THOUGHT FOR THE DAY JAN 2011

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 1st January 2011 New Year’s Day

Do not waste time speculating over what would happen in this New Year. If your actions are good, your future is bound to be good. The future of the nation depends on your actions. God is a witness. He neither protects you nor punishes you. Each one is responsible for his pleasure or pain. In this New Year, develop new and sacred feelings and make everybody happy. Do not strive for money; strive for love. Once you develop love, there will be no scope for evil qualities like anger, jealousy, etc. If your thoughts and actions are good, your future is bound to be good. Then the whole country, nay, the whole world will prosper. Pray for the peace and prosperity of the entire world. Peace can be attained only through practice of human values.
     
- BABA

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2nd January 2011

Only an ardent devotee can understand and experience the bliss of oneness with God. Sugar tastes bitter to a person suffering from malaria. The defect lies in their tongue, not in the sugar. So is the case with a person immersed in worldly desires. If you are immersed in it, you cannot experience the sweetness of Divinity. Have the firm conviction “God is in me, with me, around me, behind me.” When you think on these lines, you become divine. Never entertain the thought that you are separate from God.
     
- BABA

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3rd January 2011

You may think that all those who know their end is drawing near, will, like King Parikshith, utilise their time in seeking to realise the vision of God. However, such a yearning can arise in the mind only as a consequence of a favourable balance of merit acquired in many lives; it will not arise all of a sudden. Consider the vast difference between what Parikshith was engaged in, when he knew that the allotted span of life is hastening to its finish, and the undertakings the demon king Kamsa was engaged in, when he knew that his end was in sight! These two attitudes are called Deva and Asura, divine and demoniac. Only those who are equipped with divine virtues have the eagerness to do good acts, and to have good thoughts, faith in God, compassion towards all beings, truth, non-violence, love and contrition for swerving from the straight path. To them alone, thoughts of God and urges to do sanctifying deeds will emerge during their last days.
     
- BABA

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4th January 2011

You are all endowed with unlimited powers. Not a single person is without them! To gain awareness of this power, you must join the company of the holy, you must strive in spiritual practice (Sadhana), and you must practise repetition of the Divine Name and meditation. Of what avail is it, even though you have each item of provision in plenty in your kitchen, when you do not know how to cook them into palatable food? Similarly, when you have in yourself all the provisions needed for your upkeep and progress, but if you discard them lightly and leave them unused, how will you benefit? You must strive to see and understand the Universal Power (Shakti), which is the basis of all the multifarious manifestations of name and form in the world.
     
- BABA

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5th January 2011

The true seeker's approach is not to waste time in discussions and assertions of faith in dogmas. They will not delight in the sight of empty oyster shells thrown upon the beach. They will seek to gain the pearls that lie in the depths of the sea. They would gladly dive into those depths and courageously seek for pearls. The Vedas show the ideal to follow and tread the road which leads to Realisation. Your goal should not be mere empty faith; it is the Sthithi (the stage reached), the Siddhi (the wisdom won) that matters. The life-aim of the seeker is to reach fulfilment, through constant Sadhana (spiritual exercise). Mergence with the Divine is the attainment of fullness. This is the supreme victory for the true seeker.
     
- BABA

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6th January 2011

Those who are immersed in selfishness, egotism, greed, vice, violence and unrighteousness will suffer from evil urges in their last days and destroy themselves. The virtuous attain Kaivalya or Self-Realisation; the unrighteous achieve only Naraka, hell. The eye of the onlooker sees the same consummation: death. But the goal reached by either is distinct. It is invisible to those around them. The goal is determined by the thoughts that arise in the mind during one’s last moments. Cessation of life is common. Darshan of God is something to be won, and earned. That is unique. Hence the proverb, ‘Vinaasa Kaale, vipareetha buddhi’: When disaster is immanent, the intellect turns perverted! Only those who are about to be destroyed will get and welcome evil intentions. Those who are to be blessed with the vision of God will hold fast to the pure and the elevating, in their last thoughts.
     
- BABA

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7th January 2011

When you attain fulfilment, your life will be saturated with unexcelled Ananda (Divine bliss), and you will experience oneness of thought, emotion and knowledge with all. You will be in ecstasy, immersed in the one and only, the Eternal Divine Principle, for that alone can confer joy. This is the genuine joy; there is no other. God is the embodiment of eternal, undiminished joy. Those loyal to God, accept this axiom that “God is the highest source of joy.”
     
- BABA

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8th January 2011

Fools who cannot grasp the Truth, who cannot recognise Divinity and the power of God, who have no faith in God, live in the delusion that their plans will save them and that they can triumph through their own efforts! The fact is, not even the smallest success can be won without God’s grace. Though this is true, we should not sit with folded hands, believing that a thing will accomplish itself if and when God wills. Human effort is essential, and everyone must make efforts. You must use the strength and skill that you are endowed with, and resolve to proceed with the work, laying the responsibility for success on God. For without the grace of God, all effort will be rendered fruitless.
     
- BABA

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9th January 2011

The mind flies at a tangent all the time. Meditation (Dhyana) is the process by which it is trained to acquire concentration. When its basic truth is known, the mind will not be deluded by the evanescent, the untrue, and the un-blissful. Instead, it will welcome the blossoming of joy, happiness, and truth, and it will not be affected by sorrow and grief. Your life also assumes a new splendour when you visualise and realise bliss in the awareness of the Supreme Reality. The taste of the fruit is evident when you see the whole of it is eaten with no portion left behind. So too, when the taste of meditation is once discovered, you will discard all doubt and discussion thereon and engage yourself fully in it. Therefore, begin meditation, each one of you, from today - even from this moment!
     
- BABA

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10th January 2011

You feel happy when you know that this physical body is yours, do you not? Then when you know that two bodies are yours, should you not be twice happy? In the same way, with the knowledge that you have an increasing number of bodies, the experience of happiness goes on increasing. When the whole universe is known to be one body, and universal consciousness becomes part of the awareness, then the Ananda (bliss) will be complete. To get this universal consciousness, the limited egocentric prison walls must be destroyed. When the ego-self identifies itself with the Jeevi (individual soul) or Atma, death will cease. When the ego-self identifies itself and merges with the bliss of God, sorrow will cease. When it merges with Jnana or the Higher Wisdom, error will cease.
     
- BABA

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11th January 2011 Annual Sports Meet

God is like fire and you are like coal. When coal comes in contact with fire, coal becomes one with fire. Similarly, when you come in contact with God you become one with Him. Embodiments of Love! All of you are messengers of God. God alone is important. Zero gains value only when the numeral one precedes it. Moon is zero, sun is zero, world is zero, only God is the Hero. Everything comes to nought in the absence of this Hero. Have total faith in the Hero, God. A hero becomes zero if he forgets God. Never give scope for any doubt in God. Then you are bound to be successful.
     
- BABA

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12th January 2011 Annual Sports Meet

Everyone needs one-pointed concentration. To develop powers of concentration, sports and games are very essential. They serve to promote physical fitness and mental health. Games and sports are to be practised mainly for keeping the body in good trim. Along with keeping the body fit, it is equally essential to promote purity of the mind and develop large-heartedness. True humanness blossoms only when the body, the mind and the spirit are developed harmoniously. The enthusiasm and effort which people display in sports should also be manifested in the spheres of morality and spirituality. You must endeavour to experience the divinity that permeates Bhaarath's sacred culture. "Samastha Lokaah Sukhino Bhavanthu!" (May all the people be happy) is the benedictory motto of Bhaarath.
     
- BABA

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13th January 2011

The key objective of education is the culture of the mind and the spirit. This is very much like agriculture, which provides food and clothing for man. We require Dhaanya (grains) to sustain the body; we require Dhyaana (meditation) to sustain the spirit. In agriculture, you prepare the soil, plant seeds, feed the plants with fertilisers, and reap the harvest. In ‘heart-culture’, we have to plough the Hrudaya-Kshetra (the field of the heart), remove the weeds and wild growth, and plant the seeds. The weeds are pernicious tendencies, attitudes and habits; the fertilisers are devotion and dedication. Water to help the plant grow is the quality of love. The seeds are the Names of God, which are deposited within the purified heart. The harvest which is the reward of all this spiritual discipline is wisdom.
     
- BABA

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15th January 2011

Service is an expression of gratitude to the society. It should not be done in a spirit of condescension or to achieve some ulterior selfish objective. It should proceed from an awareness of what you owe to society. You must realise that you are bettering yourself by rendering service. Your name and fame, all the comforts you enjoy, are derived from society. Sheer gratitude demands that one should serve society which is the source of all benefits enjoyed by man. What is required for service is not money and materials. A loving heart is the first requisite. All service done without a love-filled heart is as dry as dust. Fill your hearts with love. When you are immersed in the spirit and filled with love, everything looks good and beautiful.
     
- BABA

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16th January 2011

Spiritual aspirants (Sadhakas) all over the world will naturally be engaged in repetition of the name (Japa) and meditation (Dhyana), but first, one has to be clear about the purpose of repeating the name and doing meditation. Without this knowledge, people believe them to be related to the objective world, capable of satisfying worldly desires, and hope to demonstrate their value by means of sensory gains! This is a grave error. Repetition of God’s name and meditation are for acquiring one-pointed attention on the Lord.
     
- BABA