“I am always with you, beside you, before your very eyes”

When a person is shown round a house, there is no need to tell him specifically, ‘This is the kitchen’ for, the blackened walls and the flavor of condiments, will reveal that to him. There should be no need to tell him, “This is the Puja Room”, for, the spotless cleanliness of the walls, the calmness in the air, and the perfume of pure thoughts charged with devotion should reveal that to him. Therefore, have a fixed room or place in the house to do your regular puja and meditation.

Take a hurricane lantern; the flame within has three things to pass through: the soot inside the chimney, is tamoguna; the dust outside is rajoguna; and the transparent glass is satwaguna. All these three, surround the illumination of the flame in the center. So too, the jivatma must transcend the three gunas, in order to shine in its pristine Effulgence.

Source: Sanathana Sarathi, July 1959

Life is a flight of steps towards Godhead; each day is a step that must be climbed; so, be steady and earnest and watchful. Do not slide down or climb and slide. Every step climbed is a victory to be cherished; every day wasted or ruined is a defeat to be ashamed of.

A pot of water, if kept in the open will soon evaporate; but if it is kept neck deep in water, the contents will be intact. So, fill your hearts with prema and, then do not move about in the company of the wicked and the cruel. Immerse yourselves in satsang, the company of the good and the true; then, the prema will not evaporate and disappear.

Source: Sanathana Sarathi, March 1960

What is sin? Weakness, the feeling that you are a sinner, that you are therefore lost beyond redemption, the despair that overwhelms, these are the things called sin avoid these. What is punya? Courage, buoyancy, hope, the feeling that you are an Amritaputra, Immortal, blessed by the Lord, strong enough with the Lord’s grace to overcome everything that overwhelms, these are the things called punya. Accumulate these.

The rat falls into the trap, because it is enamored more of the strong-smelling cheap eatable, that is, the bait inside the trap than of the finer, costlier, healthier ghee and sugar, that lies in plenty outside the trap, in the same room! Do not, like the stupid rat, lose all sense of values and run into the deadly trap, seeking the cheap fascination of petty tinsels. Develop viveka and vairagya.

For the cultivation of your farms in summer, do you not store the water of rains, in reservoirs and tanks? So too, for the attainment of Lord’s Feet when the body falls off, store the thought of the Lord by the contemplation of the Name and Form of the Lord, when you are young and strong.

Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Aug 1959

There are certain drugs which come in bottles or capsules, whereon is written “Effective until the end of Dec. 1961” etc. After that date, the drug will be in the container, but its efficacy would have disappeared. So too once you win the Grace of Lord, the prarabdha or the consequence of previous karma might be there but, it would have shed its efficacy in your life.

Suppose you are the guest at a house where there is a Gurkha watchman. The Gurkha will obey you too, if you are connected with the Master, through kinship or friendship. So too know that the mind is the Gurkha appointed by the Lord; therefore, if you somehow connect yourself with the Lord, it will obey you and never trouble you anymore.

~ Sathya Sai Baba