GEM 744

Consider service as conducive to your own spiritual development.

(From : Garland of 1008 Gems, Bhagawan Shri Sathya Sai Baba's Sayings)

Living in the Presence of God (Vol I/Pt I - 60)

CHAPTER 60


Man spends his life in the shadow of his pride, and it is this pride, one day, that will make him the deluded man, without God. He forms an image of himself that is larger than the largest mountain, and yet he crumbles with the slightest sway of a breeze that may go against him. It's all what you think yourselves to be - but nothing what you really are! Your aspirations are to find and become God - yet your practices, study, and behavior to attain this are quite the contrary.


The true nature of God that lies within you cannot be proven by another, but it remains only to be discovered by you. You can question the truth several times, but the answer lies only in experiencing it, yourselves. You can theoretically learn the skills of driving and know the fact and function of every part that lies in the car, but without the actual practice of learning the control behind the steering wheel, you will never actually learn the true skills of being a good driver. Yes! The fact must be your faith, the faith must become the practice, and practice will lead to pure perfection.


You find it difficult to believe in that which cannot be proven - yet think, My dears, of how many questions remain unanswered; like, why birth? Why death? Why life? What is the force that lies behind creation? Several facts remain unproven and unclear to you, because the one answer that lies behind several of these unspoken questions is, O sweet, "the existence of God"! You must stop to doubt this one fact that remains to be the only truth that lies in you and around you. All else is the waking dream - a dream that has become your agitation of desires. You have begun to cling to your imaginations and have developed fearful attachments to each character, each role and every scene.


All can be owned, yet none of these material possessions will give you the sense of being complete and content. The self within you is the owner of all, yet the need of the self is none other but to "give". The treasury of the king is full, yet all including him, belongs to his subjects. That is what makes him the "king", for he is able to sit on a golden throne with all the riches that surround him, and still, he only thinks and lives to protect the children of the kingdom. The sound of his victory in the kingdom is none other but the smile of contentment of his subjects. His ministers are his mind, and his armies are his hands. You, too, must be the king that sits on the golden throne of "faith" - faith in the God that is your life. Fill your treasures, My dears, with the virtues and character that speak your faith, and use this treasure to serve the contentment that lies in the purity and goodness to all - for you must be their angel that spreads her wings of love to protect them from the false glitter of gold. Be the gold, and let each act become a jewel that will only enhance the beauty of God - God is your only beauty, all the rest is only pride - the pride in hollow vanity.




- Divine Messages received and recorded by Mrs Seema M Dewan

Sai Gem - 27

Sai Darshan 1 (Universal) - Part 1 - 25

An act of service is that
Which is truly done in My presence.
It can be compared to a game of hide and seek.
You are looking for the Swami
Hidden in the ones you serve,
And once you seek Swami,
You have definitely won the game.
I do not scale any acts of service big or small.
What I measure is the quantity of love in it.
Feel very fortunate at the smallest opportunity
To be given to serve.
Every act done with true love is nothing,
But another stone paved,
In your spiritual path to reach Me.


From : 'Sai Darshan' - Part I
(Divine Messages received and recorded by Mrs Seema M Dewan)

Detachment

Inward Journey

Meditation is the inward journey, away from the objective world and the senses that run after it.  The Upanishads declare, the Self cannot be attained by one devoid of strength.  Strength means physical, vital moral intellectual and spiritual toughness.  For all these are essential to establish mastery over the senses.

(Baba, The Breath Of Sai, pg 307)

This Day

Look to this day:
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence.
The bliss of growth,
The glory of action,
The splendour of achievement
Are but experiences of time. 

For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision;
And today well-lived, makes
Yesterday a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day;
Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn! 

~ Kalidasa ~

Q500

Can we secure a vision of the Divine form if we seek refuge in the Lord's Feet ?



Krishna was known as one who used to steal butter from all houses and feed his friends and playmates too.  As there were a lot of complaints about this naughty child, Krishna's mother, Yashoda, caught hold of him one day as he was running away and asked him : "Why are you stealing butter from other houses while I offer you so much at home?  Give up this habit.  Otherwise, I'll tie you to a post to restrict your movements."  He smiled and ran away.  Yashoda went from house to house in search of Krishna.  He played a small trick.  Krishna dipped his feet in milk in a house and ran from there, leaving behind the trail of his footprints caused by milk.  It was only with the help of Krishna's own footprints that she was able to catch him.  In fact, because she was so eager to get at him, Krishna himself helped her to trace him... Yashoda was able to catch the Lord only through footprints of His Feet.

(SSS Vol 26, pg 340)

GEM 743

Attachment and hatred - these are the greatest enemies of progress in any scheme of social service; why, in any scheme of work.

(From : Garland of 1008 Gems, Bhagawan Shri Sathya Sai Baba's Sayings)

Lift People Up

The greatest exercise for strengthening the heart is reaching down and lifting people up.

- Ernest Blevins