In plain words
Whether we observe it as the birthday of Jesus or think of it as the birthday festival of great souls, we must practise the sacred principles they gave us and so attain Ānanda. That itself is our gratitude to them, the respect and reverence we show them. If we throw the great sayings they gave into the fire and only sit celebrating their birthdays, it means that in such people there is not a trace of humanness as it should be. Now I hope that all the elders will be ready for the work of blending the Dharma the Vedas lay down, the path the śāstras approve and the good ideas in Western civilisation, giving that blend to little children and so shaping them. We must lead children into every field: the moral, the dhārmic, the physical, the spiritual and the worldly. We must be ready to crush the obstacles that stand in the way of this. Life is a bundle of problems. We must untie them and keep moving on. It is a dream.... We must come to know it. It is a game... We must play it and be glad. It is a stream of Prema.... We must dive into it and delight in it. We must make our lives sacred. Teaching a few moral lessons, telling stories from history, having the ślokas of the Gītā learned by heart: if the training goes no further than this, there is no use in it.
1. Discipline is most important. We must develop it.
2. We must let the feeling of Prema grow wide.
3. Children must grow up in a pure atmosphere. We must look after their health.
4. So that they do not misuse money, we must teach them thrift and simplicity. Our Bhārata is a country that lags behind in its economic state. We must take pains to teach children not to misuse money.
5. We must show them and teach them the ways of respecting elders, and the customs: with whom to conduct themselves, and in what manner.
By the merit of who knows how many births, by the saṃskāras of who knows how many births, we have gained this human birth. If we defile it, we shall not win such a birth. There is no use grieving over what is gone. Even if we spend crores of money, it will not come back. So we must not defile our humanness. With Viveka, Vairāgya and discernment we must attain divinity. We speak of a new year. Yet sixty seconds go by, and then there is a minute. Only when sixty minutes are done is there an hour. Only when twenty-four hours have passed is there a day. When thirty days are done, a month. After twelve months it becomes a year. Without the second there is no year. Every single second too is new! There is no need to wait for something new until the year is over. With the new second itself we must grow new feelings, a broad Prema, a broad heart and new thoughts, and so go forward. Each second is a milestone. People keep passing milestones, but the feelings in their minds do not grow. Sādhana, bhajan and works of service go on, and ten years have passed since Dharmakṣetra was founded, but we do not inquire how far we have risen to a higher level.
First of all we must win purity of citta. Even if we do only a little, a leaf, a flower, water, we must do it in the spirit of offering. We must develop the spirit of sacrifice. We must thrust aside the vāsanās for the objects of the senses. Nārāyaṇa told Nārada, ‘Where My devotees sing, there I stand, Nārada.’ But then, in how many thousands of places in the world must He have taken up His seat! Is He installed wherever bhajans and kīrtans are held? No. For He said, ‘My devotees.’ When devotees sing bhajans, when they sing kīrtans for the sake of Bhakti, there ‘I stand’.
In Emperor Akbar's court there lived a singer called Tānsen. When he sang the rāga called Meghamālā, the clouds would all gather thick across the sky! When he sang the Varuṇa rāga, the rains would come, they say! Even so, one day, while Emperor Akbar was in his prayer hall, his mind became absorbed, so it is told, in a song a haridāsa sang out in the bazaar. Afterwards the emperor sent for Tānsen: ‘It is astonishing. Though you sing so sweetly and so marvellously, your singing could not draw my mind so much. That dāsa who begs in the street drew me with his song and filled me with joy!’ When he asked this, Tānsen said, ‘Mahārāj! I sing looking at your face, for your pleasure. He pictures the very lotus face of God before him, and sings for His satisfaction. That is the whole difference.’
If we sing bhajans for money, for honour and regard, for name and fame, they do not draw God in the least. If we sing bhajans while envy and hatred fill the mind, they do not melt God's heart at all. Bhajan must come from the heart. Not from the lips.
Jesus had 12 disciples. One of them was a man called Judas. A slave to money, he sold his own life for 30 silver coins and betrayed his guru. Bhakti today is turning into a fashion. You too are turning into part-time devotees.