Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

Kannada is a sweet and soft language, but I do not propose to speak in it now. I feel that you can follow Me even if I speak in Telugu. I am happy to lay the foundation stone of this Home for Retarded Children and the hostel and workshops of the Mahila Makkala Koota, for service is the best form of worship. I know this institution does real service. It is a lighthouse in the sea of mere worldly mindedness. For all the higher forms of service, devotion is the very life breath. Of the two, worldly gain (preyas) and spiritual merit (sreyas), Sunandamma has chosen spiritual merit. So, even when she is ridiculed, she carries on; even when praised, she does not accept the praise. If she must succeed in this venture, she must strengthen her faith in the Lord. That is enough. When the election season is on, you find people suddenly going round and round and falling at the feet of all and sundry, praying for votes. They could have fallen at the feet of the Lord, and He would have showered His grace. A godly person, full of humility and the spirit of service, would have received the needed votes even without this humiliation of door-to-door soliciting.

Be good, be serviceable, be useful, be kind, be God-fearing - then, the confidence of the people will be yours. I am sure Minister Kanthi, who is here, will agree with Me when I say that such a person has no need to beg for votes. People will themselves come forward and offer the votes at their feet. Faith, faith - that is the very breath of victory - faith in oneself, faith in the good work one has set upon, and faith in its success in spite of signs of failure. Attachment and hatred are the greatest enemies of progress in any scheme of social service, why, in any scheme of work. If a man is deluded into believing that he is saving others, then woe be to him, for there is no other at all. All are One, one person’s sorrow is everyone’s sorrow. The fundamental flaw is the ignorance of humanity. If only one is wise, one would know that all individuals are waves on the surface of the self-same ocean. Selfless action is the ideal to be aimed at. But now, everything is measured by the result, the gain that accrues. Study is also for the salary one can get on the basis of the degree that is its goal. If you fan a person out of love, when you stop the person cannot blame you, but when the paid servant stops, the master takes him to task. In the first case, the act is done without selfish desire (in the nishkama way); there is no aim to seek gain. The desire for gain is like the poison fangs; when they are pulled out, the snake of karma is rendered harmless.

The correct discipline to acquire the desireless (nishkama) attitude is dedication, and dedication is possible only when you have intense faith in God. That faith becomes steady through spiritual effort. Now, spiritual effort is like the snacks one eats; the main dishes are all of the world, from the world. However, the spiritual must be the major portion of the food. You must be aware of the danger of a fall, in time. Do not behave like the master of a house, who when his wife said, “I hear some noise; it is perhaps a thief,” replied: “I know; don’t interrupt my sleep.” In a few minutes, she said, “He came into the house.” But the man said, “I know.” Later, she said, “He is opening the box.” Still, the man said “I know,” and kept quiet. After some time, she said, “He is running away,” and the man said, as formerly, “I know.” He did not pay any attention to the warnings of the theft. So too, you do not heed the warning but move forward to the calamity, with eyes open. Once you feel that all are waves on the self-same sea, you will no longer use the term “helpless orphan (a-natha)”, which I found in the report that was read. In one sense, there is no helpless orphan at all; all are protected by a guardian (sa-natha), for the Lord takes care of all. He is the Lord of individualised souls (Pasu-pathi), pasu meaning individual living beings (jivas). There is only one Masculine (Purusha) in creation; all the rest are feminine (stri). There is no fool, too; that is only a role played by that particular manifestation of the embodiment of spiritual knowledge, i.e. the Supreme Self (Paramatma). Nagaya might play the role of Thyagaya, in the film on Thyagaraja, but all the while, his Nagaya is the truth, the reality. The Thyagaya is a temporary role in the drama of life.

Remember this and do not tarry on your journey to God. You fill up the petrol tank with fuel for the journey that lies ahead, don’t you? When you propose to keep the car in the garage for long, you do not fill the tank. Well, the body is also fed with fuel so that it may go on a journey: the journey to God. That journey is through karma, good karma, activity with renunciation of its fruits (nishkama karma). Such karma is termed “related to the body (kayaka)”, the exertion of the body for the liberation of the soul imprisoned therein. Not all the raindrops that fall from the sky manage to reach the sea. Only those that flow into a flowing river attain the goal of all the drops, for they all come from the sea and yearn to reach their source. I find that the sun has invaded this side of the hall; the hall is not big enough to provide shade for all of you. I cannot bear to see you suffering. I find one man has fainted there. Here, take this sacred ash (vibhuthi) to him. Let him drink it in a glass of water. (He waved His right Hand once and created a quantity of vibhuthi as a token of His grace.) When I am leaving, do not crowd around and fall at My feet. Do the obeisance (namaskaram) in your hearts; that is better than crushing everybody and pushing forward. There are many old men, sick persons, and children, so be calm and patient. Why do a thing that gives neither you full satisfaction nor Me satisfaction? Make Sai the resident of your heart; that gives you happiness and Me joy!