Peace through sense and mind
control
You can experience Bliss only when you have learnt to control the
Mind. To control the Mind, you have to engage in good deeds. As
you go on performing good deeds, you will develop good thoughts
and feelings; and when you have good thoughts, you will acquire
true understanding of the Real.
Sanctify the time
given to you with good thoughts and good actions. To achieve this,
you have to cultivate the company of the good, and all of this, in
due course, would lead to liberation. Filling your mind with
thoughts of God and engaging in good actions is true
Sadhana.
People claim to
spend hours in meditation. But of what use is it if there is no
concentration of the Mind? Far better it is to render social
service or participate in Bhajans,
and through such means subject the Mind to some discipline. This
also is how work gets transformed into worship. When you dedicate
all your thoughts and actions to God, your actions automatically
get purified.
You can experience
God through the performance of your duties and proper actions. The
Bhagavad Gita says that the
Kshetra (namely the body) and the
Kshetrajna (namely the
Atma) together constitute the human
personality. Similarly, the scriptures refer to the human body as
the temple and the Indwelling Spirit as the God residing in that
temple. Even a mere intellectual understanding of this fact is
enough to make you happy. But you would be happier still, when you
put this understanding into practice in your daily life. You
should try to seek continuous satisfaction and fulfilment by
basing even your mundane activities on spiritual values. Whatever
be the activity with which you are preoccupied in Society, you
must be steadfast in holding on to the spiritual ideal. This alone
will bestow lasting peace.
The sense organs
should be sanctified by offering all the actions performed through
them to God. You can surely achieve that sanctified state,
provided you have strong determination. Unfortunately, man does
not evince such a firm determination and tenacity of purpose in
respect of spiritual matters, as he does for the sake of mundane
things. Man is prepared to make any amount of effort to undertake
a journey of millions of miles into outer space, but he hardly
ever endeavours to go even an inch within, towards his Inner Self.
What is the use of intelligence and worldly acquisitions when they
cannot give Atma Shanthi (the
untrammelled peace of the Atma or the
Spirit)? God alone can confer such enduring peace on man.
As far as possible,
avoid causing harm or pain to others. As you sow, so you reap.
Whenever you feel disturbed by a sense of anger, envy, pride,
jealousy and the like, become alert and resort to the
contemplation of the Lord.
EXCERPTS FROM A
DISCOURSE OF SRI SATHYA SAI BABA
Source:
Radio Sai E-Magazine, December 15, 2003
http://www.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_02/01Jan01/03_SPIRITUAL_BLOSSOMS/SATHYA_SAI_SPEAKS/sai_speaks.htm
|