Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

To enjoy peace, mankind must be controlled and directed by ideals of dharma; this depends on mutual toleration in the family, which again is based on individual conduct that is pure (sathwic) and that aims at pleasing everyone. Such conduct has a charm all its own. Avoid in your behavior, actions, and speech all trace of the desire to pain others, to insult others, or to cause loss or misery to others. Find out the best means of reforming yourself thus, practise this type of living, desist from injury to yourself and your own good, and always walk in the path of truth. That is verily the path of beauty; that is conduct that is really charming.

For this, large heartedness is essential. People can acquire it only if they have (1) an inborn desire (samskara) for it and (2) devotion in every act. Through devotion to the Lord, one gets humility, fear of sin, and faith in scripture.

Through these qualities, littleness of mind is wiped out and people become large-hearted. Therefore, Oh ye seekers! First direct your efforts toward acquiring faith in God and fear of sin. These two will promote meekness; and, remember, meekness is peace.

Some people, the sort that have no experience and that do not put their words into practice, go about declaring that the way to peace is to keep the world at a distance. That is no peace; it is just the opposite. If the seed is taken far away from the tree, won’t it grow into a tree again? If you do not want that, you have to boil the seed or fry it over a fire. So too, the impulses and desires that germinate have to be fried over the fire of discrimination (vichara); then, real peace can emerge.

Instead, if one escapes only from the responsibilities of life in society, peace cannot be enjoyed; it will never come. But, if desires (vasanas) are controlled and eliminated, there is no need at all to run away. Content with what one has, refusing to be worried by the absence of things that one hasn’t, trying as far as possible to reduce and eliminate desires and passions and hatreds, one should strive to cultivate truth, dharma, love, and patience (sahana). Cultivate them and, at the same time, practise them systematically.

This is the real duty of humanity, the real purpose of human birth. If the above-mentioned four qualities are cultivated and practised by each, there will be no envy between people; selfish grabbing will cease; the interests of others will be respected; and world peace can be stabilized. Instead, if you yourself have no peace, how can you ensure world peace? Those enthusiastic about world peace must first learn how to experience and enjoy peace themselves; later, they can spread that peace to the world outside themselves and help to promote it.