Become the Master of Your Surroundings & Circumstances
Be bold. Do not grieve over the past; such grief is useless. Strange things do happen when times are not propitious and circumstances so conspire. Of what benefit is it to lay the fault on someone? No one should be found fault with. It is one’s destiny to live on with his load of sorrow. This cannot be avoided; it must be endured.
Digest, p. 76
Man should be courageous. Lack of courage leads to doubt, despair, dejection, and depression. When obstacles come, meet them with courage. They harden you and make you tough. The best way to get rid of weakness is to strike at the very top root of the tree—the mistake that you are the body with this name and this form, these senses, this intelligence, and this mind. These are all the luggage you carry. Don’t you say: my nose, my mind, my hand! Who is this ‘I’ that calls all these, mine? That is the real ‘you’. That ‘I’ cannot be harmed, it does not change, and it knows no death or birth. Learn the discipline that makes you aware of this truth and you will be ever free and bold.
Digest, p. 60
Hence the destination for man is the realization of his divinity. This realization must come through the Vedantic process of exclusion. “I am not the body. I am not the intellect. I am not the will. I am not the inner instrument.” All these are only instruments. Man should realize: “I am the Master of all of them.” When by this process of elimination man realizes his true self, he is freed from sorrow.
Sathya Sai Speaks Vol. 25, p. 7
The pure heart is the best mirror for the reflection of truth. So all these disciplines are for the purification of the heart and, as soon as it is pure, all truths flash upon it in a minute. All truth in the universe will manifest in your heart if you are sufficiently pure. The harder the circumstances, the more trying the environment, the stronger are the men who come out of these circumstances.
So, welcome all these outside troubles and anxieties. Live pure bhakti (devotion) or the Vedas (knowledge) even in these surroundings, and when you live the Vedas, you will see that the surroundings and circumstances will succumb to you and yield to you. They will become subservient to you and you will become their master. Be happy, My dears! I am always with you, in you, around you!
Prema Dhaara, p. 48
