Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

Bliss (ananda) is the innate nature of all. But the pity is that people are searching for it everywhere except where it is available. Bliss is not something lifeless and inactive. It is another name for purposeful living.

Peace is the authority under which the rule of bliss prevails. It lays down the limits and laws for all activities. It must be made so stable that it is unaffected by the ever-wandering mind or the outward-bound senses. It can be experienced, personally, only through the natural state of wisdom. It is the most precious treasure. The one who grasps that which is deathless, that which cannot be destroyed, that which is not modified - that one is the enjoyer of peace and has no death.

Peace is a shoreless ocean; it is the light that illumines the world. Having it is having all. It confers knowledge of both this world and that. It leads to the understanding of Brahman, the very fulfilment of human life, which Vedanta tries to teach.

Pure love can emanate only from a heart immersed in peace, for it is an atmosphere that pervades and purifies.

Peace is not a conviction arrived at by means of logic. It is the discipline of all disciplined lives. When one is born, the mind is like a blank sheet of white paper. As soon as thinking, feeling, and acting starts, the process of tarnishing the mind also starts. The body depends on the life breath (prana); it depends on the mind and the desires that agitate the mind. Right and truth are befogged by the needs of manners, fashion, convention, custom, etc., and the individual is thrown into a crowd. The solitude is invaded and taken away.

Therefore, the mind must first be calmed and quieted. Only then can the body be healthy and the intellect sharp. The mind is projected at one time only on a single object, not on many. But it is still a conglomeration of thoughts, desires, fancies, imaginings, and the rest. In fact, the mind has inside it, in a nutshell, the entire history of creation. That is the delusion (maya) mould of humanity. The mind is the battle field (kurukshetra) where good and bad, right and wrong contest for supremacy. Iron has to be beaten flat by iron alone. So too, the inferior, low mind has to be shaped better by the superior mind. One has to make one’s mind superior and stronger for the task of personal uplift.

That is the purpose of this “Stream of Supreme Peace” (Prasanthi Vahini). Drink deep from the waters of this Stream, the waters of discipline indicated therein. Immerse yourself in it and become cleansed; may its coolness refresh your sorrows and pains and quench the fires of sin.