"Start the day with love,  fill the day with love,  end the day with love:  this is the way to God."  -- Sathya Sai Baba

SATHYA SAI BABA'S
"TEN-FOLD PATH TO DIVINITY"

1.) Love and serve the motherland. Do not hate or hurt the motherland of others.

2.) Honor every religion. Each is a pathway to the One God.

3.) Love all men without distinction. Know that mankind is a single community.

4.) Keep your home and its environs clean. This will ensure health and happiness for you and for society.

5.) Do not throw coins when beggars stretch their hands for alms. Help them to become self-reliant. Provide food and shelter, love and care, for the sick and the aged.

6.) Do not tempt others by offering bribes or demean yourself by accepting bribes.

7.) Do not develop jealousy, hatred or envy on any count.

8.) Do not depend on others to serve your personal needs. Become your own servant before proceeding to serve others.

9.) Observe the laws of the state and be an exemplary citizen.

10.) Adore God. Abhor sin.

-- Sathya Sai Baba  

UNITY OF RELIGION

Let the different faiths exist, let them flourish, let the glory of God be sung in all languages in a variety of tunes. That should be the ideal. Respect the differences between the faiths and recognize them as valid so far as they do not extinguish the flame of unity.

Should each person live the ideals propounded by the founders of his religion, unaffected by greed or hate, then the world will be a happy and peaceful habitation for man.

In spiritual terms all of mankind belongs to one and the same class, race, and religion.

The followers of each religion call upon One God who is omnipresent and listens to their prayers, be they from any race or whatever language they speak; but it is the same God who confers happiness on all of mankind. No religion has a separate God showering grace only on those who profess to abide by that faith.

JESUS

Jesus came as the embodiment of love and compassion, and lived among men holding forth the highest ideals of life. You must pay attention to the lessons he elaborated. 

Jesus was a master born with a purpose: the mission of restoring love, charity, and compassion into the hearts of man. He had no attachment to the self. He never paid heed to sorrow, pain, joy, or gain. He had a heart that responded to the call of anguish, the cry for peace and brotherhood. He went about the land preaching the message of love and poured out his life as a libation in sacrifice to humanity. 

Jesus was a person whose only joy was in spreading divine love, offering divine love, and living divine love. That was the life and message of Jesus. Nurture it in your hearts. 

Follow Jesus Christ. Decide to direct your lives along the path he laid down. His words must be imprinted on your hearts, and you must resolve to practice all that he taught. We are true Christians only when we live according to the teachings of Jesus and practice them in daily life.

GOD

There is no need to exhaust yourselves in the search for God. He is there like butter in milk, like the chicken in the egg, in every atom of creation. He does not come from somewhere or go elsewhere. He is here, there, everywhere. From the atom to the cosmos, from the microcosm to the macrocosm, He is everything. 

God is the inner reality of all beings . . . The divine principal that is in everyone is like the electric current that illuminates the bulbs of different colors and brightness. The same God shines in and through everyone, whatever be the creed, color, tribe or territory. 

God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent . . . God is the nearest, the dearest, the most loving, the most eager companion of man. God is not distant or external. God is inside you. You are not man. You are God yourself.

LOVE

If love declines among the people, nations will weaken and mankind will perish. 

All are one. Be alike to everyone. 

Attune your heart so that it will vibrate in sympathy with the woes and joys of your fellow-men.
Love is God; God is love. Where there is love, there God is certainly evident. Love more and more people, love them more and more intensely. Transform the love into service; transform the service into worship. That is the highest spiritual discipline. 

Love all, serve all. 

The fulfillment of man's life on earth consists in filling himself with the love of God and transmitting that love into acts of service, service of man who is the embodiment of God. If man has no love in him and if he does not share it with all living beings, he is but a burden to the earth. 

Sai seeks only that you should love your fellow man and serve society. Sacrifice your selfishness and try to come to the rescue of those in need. So if you really want to understand your own true nature, plunge into service. 

Love is God, live in love. 

In selfishness there can never be love; self is lovelessness and love is selflessness. Love lives by giving and forgiving; self lives by getting and forgetting. 

Love ever, hurt never. 

Kindness to all living beings is one of the most important virtues of human beings. 

Love God and you see God in every creature.
It is enough if love is cultivated - the love that knows no distinction between oneself and another - because all are but limbs of the one corpus of God Almighty. Through love alone can the embodiment of love be gained. Here no scholarship is needed; in fact scholarship will be an impediment, for it caters to egoism and it breeds doubts and the desire for disputation and the laurel of victory over others preening themselves as learned!

Practice silence. For the voice of God can be heard in the region of the heart only when the tongue is still . . . Silence is the speech of the spiritual seeker. Soft sweet speech is the expression of genuine love. Hate screeches, fear squeals, conceit trumpets-- but love sings lullabies; it soothes, it applies balm.

PEARLS OF WISDOM

We do not need today a new religion or creed, nor a new system of education; nor need we create a new society. All we need are men and women who have pure and loving hearts . . . The transformation has to be effected in the minds of people. 

Practice brotherhood of man and fatherhood of God. Consider all human beings as equal. Love your religion, but respect other religions also. Religions may be different but the path is one. Human beings may be different but divinity in man is one. Nations are many but the Earth is one. Men are many but the breath is one. You should practice these truths in your day-to-day life. 

If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character. If there is beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world. 

The honor of a nation depends upon the morality of that nation. A nation without morality will be doomed. 

Politics without principles, education without character, science without humanity, and commerce without morality are not only useless, but positively dangerous. 

The end of wisdom is freedom. The end of culture is perfection. The end of education is character. The end of knowledge is love. 

Be attached under all conditions to the source, substance and sum of all power: the Lord.
 Keep the name of the Lord always on your lips and you will find that all thoughts of envy and hatred will disappear from your hearts. 

One must be always vigilant, without a moment's carelessness, against the eight sins that the mind perpetrates: craving, anger, greed, attachment, impatience, hatred, egoism, pride. Man's primary duty is to keep all these things at a safe distance from himself. 

Try to avoid killing, adultery, theft, drinking intoxicants, and flesh eating. It is a great help in living the highest life if these are kept as far away as possible. 

I direct you to implant three ideas in your hearts: Do not forget God. Do not put your faith in the world around you; it is changing every second and does not last. Do not be afraid; you are the imperishable soul that knows no fear.

Our spiritual heart is like a lock. Mind is like a key. If you turn it towards the world, you get attachment. If you turn it towards God, you get detachment. So, you must concentrate your mind on the heart and turn the heart towards God. 

The company of good men leads you on to the Lord while the company of evil men leads you more deeply into the mire of the world. 

Whatever you feel should not be done to you by others, you should avoid doing to others. 

Instead of searching for others' faults, search for your own faults; uproot them, throw them off. It is enough if you search and discover one fault of yours; that is better than discovering tens of hundreds of faults of others. 

Engage always in good deeds and beneficial activities. Speak the truth, do not inflict pain by word or deed-- or even by thought. That is the way to gain true peace, and that is the highest gain you can earn in this life. 

Desire is a bonfire that burns with greater fury when encouraged. One desire leads to ten and man exhausts himself in trying to fulfill the demands of personal desire. 

Be equal-minded to praise or blame; success or failure. These pairs of opposites are the obverse and reverse of the same experience. Blame is but the shadow of praise. Man cannot have one without the other. Man must learn to watch the passing show as the sun watches the clouds below, trying to hide its splendor. 

Be what you profess to be, speak what you intend to do, utter what you have experienced, no more, no less.

CHARACTER

Character makes life immortal . . . Without character-- wealth, education and social status are of no avail. The qualities that make up a flawless character - love, patience, forbearance, steadfastness and charity - are the highest. These must be revered and cultivated. 

Religion is three-fourths character. No person can claim to be religious if he merely observes the sacraments and rules, and fails to be upright and compassionate. 

It is often declared that knowledge is power. No. No. Character is power. Nothing can be more powerful on Earth than character. Riches, scholarship, status, authority are all frail and flimsy before it. 

The way to immortality is the removal of immorality. 

Be moral; be virtuous. Be sincere in thought, word, and deed. Be honest to yourself. Money comes and goes, but morality comes and grows! So man has to give up the yearning for money and yearn more for morality.

DUTY

What exactly is duty? Let me summarize it for you. First, tend your parents with love and reverence and gratitude. Second, speak the truth and act virtuously. Third, whenever you have a few moments to spare, repeat the name of the Lord. Forth, never indulge in talking ill of others or try to discover faults in others. And finally, do not cause pain to others in any form. 

Work is worship; duty is God. 

There are two duties to be performed by men: one is to work for the good of the world and the other is work for liberation of consciousness. 

Your duty is to yearn for the attainment of the consciousness of the One, behind all this apparent multiplicity.

THE STATE OF MANKIND TODAY

By forgetting his own true nature and by being carried away by the pleasures of the external world which are but fleeting and superficial, and by trying to secure and experience such pleasures, man fritters away his life and fritters away his time. Is man able to secure peace by experiencing and obtaining these material pleasures? No. At the end of his life he is dissatisfied and discontented. Man is becoming ignorant of the permanent being within him which is truth itself, which is formless. He is reducing himself to the state of an animal and becoming demonic in the process. 

Ultimately man comes to the end of his life without a sense of fulfillment because he has not been able to understand the purpose of it and recognize his own true nature. What is the cause for this? He neglects the supreme code of conduct that has been laid down for him: the code of right action (dharma) which he has to follow. Man has forgotten that dharma or righteousness is at the base of everything and that this dharma is most important for his own character. 

The perfection of character by discrimination is the royal path for every human being; it is the very purpose, aim and goal of one's life. The respect, honor and dignity of the human race depend upon the character that is exhibited. Without it the race itself would come to ruin. The improvement of character can indeed be called the hallmark of a human being. Only when morality and ethics range high in the set of values can an individual realize the divine atma (true inner self which is divine) within. 

Another name for dharma is love. Nobody can describe what love is or how valuable it is. The various ideas about love do not designate true love, which has no streak of selfishness and which never changes. Everything that is sacred and sanctified can be found in this true love. If it is fostered and nourished that type of love will always increase and never decrease. There is no reason for this love. That true love that is without reason, without selfishness, which never wavers or changes but is ever full and total, that is the love of God. . . . One should realize the divinity of God and the love of God and live in this love.

HAPPINESS

It is illusion that happiness consists in accumulating money or knowledge or comforts or reputation. Happiness can be attained by cultivating a state of mind which is unaffected by fortune, good or bad. 

All are happy days to a person of true knowledge. Happiness is an internal conscious experience which comes as an effect of the extinction of mental or physical desires. The less the desire, the greater is the happiness, so that perfect happiness consists in the destruction or satisfaction of all desires in the absolute being. 

Love, not lust, is the essence of happy life. 

Man's natural state is happiness, so he cannot be blamed for craving that which is his own. But man is making a serious mistake: he believes that the happiness for which he craves comes from objects, which he can experience. What is the remedy? The remedy is to consider the truth: that there is only one everlasting never-failing happiness, and that is God. To drink of that ever-flowing spring of happiness you must turn to yourself, to the divine, which however obscured is the resident of your heart, the subtle truth of your being.

THE SPIRITUAL ADVENTURE

Man exhibits great mental and physical courage on the battlefield, and during adventures on land, sea, and air. However, the courage to give up entanglements with the material world is a greater achievement. The spiritual adventure, the spiritual leap from darkness to light needs extraordinary courage and divine grace-- which is the reward for courage. 

Try to win the grace of God by reforming your habits, reducing your desires, and refining your higher nature. One step makes the next one easier; that is the excellence of the spiritual journey. At each step, your strength and confidence increase and you get bigger and bigger installments of grace. 

Man is Divine, take it from me; he is really here on a holy mission, for Divine purpose. Man must earn his birthright, namely: Divine Peace. Lack of Divine Peace is an unnatural condition. 

There is no need to retire into a forest or cave to know your inner Reality and to conquer your lower nature. Win the battle of life by being in the world-- but free from attachments. 

God is as butter is in milk, in every drop, through and through. If butter is to be seen, then certain processes have to be done: boiling, curdling, churning, etc. So, too, by certain spiritual disciplines like repeating the name of God, he who dwells in the heart can be visualized; the immanent God can be experienced as real.

Man is divine. He can purify himself into perfect divinity by the process of meditation, taken up with eagerness and followed with faith by virtuous individuals. 

Real meditation is being absorbed in God as the only thought, the only goal. God only, only God. Think God, breathe God, love God, live God. 

Spiritual discipline grows only in a field fertilized by love. Love is the indispensable factor in devotion to God . . . Have the love of God filling and thrilling your heart. Then you cannot hate anyone, you cannot indulge in unhealthy rivalries, you will not find fault with anyone. Life becomes soft, sweet and smooth. 

God is love, so you must become love in order to merge in Him . . . To attain God, feats of hard spiritual discipline are superfluous. Love is enough. 

I must tell you of the paramount importance of love. Love is God, live in love. God is the embodiment of perfect love; so He can be known and realized, reached and won, only through love. You can see the moon only with the help of moonlight. You can see God only through the rays of love. 

Cultivate not riches nor comforts and luxuries, but divine virtues . . . Do not be a slave to your sensual desires; conquer lust and vanquish anger. Exile from your minds greed, hate, and jealousy. Dedicate your hands to the service of mankind. To resurrect love and compassion you must kill jealousy and selfishness. Purify your heart; then you will become fit to receive God's grace. God is interested in your heart and not your money. He is interested in your character, not your race or religion.

OUR TRUE REALITY

You and the Universal are One; you and the Absolute are One; you and the Eternal are One. You are not the individual, the particular, the temporary. Feel this. Know this. Act in conformity with this. 

You as body, mind or soul are a dream; but what you really are is Existence, Knowledge, Bliss. You are the God of this universe. You are creating the whole universe and drawing it in. To gain the infinite universal individuality the miserable little prison individuality must go. Bhakti (love for God) is no crying or any negative condition; it is seeing of all in all we see. It is the heart that reaches the goal; follow the heart. A pure heart seeks beyond the intellect; it gets inspired. Whatever we do reacts upon us; if we do good, we shall have happiness and if evil, unhappiness. Within you is the real happiness, within you is the mighty ocean of nectar divine.

Seek it within you, feel it; feel it; it is here, the self. It is not the body, the mind, the intellect, the brain; it is not the desire of the desiring; it is not the object of desire. Above all these, you are. All these are simply manifestations. You appear as the smiling flower, as the twinkling stars. What is there in the world which can make you desire anything?