You are all I
You must live in conformity with the ideals of our Organization. The seva [selfless service] to which this Organization invites you is the very first step in the growth of the spirit. Seva is the manifestation of your willingness to work, irrespective of reward, because work is dedicated as worship. That attitude robs egoism of its sting and instills in the mind the divinity inherent in all creation. Faith in God is the very taproot of all spiritual activity, either through this organization or otherwise.
There shall be a system and an order in the Organization—every unit has to follow the all-India pattern. No state can arrange things in its own way. Mysore, Kerala, Gujarat—all states have to keep to the same pattern, and not venture to change it. Every unit must respect and follow the rules and regulations laid down every year at the All-India Conference.
This conference is a chance for you to spend a day or two in good company and to charge your batteries in order to continue the journey to God. When one is added to one, it becomes two; when one is placed by the side of another one, it reads as eleven! That is the measure of satsang, the companionship of the wise and the good. All these petty ones must end up in that One. That is the ultimate goal, the journey’s end. The Vedas [verses given to the sages] direct man through karma (activity) into upasana (worship) and finally into jnana (the wisdom that breaks the shackles).
Surrender yourself fully
The leaders in each unit, that is the president, vice-president, the secretaries, and others must walk aright and be right themselves. They must all join the nagarsankirtan, the choral singing along the roads of the village or the town in the early dawn. If the rich and the influential sit at home and ask the rest to take part in the sankirtan, we do not need them as presidents or officebearers. No unit must depend on such people, however rich they happen to be. Money comes and goes, but morality comes and grows! Try to break the coconut with the fiber still on it. It is an impossible task. You have to remove the shelled nut from the fiber, then if you strike the shell the kernel becomes available for use. Remove the fibrous cover, the sensual desires from yourself, so that you can get at the kernel of spiritual joy.
Many of you declare before Me that you have surrendered everything to My will; this is mere verbiage. Your mind is not your own! You are its plaything, tossed about as it fancies and frolics! How then can you claim to have given it over to Me? You have to give yourself completely when you surrender. Nothing should be held back. And what is it that you can give Me that you can call your own? Your offering of homage is only pouring the waters of the Kaveri back into the Kaveri River! There is nothing creditable in that. You have come into the world, which is a dharmakshetra, the abode of righteousness; so be righteous.
Practice what you preach
Your destiny is not to achieve the peak pleasure, but to climb the peak of bliss. Daya (compassion) and dharma (morality, right action) will take you higher and higher until you reach the summit. So, practice these qualities even in your smallest acts to the best of your capacity. You cannot always oblige, but can you not talk obligingly? You can, but you don’t! The tongue has the extra power to harm and hurt, so you must exercise extra control over it. Do not hurt anyone through your words. Spread love, be full of love. If you cannot love man, how can you hope to love God?
Develop indifference toward accumulation of wealth or power. Dhritarashtra [Duryodhana’s father from the Mahabharata] held onto his kingdom and his 100 sons. Eventually he lost his throne and lived on in misery as the lone survivor of the dynastic holocaust! Once there was a big quarrel between Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and the consort of Narayana [one of the trinity of Hindu Gods], and jnana (knowledge) the Intellect of Narayana. They began to argue that each was superior to the other. Wealth was more useful, said Lakshmi; without knowledge, wealth is a danger, said the intellect. But Narayana intervened and said both can be either good or bad, according to the use to which man puts them.
Use the office you hold in these organizational units to the best advantage—namely, to overcome your ego, to inspire others on the Godward path, and to relieve distress. Do not go through the routine of bhajan [singing God’s names], dhyana [meditation], and nagarsankirtan because you have to, or out of fear that your office will be usurped. Share these disciplines with others, act from the depths of your hearts. Do not indulge in mere talking. Practice what you direct others to do.
When motives are pure, knowledge will be pure. Merge in God, submerge your mind in divine activity. “Leeyathe gamyathe ithi lingah” —“That in which all merge, that to which all proceed is linga [symbol of Shiva].” God is called “chitta chora” (the thief who steals hearts). It is your duty to keep your hearts clean so that He will be more pleased at His booty. That “thief” is your only wellwisher. The rest are interested in what you leave behind when you die; they search for your will and ‘insurance papers!’
Youth, wealth, reputation, status, and authority—all these are subject to quick ups and downs. There was one young man who wasted much of his father’s income and spent a number of years in college as an M.S.M. student! That is, he would fail in the March examinations, appear again for the September examinations, then again the following March—M.S.M. for short! At last, out of sheer disgust at his consistent feeble-mindedness, the university gave him a degree and got rid of him! When proposals for his marriage were received, he insisted that the bride be a degree holder, a graduate! And she was.
He reclined on an easy chair and sang, “My life is entirely happy now.” He told his wife to get him a cup of hot coffee. But she replied, “I am as much a graduate as you are, why should I make the coffee? Come into the kitchen and make it for yourself.” Then, he sang another tune, “Oh, my life is entire darkness.” When everything goes well, it is heaven, but when things go awry, it is hell. The same event is heaven today, hell tomorrow. Until your hunger is appeased, food is desirable; when it is appeased, food is a nuisance! When motives are pure, knowledge will be pure; when knowledge is pure, liberation is ensured.
Expansion is love
For example, consider the feeding of the poor, which many units do now. You arrange the narayana seva [feeding the poor] once a year on the annual day of your unit, but is that enough? Does it solve the problem? Do they eat only one meal a year? They have to eat, as you do, many times a day. So let Me ask you to do this: instead of feeding hundreds one day in the year, let each housewife keep aside a handful of rice everyday when she cooks for the family, saying, “This is for the offering that Swami accepts.” At the end of the week, use that “offered rice” to feed three or four hungry people. This is the real annasamidha arpana [offering food as fuel in the holy fire of hunger]. Old clothes can be collected and given to the poor. Children outgrow their clothes soon, keep them aside and give them to children in the poorer areas. Expansion is love; contraction is death!
The Sathya Sai Organization and its units must not collect money or material from those outside the membership. Fund collection is as much opposed to this movement as fire is to water. If you yield on this point, spiritual advancement will perish. Do not ask anyone who is not a member of the samiti (unit) but let members contribute.
In Mysore State there are some who distribute amrit [nectar], vibhuti (holy ash), and other articles that shower from My pictures in their houses. They do this free for some weeks, and then start begging for money, like any common mendicant! This is a sin, to ask this and also to give it. Devotees should keep far away from such places and people.
Avoid pomp & exhibition
Visualize God in your hearts; why go to such places to see Him? In other places, they announce that I make Myself present and communicate through writings on rangoli [decorative patterns on the floor of traditional houses] powder etc.! I do not do such things. If I come to any place, I come directly so that you see Me. I do not speak or answer through another person or another medium! Continue namasmarana, japa, bhajan (remembrance, repetition, and singing God’s name) in your own home; there is no special call for you to go anywhere else. Wherever you are, whatever name you like, whatever form pleases you, I bless you, if your heart is pure. Avoid pomp, exhibition, and boasting; be simple, sincere, and sweet.
Cleanse your home of falsehood, hypocrisy, and cruelty. Do not import political factionmongering, group formation, scandals, and votecatching into the Sathya Sai Organization, in order to win positions of authority or oust others from them. Do not create splits among the devotees to establish yourselves over others! Even when you are slandered, you should not lose your balance. Put up with slander and scandalizing talk. Anger is the chief enemy of sadhana [spiritual practice], as Vishwamitra [one of the seven great sages] discovered. One attack of anger exhausts three months of health and efficiency. Before encountering Jarasandha [a king in ancient India] in open battle, Krishna enraged him nine times [an episode from the Bhagavad].Time after time, Krishna was nearly caught but then escaped from Jarasandha’s hold. These bouts of rage so weakened the king that when the final bout took place, Jarasandha was easily overpowered!
Be vigilant at all times
Contentment is heaven and grief is hell. Anger is the foe, calmness is the armor, and compassion is the comrade. You repeat shanti [peace] three times [at the conclusion of a prayer], don’t you? It is to encourage peace in the human, godly, and natural milieu in which you live, but also to develop peace in the body, mind, and intellect.
There is no visible Master for those who are part of organizations run in the name of Rama or Krishna. But in this Organization the Master is here, available for help, advice, and direction. You cannot behave in accordance with your whims and wishes here. You have to be vigilant everywhere and at all times. Discard the ego and serve. Don’t go about with extended hand and humiliate yourselves. Ask Me when you need any help.
Extend your hand only for grace from God. Ask for grace as your right, not in a groveling style. Ask as the child asks the father, feeling that God is the nearest and dearest. You are the reflections, the images; I am the bimba (object), the object so reflected. Can there be question of difference between the object and its images? You are all I. I am all you. I know I am the atma [spirit], you believe you are the body! You are sugar dolls but I am the sugar. If you revere any name, the reverence reaches Me for I answer to all names. But if you denigrate any individual, that reaches Me, too, because all individuals are expressions of My will.
Source: Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 11
