children, emaciating one’s body or
holding the nose to regulate one’s breath. NO. Physical actions, oral
assertions and mental resolves—all three have to be in unison. The thought,
the speech and the act all have to be pure. This is the real Thapas. And
they have to be co-ordinated not by the compulsion of duty. The effort must
be undertaken for satisfying one’s inner yearnings, for the contentment of
the self. This struggle is the essence of Thapas.
-BABA
Date: Monday, July 26, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The contemplation of death is the very foundation of spiritual discipline.
Without it, you are certain to fall into falsehood, pursuing the objects of
sense-pleasure and trying to accumulate worldly riches. Death is no ominous
calamity. It is a step into the auspicious brightness beyond. It is
inescapable; it cannot be bribed away or adjourned by certificates of good
conduct or testimonials from the great. Once born, death is inevitable. You
must perform deeds which breed no bad consequences. Engage every day in
every activity as an offering to God. Then you need not be born again and
again and can escape death. This inquiry is the very core of spiritual path
and will help you achieve immortality.
-BABA
Date: Sunday, July 25, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Guru Poornima is sacred for many reasons. Today, the seeker who suffers from
the false identification with the objective world is initiated into the
reality of the unseen motivator of the world, God. On this day, those who
have no urge to tread the spiritual path are inspired to seek the path of
bliss. With the rise of the sun, the world is bathed in light and heat. So
too, with the coming of Guru Poornima, the human heart is bathed in peace
and security. Guru Poornima is not just a day in the year marked in a
calendar. It is the day when your mind, whose presiding deity is the moon,
becomes full of pleasantness and coolness, and is fully illumined with the
light of intellect and discrimination.
-BABA
Date: Saturday, July 24, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Today people have lost the precious virtue of fear of sin. It is only lack
of fear of sin that is responsible for the present plight of the society.
Today people are committing several sins with the belief that God is kind
and will ultimately forgive their sins. With this belief, they are indulging
in more and more sinful acts. They have developed a sort of complacency and
think that they can escape punishment. But the fact is otherwise. Though God
is compassionate and may forgive all sinful acts, every human being has to
necessarily pay for his/her sins. For morality to exist in society, fear of
sin is essential. Hence everyone must develop the three qualities of: love
for God, fear of sin and morality in society.
-BABA
Date: Friday, July 23, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
You must learn how to make your parents happy. Today, parents are being
treated like servants. Some parents are being admitted into old age homes,
when there is shortage of money. This is not correct. It is your
responsibility to look after your parents and provide necessary support to
them. They should not be sent to old age homes. You must keep them with you
and serve them. You need not prepare special items for their sake. It is
enough if you can give them what you are eating. Whatever job you take up,
you must always serve your parents and make them happy. Serving your parents
must be the greatest fortune you must aspire for. It is enough if you take
care of your parents, your children and your family. That is the hallmark of
real education.
-BABA
Date: Thursday, July 22, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Withdrawal from sensory objects is an important virtue. It implies a state
of mind that is above and beyond all dualities that agitate and affect
common people, such as joy and grief. Withdrawal from sensory objects can be
achieved while engaged in day to day living. Do not look at the world with a
worldly eye. Then, even you can escape from the opposites of grief and joy,
and attain balance and equal mindedness. You experience the One as many
because of the mind playing its games. Practice seeing everything as a
projection/extension of the Loving Lord. Then, you will be able to cross the
horizon of dualities into the region of One.
-BABA 
Date: Wednesday, July 21, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Your very nature is Prema (Love). You cannot survive even for a
moment, when deprived of Love. It is the very breadth of your life.
When the six vices, to which you were attached so long, disappear,
Love becomes the only occupant of your heart. Love has to find an
object, a loved one. It cannot remain alone. You will then direct it
to the charming, sweet Lord, who is Purity Personified, who is the
embodiment of service, sacrifice and selflessness and who has taken
residence in the cleansed altar of your heart. Then, there will be
no scope for any other attachment to grow. Step by step, this love
for God becomes deeper, purer, more self-denying, until at last,
there is no need for thoughts, and the individual is merged in the
Universal.
-BABA
Date: Tuesday, July 20, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
If you desire to wash off the dirt accumulated from the clothes you
wear, you need both soap and clean water. So too, if you are anxious to
remove the impurities that have got accumulated in the mind, both Vidya
(spiritual knowledge) and Thapas (penance) are essential. Only when both
are used can the levels of consciousness be thoroughly cleansed. No
vehicle can move without at least two wheels, nor can a bird fly with
just one wing. So too, no one can be rendered holy or purified without
Vidya and Thapas.
-BABA
Date: Monday, July 19, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The mind is a bundle of thoughts, a complex collection of wants and
wishes. As soon as a thought, desire or wish raises its head in the
mind, the intellect must probe its value and validity. Is it good or
bad? Will it help or hinder? Where will this lead? Where will it end? If
the mind does NOT submit to this probe, it will land itself on the path
of ruin. If it does and obeys the intelligence, it will move along the
right path.
-BABA
Date: Sunday, July 18, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Through the process of listening to the glory of God, an impure heart
will be transformed into a pure, illumined heart shining with divine
light. To the foul odors of sense-pursuits, keenness to listen to the
splendor of God is a valuable disinfectant, besides being in itself so
full of sweet fragrance. The listening will cleanse the heart through
the prompting it gives for good work. Such a cleansed heart is the most
appropriate altar. In that fragrant bower, the Lord will establish
Himself. At that very moment, another event too will occur. The group of
six vices that had infested the heart will quit without any farewell.
When these vices quit, the wicked retinue of evil tendencies and vulgar
attitudes which live on them will break camp and disappear without a
trace! Then, you will shine in your native splendour of Truth and Love,
and be successful in merging with the Universal and Eternal.
-BABA
Date: Saturday, July 17, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Knowledge can be considered as having two aspects: Baahya Vidya and Brahma
Vidya. Baahya Vidya provides the wherewithal for human livelihood. You can
study many subjects, earn valuable degrees, acquire lucrative job and manage
to spend your life with no worry and fear. This type of Vidya helps you
perform whatever job you may doing, be it that of a humble clerk or a Prime
Minister. Brahma Vidya, on the other hand, endows you with the strength,
that will enable you to discharge successfully the duty you owe to yourself.
It lays down the path which leads both to joy in worldly relations and bliss
in the life beyond. Therefore, Brahma Vidya is far superior to all Vidya
available to man on earth.
-BABA
Date: Friday, July 16, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Control of the body and senses can be achieved only by spiritual practices
and not by any other means. You must avoid wasting precious time in useless
pursuits. You must be ever vigilant. You must engage the senses of
perception and action by performing congenial and noble tasks to keep
yourself busy. There should be no room for sloth to creep in. Also, every
act must promote the good of others. Thus, while performing your daily
duties (Swa-dharma) in this manner, you can sublimate the body and senses,
and uplift yourself.
-BABA
Date: Thursday, July 15, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The person who expounds the glory of God must have the thrill of genuine
experience. Then you are supremely lucky as a listener, for it yields the
best results. The expounder's face will blossom with joy; their eyes will
shed tears of joy at the very contemplation of the glory of God. When you
listen, you should catch that inspiration. Then, you will experience that
joy yourself. When an infant smiles, those around will also smile in unison.
So too, the words of those who are saturated with devotion to God will
saturate the hearts of those who listen also with devotion and joy. It is
impossible to measure the profit that one can derive while in the company of
the pious and the great.
-BABA
Date: Wednesday, July 14, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Knowledge was compared to light and ignorance to darkness by the ancients.
‘Vid’ is the root of the word ‘Vidya’. ‘Vid’ means ‘light’. ‘Ya’ means
‘what’. So, the meaning of the term ‘Vidya’ is that which gives light. From
this term, it is evident that Brahma Vidya (knowledge of the Self) alone
deserves to be known as Vidya, as it illumines our minds. Just as light and
darkness cannot co-exist in the same place at the same time, Vidya and
Avidya (ignorance) cannot be together. So, when you journey along the path
of progress, you must purify your consciousness and illumine yourself with
Brahma Vidya.
-BABA
Date: Tuesday, July 13, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Reading and enjoying the stories of the glory of the Lord in some sacred
spot like temple, prayer hall, shrine, hermitage of a saint, or in the
company of virtuous and good people, is a source of great inspiration and
joy. It will make you forget everything else. Taste for such wholesome
literature is the result of accumulated merit and endeavour. You can even
approach pious men, serve them and listen to their exposition of the glory
of God. Listening alone will be enough in the beginning. Later, the stories
will arouse interest in the nature and characteristics of God and the
aspirants will find and seek for themselves the path to Self-realization.
-BABA
Date: Monday, July 12, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
People have three chief instruments for uplifting themselves: intelligence,
mind and senses. When the mind gets enslaved by the senses, you will get
entangled and bound. When the same mind is regulated by the intellect, you
can become aware of your own Reality. The potency of your mind can be
promoted by good practices like meditation, repetition of Lord's Name,
devotional singing and worship. The mental power thus gained from spiritual
practices should be turned away from wrong paths. Your mind must be released
from the hold of the senses and directed by the principle of intelligence.
Then, spiritual progress will be rapid.
-BABA
Date: Sunday, July 11, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Of all the professions, the teacher's profession has to adhere utmost to
the ideal of truth. When teachers stray from truth, society meets with
disaster. Thousands of tender children, unacquainted with the ways of
the world, pass through their hands. The impact of their teachings and
their personality will be great and lasting. Therefore, the teacher has
to be free from bad habits, for children automatically adopt the habits
and manners of elders. This is an ever-present danger. When the evil
influence is directed towards the thousands who receive the impact, the
society gets polluted.
-BABA
Date: Saturday, July 10, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Mind control is very hard to attain. The mind can cause bondage as well as
confer liberation. It is an amalgam of the passionate and ignorant
attitudes, and can be easily polluted. It relishes in hiding the real nature
of things and casting on them the forms and values that it desires. So you
must regulate the activity of the mind. Understand the first characteristic
of the mind: it runs helplessly after the senses. Whichever sense the mind
follows, it is to invite disaster. When a pot of water becomes empty, we
need not infer that it has leaked away through ten holes - one hole is
enough to empty it! So too, even if one sense is not under control, you will
be thrown into bondage. So, every sense has to be mastered.
-BABA
Date: Friday, July 09, 2010 THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Spiritual aspirants will rejoice in listening to the Glory of God. They will
join the company which exults in praising the Lord. This is their hallmark.
Spiritual aspirants and votaries of the Lord are to be judged using these
barometers and not by external appearances or apparel. If you mix with
people who revel in sensory talk and activities, then you put yourself out
of His Court. Spend your time in the company of the good and godly, engaged
in Godly affairs. Avoid the company of the ungodly. Only when you establish
yourself in good company and avoid bad company, can you be called as
Bhagavatha or God's own!
-BABA
Date: Thursday, July 08, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Sanyasa (Monkhood) does not mean the mere acceptance of the fourth stage of
life and its rights and obligations, retirement into forest after breaking
off contacts with the world. The monks should move among people, become
aware of their sorrows and joys, and impart the instructions they direly
need. They must transform society to be free from vice and wickedness by
their teachings.
-BABA
Date: Wednesday, July 07, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
For understanding the Divine, mere yearning to know and the study of Vedas
are not sufficient. The primary qualification you must acquire is Viveka:
discrimination between the transitory and the eternal. Atma alone suffers no
change; it alone is Timeless Truth. You must gain this unshakable conviction
and be established in it. The second qualification is renunciation of the
desire to enjoy the fruits of one's actions, here and hereafter. This is
called Vairagya (Non-Attachment). Non-attachment does not mean giving up
hearth and home, spouse and children and taking refuge in forests. It only
involves the awareness of the world as transitory and, as a consequence of
this awareness, discarding the feelings of "I" and "mine."
-BABA
Date: Tuesday, July 06, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The infant does not know the taste of milk. By taking it daily, it develops
an attachment for it which is so deep that when milk is to be given up and
rice substituted, it starts to protest. But the mother does not despair. She
persuades the child to take small quantities of cooked rice daily and
through this process, the child starts liking rice and gives up milk. By
practice, rice now becomes the child's natural food, so natural that even if
rice is not available for a single day, it becomes miserable. So too,
sensual pleasures are ‘natural’ at first. However, by means of practice,
listening to the words of the wise, slowly, you will derive greater joy
listening to the glories of God. Thereafter, you cannot exist without that
holy atmosphere even for a minute. The company of the worldly chatter will
no longer attract you. You will feel that there is nothing as sweet as the
experience of listening to the splendour of the Lord.
-BABA
Date: Monday, July 05, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The capacity to overcome the Gunas (tendencies) of Prakriti (Nature) is
not inherent in any one; it comes to one with the Grace of the Lord. And
that Grace is to be won by Japa (Repetition of God’s Name) and Dhyana
(Meditation). The truth has to be experienced, in order that it might
not slip away from consciousness; and the discipline needed for this is
also Japa and Dhyana. This must first be clearly understood: it is
impossible for every one to control the tendencies of Prakriti; the
power is possessed only by those who have Prakriti in their grip and
whose commands Prakriti does obey. Prakriti is the basis of everything
in the Universe. It is the basis of Creation and Existence. All this is
Prakriti: men or women, beasts or birds, trees or plants; in fact, all
that can be seen is inseparable from Prakriti.
Date: Sunday, July 04, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Ajnana (Ignorance) and Dukha (Sorrow) cannot be destroyed by rituals and
rites. This is the lesson the scriptures teach us. However, what is
happening now is that people have forgotten their real nature. They believe
that they are the body and the senses, and crave for objective pleasures.
They delude themselves that they can secure joy by catering to the body and
senses. Such attempts cannot earn bliss. Instead, they earn disillusionment,
defeat and disaster; they reap sorrow and joy in quick succession. The
Ajnana can only be destroyed with the knowledge of the Divine Self. When
illusion disappears, the sorrow produced by one's involvement in the ups and
downs of the world is destroyed and one can realize that humanity is the
Embodiment of Bliss.
-BABA
Date: Saturday, July 03, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Generally speaking, one gets easily drawn to sense objects,
as one becomes a victim of instincts. Instincts readily seek
sense objects. Instincts come along with the body and do not
require any training, just as an infant seeks milk from the
mother's breast and the new born calf nestles at the udder.
But for the infant to walk and talk, training is necessary.
They are not automatic. These skills are prompted by example
and imitation by others. So also, training is essential for
the proper pursuit of sense pleasure, for it is the wild,
untrained search for such pleasure that promotes anger,
hatred, envy, malice and conceit. To train them along
salutary lines and to hold them under control, certain good
disciplines such as Japa (Repetition of God’s Name), Dhyana,
(Meditation) and Upavasa (Fasting) are essential.
-BABA
Date: Friday, July 02, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Ignoring Madhava (God) who is free from Maya (delusion) and
spending time immersed in Maya is fruitless; sorrow alone is the
final gain. Whomsoever you love, that love has to come to an
end. The self-same Lord gives and takes, as and when He wishes.
Everything is His; so how foolish it is to lament when things
belonging to Him are taken back by Him? The wise man will
therefore not pine over any one or feel undue attachment to
anything. Let all the pining and all the attachment be reserved
for the Lord; He alone is eternal; He is the source of all joy.
For the rest, love a thing as a thing, not more. Love man as
man, not more. If you love them more, it is a sign that you have
been deceived about their real nature.
-BABA
Date: Thursday, July 01, 2010
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Man creates and develops in himself an abounding variety of
selfish habits and attitudes that leads to great discontent for
himself. A person might feel elated that he has become the
master of all arts, or owner of all wealth, or possessor of all
knowledge; but from whom did he acquire all these? That source
must indeed be greater. He might even claim that he earned all
this through his own efforts. But surely someone gives it to
him, in some form or other. This he cannot gainsay. The source
from which all power originates is God. Ignoring the omnipotent
Lord and deluding oneself thinking that the little power one has
acquired is one's own is indeed egoism.
-BABA
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