16th January, 2005
“An Occasion That Calls For a Change”
OM…OM…OM…
Sai Ram
With Pranams at the Lotus Feet of Bhagavan,
With the Divine blessings of Bhagavan, we participated in the Sankranthi celebrations. And we also witnessed the cultural programs, so nicely staged by the children and students of Sri Sathya Sai educational institutions. We were also fortunate to have received Bhagavan’s benedictory Divine address on Sankranthi day. Taking certain thoughts from Bhagavan’s discourse, I will collect a few more on the same wavelength from Sai literature, and would like to share them with you this morning.
Bhagavan said one important thing in the course of His discourse. He said kranthi means change. Sankranthi is an occasion that calls for change--- a change in our habits, a change in our temperament, and a change in our attitudes. There should be a paradigm shift from the old pattern of life, so that this Sankranthi, the first celebration in the year 2005, would take us to new heights in our experiences, in our inter-relationships, and in our awareness and understanding.
We can certainly draw one important lesson from Bhagavan’s discourse. Those of us who have been busy in our daily life will not be able to maintain a balance between the material world and the spiritual world. We will not be able to meet both ends, absolutely busy with our material objectives.
This is very important for all of us. What does Bhagavan say about this? Where is bliss? He made a statement on this. Swami spoke on bliss at length the other day during His Sankranthi discourse. After all, our effort has been to be blissful throughout our life. Our career, our struggle, our strife and our efforts are all directed towards only one goal -- that is to be blissful. Swami’s whole talk centred on bliss.
So where is this bliss? Where is it available? Are we blissful? To be very honest, we are not. We accomplish many things in this world, and we are successful in many of our endeavours and tasks. We are very successful in the projects that we undertake. But so far as this bliss, ananda, is concerned, we are not able to enjoy it. We are not able to acquire it. We are not able to experience it.
Bhagavan sarcastically remarked that if bliss were available outside, we wouldn’t mind going to any industry, any factory, or any mall to buy it. But bliss is not manifested or manufactured; it is not on sale either. Then, what is bliss and where is bliss?
In the same talk, Bhagavan made it clear. Bliss, which we are searching for outside, is already available inside. It is already there inside, within, latent, inborn, and immanent. And Bhagavan goes to the level of telling us that: “You are the personification of bliss. You are the embodiment of bliss.”
Nice to hear it; but I do not think we experience it. The moment we come out of the lecture, we are not blissful. As we watch others’ faces, we can understand that bliss is not experienced. Bliss may be there, but it‘s not expressed. Bliss is latent, but it has not been experienced. Why?
It is simply because we have loaded ourselves with meaningless desires, unnecessary rivalry, pointless jealousy, and unhealthy competition. These are the things that are taking away the bliss within us. When we know that all this is unnecessary stuff we are loaded with, we will make sincere efforts to unload ourselves. Beneath all that is unnecessary, naturally we find the bliss within us. Bliss is there already. We are born blissful; but as years roll by, things gather and collect, and the whole head becomes a wastepaper bin. Unless that garbage is taken out, you cannot find the underlying bliss.
So what is sadhana, or spiritual practice? Bhagavan made a mention in His spiritual discourse. Sadhana is nothing but removing unwanted, undesirable, unnecessary stuff from our head, so that the underlying natural current of bliss comes to the surface. What is the stuff that has got to be removed? It’s the stuff of ego, the stuff of jealousy, the filth of possessiveness, the polluted, undesirable inter-relationships and bad company. When all this stuff is removed, and the bin is emptied, we can find the bliss available to us.
I don’t expect you to come to my house with a vacuum cleaner and clean, do I? Out of friendship and love you might say, “I’ll do it this Sunday.” But you won’t do it every Sunday. It’s my duty to clean my house. It is my duty. Similarly, it is my duty to evacuate, remove and unload all the filth and dust I have gathered over the years.
We keep the underlying filth covered. You don’t, and you cannot clear out the dust within my mind. You cannot remove the jealousy in me. You cannot remove the evil qualities present within me. So I should help myself. Therefore my friends, Bhagavan’s Sankranthi message is that we are the embodiments of bliss, but actually in our lives we are not.
The reason is that all the unwanted stuff that we have collected over the years has burdened our lives. It is very heavy, burdensome, monotonous, and boring. We are responsible for this. When we remove this entire burden, yes, we will be very happy, just like a child.
When a child goes on crying, you cannot beat the child to stop his crying. When you beat him, the child cries more. So what should you do? Give some peppermint or some chocolate or some toy, and the child starts smiling and playing as though he never before wept. The child forgets all his tears.
Similarly my friends, once we remove all the filth from our minds, we forget all the miseries of our life; we forget all our troubles. We forget all the worries of our life, and we come to a stage where we begin to feel that we were never worried at all. That should be the experience of bliss in our life.
Bhagavan Buddha, after enlightenment, reached a state where He never thought He was in bondage ever. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, when he attained the state of enlightenment, was never bothered about anything else, because that taste of bliss was such.
Bhagavan, in His discourse, emphatically stated that we, in the present generation, do not know what bliss is, or where it is, let alone know the taste of it. Therefore my friends, this Sankranthi should be a year of bliss; this season should help us to remain blissful hereafter.
Some might say, “If bliss is in me, how is it that I do not see it?” The answer that Ramana Maharshi gave is this: There are many things you do not see; but you cannot say that they do not exist. You cannot deny their existence just because you do not see them. He gave an example: Happiness, do you see it? No. Misery, do you see? No. Sadness, can you see it? No. But can you deny it? Can I say there is no sadness in this world because I don’t see it?
You don’t see it, but you’ll experience it. Therefore my friends, we cannot negate, we cannot deny the existence of all that we do not see. There are many things that we feel, although we do not see them. Likewise, bliss is one such state of life. Bliss is one such state of awareness, one such state of consciousness that is not seen, but yet felt and experienced.
Here Ramana Maharshi made a wonderful statement. All of us here are aware of our mind. Am I right or wrong? We are aware of our mind. I don’t see my mind; but that does not mean that I say, “I have no mind.” If I did say so, there is something wrong with me. So, though I do not see my mind, I know that I have a mind. Though I do not see my intellect, I know that there is an intellect within me.
Similarly, just as we normal, average, common people are aware of the existence of the mind and intellect, a jnani, a yogi, a man of wisdom is aware of his inner Self, Divinity. The sign of a yogi is the awareness of inner Divinity. The sign of a man of wisdom, a jnani, is the experience of inner Divinity. As we are aware of our own thoughts, emotions, impulses, feelings and sentiments, a man of wisdom is aware of his own true nature. He is aware of his real being or Self. That’s what Ramana Maharshi said.
A question will naturally arise: “If a wise man is aware of his Divinity, why am I not? He is wise, OK. But I am not otherwise. (Laughter) I am not unwise. Why don’t I know the existence of Divinity? Why not? I see the table here. All of you see this. Similarly, when there is Divinity within me, why don’t I see it?”
Ramana Maharshi clearly said that two things are required to see the Divinity within. One is eligibility. One should be eligible to see. Eligibility? Is it a Master’s degree or a Ph.D.? Or having some dollars or pounds? What is eligibility?
Eligibility is having the ability or the capacity to see within. We have got the capacity to see outside. We have got the ability to see the exterior, but we do not have the ability, capacity and nobility to turn within, to see inside. That is eligibility. So, I repeat, two things are required.
First: THE ABILITY TO SEE WITHIN
We do not have the ability to see within, because many of us are disturbed. We cannot remain seated with closed eyes for long periods. We like to see outwardly; but to close the eyes is very difficult. This is the truth.
To close the eyes for a long time is horrifying, terrifying, because when I close my eyes, I don’t know who I am. I don’t know my credentials. Nobody says, “Sai Ram, sir.” Nobody would say, “You are simply great.” I am nobody when I close my eyes. Therefore, we don’t want to close our eyes. The ego is gone once we close our eyes. When the ego is gone, we are insecure; we are uncomfortable.
Therefore everyone says, “Give up the ego”, but nobody gives up the ego, because we are comfortable with the ego. We are happy with ego. Life is convenient with ego because people respect and honour you; people regard you and obey you. You are so-and-so because of the ego. When that is gone, you are nobody. No one wishes to be nobody. Everybody wants to be somebody. Therefore my friends, this ability to go within means achieving a state of egoless-ness. That takes ability.
What is eligibility? It is desiring bliss, desiring Divinity, more than anything else.
What happens if somebody says, “We are going to give you some money if you attend a service project elsewhere”? Or, “Instead of attending bhajans, if you do some extra work in your office, you are going to get some monetary benefit.” Which do you prefer?
We think like this: “Meditation we can do anytime. God is within me and I can meditate upon Him anytime. But extra income at the office, that won’t wait for me.” It means that when there is a choice between selfish interests and meditation, we give priority to money.
We do not love God as much we love our near and dear ones. It is a fact. We don’t love God as much as we love ourselves, our kith and kin, our family and everything else. God comes next, after all that. Why? If anyone speaks against you, if anyone makes negative remarks, are you going to keep quiet?
If anybody says, “You are a fool”, what do you say?
“Please get yourself checked up. I am fine. Something is wrong with you. I am not a fool.”
If anyone says, “Your parents are hopeless people”, you will immediately say, “You mean somebody else, not me.”
So you respond when anything is said against you. But when anything is said against God, you say, “He will take care of Himself. I don’t have to defend Him.” That is our attitude.
No doubt God can take care of Himself. He doesn’t need your help. But one thing is this. Your love for God is less than your love for your family. You love your family, your property, your possessions, your acquisitions, your dignity, and your prestige much more than you love God. This is a fact. So, eligibility comes when your love for God is more than the rest of the things of the world.
Therefore, Ramana Maharshi wants us to have two qualifications to see the Self within us: One is ability, and the second is eligibility. We have neither of them because we cannot travel inwardly. If I am outward, there is a lot of applause, cheer, recognition, name, and fame; whereas going inward, what is it that I get after all? So leave ability alone. I don’t want to be able because the profits are doubtful.
Therefore my friends, bliss which is our true nature, bliss which is our true Self, can be enjoyed and experienced only if we have the ability to go within, and the eligibility to love Him more than anything else in this world.
What is to be done now? To have this ability and eligibility what should I do now?
Suppose I tell my student, “You are not eligible to study this subject.” The student will tell me tomorrow, “You are not eligible to teach me.” (Laughter) So I cannot condemn my student. I should tell him some way to come out of it.
God is merciful. The Divine Master is compassionate. Divine Master has set only two conditions, ability and eligibility. “My boy, I know that you do not have it, but I can give you a clue, a way to acquire both - two in one.”
“Oh Master! You are modern because you are giving me a technique to acquire both at one time, two birds in one shot. What is it Master?”
The Master said, “Sacrifice will confer both the ability and the eligibility.”
Sacrifice…thyaga. Unfortunately our concept of sacrifice is totally wrong. If I donate some money, people will call me a man of sacrifice. During darshan time, if I vacate my place and ask you to move forward, I am a man of sacrifice of this century. (Laughter)
So our concept of sacrifice is totally wrong. It is neither sharing your money nor distributing clothes; it is neither sharing your residence nor sharing your position. These are just sacrifices in the worldly sense, in the worldly parlance, in the physical sense.
But sacrifice in the spiritual sense is altogether different. What is sacrifice spiritually-speaking, my friends?
Please do not misunderstand. Do not take my statement out of context. The reason I love to attend every Sunday talk is this. I am benefited more than all of you. Please believe me, because I make a lot of preparation and study, and only then come here. And as I study and prepare, I get happier. During the process of preparation itself, I get thrilled, eager to run and jump and share it with you. That is the power of wisdom. That is the power of knowledge. True knowledge cannot be hidden, please take it from me. You can hide your black money; but you cannot hide your knowledge, because this wisdom is God’s gift. It is Divine. It is a light that will spread.
Now coming to this point, what is sacrifice? Baba has given a beautiful definition for this word ‘sacrifice’, amply supported by Ramana Maharshi. I often quote Ramana Maharshi because I find parallels. Adi Shankara, Ramana Maharshi and Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba have parallels so far as the theory of non-dualism is concerned. So in respect to non-dualism, all the three go together.
Sathya Sai Baba takes you slowly from one plane to another, to different levels and altitudes. You have to change your airline every time. Until Bombay, you go by a domestic airline, the ‘karma’ or action part. From Bombay, you go on an international airline to Frankfurt. That is bhakti marga, or the path of devotion. From Frankfurt, it’s a straight flight to New York, the jnana marga or path of wisdom. So Baba takes you to Bombay for a security check, then to Frankfurt for some refuelling, and then gradually you reach your destination in New York.
Ramana Maharshi simply lifts you and keeps you there. If you are not ready, you will find yourself back on land, in a plane crash! (Laughter) Straight! There is no question of travel and going slowly. There is no error. This is the point. I am taking the theory, principles, and quintessence of Ramana Maharshi, duly supported by Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, so that it will seep into our mind. It will get closely interwoven into the fabric of our system. That’s what I really want.
So, what is sacrifice according to Baba and according to Ramana Maharshi? Is it not sharing money or possessions, wealth or properties? No. I am identified with my body. I think I am the body, because in front of the mirror, I consider myself to be the most handsome man in the world (though the next person says it is not so). (Laughter) I care for my dress; I care for my food meticulously, including the hot stuff of South India, because I am the body. Body is very important.
Giving up this body identification is sacrifice. True sacrifice is the shedding or dropping or giving up of this body identification. So far you think, ‘I am the body’ and have that ‘I am the body’ sense, that ‘I am the body’ feeling. The body identification must be dropped, must be given up. That is sacrifice, according to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
It is difficult. It is quite easy to give some cheque for a thousand dollars. (It is no problem because I get it again next month!) But to give up the body identification is hard because the body has so many requirements. It is the body that has drawn everyone towards me. It is the body that has kept me above everybody. How can I give up my body identification? It is so difficult.
That’s why Ramana Maharshi wore only a piece of cloth all the time. That’s all. It was Shirdi Bhagavan who led the life of a beggar. It was Adi Shankara who led the life of a beggar. They wanted to be beggars. Why? That is the way of giving up body identification. It may not be possible for everybody, nor is it desirable for every one of us right now. So sacrifice, according to Bhagavan, is giving up body identification.
Then secondly, what do you sacrifice? Sacrifice requires totally annihilating or withdrawing your mind. You sacrifice your mind.
“I don’t want to sacrifice it. If I sacrifice my mind, what will happen to my degrees, to my properties? What will happen to my friends, my relatives and the convenor and the co-ordinator? Oh my God! I am in charge of the veranda. I am in charge of the carpets. How can I give up my mind?” No, no.
It is so difficult because it is the mind, which is responsible for heaven and hell here on earth. Heaven and hell are not apart. Moments of bliss constitute heaven. Moments of misery make our hell. So heaven and hell are not far away from us. They are here right now. The cause for heaven and hell is our mind, that’s all.
This morning someone was talking to me. They said, “Swami is coming rather late in the mornings for darshan, and we are not able to adjust our timings. The breakfast time is rather disturbed because He is coming closer to lunchtime. So the stuff prepared for breakfast in the canteen is going waste.” So the canteen management problem, the self-management problem due to Swami coming late, that is the physical point of view.
Then another man said, “Why do you think like that? When Swami’s darshan is delayed, don’t you think it is an opportunity to meditate? Don’t you think it is an occasion to pray for Him? Don’t you think it is a moment to chant His Name repeatedly? Don’t you think that it is a moment to share the experience with the next man sitting close to you? Don’t you think Swami’s coming is delayed in order to make that period completely spiritual? Why don’t you think that way?” (Applause) This is the way of looking at it.
So my friends, waiting for Swami is meditation. Waiting for breakfast is repulsive. Waiting for a VIP is boring. Waiting for a chief guest is disgusting. Waiting for bus transportation is vexing. Waiting for the arrival of family members from a weekend trip elsewhere is boredom. But waiting for Swami is prayer. Waiting for Swami, we pray and pray. We turn our hearts to Him: ‘Oh Lord, we want You, Swami. We want You now.’ The prayer is coming from the bottom of our hearts. It is yearning. It is pining.
So waiting for the Lord is prayer. Waiting for the Lord is meditation, because you are constantly looking towards the door. When is it going to open? You are constantly looking near that golf cart which is kept in front of the gate, which is a signal that the Lord is on His way. You are waiting for the lights to be lit. Let all the lights emanate. Switch on the lights. Baba may come anytime. Your thoughts, your attention is totally on Swami, which is nothing but meditation. Therefore my friends, Baba is teaching us how to pray by delaying His visit. Baba is giving us an occasion to learn how to meditate by delaying His darshan. That is a way of looking at it.
But the mind, which is outward, will not think so. The outward mind is negative. Baba always says that the body is negative, the senses are negative, the mind is negative, and the intellect is negative. It is only the Self, which is positive. It is only the inner being that is positive. So unless you give up negativity, you cannot aspire to be positive. Impossible.
So my friends, giving up identification with the mind is thyaga, or sacrifice. This is the definition given by Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Thyaga or sacrifice is nothing but giving up body identification or deha, and totally giving up the identification with the mind or jiva. It is getting oneself attached to the Self, Atma. So we should be attached to the Self, Atma. That is the real sacrifice, as Bhagavan said.
Then we may begin to wonder, ‘What is it that I get by being aware of my Self? What is it that I get if I know the Divinity within?’ We always want to know what we get. It is always like that. ‘If I talk to this man, will he be helpful to me in the next life? If I deposit money in the bank, how much interest will I get? If I study this course, what job will I get?’ So this kind of expectation is there in every aspect of our life. So, what is that you get by experiencing Divinity within? What do you get? Some more bank account or promotion or what?
The answer is simple. Ramana Maharshi said, “By being aware of the Self, you are totally in a state of satisfaction.” A man of awareness is always satisfied and uncomplaining, ungrudging, and unconditional. He is totally satisfied. That is the advantage of being the Self.
But that is not our experience in life. Not in the least. That is why we are satisfied in the morning, but dissatisfied in the evening, satisfied in January but grumbling in February, because the Self is not experienced. The Self is ignored; the Self is denied; the Self is silenced; but the mind is active. The active mind will not allow us to get into the steady Self.
The Self is steady, while the mind is unsteady. The mind, which is unsteady, completely wavering, full of pulsations, full of tribulations like ripples in water, something like the waves of a tsunami, will not allow us to see the true Self within. So what we are supposed to do is to silence the mind first. Silencing the mind is sacrifice. Silencing the mind is meditation. Whatever name you may give it, silencing the mind is the ultimate aim and goal.
Therefore my friends, the awareness of the Self will keep you always satisfied. It is total satisfaction. Also awareness of the Self will make you feel blissful. Somehow I am very much tempted to repeat this, because that was the theme of Bhagavan’s discourse during Sankranthi. Bliss is experienced only if we are prepared to sacrifice.
How to sacrifice this body feeling? How to sacrifice identification with the mind? How to sacrifice? ‘I want You, oh Lord, to tell me the procedure. You have told me the goal. You have told me the reason why I am away from the goal. You also told me the path towards the goal – thyaga. Very good.’
‘Oh Bhagavan, You said that Self is the goal, and then You also said that I need the ability and the eligibility. Very good. Now You say that I should be prepared to sacrifice. Then tell me, Lord, how to sacrifice. What is sacrifice? How can I not identify with the body? How can I not identify with the mind? Please let me know, Swami.’
Swami gives a simple technique. Many times it happened in the past, but I am not tired of repeating it again, because it has come to stay with me. Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba says no to my statement. That statement is that He is the ‘latest’ God. He explains things in such simple, scientific, technological terms that our rational logical mind can accept it. It is not dogma, it is not a routine, it is not fanaticism, but it is the latest, appealing to a computer mind.
Therefore what does He say? A simple answer: You say, “I have learnt this. I have learnt that. I am doing this.” This is called doer-ship. “I am doing it. I have done it.”
Baba says we must drop the feeling of doer-ship. “I am not the doer. I have not done.” A religious man will never say, “I have done this.” A spiritual man will always say, “Swami got it done through me. I am only an instrument in His hands. I have not come in the way of the fulfilment of His will. I have not been an obstacle. I am only a pipeline. Let Your Divine Love flow continuously.” So the way to develop the spirit of sacrifice is to give up the sense of doer-ship. End this ‘I am doing this, I am doing that.’ Stop that.
The second thing Baba said is, “Give up the enjoyer-ship or bhoktutva bhava.” Doer-ship is kartutva bhava. Enjoyer-ship is bhoktutva bhava, which means, ‘Let me enjoy the fruits of my work.’
Two days back the drama was excellent. Somebody said, “Mr. Anil Kumar, how did you like the drama?”
“It was very nice. Brindavan boys did it.”
“You know whose idea it was?” He wanted to tell me that it was his idea. He was very much worried because the drama was acknowledged and the actors were applauded. Everybody was recognised, but the man whose idea it was had not been noticed enough. That disturbed him.
“Forget about it. Be happy that your idea has taken expression in a beautiful way, and that your idea and the performance were of equal standard. If the performance had been very poor, what with your idea being very high, then you would be frustrated. Be happy that both were equally excellent. Why don’t you feel that way?”
So we have this kind of craze that everybody should know me; everybody should recognise me; everybody should know that this is mine. A simple example: A mandir is constructed. You donate about 10 lakhs of rupees and so people say that you are a great man, that you are a man of sacrifice, responsible for the construction of this temple.
Then along comes another man. “You know, the very idea of this temple being constructing in this place was my idea.”
Then I tell him, “Your idea is so sacred, so noble, and so Divine. Therefore it attracted a rich man and got him to sacrifice 10 lakhs. What more do you want? Your idea is noble.” Why can’t we be happy about it?
So my friends, to develop the spirit of sacrifice, one should give up these two ideas of doer-ship and enjoyer-ship, that I should enjoy the benefits of this action. This is the way of being closer and closer to the Divinity within. Baba says, “How long can you run after your shadow? When are you going to catch your shadow?” It’s impossible. But on the other hand, if you catch hold of your nose, your shadow also will catch hold of your nose!
Similarly, when you know the Self within, the rest of the outside will take care of itself. Let us not be under the misapprehension that the knowledge of the Self within is going to make you poor in the outer world. No. A man of the outer world may be poor within; but a man of the inner world is the richest man in the outer world, because bliss is the dividend, satisfaction is the profit, and peace is the reward. What more do you want?
Therefore, we may hear some of our relatives and friends commenting, “How is it that you are so spiritual nowadays? Please be worldly now.” We don’t have to argue with them. Just give them a nice smile, and say thank you, because you will meet him at the next station.
The world will never satisfy you. We are yet to come across children who say, “I owe all this to my parents.” We are yet to come across children in modern times who say, “All this property is a gift of my parents.” They don’t say that. “My father gave me 10 lakhs, but my friend’s father gave him 15 lakhs. So my father is a useless fellow.” I have become useless by giving only 10 lakhs, purchasing blame!
My friends, all we have to give are those things that we can share with everybody; that will make us happy and others happy also. It is the wealth of wisdom, the wealth of peace, the wealth of joy, the wealth of ecstasy, the wealth of bliss which are much more important than the material wealth and acquisitions.
Ramana Maharshi makes one statement that is rather bitter to accept. A man who runs after places of worship, the one who runs after places of prayer, temples, mosques and churches, are like those people who run after their own shadows. You can never catch your shadow. Similarly by simply going to a place of prayer, you cannot be prayerful. This is a place of prayer, but we are not prayerful. This is a place of meditation, but we are not meditative. Therefore let us understand the depth of the place, the meaning of the place and rise to the occasion.
My friends, I have come across a few interesting statements. I cannot resist the temptation of sharing them with you. What are these statements?
God will never ask you the brand of your car, or is it the latest car, 2004 or 2005? But He will ask you one thing. How many people have you given a lift to in your car, when they needed your services?
God will never ask you how big is your house, how spacious is your house, 3-bedroom, 4-bedroom, 5-bedroom? There are all these bedrooms, after all (Laughter) because we are proud to say ‘5-bedroom’. If you sleep in the open air, the whole thing is a bedroom! (Laughter) So God is not going to ask you how many bedrooms you have in your residence. But God will ask you how many people have you given shelter to in your residence? How many people have you invited to your residence to share the joy?
I am very proud of my dress. I have the latest safari suit, or prince coat, or Jodhpur coat or whatever you call it. A tracksuit or swimsuit, we have so many dresses – nightdress, day dress, mid-day dress. Dress-less-ness is the greatest; the latest dress is not to have any dress. (Laughter)
So God is not going to ask me how many pairs of dresses I have. No, no, no! “Do you have that tracksuit, or do you have any gym suit?” He is not going to ask me that. He will ask me, “To how many people have you given clothes when they were needy. To how many people have you distributed clothes when they needed to cover their body to be warm in the cold season?”
God will never ask you how much salary you are receiving. Some people say 10,000, 20,000, or 50,000. It is amazing. I am not complaining, please don’t misunderstand me. I am just taken by surprise. There are people who draw 3 lakhs of rupees as monthly salary, which is equal to the total salary of five lecturers. And somebody was telling me that to have a house in Bangalore, a good house by western standards, the lowest price is one crore. I said, “Is that house to live in or to show?”
God is not going to ask you how much money you have. But God is going to ask you to what extent have you compromised with your principles to earn this fat salary. To be so rich, you must have compromised your principles. You must have chosen to be unrighteous; you must have chosen to be corrupt and dishonest, to be so rich. Therefore, God is not going to ask you how wealthy you are. He is going to ask you to what extent have you compromised your principles to be so rich.
We are proud of our friends. All are my friends. Some people say, “I want to go to my native place.” Why? “To meet with my friends. All there are my friends there.”
Baba always says, “We are proud of our friends. What sort of friends do we have? When we are on our bed, nobody will come and say ‘hello’. When we leave this world, there will be nobody to say ‘goodbye’. The so-called friends are all around so far as we oblige them, so far we are rich enough, so far we fulfil their favours and meet their requirements. When once you say, “No, I am sorry”, he will not show you his face again.
God is not going to ask you how many friends you have, no. God will not ask you. You can have 100 friends, 2000 friends, or 3000 friends. But He will ask you this question: “With how many people are you friendly?” Instead of just saying that all are my friends, you should say, “I am friendly to everybody.”
Friendliness is greater than being a friend. You can be a friend to one or two. You can be a friend to ten, but you can be friendly with everybody. So God will ask you not about the number of friends you have. He will ask you to what extent are you friendly with the people around.
And God will never ask you any detail regarding the neighbourhood.
Some people say, “Anil Kumar, this house is very costly. You know why? It is a posh locality.”
“Oh! It is a posh locality. It is not a busy shopping area.”
“No, no, no. Posh…away from the city, six acres minimum, and the lawn should be maintained. In a posh area.” Oh I see.
God is not going to ask you if it is trash or posh. God will not ask the details of your neighbourhood. But God will ask you, “How have you conducted yourself with the neighbours? How have you behaved yourself with the neighbours?” That is more important than the type of neighbourhood. That’s the truth.
God will not ask you the details of your complexion, how many times you have your wash, the latest lipstick or the cosmetics that you have. He is not going to ask you these details. He is going to ask you about your character, your conduct, and your virtues.
The last thing my friends, God is never going to ask: “Why have you waited so long to come to Me? Why have you taken so many years to come here? Have you wasted so many years of your lifetime?” No, no, no.
He will say, “I am happy, my son. I am waiting for you. (Applause) I am waiting for you, my son. It’s not too late, my son. Though you think that you have come late, I am never going to neglect you. Never think that I am going to give priority to those who have come to Me earlier. I don’t go by seniority, my son. I only think of your genuine heart, my son. If you are in hell, you think I am going to take you to paradise. I am going to the very heaven. You may think you are late, but to My mind, no, my son. I have been waiting, my son, to receive you at the gates of heaven, like a father waiting for the return of the prodigal son.”
May God bless you. Thank you.
OM…OM…OM…
Asato Maa Sad Gamaya
Tamaso Maa Jyotir Gamaya
Mrtyormaa Amrtam Gamaya
Om Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu
Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti