Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

The essential aim of love is sacrifice.

Under no circumstance, love gives room for hatred. It is love that brings even a person far away closer and more intimate to you. Prema (Love) is the Prana (Life Force) of man, and the Prana itself is Prema. Living without love is like being a corpse. Love is shown only to persons who are alive. Love and life are, therefore, interrelated and intimately connected. It is love that drives away the feeling of separateness and promotes the feeling of Oneness.

In this worldly life, love manifests in several forms, such as the love between mother and son, between husband and wife, and relatives. This love, based on physical relationships arises out of selfish motives and self-interest. But the love for the Divine is devoid of any traces of self-interest. It is love for the sake of love alone. This is called Bhakti (devotion) by the ancients. This love has three aspects in the form of a triangle.

One (characteristic) aspect of this love is to give and not to receive.

Second, love knows no fear.

And third, pure Love is only for love’s sake without any selfish motive.

All these three angles of love jointly indicate surrender (Prapatthi). When one revels in this attitude of surrender (Prapatthi), one experiences the bliss of the Divine and experiences the principle of the Spirit (Atma). For this, the prime requisite is Kshama (forbearance).

Only a person who has this attitude of forbearance (Kshama) can be considered to be endowed with sacred love. This cannot be learned from textbooks. Nor can it be acquired from preceptors or from anyone else. It is to be cultivated by oneself in times of difficulties, trials, and tribulations. Only when we face problems and difficulties that cause grief and misery this quality of forbearance and forgiveness has the scope for taking root and grow. When you are confronted with problems and difficulties, you should not get upset and become a victim of depression which is a sign of weakness. In such a situation, you should bring tolerance and an attitude of forgiveness into play and should not get agitated giving rise to anger, hatred, and revenge. You are embodiments of strength and not weakness. Therefore, in times of despair, you should be filled with the feeling of forbearance and be ready to forgive and forget. This quality of Kshama is the greatest power for a human being. There is no power in the world that is greater than Kshama.

Kshama is Sathyam, Truth

Kshama is Dharma, Right Action

Kshama is Ahimsa, Non-Violence

Kshama is Yajna, Sacrifice

Kshama is Santhoshamu, Happiness

Kshama is Daya, Compassion

Kshama is everything in all the worlds.

The moment one gives up this great quality of forbearance, the evil qualities of anger, hatred, and jealousy creep in, making him lose his human nature itself, driving him to indulge in wicked deeds of demonic nature and even to descend to animal nature. Human beings should shine with human qualities. Today we find jealousy and hatred dancing like devils all over the world. People with jealousy and hatred are pursuing the wicked path and bringing ruin to themselves. The best example of this is the Kauravas in the Mahabharata. The brothers Duryodhana and Dusshasana were the embodiments of the twin evils of hatred and jealousy. Krishna told Dharmaja, the eldest of the Pandavas, that the Kauravas who were replete with these evil qualities could never become better and imbibe human qualities. Karna, who was an embodiment of ego, joined their company with Shakuni as the evil adviser adding fuel to the fire. Though Duryodhana and Dusshasana were born into a notable royal family, they gave up human qualities due to jealousy and hatred and brought ruin to the family and death to the clan. Krishna added that jealousy is a dangerous canker that eats at the root of the tree of life, while hatred is the pest that attacks the trunk of the tree. Thus, the tree of life is completely destroyed by both these pests. The Kauravas were victims of these twin pests and sought their own ruin.

One may raise the question as to how to get over these dangerous pests of jealousy and hatred. This is possible when you make all the sense organs act in unison. When this happens, forbearance (Kshama) improves, and one can overcome jealousy and hatred. When there is forbearance, all organs coordinate harmoniously and work in unison.

In Shakespeare’s drama, one character (King Richard) is always jealous of others. This led to his ruin and eventual death. Bhasmasura, the notorious demon, did great penance and secured Lord Shiva’s grace. He prayed for the boon that on whose head he keeps his hand will be burned to ashes. What happened to him? In a divine enacted play, ultimately, he was led to touch his own head and burn himself to ashes.

Anger begets anger. Jealousy begets jealousy. There is no other way out of these. Unity is the right medicine for these. To achieve unity, we must cultivate and improve humanness by declaring, ‘I am not an animal, I am not a demon, I am a human being.’ When we contemplate on this human aspect and divinity, the demonic qualities can be distanced. We need to take some time to make an effort for this.

Once Buddha was traveling. One demoness brandished a sword against Lord Buddha. The demoness threatened, “O Buddha, in a trice, I will end your life and eat you.” The demoness said I am jealous of your greatness and your growing popularity. Buddha smiled in response and said, “O jealous demoness, I love you too.” Listening to this, the demoness felt ashamed. “Does Buddha love me too,” she wondered. The demoness felt the large-heartedness of Buddha. The demoness felt ashamed and changed into a dove, conveying His message of peace. This is the power of forbearance. We should forgive those that have hatred toward us. We should forgive those that hurt us. This quality of forbearance becomes armor for us.

In this world, good or bad is not because of time. The New Year will not bring comfort and happiness. The cycle of sunset and sunrise results in days. The days turn to months, and the months to years. They follow this order. So, time is not the reason for pleasure or sorrow. You are wondering what kind of pleasant experiences the New Year will bring. This kind of thinking is a sign of weakness. For all our difficulties, pleasant experiences, sorrow, and our blissful experiences, our mind is the reason. It is not the time that is responsible. If our mind is good, everything good will take place.

Time is merely a witness. Time is in the form of God. God is the form of Chith (Constant Integrated Awareness). Is it not foolishness that one would experience sorrow through this principle of God? God is like a mirror. In this mirror, you see a reflection of your own actions but not of God. Devotees pray to God through nine types of devotion. The nine types of devotion are Shravanam (listening to the glory of the Lord), Keerthanam (singing the glory of the Lord), Vishnusmaranam (remembering the name of the Lord), Padasevanam (worshipping the lotus feet of the Lord), Vandanam (saluting), Archanam (worshipping), Dasyam (obedient service), Sneham (friendship) and Atmanivedanam (self-surrender). God is accepting the prayers and services rendered through these nine ways. God in return, confers them the sacred fruits of these prayers. People remember what they offered to God but do not remember what they received from God. If God does not give, then there will be no life. Everything is God’s gift. The Lord has said,

As a student has said, each type of these dharmas (in this case, duties and beliefs) is like a paise in a rupee. There are one hundred paise in one rupee. In one hundred rupees, there are 10,000 paise. If these 10,000 paise are to be gathered in a cloth, tied together, and carried, it would be heavy to carry. In addition, safeguarding these 10,000 paise would be difficult as well. So, God says, “O madcap! Why are you carrying such a heavy weight, and why are you worried about safeguarding these?” God says, “give me those 10,000 paise. I will give you the equivalent of a one hundred rupees currency note (bill).” Not knowing the equivalency of the 10,000 paise and the one hundred rupees bill, the foolish person thinks, taking 10,000 paise, God gives one small paper of one hundred rupees bill? The person wonders, “is this all God gives us?” However, the person does not realize that the 10,000 paise and the one hundred rupees bill are the same. There is no difference. God provides security to devotees with such an attitude of surrender.

So, whatever happens, consider it as God’s Grace. Without difficulties, there is no pleasure. We should consider both pleasure and pain with equanimity. Some people think, “God gives us pleasure for some time and pain for some time. Why should there be this change?” If we receive pleasure for all 24 hours, we will not know the value of pleasure. If we eat at 10 AM, would we eat again at 11 AM or 12 PM? We cannot. We will wait and eat at 4 PM. Why do we take this much time to eat? This is because what we eat needs to be digested. Only after food is digested can we eat again. For the food to be digested, we are giving some gaps in between.

In whichever way you offer worship, God responds in the same way. Man conveniently forgets what he gets. Without God’s Grace living itself will be impossible for humankind. Even the troubles you may experience are the gifts of the Divine. When you surrender all your actions, you will surely receive His Grace. This is the purport of the Gita Sloka

The mother gets the pleasure of seeing her baby after going through severe labor pains. If you sit in an air-conditioned room 24 hours of a day, you cannot enjoy the pleasure of it. Only after being away in the hot Sun will you appreciate and enjoy the coolness of the room. After the Mahabharata war was over, Krishna asked Kunthi, the mother of Pandavas, what boon she wanted. She requested that she should be blessed with troubles always, for, then alone she would constantly remember God as the Pandavas did during the exile of 12 years in the forest. She said she was not thinking of God when she was enjoying the palace life as a queen earlier. “While experiencing the comforts of the palace, I did not contemplate on you. When my sons were experiencing difficulties for 12 years, I contemplated on you, Krishna, Krishna, every moment and prayed to you. So, to contemplate and chant your name, please bestow difficulties on me,” Kunthi prayed. The sweetness in chanting and contemplating on God during difficulties is not experienced when one is enjoying comforts.

Life is a mixture of sorrow and joy, just as day and night. Some people may wonder why there should be night. Why not just daytime all the while? Because, people who toil during the day can rest during the nighttime. If there is only daylight all the time, one cannot take the well-deserved rest after a hard day’s toil, and there will not be value to one’s life. Pleasure is an interval between two pains; we should accept this. There is sweet juice inside the orange fruit. But it is covered by the bitter outer rind. It is the bitter rind that protects the juice inside. So too, we should face difficulties and losses with forbearance and accept them as a gift from God. Life is a challenge, meet it. We should face these challenges using all available means. We need forbearance to face these difficulties and losses. Man is the embodiment of the quality of forbearance (Kshama). There is nothing in this world that you cannot achieve with this quality.

We are now bidding farewell to 1993 and welcoming the New Year, 1994. There is an intimate relationship between the two years. We give a send-off to one while welcoming the new one. In the same way, we should bid farewell to bad qualities and welcome good divine qualities. One should offer all bad qualities to God and receive good qualities from Him. One should improve sacred qualities in oneself. There is nothing wrong in offering bad qualities to God. In reality, what we have to offer to God are our bad qualities. It is only God who can accept and bear them. For example, if you have a hundred-rupee currency note which is soiled, dirty, with streaks of oil, does not look pleasing, and cannot even be touched; no one will accept it. But, if the banknote number is intact, the Reserve Bank will accept it and give a new note of the same value in return. Only Reserve Bank will accept and no one else. Similarly, shortcomings, bad thoughts, and bad feelings will not be accepted and hailed by anyone. Only God will readily accept them and will confer blissful results.

If people offer all the bad qualities to God, God bestows good in return. This is also called Upavasa (living in proximity) and Upasana (sitting near God) in our customs. People generally believe that Upavasa means only curtailing usual food and taking some light snack items other than staple food. This is not the proper interpretation of Upavasa. The true Upavasa means being in the proximity of God or sitting near God. What is the result of such proximity? You get away from worldly suffering and enjoy the coolness of sitting near an air-conditioner. Likewise, when you sit near God, what will happen? Your bad qualities and bad thoughts will become distant. We acquire God’s good qualities and sacred thoughts. This is the true significance of Upasana, which improves the intimate relationship with God. Unfortunately, people interpret it with distorted meanings.

The year 1993 was really an eventful one with a lot of dreadful happenings all over the world in various areas, including moral, spiritual, worldly, and scientific spheres. Many people are thinking about how the upcoming year will be. It is neither 1993 nor 1994 that confer good or bad results. Cultivate good qualities and good thoughts and give up jealousy and hatred. “May All the Worlds Be Happy,” and everyone will have a comfortable life. One should not think that others are giving us sorrow. It is one’s own bad qualities that bring sorrow, and one’s good qualities confer comfort.

Time is also an essential part of this. We do not have to be afraid of the year. We should feel blissful by observing the transformation of the Heart. There should be a sacred transformation of the Heart.

One moon is reflected in hundreds of thousands of pots. There are no hundreds of thousands of moons. The pots that reflect the moon are different, but the moon is one.

and

There is no second. If you place a zero next to one, it becomes ten, with two zeroes next to one making it one hundred, three zeroes will make it 1,000, and so on, it will become millions and millions. If we take out the one, everything becomes zero. All the millions are unified in one. The world is zero, Sun is Zero, and Moon is Zero. They are all round and shaped like zero only. All these get value because of the one God behind them. God is the only Hero, and all else are zeroes.

Keeping God as your guide and savior, whatever work you may do will yield sure success and comfort. God is your only true, eternal, and real friend. All other friends may be with you as long as you have wealth, but the moment you lose everything, the friends will desert you. God is the only friend who will ever be with you. He is always with you, in you, and besides you. He will not leave you at any time. So we must develop friendship with God. That is true friendship (mythri). Therefore, the only way for the prosperity of the nation is to develop a friendship with the Lord.

Being a human, you should make others happy. This is the principle of love. Where is this love? Your heart is full of love. Having a heart filled with love, why is this love not being shared with two or three people each day, and why is it becoming rotten without getting shared? When you have some edible dish, either you eat it or serve it to others. Otherwise, it will get spoiled. Your heart is full of love. You must share your love with at least five people each day. If each one shares this love with five people a day, the world will be filled with love.

We should have full faith in the omnipresence of God, practice it, experience it, and share it with people.

Wherever you are, God will look after you. Having faith in this principle, we should practice it. Having practiced, we should experience it. Having experienced the Bliss, we should share it with others. That is the true spiritual principle. Everything is in Love. So, we must experience this principle of Love and begin the New Year with Love:

On this day, we should start with love in all aspects. The country will prosper with this love. There should be no difference in nationality, caste, creed, and religion. "May all the worlds be happy." When all are living happily, we will be happy. If we desire the comfort of all and cultivate the principle of Love, the country will prosper, the world will prosper, and the country will be filled with Love.