You may make mistakes, knowingly or unknowingly, but brooding over those mistakes is not advisable. Past is past. Forget the past. The future is not certain. It is the present that is important. Indeed it is not ordinary present, it is omnipresent. How? The past is the present, as it is the result of past actions. The future is also in the present as it depends on the actions of the present. So give attention only to the present and live happily.
- Divine Discourse, 19th November 2001
Goal of Life
If you know the road and the goal, then you can discover whether you are progressing or not; otherwise, how can you? The goal is to enlarge your vision, your sympathy, your love to the extent that God has spread His love, His compassion and His grace. So, be ever watchful to see that you strive to take more and more of God into you.
- Divine Discourse, 5th March 1966
Live like a true human being
You have to use all your powers to understand the principles that constitute human nature. First, you must understand the power of desire which makes you give up all your good resolutions. Of course, there has to be some desire; without desires you cannot live even for a moment. But you should use all your desires for good. By this, you will be setting a good example to others. This constitutes living as a true human being.
- Divine Discourse in Prashanthi Nilayam, 1984.
To make a Happy Home of Love.
Do not seek to find differences between one person and another. Seek rather ways and means of strengthening the bonds of kinship, through love. Factions and fighting emerge among the followers of the same family because they have not learnt to love. From the self-same mind, many conflicting feelings emerge. Why? Love has not been nursed and grown therein. You have to sow love and grow love, and destroy the weeds of fear and hatred that have spread over the world. Make the world a happy home of Love.
- Divine Discourse, 19th Nov 1980.
Your body is like a camera. Your heart is the film. Your mind is the lens. If you turn the lens of your mind towards the faults of others, similar bad thoughts will be imprinted on the film of your heart. If you direct the lens of your mind towards good thoughts, your heart will have good impressions.
- BABA
LIve a Joyful Life
Be eager and earnest to know more and more about the art of joyful living, happy unperturbed living. One can advance only step by step, and there is the danger of slipping down two steps when you climb one. What matters is the determination to climb, the resistance with which the sliding tendency must be met, the yearning to rise, to progress, to conquer the lower impulses and instincts. If you have that, the hidden spring of power will surge up within you, and the grace of God will smooth your path. Keep the ideals always before you, march on. Only those with ideals are remembered in gratitude by posterity.
- Divine Discourse 25-11-1959
Five Vital Elements of your Life
Do not pay heed to what others might say while engaged in service activities. When you are doing good acts, why hesitate, why feel ashamed, and why fear? Let compassion and sacrifice be your two eyes. Let egolessness be your breath, and love be your tongue. Let peace reverberate in your ears. These are the five vital elements you have to live upon.
- Divine Discourse
Like the Ganges rushing towards the sea from where its waters are derived, the individual soul must hurry towards the God from which it has separated. The Ganges does not allow any obstacle to stop its course. You, too, should proceed ever-joyfully, dancing along, laughing, rolling, tripping gladly over rock and boulder towards the goal.
- Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 2
True Friendship
True friendship should be long-lasting. Today there is no true friendship. If you have money in your pocket, there will be many who will be hailing you, ‘hello, hello’. If there is no money, then ‘hello’ becomes ‘hollow’; all friends desert you: is this true friendship? True friendship is like a single life embodied in two bodies. You should make an effort to acquire friendships such as this. While making friends, do not hate anybody. Do not harm anybody.
- Divine Discourse 22th Nov 1999
Indulge only in wholesome deeds and thoughts, and thereby become whole yourselves. Spinning like a top till you can spin no longer, then falling helpless and inert, is a dreary, devastating experience. The top has no faith in itself. It has to be handled and twirled by another. Be self-confident; that is, have confidence in yourself. For, that self is Divine.
- Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 7.
