Tread The Path Of Love To Experience God’s Love

21 April 1993, Sai Shruti, Kodaikanal, TN

Published English.

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Do Your Duty With Divine Feelings Forbearance is truth, forbearance is righteousness, forbearance is the teaching of the , forbearance is non-violence, forbearance is sacrifice, forbearance confers happiness and heavenly bliss. In fact, it is everything in all the worlds.

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Like fire in the firewood, oil in a seed, is all-pervading. It is the word of Sai that stands for truth.

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Permeates The Entire Cosmos The Sanskrit word (man) is derived from (mind). The mind is the conglomeration of thoughts or . All actions are the reflections of ; and they result in pleasure or pain. When we see the country is not good, it only reflects that its people are not good. When its people become good, the country will also become good. The country is not separate from its people. But one individual does not connote society; one tree cannot be reckoned as forest; a single house does not constitute a village. Only a group of trees make a forest, a group of houses make a village and a group of people make society.

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Since ancient times, the have been denoting the universe by the name . Brahma is the all-pervasive Divinity, Anda means a sphere similar to an iron ball. When the iron ball is heated on fire, the heat does not remain in some corner of the ball; it spreads all over the ball. Similarly, is immanent in the entire cosmos, which is conceived in the shape of an egg. This is the meaning of . And is present within and without everything, right from a speck of dust to a gigantic star.

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This truth can be realised only by a human being. Therefore, human life has special significance. It is said, (man in the world is bound by action). Also it is said, (human birth is the noblest of all). Its validity can be established only when man realises the fact (one dwells in all beings).

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The five faculties known as , , , , (hearing, touch, sight, taste, smell) are common to all beings, including man. Also the concentric sheaths of the body, which are known as (food sheath), (life sheath), (mental sheath) and (bliss sheath) are common to all beings. But the sheath known as (wisdom sheath) is special to man alone. Because of this or intellect, human life is considered very sacred.

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Divinity As Is Present In Man The conveys the truth that all the three worlds – (materialisation - body), (vibration, - life principle), (, radiation - ) are present in man. So, God is present in man in three forms. is the material form or the body which by itself is or inert. is the life-force or vibration that causes the body to move. is the radiation or inner power of the which causes vibration. So, divinity in the form of materialisation, vibration and radiation is present in man.

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Vibration is caused by the intake of food; and so food is regarded as God – . But without the impact of radiation from the , there can be no vibration. Radiation is present in man as awareness or . ( is Supreme Consciousness). In , is also called conscience. So, God as conscience is present in all. Vibration and materialisation are His derivative forms which sustain the body. Human body is made up of matter, materialisation. It is akin to a machine. Howsoever costly the machine may be, it cannot work without electric current. Vibration is like the main switch. The divine power of radiation is the electric current which makes the inert machine move. A piece of iron is inert. It has no legs to move and no wings to fly. But when a magnet is placed in its vicinity, the iron piece moves towards the magnet. What is that which makes the iron piece move? It is the power of radiation. The radiation spreads vibration. Thus, all the three forms of Divinity – , and are present within man.

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The next aspect of , “” is an invocation to radiant Divinity. ‘Tat’ means ‘That’, the very form of Truth; Savitur mean radiant Divinity. means most auspicious and venerable. The aspirants then express their resolve to meditate on that effulgent form of Divinity in the words “”. Dhimahi means meditate.

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The Propound The Unity Of Mankind The concludes with the prayer, “” – May that Divine radiation drive our intellects in the right direction! Dhi means intellect. Divinity is always invoked in the sense of ‘Nah’ which means ‘we’. Unfortunately, in present times, people are not displaying this sense of unity or oneness. This type of collective concept has been conveyed by all the , , epics and , which is being ignored by the present generation. There has never been a sense of I in any of these texts of prayer. Selfishness is on the rise. It is the selfishness of man that is creating differences in society. A fish is better than a selfish man. People should realise that individual cannot survive by ignoring society.

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Once there was a train accident. A person watched this on the TV. He was immersed in great worry because one of his close relatives was supposed to be travelling in that train. In panic, he rushed to the spot of the accident. When he found his relative safe, he was relieved of the worry and he started collecting statistics pertaining to train accident. See, the person who was greatly worried a moment ago was now engaged in collecting information about the accident. One is worried when one’s own people are involved, but one’s attitude changes altogether when others are involved. This reflects the narrow feelings of man. A person who walks on the path of will not observe such differences. The say, (if you protect , you will be protected by ).

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Good Or Bad Depends On Man’s Feelings Everything depends on our feelings. It is said, (as are the feelings, so is the result). The mirror has the quality of reflecting everything that is placed in front of it. When you make a salute, the mirror also salutes. When you make an angry face in front of it, the mirror reflects the angry face. Similarly, Nature has the quality of reaction, reflection and resound.

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On reaching home, he told his mother, “! There is someone who is teasing me and making me angry. He insults me by mimicking my voice and by singing the song sung by me. When I searched for him, I did not find anybody”. The next day, the cowherd’s mother went with him to the mountainous region and understood the entire situation. She was a wise woman and made his son understand the reality. She said to him, “Dear son! There is nobody else who is abusing or insulting you. It is the echo of your own voice that you are hearing”.

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You Can See God With The Light Of Love God is in everyone. Serve all. The best way to love God is to love all, serve all. Get away from bad qualities. You say, “I want (liberation), I want (divine vision)” without understanding their meaning. What do you mean by liberation? Without knowing the meaning of liberation, you say, “I want liberation”. First know clearly what you want. When you say, “I want ”, what do you mean by it? Understand it. What is this ? is (removal of attachment is liberation). It is not something that you can find in an air-conditioned room. Eradication of attachment is liberation.

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The moon shines brilliantly. If you want to see the shining moon, you do not need a torchlight, a hurricane lamp or a petromax lamp. In the moonlight itself, you can see the moon. You do not need other lights to see it. To see the form of love, you do not need anything else except love. The light of love will help you to see the form of love. You can see God who is the embodiment of love with the light of love. A diamond is cut by diamond only, nothing else. The natural quality in everyone is love. Whether one is a theist, atheist, atheistic-theist, theistic-atheist, a pauper, a millionaire or a beggar, love is common in all. A recluse may renounce everything, but he cannot renounce love. What is the reason? The reason is that love is God. Live in love. The pleaded with :

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Oh , play Your sweet flute and sow the seeds of love in the desert of loveless hearts.

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Our body is like a flute, which has nine holes. A devotee should turn himself totally humble or hollow so as to gain the proximity of . The Lord then turns this hollow body into a holy instrument, filling it with His breath of love. A sought to know from the flute, “Oh the most blessed flute, won’t you tell me the secret behind your proximity with ? He never keeps you away from Him. He takes you closer to His lips and blows His breath. Even when busy, He tucks you in His waistband. Oh flute, please tell me the secret so that I can emulate you to gain ’s closeness”. decided to reveal the truth to the . One day, when the was approaching, pretended to be sleeping. The repeated her plea asking the flute to reveal the secret. Then the flute replied, “Oh ! I did no penance, I do not know any nor have I any special knowledge. The only thing is that I keep myself hollow. I have left everything to His Will. The understood then that it was sensual pleasure that was the real obstacle in the way to attain .

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Develop Fundamental Discrimination Undue or excessive desires are not good. Less luggage, more comfort, makes travel a pleasure. What is this luggage? Desires are the luggage. Relieving of mundane burdens is what is known as (renunciation). It is easy to carry a 100- note, rather than carrying all that money in the form of 10,000 coins. Quality is important rather than quantity. Swami wants quality. A cup of cow’s milk is preferable to a barrel of donkey’s milk. What is immortality? Removal of immorality is the only way to immortality. Always keep on doing your duty with divine feelings, without giving any scope to distractions. God is one. Jesus, , , , Zoroaster and are His different names; but God is one. One should not hate or criticise any religion. Help Ever, Hurt Never. When this kind of feeling is developed, there is no need to search for God. This is known as fundamental discrimination. Individual discrimination tries to cover up one’s own mistakes while magnifying the mistakes of others. A thief commits theft; he has no compunction about thieving. He thinks that he is doing the right thing because he is poor. But if he develops broader thinking, his attitude will change. By snatching a purse from someone, he is subjecting the victim to great agony, just as he was undergoing agony of poverty.

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When abducted and imprisoned her, his chaste wife advised him to return her to . She said, “You have abducted someone’s wife. How do you feel if someone abducts me who am your obedient wife”? ’s chief minister also echoed this counsel. Give respect and receive respect. Give love and receive love. You cannot always oblige but you can speak always obligingly. But this is not possible for everyone. Some people have too much anger and they always use harsh words. Such persons have to be corrected by the use of strong words. A slab of butter can easily be cut with a finger. But you cannot cut iron with the finger. It needs a sharp instrument to cut it. So, we have to act appropriate to the time and circumstances.

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Some people are harsh by their nature. Even when they sit for , they do not leave their anger. They keep on clapping, uttering peace, peace even while thinking angrily about someone. What is the use of chanting peace, peace with anger? How can they expect to get peace? Such clapping may help in killing mosquitoes; it has no other use. Man is attempting to reach moon even while harbouring hatred towards others. This type of attempt can never bring peace to the world. First man should have peace in his mind. Then only will there be peace in the world. How can there be peace in the world when people shout peace, peace, keeping atom bomb in their hand? Peace can prevail only when there is mental transformation in human beings. You can achieve anything when you have purity, patience and perseverance. Chant the Name of God with peace in your heart.