No true Teacher collects sheep around himself

A disciple must prove that he has 'independence of action.' No true Teacher collects sheep around himself. He collects disciples. A disciple is one who can think and take action. He is not a sheep; he is not a blind follower; he is not a machine. A real disciple initiates actions, projects, and plans. He cultivates ideas and visions in his own way, in his own proper time, and at his own speed.

-Torkom Saraydarian

The causes of the maladies

What are the causes of the maladies afflicting people today? Impure air, polluted water, adulterated foodstuffs, etc. Even the minds are polluted. Most of the diseases are caused by aberrations of the mind. Ninety per cent of the diseases are psychological. Constant thinking about one's health is also the cause of many diseases. When the mind is directed towards sacred things, everything in a man's life becomes sacred.

-Sai Baba

The real significance of sex has been lost

Man has prostituted the truth, and the real significance of sex has been lost. Sex now means the satisfaction of the male desire for sensuous pleasure, and the assuaging of a physical appetite through the prostitution of the feminine aspect to that desire and appetite. This relation leads to no result as intended, but to a momentary second of satisfaction, and all of it is confined to the animal nature and the physical plane.

- Alice Bailey, EPI 299

The fear of death

All this concentration upon disaster is nothing new. You see, when humans are consumed with the end of the world, this is merely symbolic of their true fear. Their fear of death. Understand? The body will become no-thing. No matter what we do or how we shall prepare, the final disaster can not be overcome. Understand this and you will understand most of human thought, emotion, and activity.

-Babaji

Waste of sexual energy

Sex energy is a very valuable energy because it proceeds to become vitality, sensitivity in the brain cells, impressionability in the aura, creativity in the mind, magnetism and healing radiation in the centers. Through it we provide the materials or substance to build our higher vehicles on individual and global scales. For this reason it should not be wasted, but should be used for procreative purposes, and to create beauty, transmutation and bliss. When wasted in massive quantities by nations or large groups of human beings, the entire mechanism of human beings or nations cannot respond to creative energies, but rather distorts them, causing imbalance which invites destruction. Many nations and groups have been destroyed in this way.

People sometimes think that the source of energy is inexhaustible. This is true if you are at a stage in which you do not use the energy for any personal pleasure and satisfaction, but use it only to further the Divine Purpose. Below this level, your quota of energy is limited. This accounts for the fact that when people feel a lack of sexual energy, they consume more food and use more alcohol or other stimulants to fill the vacuum.

-Torkom Saraydarian

Voluntary Service - Agni Yoga

We say that life is service for evolution. One might find it simpler to say that life is evolution, but We emphasize the idea of service. Indeed, everything is in the process of evolution, but life's full expression can come only under conditions of voluntary service. It is the voluntary quality of service that indicates the rightness of the path.

In general, people dislike the concept of service. They dream about a time when there will be no need for it, and would be horrified to learn that all of life is unending service. They prefer to hear about Us, about Our labor and Our joy, and puzzled, they ask, “What kind of continual service is it when one can hear singing in the Brotherhood?”

People cannot understand that We use singing not as a pastime, but as a method for achieving harmony. It is hard for them to understand that art is a refined aid for evolution, and that We recommend the mastery of any art or craft as a rapid approach to service. A master will willingly agree to perpetual service in the perfection of his art, and feels no need to count the hours of labor.

Our life is a voluntary mastership and is not concerned with limits. Even on Earth it is possible to almost forget time, and service becomes joy. I affirm that one can prepare oneself for such service under all circumstances. One need not be a sage to accept life as something important and responsible. There are examples of even simple farmers who were ready to devote themselves to the idea of service. It was the loss of this concept of service that turned earthly life into slavery and insanity. But the time is approaching when people will be looking, even unwittingly, for the purpose of life. They will first refer to evolution in scientific terms, but the next step will be the acceptance of service as the right approach to life.

The Thinker taught that the concept of service can solve the riddles of life.

-Agni Yoga

The only value of the world

Use the world as a training ground for sacrifice, service, expansion of the heart and cleansing of the emotions. That is the only value it has.

-Sai Baba