Before partaking your food

If you talk while taking food, the digestive system will be spoiled. Once the digestive system is spoiled, several diseases will confront you.

Before partaking your food, pray to God silently keeping your eyes closed. Take your food in silence in a calm environment. Do not howl, talk and chit chat while taking food. Do not cry or laugh too. Do not entertain worry before or while taking food. These are some of the precautions to be taken to lead a happy life.

-Sai Baba
Divine Discourse. Oct 12, 2002

By looking deeply at things just as they are

Do not go after the past,
Nor lose yourself in the future.
For the past no longer exists,
And the future is not yet here.
By looking deeply at things just as they are,
In this moment, here and now,
The seeker lives calmly and freely.
You should be attentive today,
For waiting until tomorrow is too late.
Death can come and take us by surprise--
How can we gainsay it?
The one who knows
How to live attentively
Night and day
Is the one who knows
The best way to be independent.

-Bhaddekaratta Sutra

Trying to discover others' faults is a great mistake on your part

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

Whatever people may say about the faults that you know are not in you, do not feel for it. As for whatever faults that are in you, try to correct them yourself, even before others point them out to you.

Do not harbour anger or bitterness against the persons who point out your faults. Do not retort by pointing out their faults. Instead, you must show your gratitude to them. It is good for you to know your faults. Trying to discover others' faults is a great mistake on your part. Knowing others' faults is no good for you.

-Sai Baba
Sandeha Nivarini

Heavenly visits

You have certainly had this experience: you were busy with your everyday tasks, thinking of nothing in particular, and suddenly you felt something like a current, a presence close to you, something alive which brought you light, peace and joy. So, what did you do? At such moments, stop all your activities and concentrate on this presence that has come to visit you. These are rare and precious moments, and you must not neglect them and so let them pass you by.

Heavenly beings come to teach us and enrich our lives. If you don't stop and receive them the moment they appear, that's it; you can look for them and beg them all you like, they won't come back. Or, they may return, but when? You must hold on to them the moment they come, for in no time at all you'll not have the slightest idea what they came to bring you. Take the necessary time to become conscious of what these heavenly visits represent, so that they leave an indelible mark within you.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Emotional Maturity

What is emotional maturity? It certainly is not to be equated with physical age. I know people who are well past middle life and are not yet emotionally mature. Even if the physical body is totally mature, the intellect, as well as the emotional unit, can remain childish and unstable. The mind may have been educated to the nth degree, and yet such a scholar remains vulnerable to depression and discouragement. The very first step toward emotional mastery is recognition coupled with admission that in some areas we are not yet perfect. Only through open admission can we devote ourselves to the sadhana that will balance and lessen the forces, allowing us to strive within ourselves to secure ourselves within ourselves. An emotionally mature man or woman is totally secure within and prepared to tap the greater realms of spiritual being.

We make very little progress when we strive to conquer these baser instincts in a good mood. However, vast strides are possible when we are miserable and work with ourselves to replace our misery with joy and understanding. Therefore, if you are ever disappointed or discouraged, count it a blessing, for you then have the opportunity to conquer the instinctive nature and really stabilize yourself dynamically on the spiritual path.

Often we are disappointed not only with ourselves and our circumstances but with other people as well. We can oversee this and other instinctive responses, such as mental criticism or jealousy, by looking at everyone and saying to ourselves, "I like you. I send you blessings." We cannot be discouraged or disappointed or jealous when we look our fellow man in the eye and say and simultaneously feel and believe through every atom of our being, "I like you. I send you blessings." Impossible! Love overcomes all instinctive barriers between people.

There may be certain people or a certain person to whom you can say, "I like you," but for whom this is hard to believe in your heart. If you look deeper into them, you may find they are emotionally immature, a 12-year-old emotional body walking around in a 35-year-old physical body. Are you going to dislike a person for that? No, of course not. You are going to understand him or her. I've seen people with 22-year-old bodies with the wisdom of an 80-year old and the emotional stability of a 40-year old. I've seen people walking around in a 60-year-old body with a 12-year-old emotional body. By learning to understand, we cease to be a personality leaning upon our fellow man and falling into disappointment when he lets us down. No, we must lean on no one but ourselves, our own spine, and not be the reactionary victims of the ups and downs of the world around us or the people around us. Then we will gain our freedom from the instinctive forces we were born into and attain sufficient emotional maturity to love and bless the world no matter what our circumstances may be.

-Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

http://www.himalayanacademy.com/study/mc/daily_lesson_html/lesson_66.shtml

If mind becomes pure, everything else will become pure

Today cities have become centers of pollution and unrest. There is pollution everywhere, as man's mind has become polluted. If mind becomes pure, everything else will become pure.

So, cleanse your mind. Drive out all your worries. What is the use of brooding over the past? Past is past, forget it. Future is uncertain. What is the guarantee that you will be alive tomorrow? Don't worry about your future. Present is very important. This is omni present, not ordinary present. So, make the best use of present and be happy.

-Sai Baba

Entities and illness

Because humans do not know how to protect themselves, they allow all sorts of physical and psychic disorders to take hold of them. And the doctors who treat them, and who know no more about this area than they do, are content just to give medication. They never say to their patients, 'Close your door to dark entities, and live a purer life, so that you attract only heavenly entities.'

You will say, 'Entities? But what does that have to do with illness?' Have you read the Gospels? After Jesus had cured a sick man, he said to him, 'Go, and do not sin any more', because faults and transgressions attract evil spirits by acting as bait and food for them. Once these spirits have entered a person, they cause a lot of damage, which leads to all sorts of physical and psychic disturbances. This is the reality doctors ought to study.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

There is no creature without love

I am the embodiment of divine love; love is my instrument. There is no creature without love; the lowest loves itself, at least. And its self is God. So there are no atheists, though some might dislike Him or refuse Him, as malarial patients dislike sweets or diabetic patients refuse to have anything to do with sweets! Those who preen themselves as atheists will one day, when their illness is gone, relish God and revere Him.

- Sai Baba
Divine Discourse on 9th June'1974

Never let anything threaten your joie de vivre

Never let pain or any physical impediment threaten your joie de vivre. Do something! Even if you're losing your sight or your hearing, even if you have a paralyzed limb, focus on all the faculties and possibilities you still possess, thanks to which you can still be active and still learn and develop. And what you still have left, above all else, are your feelings and thoughts, which are the greatest of forces. Call on them, for in cultivating right thinking and generous feelings you will create in yourself a positive frame of mind, which will even contribute to the improvement of your physical state.

Evil takes the proportions we allow it to take. If we give way to weakness or discouragement, we reinforce it. But have you seen a chicken defending its chicks when a dog gets close to them? She bristles, puffs up her feathers and strikes a threatening pose to frighten it away. Do the same with evil: pump yourself up, show it you are able to defend yourself, and it will be forced to retreat.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Heroism is a manifestation of humility

Fiery World III, 24. One of the great concepts, often incorrectly interpreted, is precisely the great concept of humility. It has been interpreted as non-resistance to evil; it has been interpreted as good-heartedness, as compassion, but very few accepted it as self-denial. For only self-denial and self-sacrifice can give understanding of humility.

Truly, We see the giants of spirit and the heroes who devote themselves fully to the humble tasks for the good of humanity. We know of great experiments being humbly carried out in the earthly laboratories for the benefit of humanity. We know the great fiery experiments of those who dedicate their lives wholly and humbly to the benefit of mankind. We know manifestations on the path to the Fiery World which inspire all surroundings. Truly manifold is humility manifested through self-sacrifice and self-renunciation.

Heroism is a manifestation of various aspects of humility. Thus the records of space are filled with great deeds of humility. Invaluable are these fiery flights of the spirit. Thus, verily, the heroes of humility drain the cup of poison for the good of mankind.

-Agni Yoga

This dual attitude must be given up

Have high ideals. Strive to elevate yourselves. Work to attain the highest goal, God Himself. Whatever the obstacle or the opposition, do not be disheartened.

Give up the animal in you, stabilize yourselves in human virtues, and proceed boldly towards the achievement of Divinity. Do not waver - having devotion today, tomorrow seeking sensual gratification, and then the day after, back to devotion again.

When something goes wrong, you are filled with despair. When discipline is enforced, you start holding back, and when love is showered, you are first again. This dual attitude must be given up.

-Sai Baba
Divine Discourse, March 7, 1978 .



A man with dual mind is half blind. - Baba

Generosity, a sign of spiritual royalty

... There was a great virtue which families also trained in their children since babyhood. It was the virtue of detachment. Those who were able to learn detachment were considered mature. Attachment to material things was considered a hindrance on the road of perfection. I saw many times people giving to their friends their beloved horse, donkey or toys which they had make. Generosity was the sign of spiritual royalty.

In advanced esoteric groups, detachment was exercised on emotional and mental levels. Students were told that everything they have or will have does not really belong to them but they are custodians and caretakers, so that things are used economically, constructively, and in an goal-fitting way.


-Torkom Saraydarian
Woman, Torch of the Future

Needing understanding

You say you need friends that understand you, but you can't find this understanding anywhere. Ask yourself first what it is about you that you want them to understand. And even if it's your highest aspirations, why do you insist on others entering your heart and soul and knowing what's going on in them?

It should be enough to know you have the understanding and support of the angels, those luminous entities that populate space, and of God himself who created you. As for the rest - your feelings, your moods, your likes and dislikes - tell yourself that these are just a question of temperament, that everyone has them, and that it's not so important whether others are interested in them or understand them.

And, anyway, are you sure you understand yourself well? No? And yet you want others to!

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

In the early stages of meditation

In the early stages of meditation, it's very difficult to sit without moving, because that has not been part of our lifestyle. The subconscious mind has never been programmed to contentedly sit quietly. We didn't see our families doing that. Perhaps we haven't seen anybody doing that. No example has been set. Therefore, we have to be patient with ourselves and not sit for too long in the beginning. Start by sitting for ten minutes without moving. In a few weeks extend it to twenty minutes, then a half hour. Thus we avoid being fanatical and allow the subconscious to make its necessary adjustments.

-Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

http://www.himalayanacademy.com/study/mc/daily_lesson_html/lesson_94.shtml

Serving the higher beings

Only an inner attitude of humility and respect will allow you to achieve your spiritual goals. If you ask heavenly entities to come and satisfy your desires and lusts, you cut yourself off from the ascending current, which connects you, through the angelic hierarchies, to God. It is you who must serve the higher beings, the angels, archangels and the Deity, for that is the natural order of things.

Everywhere in nature you will find a summit and a base, a head and a tail, and it's the tail that must follow the head, not the other way round. When you pray to heaven, ask it to take you into its service, not to come down and serve you.

You'll say, 'But the rays from the sun and the stars reach us, and the angels also come down to visit us.' Of course, but it is only those who inwardly accept the cosmic order that benefit from their coming. Similarly, angels travel across space distributing their blessings, but these are only received by those who recognize the true hierarchy.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Treasures and Treasures

“ spirit of gratitude ”

Those who have the spirit of gratitude already know that all of Nature, all of Life, is a treasure.We must learn to recognize that everything that exists is a treasure : mountains, rivers, lakes, streams, forests, flowers, birds, animals, minerals, and human beings. All of these are treasures in the treasury of space, and we must relate to them as treasures.


“ what is a treasure ? ”

A treasure is an object, a power, a living being,or a virtue that multiplies and meets your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs. It also becomes a blessing to all around you, and to all those who are far away from you.

* * *

When I was four years old, while hiking with my Father in the mountains I saw some people who were driving a carriage with four horses. After watching their joy, I turned to my Father, looking at me, said, “I do not have a carriage, a horse... ” My Father, looking at me, said, “Let us sit on this rock for a moment and I will tell you what you have”. We sat on a rock facing a valley which spread out in front of us for hundreds of miles. “Now, first of all”, he said, “you have a nice body. Look at your hands. Here : look at your face in this small mirror. Do you see ?” “Yes”

“Also, all these mountains are yours. The air is yours ; the sky is yours ; that river is yours. This pure fragrance is yours ; these birds are yours. All of this is yours ... so long as you enjoy and care for these things.” “ Father,” I said, “I did not know that I had all of this ! ” “Later, when you grow up, you will realize that there are treasures which cannot be seen!” “Can any treasure exist which we cannot see ?” “Yes ! For example, your vision is a treasure which you cannot see. Can you see your mother’s love for you?” “No, but I know that she cares for me!” “Right. There are many treasures in man. One day you will discover them.”


“ human being is a great treasure ”

I never forgot this talk with my father, and gradually it sank into my heart. As I grew up I realized that the human being is a great treasure, with his senses, thinking, and creativity. Whenever, I walk in the mountains and canyons, it seems to me that I am walking among treasures.A flower, a bush, a bird, a deer is enough to make you feel ecstasy!

* * *

Just as a man who lives in luxury feels that all that he has is nothing special, so mankind lives in the treasury of Nature and feels that he has nothing. Unless one realizes that he is a treasure in himself, he cannot see the real treasures in life. The moment he realizes his own worth, he will be filled with gratitude and will become aware of all the treasures by which he is surrounded.


“ four facts ”

In later years, when I contemplated about treasures and the treasury, I discovered four facts that made me extremely happy. First, I found out that there were inner, invisible treasures as well as outer and visible treasures. Second, but a more important discovery was that the outer treasures could be increased by investing and sharing them or by using them economically. Inner treasures were also increased by sharing and distributing them with joy and love. The more you gave of your inner treasures, the more you had. Third, the inner and outer treasures do not belong to us but to all life! The fourth and final discovery was that ... when you share your inner treasures, you not only increase your inner treasures but you also increase your outer treasures. And similarly, when you share your outer treasures with clean motive, you increase your inner treasures.


“ a poor life, inspite of abundance ! ”

One day, while my family was traveling by boat on the ocean, I saw a bottle floating in the water. My mother said, “Can you tell me what the bottle suggests to you?” “That someone put a cork in it and threw it in to the sea.” “ Well, that is called a smart escape. But think now. Let me see if you can find something deeper.” “You know, mother, a floating bottle is like a foolish man.” “You are very close to finding the answer. Think a little more.” It was back on board that I finally found the answer. “The bottle is in the sea,” I said, “but the sea cannot fill it because it is closed.” “Then tell me: who is like this ?” I could not answer. Seeing my agony, she whispered in my ear, “Like those who have abundance, but live a poor life.”

* * *

People live surrounded by treasures, but they feel empty because they are closed. The word ‘closed’ in its connotation was so deep that I was often directed to examine its depth.


“ what are inner treasures ? ”

God in man is the Real Treasure! All other treasures belong to Him, in man. There are higher treasures in man which are the result of age ... long labor.For example, healing powers, the power to see the past and the future, the power of higher clairaudience, the power of higher clairvoyance, the power of artistic creativity, the power of renunciation and detachment, the power of serenity, the power of leadership, the power over elements, and the power of continuity of consciousness are just a few.


“ treasure tower ! ”

Treasure is something that increases and multiplies to meet your needs whenever you give your treasure to others. With joy, you install a window or another door in the Treasure Tower.


“ not imposing yourself ”

By making other human beings free, by not imposing yourself, by not making others, your slaves, by refusing to exploit or manipulate others, you build the Tower. Have you helped others to think freely, to choose and discriminate freely, to act freely ? Have you given freedom to others? Have you helped to free them from their vices, glamours, illusions, vanity and ego? Every time you make another human being your slave, or anytime you encourage a person to be a slave to their own weakness, you destroy the Tower.


“ the power within ”

You have within you the power to destroy or to build. If you are engaged in destruction, you will be struck in the classroom of this world forever suffering, inhaling smog, and being subjected to radioactivity and pesticides.If you are constructive, you will someday graduate from this school we call earth and have a chance to enjoy other creations that God has in this Universe!


-Torkom Saraydarian
Dynamics of The Soul

Meditation - Swami Sivananda

If you want to get rid of the pains and afflictions of this samsara (worldly life) you must practise meditation. Meditation is the pathway to divinity. It is the royal road to the kingdom of Brahman. It is a mysterious ladder which reaches from error to truth, from darkness to light, from pain to bliss, from restlessness to abiding peace, from ignorance to wisdom, from mortality to immortality. Meditation leads to knowledge of the self, to eternal peace, supreme bliss. Meditation prepares you for direct intuitive knowledge.

Truth is Brahman. Truth is self. You cannot realise the truth without reflection and meditation. Be silent. Know thyself. Melt the mind in that. Without meditation you cannot liberate yourself from the trammels of the mind and attain immortality. Tear the veils that cover the soul. Rend asunder the five sheaths that screen the atman (self) by constant meditation. You will find final beatitude.

Meditation is a powerful tonic. The holy vibrations penetrate all the cells of the body and cure all its diseases. The powerful soothing waves that arise during meditation exercise a benign influence over the mind and the nerves. If you meditate for half an hour you will be able to engage yourself with peace and spiritual strength in the daily battle of life, for a week. You do this just through the force of this one meditation.

A yogi who meditates regularly has a magnetic, charming personality. Those who come in contact with him are much influenced by his sweet voice, his powerful speech, his lustrous eyes, his brilliant complexion, his strong healthy body, his good behaviour, his virtuous qualities and divine nature. People draw peace and joy and strength from him.

Close your lips. Shut the doors of the senses. Meditate on Atman (Self). You will enjoy peace and bliss. The more you grow in aspiration and meditation, the more you grow God-like. For in meditation is the light of the Lord.

Meditate and charge your battery by contact with God. Dive deep in the chambers of your heart through profound and silent meditation, and bring up the pearl of truth.

-Swami Sivananda

Use the body while it lasts, to grow wings, so that you can escape from it!

Just think of this for a while. You have come in this body, in this receptacle in order to realize the God, you really are. This body is the cocoon you have spun around yourself by means of your impulses and desires. Use it while it lasts, to grow wings, so that you can escape from it!

You come into this world crying, announcing your grief at being thrust into it, grief for having lost the hold on God. Having come with grief, decide not to go with it, from here. Get rid of it in this life itself.

-Sai Baba
Source: Sai Veda (Sathya Sai Advises Inspires Vivifies Educates Dispels All doubts)

Evolution - Everything must progress and improve

Evolution is the law of life. Everything must evolve, even minerals; they evolve very slowly, but they do evolve.

There is a force in minerals which works to bring to light all the qualities and virtues they contain. Precious stones and precious metals are more highly evolved minerals, possessing beneficial virtues. Plants also evolve, and the more they do the more they provide nutritious, healing flowers and fruits. It's the same with animals and people, and it's even true for our planet and the whole solar system.

Everything must progress and improve; where this law is impeded, destruction occurs. Entire human cultures, worlds and constellations have disappeared, because they have opposed the law of evolution. So, try to take this law seriously: your whole life will be transformed by it, and you will create a magnificent future for yourself.

-Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

Even the greatest souls have had confusions, disappointments, losses

...you must remember that even the greatest souls have had nightmares, confusions, heartbreaks, disappointments, losses, desires that have been unfulfilled and experiences that they have not been able to cognize. And then they have come to a point in their lives when their inner being started pushing forward to the conscious plane. In other words, they have had just about all the experience necessary to graduate out of the instinctive-intellectual world, or consciousness.

The great, intuitive superconscious nature begins pushing forward to the conscious plane, stirring up within the subconscious the remnants of the past. As those remnants come up, they have to be faced and cognized through meditation, thus creating the foundation for understanding the basic laws and principles of life. Then comes the dawn of the clear white light.

-Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

http://www.himalayanacademy.com/study/mc/daily_lesson_html/lesson_94.shtml