| Date: Sunday, January 19, 2014 | | THOUGHT FOR THE DAY | Penance does not mean retiring to the forest and living on fruits and tubers. In fact such a life can be called a life of dullness (thamas), not penance (thapas). True penance lies in controlling one's emotions, thoughts, words and deeds arising out of Sathwic, Rajasic and Thamasic qualities. You should contemplate on God at all times and achieve harmony of thought, word and deed. A noble person is one whose thoughts, words and deeds are in complete harmony (Manasyekam Vachasyekam Karmanyekam Mahatmanam). Do not be carried away by pain or pleasure. The Gita teaches that you should be even-minded in happiness or sorrow, gain or loss, victory or defeat. You should discharge your duty with utmost sincerity and serve society without any expectation of reward. Such even-mindedness and desireless state is true penance. (Divine Discourse, Aug 22, 2000) | | | | Date: Saturday, January 18, 2014 | | Yesterday's thought | All spiritual practices (Sadhana) will go in vain if you do not know your true identity. Instead of asking others, "Who are you?" ask yourself, "Who am I?" We say, "This is my book, this is my tumbler." Then, "Who am I? The feeling of 'my' is illusion (maya). All this 'mine' is matter; they are negative. You think you are the master of this material world. Master the mind and be a mastermind! Make an effort to know your true identity. To know this, you should first give up body attachment. When I say this is 'my handkerchief', I am separate from the handkerchief. Similarly, when I say this is 'my body', I am separate from the body. When I say, 'my mind' it means I am separate from my mind. Then who am I? Constant enquiry on these lines would lead you to self realisation. (Divine Discourse, March 14, 1999) | Join Us on Facebook Just a reminder, if you are on Facebook then you should join our Sai Ram Facebook-page. We are nearing the 130,000 mark and unlike a lot of pages that are created and you join and then nothing beneficial ever happens, we actually send out daily Sai Baba updates and give exclusive content/images on most of our postings. |
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