Today

Finish every day and be done with it. 

You have done what you could. 

Some blunders and absurdities 

no doubt have crept in; 

forget them as soon as you can.

Tomorrow is a new day; 

begin it well and serenely 

and with too high a spirit 

to be cumbered with 

your old nonsense.

This day is all that is

good and fair. 

It is too dear, 

with its hopes and invitations, 

to waste a moment on yesterdays.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson -

GEM 724

When evil thoughts fill the minds of men, no knowledge or skill is of any avail.

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

Contemplation

Between Concentration and Meditation, there is border-area which covers both and that is the area of Contemplation.  To be in that area of Contemplation is to free yourself of worldly attachments.   If you break away all the worldly attachments - all the routine attachments in the world - then you enter the region of Contemplation.  When you have completely broken away all your attachments, you break through this area of Contemplation and you get into the area of Meditation.

(Gems of Wisdom, Dhyana (Meditation), pg 320)

Living In The Presence

Be Blessed - 27

Q492

How long should the devotee continue the use of Japa-maala ?



The japa-maala (rosary) is very useful for beginners in sadhana, but, as you progress, japa must become the very breath of your life and so the rotation of beads becomes a superfluous and cumbersome exercise in which you have no more interest.  "Sarvada sarva kaaleshu sarvatra Hari chintanam" - always, at all times, in all places, Hari (the Lord) is meditated upon.  That is the stage to which the japa-maala should lead you.  You should not be bound to it forever; it is only a contrivance to help concentration and systematic contemplation.  The belt has to be discarded when you have learnt to swim, the crutches when you are able to walk.

(SSS Vol 9, pg 30)

愛LOVE愛 Speaks - 14

A New Life

A new life begins for us with every second. Let us go forward joyously to meet it. We must press on, whether we will or no, and we shall walk better with our eyes before us than with them ever cast behind.

- Jerome K Jerome

A New Dawn

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.  If we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.

- Anne Bradstreet

Every day is a divine-order day that begins with the sun rising over the horizon into the breaking of a new dawn.  Nature follows a pattern of divine order, and I follow nature's example by allowing God to guide my every action.

Today is a divine-order day!  I did not cause the sun to shine - only God can do that.  But my faith in God will never cease and assures me the sun will rise each day.  Even if clouds block my view, I know the sun is there - just temporarily beyond sight but waiting to shine on me.

Today is a divine-order day!  Rather than taking life for granted, I celebrate the wonder of it and welcome each new day.  I thank God that today and every day is a divine-order day!

I celebrate the wonder of this day!

(From : 'Daily Word' magazine by Silent Unity, a world wide prayer ministry)  

Sai Gem - 26