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

VEDA 36

Each man has to educate himself through trials and errors and attain graduation by reaching the full knowledge of his own reality. He has a great destiny and he is equipped with the skills needed to achieve that destiny. He is not a helpless victim of circumstances. But, the tragedy is, he has allowed the equipment to rust, through neglect and he has forgotten the goal. The road he has to traverse is also over grown with bramble, the sign boards have disappeared. That is why the person who laid the road has to come again to lead the man along it, after repairs and renewals.



(From : Sai Veda, The Word of God,  sayings of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba)

GEM 723

We should see that the mind is not influenced by any external force but by the internal source which is prajna or integrated awareness.

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

Patience

Practice

Prayer has to be united with practice.  You should not pray for one thing and practice another.  Such prayer is only a means of deception.  The words you utter, the deeds you do, the prayers you make must all be directed along the same path.

(Prashanthi Vahini, pg 34)