Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

Good motives yield good fruits; Bad motives yield bitten Madly pursuing "degrees" as your destiny Do not get bound in a servant's role; Have the glory of your country as the goal And master the art of working hard. Man's progress depends on strength of mind and purity of feelings. His mental condition and the actions which rise from his feelings, these two decide whether he will be bound or free, happy or miserable, rising or falling. The mind is the framer of all man's intentions and resolutions, his wills and wont's. These sankalpas motivate the senses and initiate activities that reveal their real nature. When a pebble is dropped into a well, the ripple causes further ripples and the entire surface is affected. So too, when an intention enters the mind, the waves it causes envelop the body and prompts many activities. When the will is pure, activities are also pure. When it is impure, the activities through which it expresses itself are also impure. So, one has to be vigilant. As soon as an intention is formed in the mind, examine it to find out whether it deserves to be put into action or whether it is unworthy to be acted upon. The intellect must be called in to conduct this examination. Intentions that arise in the mind have a great potency and vitality. Even after the death of the person, they can shape events, produce good or inflict evil. Why? They are the cause for the person getting embodied again and going through further lives! Therefore, one has to cultivate beneficial resolutions and maintain them. These are like swords. They can cut to pieces the weeds of evil thoughts, evil feelings and evil habits. As a consequence, good thoughts, good plans, good acts and good lines of action can grow freely.

Students have to take particular care about one fact. When the mental resolutions take a bad turn and when you are then in the company of a bad one, your condition becomes worse on account of plus getting added to plus. The result is disaster. When your intentions and resolutions are good, and when you join the company of the good, you can progress faster. The company of the good is like the noon-time shadow. It is short in the beginning but lengthens as the evening comes on. The company of the bad one is like the morning shadow. It is long when the day dawns, but becomes shorter as noon approaches. The comradeship and conversation of the undesirable appear sweet and profound in the early stages, but the effect is only pollution of minds and hearts.

Shankaracharya has emphasised the value of the company of the good to persons on the spiritual path, for it leads man to immortality. From Good company to No-company, From No-Company to No-Desire, From No-Desire to Un-moving Truth, From Un-moving Truth to Eternal Liberation. Evil company is easily secured; good company has to be sought and struggled for. To fall is quite easy; to climb requires strength of will. Therefore, man is tempted to choose the easier path. The objective world is an image, a reflection. When you take a shave standing before a mirror, you do not apply the razor to the image. You apply it to the actual face. God is reflected in the mirror (the objective world). You can see His image in man and beast and bird, in plant and tree and grass, in every cell and atom. But man is enamoured of the mirror and of the reflections, not knowing the original which is imaged therein. How can God shine in a heart that is darkened by bad thoughts and intentions?

Vidhya (knowledge) must teach man to turn to God and discover that Nature too is God. Vidhya must awaken the consciousness latent in man and become aware of the Atma (Self) that underlies all its levels. Vidhya claims to increase man's knowledge. What is that knowledge worth? Without character, that knowledge is best cast into fire. The educated person is now more vicious, more greedy, more crafty than the uneducated! This knowledge encourages him to exploit and exterminate others. This knowledge pollutes and poisons the world. It destroys peace and prosperity all over the world. Words! Words! Words! The plethora of words! Nothing is practised; no one acts.

Today the student world is tossed in confusion. Not only in confusion but in downright insanity. They wear white clothing; the hearts are still dark. Heads are full of evil thoughts; Ears are open for scandal tales; Eyes delight in peeping unseen; Minds crave for wicked plots; Reason pursues plans to cheat. When Vidhya perceives these in man, It will not stay a moment there. When this is the condition, how can one earn Vidhya? Of course, man's present situation and status are determined by his acts and thoughts in the past. The dog has to lap water with its tongue, even if it tries to quench its thirst at a flooded river. It cannot drink deep mouthfuls. Man has to formulate his plans, respecting the limitations he himself has imposed. Whether in a holy place or in vile surroundings, whether in an urban complex or in a rural homestead, his attitude and behaviour will only be in accordance with the bent of mind he has earned already. Frogs hop on the lotus but they do not inhale its fragrance or taste its nectar. But bees come from afar and imbibe both So the question of our reaching out to God depends on the fashioning our mind has already received. But man can modify his mental condition by means of constant practice of righteous actions. When we are good, our surroundings too tend to be good. When we hold a rose in the hand, the group around us also gets the fragrance.

Students, you must be ever on the move, ever alert on the road to goodness, usefulness and happiness. Do not allow the slightest blemish to enter your tender, bright minds. Do not allow any evil to rub you of the sacred chance you have secured to consecrate your lives. Your parents are looking forward with great hope that you will become scholars, occupy high positions, earn great fame and lead noble lives. Do not disappoint them. In the past, when the years of study were over and the scholar was leaving for home, he was advised by the Guru to revere the mother, the father, the teacher and the guest as God Himself is revered. Nowadays, the Convocation, where the students are awarded their degrees, has become a riotous rabble. Students do not bring joy to their parents. What a great calamity! Students of our college must cultivate commendable virtues, mould themselves into ideal men and women, promote the happiness of their parent, and be examples to others through their holy thoughts and deeds.

Old students of the college should proceed to their own places and enter the professions suited to their skills and aptitudes. But, it is your duty, wherever you are, to hold on firmly to the disciplines implanted in you at this college. Calling yourselves members of the Kingdom of Sathya Sai, and old students of the college, but behaving contrary to its ideals and rules will mean that you are bringing disrepute on your Alma Mater! Do not yield to the temptations that the outer world places before you. Maintain untarnished the character and conduct that you have adored. Old students who are now members of the staff of the college at Puttaparthi and Brindavan (Bangalore) arranged a Polio Rehabilitation Camp as well as an Eye Operation Camp at Puttaparthi last month. You bore the major brunt of these camps and organised them very successfully. This is an important aspect of seva which the old students can render to the rural population.

Villagers cannot afford to proceed to the towns for medical treatments. They have no money to meet the heavy expenses involved. Seeing their plight, members of the Kingdom of Sathya Sai invited doctors, arranged for the operations, provided accommodation in their college, nursed them to normal health, provided nourishing food to the patients as well as their kith and kin who came to attend on them, and made the medical personnel grateful for the opportunity to render service.

Old students of the Women's College at Anantapur have an Association working on similar lines. They have named it the Kingdom of Mother Sai. They too are taking on village after village as centres for their educational and health service activities. Girls build walls, put up roofs and thatch houses in order to provide shelter for the homeless! The village folk are struck with admiration and amazement at the skill and enthusiasm the students evince. They visit slums and, with the co-operation of the hutment-dwellers, clean the areas. They move into bazars and markets and exhort the people to share with them the joy of cleansing the byelanes and drains. They are trying to provide electric lights to villages which are plunged in darkness when the sun sets. By such seva they are giving great anandha to Swami. I bless them that they may offer seva in even greater measure, so that Swami can give them greater anandha.

These activities cannot be taken up and fulfilled by spirit of service alone. They require funds too. And, they are finding it by utilising a portion of the salaries they get as teachers. In appreciation of this, this day, the Central Trust is allotting a hundred thousand rupees each for the Kingdom of Sathya Sai and the Kingdom of Mother Sai. They will, I am sure, render excellent service to the rural folk around their colleges, for seva is the most urgent and effective sadhana.

What we find in our country today, however, is something different. No sooner do they finish their studies, students struggle to get out of the country to some overseas countries like Iran or Iraq clamouring for "money," "money." Mammon possesses them and ruins their lives. Our students do not allow themselves to be so enslaved. They know that so long as they are intent on good deeds of seva, they will not be deserted. Dharma will guard those who observe dharma.