Inaugural discourse at the All India Sai Active Workers' conference
19 November 1987
Rendering Service selflessly with a compassionate heart Is alone true Service.
One is bound to attain peace If he serves in a friendly spirit This is the truth
This is the truth.
EMBODIMENTS of the Divine Atma! You have to recognise that life is meant for selfless service and not to be lived for selfish purposes. Only through such service can the oneness of mankind be experienced. Unselfish service is the sheet-anchor of Karma Yoga ( Divine dedication through Action). The basis of Yoga is disciplining the mind and the body through disinterested service. Society honours only such persons who serve society. Such persons earn the grace of God. Every individual has to realise the paramount importance of selfless service. The spirit of service should be coupled with readiness for sacrifice. Only then it can be called selfless service free from any taint of self-interest. Such service lends savour to life. Universal love sustains life by its nourishment. Love is the life-breath of man. Mag...
Man is born in action, is sustained by action and ultimately merges in action. Action is the cause for pleasure and pain. Truly speaking, action is God for man. (Telugu poem)
Embodiments of Love!
THERE is no need for man to search for God anywhere. God is present in each one of you. Lord Krishna declared in the Bhagavad Gita : Mamaivamsho jivaloke jivabhuta sanathana (the eternal atma in all beings is a part of My Being). “All are an aspect of My Divinity,” He declared. Where then would you search for God when He is in you and with you? Whatever work you do, consider it as the work of God.
The Youth Should Tread The Sacred Path
God has blessed man with body, mind, intellect and mind-stuff (chitta ). The youth are endowed with a healthy body, a strong mind and a sharp intellect capable of deep thinking, but they are misusing them. Instead of thinking of God and making proper use of their limbs, they are misusing their senses. This is a big mistake. At this age, you should put the...
SOME people hope to accumulate merit by charity; others feel that asceticism is superior; still others adhere strictly to what they believe Sanathana Dharma (Eternal Religion) to be, considering it a better way to secure Divine Grace. But these, and even the highly praised path of sathya (truth) and dharma (righteousness), are not as fruitful as the path of seva (service). This sacred land of Bharath has earned great renown in the world for its consistent practice of this ideal of service through sacrifice. Embodiments of the Divine Atman (Self)! Shiva is Omnipresent; He is the Inner Motivator of all beings. He is ever present, everywhere, in our realm as well as in the realms around us. This fundamental truth has to be firmly believed in by every Seva Dhal (Voluntary Service Corps) member, and, realising this, he has to be humble and full of reverence towards all. You have to encounter various contrary gusts of passion, emotion, impulse, and intellectual doubt. Nevertheless, bear...
Valedictory Address - International Seva Conference
23 July 2002
In spite of acquiring great wealth, peace eludes man; People forget to recognise humanness; This is the Truth revealed by Sai.
What man has to aspire for today is not happiness. It is not sorrow, either. In fact, happiness and sorrow are only transitory in nature. Man's duty is to realise divinity in the unity of happiness and sorrow. Even while you feel elated at the prospect of happiness, you will encounter sorrow. Similarly, even while you feel depressed on account of sorrow, happiness beckons you.
Since ancient times, several great rishis (sages) made efforts to rise above the feelings of happiness and sorrow. They recognised the fact that it was only in times of sorrow that the divine nature in a human being manifested. More than happiness, it is sorrow that is helpful to man in several ways. Na sukhath labhathe sukham (happiness does not come out of happiness). It is only from sorrow, that happiness springs. The main source of happiness in man is sorrow. Just as we welcome h...
Society is the coming together of people. Cooperation among people in a society, motivated by spontaneity and by pure intentions, is the hall-mark of seva (service). Seva can be identified by means of two basic characteristics' Compassion and willingness to sacrifice. History informs us that in all countries and in every age, man is a social animal. Man is born in society, he grows in and through society and his life ends in society itself. Man's songs and speech, his duties and diversions, are all determined by society. Society for man is like water for fish: if society rejects him or neglects him he cannot survive. What a single individual cannot accomplish, a well-knit group or society can achieve. A man walking alone will feel tired and miserable at the end of five miles; but, walking with ten others as a group he would find the five miles a jaunt. He arrives refreshed and strong. Social living contributes increased happiness and more efficient effort among birds and beasts. They...
DIVINITY is present in everyone in an unmanifested form. All human beings are sparks of the Divine like the waves of the ocean. Every man is the embodiment of the Divine Sat -Chit -Ananda (Being-Awareness-Bliss). This has been described categorically in the Bhagavad Gita. As God is the embodiment of love, man is also an embodiment of love. But man today does not manifest it fully and properly because of his selfishness and self-centredness. Though humanity has advanced considerably in the material and scientific spheres, it has gone down grievously morally and spiritually. Selfishness is predominant in every action. Behind every thought, every word, self-interest is prominent. It is only when this selfishness is eradicated can Divinity reveal itself. In rendering Seva (service), there should be a recognition of the omnipresence of the Divine in all human beings. Men have not developed the spirit of Thyaga (sacrifice) or aversion to Bhoga (sensual pleasures). True service calls for ...
We have here at the World Conference delegates from many counties, wedded to different cultures and traditions, languages and styles of dress, food etc. But, this variety should not hide from our vision, the unity of Divinity inherent in all of you. The world today is afflicted with formidable problems and fast-spreading fear–fear of war, of famine, and of demonic terrorists, problems of racial, religious and regional conflicts, of economic recuperation and survival, of student indiscipline, of credal clashes, of frenzy and fanaticism, of power-grabbing and extreme egoism. The only remedy for this creeping fear is an attitude of Vairagyam (non-attachment). When one is attached to the body-mind complex and the I-and-Mine limitation, fear is inescapable. The Adhwaithic awareness, that what we witness is but a super-imposition of our own mind on Reality; it is the best cure; and service is the most effective sadhana. Our deeds reveal our motives; our motives design our habits; our ha...
THE gift of food is the noblest of all gifts. You have today arranged the feeding of a large number of people and thus justified the name of this village. The years of life allotted to man is very short; the world in which he lives is very wide; time extends far behind and far beyond. What little man has to do here has to be done quickly, at the place that is assigned to him within the time that is allotted to him. And, man has such a formidable task before him; it is to fulfil it that he has come as man, exchanging for this human habitat, all the merit he has acquired during many past lives. The task is no less than the manifestation of the Divinity latent in man. The easiest and the most pleasant means by which this can be accomplished is seva - the service of man, done in a spirit of dedication and devotion. And, in villages like this, Seva (service) is a potent and profitable discipline. And, the best type of seva is feeding the hungry. The first step in this discipline is the e...
