Sai’s Jewels to Beautify

Bhakta: Swami, tell me how we should, generally, conduct ourselves. What are the qualities we should possess? Which type of subjects should we try to under­stand? To receive the Divine grace and to attain Your holy presence, what acts should we perform? Please tell me the more important of these, the essential things, the chosen jewels.

Swami: Oh! It seems, Parvati once asked Eashwara [Shiva], “It is difficult to retain in memory the Sahasranama, the 1000 names of God. It takes a long time to learn them and repeat them; so please tell me one single name that is the essence of all the 1000.” Similarly you, too, perhaps find it difficult to grasp all that I write and explain, and so you are also asking me to tell you about the most important, is it? But you see, names have their essence, the subjects you ask about are different. Though their objective and final result are one, the practi­ces, the paths of activity, cannot be one. They cannot all be summarized in one word! Still, I am giving you now some selected jewels, maxims of conduct, that are very important. Collect and treasure them well. Experience them well, put them into practice, and derive joy there­from. Wear these jewels and beautify yourself

Bhakta: Exactly what I wanted; how lucky I am!

Swami: Then listen carefully, I shall tell you.

1. Prema, love, should be considered as the very breath of life.
2. The love that is manifest in all things equally, believe that the same prema is Paramatma [the Lord].
3. The one Paramatma is in everyone, in the form of prema.
4. More than all other forms of prema, man’s first effort should be to fix his love on the Lord.
5. Such love directed toward God is bhakti [worship or devotion]; that is the fundamental test, the acquisition of bhakti.
6. Those who seek the bliss of the atma [soul] should not run after the joys of sense objects.
7. Satya, truth, must be treated as life-giving as breathing itself.
8. Just as a body that has no breath is useless and begins to rot and stink within a few minutes, simi­larly life without truth is useless and becomes the stinking abode of strife and grief.
9. Believe that there is nothing greater than truth, nothing more precious, nothing sweeter, and noth­ing more lasting.
10. Truth is the all-protecting God. There is no mightier guardian than truth.
11. The Lord who is Satyaswarupa [embodiment of truth] grants His darshan [seeing the Lord] to those of truthful speech and loving heart.
12. Have undiminished kindness toward all beings and also the spirit of self-sacrifice.
13. You must also possess control of the senses, an unruffled character, and non-attachment.
14. Be always on the alert against the four sins that the tongue is prone to commit: (1) Speaking false­hood (2) Speaking ill of others (3) Back-biting and (4) Talking too much. It is best to attempt to control these tendencies.
15. Try to prevent the five sins that the body commits: killing, adultery, theft, drinking intoxicants, and the eating of flesh. It is a great help for the highest life if these also are kept as far away as possible.
16. One must be always vigilant, without a moment’s carelessness, against the eight sins that the mind perpetrates: kamam or craving; krodham or anger; lobham or greed; moham or attachment; impatience; hatred, egoism, and pride. Man’s pri­mary duty is to keep all these things at a safe distance from himself.
17. Man’s mind speeds fast, pursuing wrong actions. Without letting it hurry like that remember the name of the Lord at that time or attempt to do some good deed or other. Those who do thus will certainly become fit for the Lord’s grace.
18. First give up the evil tendency to feel envious at the prosperity of others and the desire to harm them. Be happy that others are happy. Sympa­thize with those who are in adversity and wish for their prosperity. That is the means of cultivating love for God.
19. Patience is all the strength that man needs.
20. Those anxious to live in joy must always be doing good.
21. It is easy to conquer anger through love, attach­ment through reasoning, falsehood through truth, bad through good, and greed through charity.
22. No reply should be given to the words of the wicked. Be at a great distance from them; that is for your good. Break off all relations with such people.
23. Seek the company of good men, even at the sacri­fice of your honor and life. But be praying to God to bless you with the discrimination need to distinguish between the good men and the bad. You must also endeavor with the intellect given to you.
24. Those who conquer states and earn fame in the world are hailed as heroes, no doubt, but those who have conquered the senses are heroes who must be acclaimed as the conquerors of the uni­verse.
25. Whatever acts a good or bad man may do, the fruits thereof follow him and will never stop pursuing him.
26. Greed yields only sorrow; contentment is best. There is no happiness greater than contentment.
27. The mischief-mongering tendency should be plu­cked out by the roots and thrown off. If allowed to exist, it will undermine life itself.
28. Bear with fortitude both loss and grief; try and search for plans to achieve joy and gain.
29. When you are invaded by anger, practice silence or remember the name of the Lord. Do not re­mind yourself of things that will inflame the anger more. That will do incalculable harm.
30. From this moment avoid all bad habits. Do not delay or postpone. They do not contribute the slightest joy.
31. Try as far as possible within your means to satisfy the needs of the poor, who are really Daridra-­Narayana [service to the poor is equivalent to service to God]. Share with them whatever food you have and make them happy at least at that moment.
32. Whatever you feel should not be done to you by others, avoid doing such things to others.
33. For faults and sins committed in ignorance, re­pent sincerely; try not to repeat the faults and sins again; pray to God to bless you with the strength and the courage needed to stick to the right path.
34. Do not allow anything to come near you that will destroy your eagerness and enthusiasm for God. Want of eagerness will cause the decay of the strength of man.
35. Yield not to cowardice; do not give up ananda [bliss].
36. Do not get swelled up when people praise you; do not feel dejected when people blame you.
37. If among your friends any one hates another and starts a quarrel, do not attempt to inflame them more and make them hate each other more. Try, on the other hand, with love and sympathy, to restore their former friendship.
38. Instead of searching for others’ faults, search for your own faults yourself; uproot them, throw them off. It is enough if you search and discover one fault of yours; that is better than discovering tens of hundreds of faults in others.
39. Even if you cannot or will not do any punya or good deed, do not conceive or carry out any papam or bad deed.
40. Whatever people may say about the faults that you know are not in you, do not feel for it; as for the faults that are in you, try to correct them yourself, even before others point them out to you. Do not harbor anger or bitterness against people who point out your faults; do not retort pointing out the faults of those persons themsel­ves but show your gratitude to them. Trying to discover their faults is a greater mistake on your part. It is good for you to know your faults; it is no good your knowing others’ faults.
41. Whenever you get a little leisure, do not spend it in talking about all and sundry, but utilize it in meditating on God or in doing service to others.
42. The Lord is understood only by the bhakta; the bhakta is understood only by the Lord. Others cannot understand them. So do not discuss mat­ters relating to the Lord with those who have no bhakti [devotion]. On account of such discussion, your devotion will diminish.
43. If anyone speaks to you on any subject having understood it wrongly, do not think of other wrong notions that will support that stand but grasp only the good and the sweet in what he says. True meaning is to be appreciated as desi­rable, not wrong meaning or many meanings that give no meaning at all and cause only the hampering of ananda.
44. If you desire to cultivate one-pointedness, do not when in a crowd or bazaar scatter your vision to the four corners and on everything, but see only the road in front of you, just enough to avoid accidents to yourself. One-pointedness will be­come firmer if one moves about without taking one’s attention off the road, avoiding dangers, and not casting eyes on others’ forms.
45. Give up all doubts regarding the guru and God. If your worldly desires do not get fulfilled, do not blame it on your devotion; there is no relationship between such desires and devotion to God. These worldly desires have to be given up someday or other; bhakti feelings have to be acquired someday or other. Be firmly convinced of this.
46. If your dhyanam [meditation] or japam [repeating the Lord’s name] does not progress properly or if the desires you have entertained do not come to fruition, do not get dispirited with God. It will dispirit you even more and you will lose the peace, however small or big, that you might have earned. During dhyanam and japam you should not be dispirited, desperate, or discou­raged. When such feelings come, take it that it is the fault of your sadhana [spiritual effort] and endeavor to do them correctly.

It is only when in your daily conduct and in all actions you automatically behave and act in this manner and along these lines that you can attain the Divine prin­ciple very easily. Therefore, hold on to these maxims firmly. Chew and digest these spoken sweets distributed on the Birthday festival of your Swami and be happy! Have you understood?

Bhakta: Your words are like amrita [Divine nectar], Swami. Yes! Amrita! In all these ordinary dealings of life, man does not know the road; he follows the wrong track. There are no books also to tell him the means of a happy journey; for all such strugglers like me, what you have said is prana [life breath], the very breath! We are indeed blessed! Bless me, that these words get imprinted on my heart and are reali­zed in practice every day. There is no good in simply listening or reading them. It is only when Your grace accompanies them that we get strength. I shall take leave, Swami!

Swami: All right! Go and come for the Birthday festival. There are just seven days more, isn’t it? Today is 16th; the Birthday is on 23rd; so there are seven days left. Till that time let this sweetness fill and overflow your heart!

Source: Sandeha Nivarini