Where to Find God

Today people try to find God in religions. God is to be found not in religions but in your own mind (heart). It is only when the mind is controlled and purified that God can be recognized,” observed Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, in the course of His divine discourse on Christmas day, in the overfull Poornachandra Auditorium.

Embodiments of divine love! God is complete love incarnate. This love shines equally in every human being. The fragrance of a flower remains the same whether it is held in the right hand or the left. Likewise God has no distinctions such as the favored and the excluded. Different persons, proceeding from their own likes and dislikes, attribute to the Divine the differences that exist in their own minds. God has no feelings of difference such as the good and the bad, the likable and the unwanted, the wicked and the virtuous. The sandalwood tree imparts its fragrance even to the axe that fells it. Likewise God is ever prepared to love, foster, and protect everyone equally without any distinction. But narrow-minded people cannot easily grasp the Divine’s equal-mindedness. Indeed, how can a fishmonger know the value of diamonds? Everyone apprehends God’s powers and attributes according to threir own limited conceptions and experiences.

Reason for man’s narrow outlook

To get rid of such narrow ideas, the first requisite is the cultivation of love. How is love to be promoted? By “giving and forgiving” man develops love within himself. In relation to God, this implies that you should always have the attitude of offering your heart to God. Today, far from having such a sacred attitude what we witness is the habit of “getting and forgetting.”

Today man receives the love, blessings, and grace of God, but shows no gratitude and is immersed in his own selfish pursuits. This accounts for his narrow outlook.

Sanjaya [who narrated the Mahabharata war to Dritharashtra] declared at the end of the Gita [the Divine song] that where Krishna, the Lord of Yoga, and Partha [one of the Pandavas], the valiant archer, stand together there is victory. Man makes various efforts to achieve prosperity, success, and bliss. But the means of achieving them is for man to take his stand by Bhagavan’s side. Partha means the son of the prithvi (earth). It applies to every man. Sanjaya’s declaration means that victory is assured when either man is by God’s side or God is beside man. Neither of these happens today. Man leads a life remote from God.

To start with, man has to recognize his life’s goal. Seekers in all countries and followers of different religions have enquired into this question—the purpose of life. As a result of these enquiries, different religions arose. Jesus is the founder of the Christian faith. For centuries before Christ, Judaism existed as the religion of the Jews. The Jews believed in the coming of the Messiah to protect the people of Israel.

When Jesus was born, three kings came from the East to bless the infant in Bethlehem. The first king, seeing the child, declared that he would be a great lover of God. The second one declared that God would love the child immensely. The third one declared that Jesus is God and God is Jesus. What is the inner meaning of these statements? The first statement implies that all who love God are messengers of God. When God loves a person, he becomes a son of God. When a person gives up the sense of dualism and merges his consciousness in the Divine he becomes one with the Divine.

Jesus’ life and mission

When Jesus was a child, during a visit to Jerusalem he was lost in the crowd. After a frantic search Mary found him in a temple listening intently to a priest’s speech. When Mary told Jesus about the trouble they had gone through in searching for him, Jesus said, “Mother! When I am safe with my Father in His home, why should you worry about me? This is the temple of God. It is my Father’s mansion. Nothing will be lacking here. In this eternal and sacred home I am perfectly safe and well-protected.” This shows that even by his 12th year, Jesus was full of divine qualities and was imparting the divine message to those around him. Christ declared to the world three important things: (1) God is one. (2) He is omnipotent. (3) Do not hurt anyone. God is the indweller in every being. Christ embarked on his mission and went about calling upon people to earn the love of God by developing love toward God.

People professing different faiths worship God under different names: Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesha, Allah, Christ, and others. The truth is there is only one God. People today try to find God in religion. But God is to be found not in matamu (religion), but in the mati (mind). It is only when the mind is controlled and purified that God will be recognized.

The Lord dwells within man

People claim to make offerings to God without knowing where He is. They pretend to offer everything to Brahman, but they do not know where Brahman dwells. The Lord has declared, “I am residing within you in the form of Vaishvanara [universal or cosmic man] and am consuming all the offerings you are making. I am digesting everything and providing the sustenance for your body.”

While the Lord is ever by the side of man, he is searching for God all over the world. By exploring the external, you can never purify the internal. It is essential to transform the consciousness. You have to rectify your conduct and actions, because everything depends on your actions. Adhering to the righteous path with a pure heart, you have to divinize your life. All spiritual disciplines have been designed only for this purpose. All the prayers, japas [repetition of Lord’s name], and pujas [prayers] that are offered are intended only to purify the heart.

All those who have achieved greatness in any field—education, science, etc.—have been able to do so solely because of their conduct. Neither physical strength nor wealth, nor even intellectual ability can make one respected and honored. It is the way one lives that confers honor and dignity on him. Therefore, it is only through our actions that we should strive to realize the Divine. Without right conduct, all other spiritual practices are of no avail. Hence, all devotees should acquire good and sacred qualities in furtherance of their striving to realize God.

You all are in the kingdom of Sai! You all are in Sai’s home! You all are in Sai’s light! You all are in Sai’s heart! I will bless you, I will bless you on this holy night—this is your right. If you entertain proper thoughts, you will realize that all of you are in God’s home. The whole universe is the mansion of the Lord. Once you recognize this truth, how can any differences arise?

The ways of the Divine

People imagine that God is angry or indifferent. Such people do not have an understanding of Divinity. If there is a tumor in the stomach, the surgeon uses a knife to remove it. Is the surgery done out of ill will toward the patient? Not at all. It is for his own good that the surgery is performed to make him well again. Likewise, when a person has developed some bad qualities, a surgical operation has to be done to rid him of his vices. When God does this it is implied that God is angry or displeased. This is the mark of a petty mind. Those who have understood the Divine’s love principle will not make such a mistake.

Today is the birthday of the founder of a great religion. Christians revere Jesus as a Messenger of God and the Son of God. On this sacred day, the old students of the Sathya Sai College for Women at Anantapur, who have formed an association called Messengers of Sathya Sai, celebrate their annual day. “How shall we show our gratitude to the institution that has educated us and done so much for us?” asked an old student, the President of the association. “How shall we show our gratitude to Bhagavan?” she asked.

Serve society with dedication

Dear old students! Wherever you may be, go into the society and render social service in all possible ways, with faith in God and in a selfless spirit. As she said, it is true that after getting married, the girls have to put up with various restraints imposed by their in-laws and husbands. Admittedly, the Bharatiya [Indian] culture and tradition circumscribe the freedom of women.

On the other hand, boys enjoy greater freedom and liberty to act as they please. Whatever job or business they do, whatever country they may go to, they have considerable freedom. No one restrains them. They can do social service if they want. Unfortunately, they are not filled with such noble urges. But women who have sacred impulses to serve society suffer from handicaps and restraints.

At least from today, I desire that young men and women who have studied in the Sai educational institutions will show their gratitude to their alma mater by engaging themselves in social service and stand hence-forth as ideals for others by leading dedicated lives. By merely acquiring degrees, you do not become educated people.

You must use your knowledge for bettering other’s lives. Of what use is a mountain of book knowledge if you cannot secure real happiness as a human being? Will not God take care of man if he places his faith in the Divine? What is it that is achieved by ceaseless preoccupation with earning a living, for forgetting the all-pervading Lord?

Everybody clamors for peace, saying, “I want peace.” But can peace be found in the external world, which is only filled with pieces? Peace has to be found within oneself by getting rid of the “I” and desire. Peace is being destroyed by the ego and by insatiable desires. Restrain your desires. Man is haunted by endless worries of many kinds. Only by turning his mind toward God can he get rid of the worries. Men have to reduce desires and cultivate vairagya (detachment) so that they can have real peace of mind.

What is it that students, who have spent ten or 12 years in Sai educational institutions, can show as evidence of their having benefited from their education? It should be evident to some extent from their conduct and practices. If this is not present, what is the use of their studies? If they have not learnt during this precious period in their lives to practice self-control and self-discipline, they will be guilty of having wasted their great opportunities. The essence of education consists in the cultivation of good qualities and the development of right values for leading a meaningful living.

I bless you all students in the hope that you will dedicate yourselves to the service of the people and thereby earn the grace of the Lord.

Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 22