December 30th, 2007
“Be Happy With Everyone”
December 30th, 2007
OM… OM… OM…
Sai Ram
With Pranams at the Lotus Feet of Bhagavan,
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
This morning’s satsang is a very special one--the last of 2007. As we are about to begin the new year of 2008, we will never meet again in 2007 after today! So today we will say our final goodbyes to 2007, before welcoming 2008 into our lives. On this special day, let’s begin with a special prayer.
(Prof. Anil Kumar sang “Manasa Bhajore Gurucharanam” and the audience followed.)
Manasa Bhajare Guru Charanam
Dustara Bhava Sagara Tharanam
Guru Maharaj Guru Jai Jai
Sai Natha Sad Guru Jai Jai
Om Namah Shivaya Om Namashivaya
Om Namashivaya Shivaya Namah Om
Arunachala Shiva Arunachala Shiva
Arunachala Shiva Aruna Shiva Om
Omkaram Baba Omkaram Baba Om Namo Baba
Oh mind, worship the Feet of the Guru,
Whose Feet will help one cross the ocean of birth and death.
Victory to the King of Gurus
Victory to Lord Sai the true Guru…
Om Nama Shivaya...Arunachala Shiva...Formless Baba...
These humble prayers to Bhagavan Baba should help us this year to face any challenges or obstacles that should be placed in our path so that our devotion might grow stronger, and we may realise and experience our Divinity within.
My friends, I have a few thoughts about the coming New Year’s Day celebration that I would like to share with you. I understand that the university students will be celebrating in Sai Kulwant Hall in the presence of Bhagavan. We do not have any details but rest assured it is going to be quite a gala event.
New Year’s Day, as marked on the English calendar based upon Biblical events, is celebrated all over the world. History is divided just into two large eras: B.C. and A.D., meaning before Christ and after the death of Christ. So Christ’s life, His mission, His sojourn to earth, is important to bear in mind as we celebrate New Year’s Day. Today, therefore, we will reflect on a couple of ideas from the Holy Scripture as we prepare to celebrate New Year’s Day.
Bhagavan has repeatedly said, “Love everybody.” He says this again and again, and people ask me why He says it so often. The reason is because we have not started to do so, to love everyone, and so He continues to repeat it in the hope that we will act upon His guidance. He must repeat it until we start doing it, until we choose to live according to these words. So our New Year’s resolution for 2008 should be to love all and serve all unconditionally. Love all! And don’t just love them. Serve them. Love in action is service. If I see a person who has real difficulties and I just tell him that I love him, he will say “Sir, if you love me at all, give me food!”
So love should be translated into action through service. Therefore, my friends, as we welcome 2008, let us resolve to follow this guidance, to love all and serve all in the true spirit that Swami means.
The Holy Bible, in the First Corinthians, Chapter XIV, Verse 1, clearly instructs us to do this when it say, “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.” Follow the way of love. The Bible tells us that there is no other way, that this is the only way. Bhagavan tells us that the best way to love God is to love all and serve all. The best way to love God is to love all and serve all! That’s what the Bible says too! So follow the way of love.
The Bibles says eagerly desire spiritual gifts. Desire spiritual gifts! Do we desire spiritual gifts? No! We desire money. That is not spiritual. We desire tinsel and trash. We desire lofty positions. These are not spiritual! We can earn and manage and manipulate money. We can cleverly plot and plan to attain lofty positions for ourselves, but is that spiritual? No, of course not.
So what are spiritual gifts? Spiritual gifts are truth, righteousness, peace, love and non-violence. Sathya, Dharma, Shanti, Prema, Ahimsa. Let us desire these special gifts that God waits to bestow upon us.
Bhagavan always says to ask God for simple things, and He has given us an example. In Indian mythology, we have a funny thing called a wish-fulfilling tree. You can sit under that tree and ask for anything you want. It is ready to give you whatever you want, whatever you desire. One fellow, it seems, once sat under this wish-fulfilling tree and what did he ask for? Ground coffee! Coffee is available at the shop! He didn’t have to go to the wish-fulfilling tree to ask for coffee. So he is fool number one!
Bhagavan gave another example, telling us of a person went to a sari shop, a shop with very costly silk saris. This fellow, it seems, went into this shop and asked if they had any spoiled or torn or worn out saris that they might sell him. He asked if they had anything to sell that was second-hand. Please understand that this is a shop where the latest and most precious silk saris are sold, and for a very high price at that, and this fellow wanted worn, torn, old clothes. So, fool number two!
We are something like these two fellows, these fools, when we desire mundane, material worldly gifts from God. When we seek position or recognition or fame from Him, it is something like asking the wish-fulfilling tree for tinsel and trash. Therefore, the scripture clearly tells us to seek spiritual gifts from God. So, love all and serve all is the first thing to keep in mind this New Year. The second is to pray for the spiritual gifts of truth, righteousness, peace, love and non-violence.
“Love thy neighbour as thyself.” This is said so beautifully in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter V, Verse 44. Usually, I love you if you love me. I am your friend if you are my friend. You must have heard Bhagavan telling us to say hello to our enemies. Say hello to your enemies? How can this be possible? The very sight of my enemy will cause me to take flight and run away, not greet him! Knowing that another has acted against me is enough for me, but Baba wants me to greet this devil! (Laughter) Baba wants us to say hello to our enemies!
Hatred is not the answer for hatred. Love is the only way. Therefore, the Gospel of Matthew instructs us to love our enemies, and Swami tells us to greet them! Baba wants us to pray for those who persecute us. I think right now it is impossible. Right now it is impossible. Furthermore, He tells us to pray for those who persecute you. Baba tells us not to fight with those who persecute us. He tells us not to attack them. Don’t retaliate. Don’t react. Just take it as a spiritual challenge and try not to give in. Just say, ‘Oh Bhagavan! You have created these obstacles. Oh Bhagavan! You have sent these people to persecute me so that I will emerge from this experience successfully.’ Unless we are persecuted, our greatness and depth of faith will never manifest. Persecution is a test and a taste of God, so don’t worry about your persecutors. Don’t be hostile toward them. Love all, serve all.
Galatians, Chapter V, Verse 14 instructs you to: “Love thy neighbour as thyself.” Love thy neighbour as thyself, says the scripture. This is quite easy, after all, quite easy as I have only two or three neighbours and it is very easy to love them. But actually it is most difficult to love your neighbour. We can love a stranger, but we have trouble loving our neighbour because we share the same space, the same hallway. We share the same tap. We share the same electricity meter. We don’t want him to hear all that is happening at our residence. We don’t want him to know anything about us, so loving our neighbour is not an easy thing. (Laughter) You can love your friend from Australia, but not your neighbour. You can love anybody but your neighbour! Therefore God says love thy neighbour as thyself because if you are able to love your neighbour, you will be able to love the world! It’s that simple.
And of course Bhagavan asks us to go a step further. What does He instruct? He tells you to love people in such a way as to say, “Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu.” You send love to the whole universe, and wish that the whole universe be happy and prosperous and peaceful. That’s the prayer that He asks you to bestow upon the world. We should keep that in mind as we embark upon this New Year.
Galatians, Chapter V, Verse 22 says, “But the fruit of the spirit of love is joy, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” The scripture is kind, even merciful, to explain what love is in this particular verse. Love is not business. Love is not unidirectional. Love has no expectation. Love is not exploitation. Then what is love?
Love is joy, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. So let’s ask ourselves why Swami repeats the word love so often. Love, love, love, love, love. He repeats that word over and over. Why? Because love radiates joy and patience and kindness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control and we too frequently display none of these qualities. So He has to repeat Himself over and over again in the hope that we will finally understand and learn to be love. Therefore, let us live in this true spirit of love that Swami asks of us. Let us be the embodiments of love that we are.
This New Year also demands a special prayer for peace at all levels. As you know, reading the news these days is a tiring affair, and watching television reports is so disturbing. Why? They are full of nothing but wars, genocides, suicides and bloodshed. At this time, there is no peace. There is no peace in the world. There is no peace in the family. There is no peace within oneself. We don’t even have peace of mind, so this New Year calls for a special prayer for peace.
That’s why at the end of bhajans, we say peace not once but three times. Om shanthi shanthi shanthi. In this, we are asking for peace at three levels. We are asking for physical peace, for psychological peace and for peace of mind. We are asking for peace at the individual level, at the level of community, and at the cosmic level. Swami says that we have to pray for peace. Bhagavan said in one of His poems that people shout peace, peace, peace while brandishing atomic bombs. (Laughter) We must be sincere in our prayers for peace.
We have made ‘peace’ primarily a political matter, but spiritual peace demands that we are peaceful at the individual level. Let’s pray for such peace. Be at peace with everyone. Don’t let another serve as a disturbance to your own sense of peace. If I meet someone who speaks nothing but nonsense, how can I be at peace? Well, Swami would ask why you are listening to him? You are hearing with your ears, but He also gave you legs too, so that you can get away. (Laughter) Instead of blaming the other fellow for stealing your peace, you have the freedom to say, “Thank you, goodbye, and see you later!” (Laughter)
What does Romans Chapter XII, Verse 8 have to say? Be at peace with everyone. As an individual, as a citizen, as a responsible person, as a professional, you must strive to be at peace with everyone. There is no point in blaming anyone else for disturbing your peace. You may say that he robs your peace, or that you lose your peace in his presence. But this is not what you should do. No! Don’t bother about the other person. What about you? Be at peace with everyone! That’s what the Gospel says.
Matthews Chapter V, Verses 23 says that if you are offering your gift at the altar and, while there, you remember that your brother has something against you, that he is full of animosity toward you, then what sort of a prayer is that? As Bhagavan gives darshan, I pray to Him that He look only at me, (Laughter) and I also pray that He not look at anyone else! The latter is my supplementary prayer! (Laughter) We pray that we might receive two packets of prasadam while our brothers only receive one. These kinds of prayers are full of rivalry and jealousy and anger, and therefore these aren’t prayers at all.
Let me give you a simple example. If I have a tumbler, but it is filthy and smelly, can I drink a cup of coffee from it? Can I fill that dirty stinking tumbler with coffee and drink from it? No! Even the coffee that I pour into it will get spoiled. Similarly, our prayer is meaningless if within it there is rivalry and jealousy. Dirtied with jealousy, our prayer loses its very spirit. That’s why so many of our prayers go unanswered. Some people say, “I pray and I pray, but God seems to be deaf! (Laughter) I have been praying and praying, but God doesn’t seem to answer. Is He on vacation? (Laughter) What’s wrong with Him?”
God does not answer because the container is soiled and the spirit of our prayer is not appropriate. The very motive is inappropriate. Therefore before you pray, see to it that your mind is free from such evil qualities, from such jealousies. Understand that there are some people who will hate you. Understand that there are people who will turn against you, and make every attempt to be at peace with them. That’s what the Holy Scripture tells us to do.
And what does Verse 25 of the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter V, tell us to do? It instructs us to settle matters quickly with our adversaries. If someone is taking you to court, settle the matter with him on the way there. People can be so indifferent to each other. While coming into the mandir, we don’t say much to each other. We don’t look at each other because we are afraid that our neighbour may sit in front of us! (Laughter) We don’t greet each other. On the platform though, we call each other brothers and sisters, but this is just political. We don’t mean it at all. Therefore the scripture tells us to settle our differences on our way to our place of worship. As you go to your church, your synagogue, your cathedral or your temple, settle all your differences. Be at peace with your brothers and sisters because as we sit in the mandir, we don’t want to think of the fellow in the darshan line who was very bad to us, or of someone who failed to serve us properly in the South Indian canteen. So unless we are at peace with ourselves and our brothers and sisters, the spirit of our prayers will be spoiled and will not be fulfilled. That’s what the scriptures say.
The third thing to aim for in this New Year is this: be happy with everyone! Be happy with everyone! Is that possible? No! I want to associate only with a particular class of people. I want to fraternise with intellectuals. I want to surround myself only with people who have a certain status in society. I want to spend my time with scholars. So you are not happy with everybody. Are you in any way greater than Jesus Christ? Can you say that you are wiser than Christ? Can you say that you are more scholarly than Christ? Had not Christ been happy and comfortable in the company of shepherds? Had not Christ been happy in the company of poor people, slum dwellers, and illiterates? Christ was very happy in their company. Don’t we find Bhagavan Baba talking to primary school children? God Himself communicates with these children, though what message He communicates we do not know.
It is rather strange for me to see primary school children passing on letters to Swami. I don’t know what they write to Him. (Laughter) I ask them, “What are your problems? (Laughter) What family problems do you have that you need to communicate in these letters to Swami?” And do you know what? Our good God reads them! Our letters may be ignored, but the letters of these children are read immediately! (Laughter) See that! So, my friends, what I am trying to say here is that Swami is happy with everyone. You should see Him talking to poor people. You should see Him talking to peons.
A year ago, all the peons, what you call helpers here in ashram, class 3 employees, they met in Kulwant Hall. They were all from the local village, from Puttaparthi, and many of them are illiterate. Anyway, they came and sat together in Kulwant Hall and waited for Baba, and do you know what He did? He who sits on the dais? He went straight to them and sat in their midst. Unthinkable!
Suppose I was asked to sit in the general devotee line. I would feel embarrassed because I am a VIP, a very insignificant person. (Laughter) We don’t want to be normal. We don’t want to be average. We don’t want to be ordinary. We want to be extraordinary. I want to sit on the dais with Baba. Our egos are affected by all of this, and that’s why we suffer. That’s why we have so much misery!
Bhagavan Baba just went there in His wheel chair and sat in front of these peons and asked them to sing. Each fellow started singing. See that! Even without a microphone, we could all hear them sing, and we found that people in the village are experts in music. Oh yes! Most of them are dramatists and actors. They can compose too. Anyway, He mingled with them, talking to them and asking about their welfare, their parents, and their grandparents.
Swami is equally happy in the company of doctors, He jokes with them, telling them what they do not know. He is very happy in the company of ministers, telling them all their mistakes. (Laughter) He is very happy in the company of university students, talking to one or two about their romantic affairs. (Laughter) See that! Therefore, my friends, being happy with everyone is no ordinary thing. If we can be happy with a fruit vendor, with a rickshaw driver, and with students, then we are spiritual. If we say we don’t like people who are not of our caliber, not up to our standards, then we are ignorant and foolish. Therefore, my friends, this New Year, be happy with everyone!
And what does Philippians, Chapter IV, Verse 4 say? Rejoice in the Lord always! I’ll say it again. Rejoice! Rejoice! What a beautiful word! Rejoice! My friends, you can be happy if only you have spiritual communication with people. If you evaluate things at the physical level, you cannot be happy with everybody. If you go by your psychological standards or by your ego, you cannot be friendly and happy with everybody. If you value yourself as an intellectual, you cannot be happy with everybody. If you recognise and feel that all are the sparks of the Divine, as Bhagavan was telling us just the other day, then and only then will you be happy with everyone. Understand that you are all sparks of the same Divinity. Understand that you are all equally children of God. We are all the children of God, sparks of the Divinity. There are no bigger sparks or smaller sparks. There is not one spark that shines and another that doesn’t. Sparks are sparks. We are all Divine. Understand this and you will be happy with everyone. To be happy with everyone, with all classes of people, we need to be spiritual and see God in everyone. That’s what Philippians says and that is how Baba wants us to be. Watch how freely He speaks to everyone and learn from Him, emulating His example.
In this New Year, we should give thanks. This New Year’s celebration is an occasion for thanks. We have to give thanks for everything we have, but unfortunately we are only thankful at the moment when we receive something. If someone gives you a cup of coffee, you say thanks. But, my friends, we should learn to thank God continuously. Why? You breathe 21,600 times a day. If that stops for a moment, if breathing stops for a moment, what will happen? I don’t have to say. (Laughter) Should we not thank God that we are able to breathe in and breathe out comfortably? If we find our breathing difficult, we have to check into a hospital. When our breathing is fine, we should say, “Oh God! Thank You.”
We eat well. You can go to a three-star or four-star or seven-star or super-star hotel and eat all you like; but our digestion, our assimilation, is in His hands, not ours. Why should you thank God when it is you who eats and you who pays the bill afterward? Why should you thank God? You are paying your bill. Okay! But thank God for the digestive process so that this meal nourishes you and makes you strong. Thank Him for your health, for your hearing, your vision, your sharp mind, your thinking. Thank Him constantly for the beautiful gift of life. We have to be thankful to God eternally. Our lives should be full of continual thanksgiving and gratitude.
There are some people who tell me, “Mr. Anil Kumar, we are here in Puttaparthi because of a problem in our family.” But I tell you, the family problem is a blessing because that is what brought you to Puttaparthi rather than to a mental hospital! (Applause)
Some people say to me, “Mr. Anil Kumar, I suffered a terrific loss in my business that brought me to Puttaparthi.” Good! That loss is not a loss but a gain because it brought you to Prashanti Nilayam.
Therefore my friends, let us give thanks to God! Thank You for all the difficulties I have had. Thank You for all the pain I suffered. Thank You for all the humiliation I have had. Thank You because You have forced me to think of You. I am left with no alternative but to think of You. I have decided to find refuge at Your Lotus Feet. I have learned that I cannot rely on another human being, that I cannot depend on a friend. You have come because of pain and loss. So tell me, is the pain negative? No! So we should give thanks even for our adversities. We should even give thanks for our suffering because it is that suffering that brings us here for contemplation, that leads us subsequently back to a state of bliss. So let’s give thanks!
Bhagavan gives the example of a woman named Kunti from Mahabharath, the mother of the five Pandavas. The Pandavas were great warriors, courageous and strong, experts in archery, but these fellows never lived in peace. They were forever exiled to live in the forest.
Their mother prayed, ‘Oh Lord Krishna, keep us in difficulties only because then we think of You all the more. See that we are in difficulties because then You will be in our thoughts, in our meditations, and we will constantly think of You. Once we are happy, once we get our kingdom back, we may forget You, my Lord! We may forget You! So we pray that we continue to live in this pain.” So give thanks even for adversity.
Ephesians, Chapter V, Verse 20 says always give thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! This is important. For everything we gain, for all our boons, we should thank Bhagavan, and for all our failures and losses we should also thank Baba, for these experiences are for our own good.
There was a man who earned crores and crores of money in Africa, but Swami wanted him to wind up his business and come to Prashanti Nilayam. This is recorded in Sathyam Shivam Sundaram. He was a big business man and Swami wanted him to close his business and come here. But he hesitated even though Swami insisted that he should come.
Finally he did return here and what happened? Whereas others lost everything due to the revolt and bloodshed in his country, he was able to keep his property. Therefore, even when we find it difficult to comply with what Bhagavan asks of us, remember that His instructions are ultimately for our own good. We should remember to say: “Swami, good and bad are best known to You, and I thank You for both!” That is how we should begin 2008!
What does Psalm 100 say? Know that God is good. It is He who made us and we are His, the sheep of His pasture. We are His people. We are His children. After all, no father would be against his own children. No father would persecute his children. No father would have ill will toward his children. We are His children and whatever He does, it is for our own good. That should be our attitude. Enter His gates with thanksgiving. As we step into the Mandir, as we step into the bhajan hall, as we step into Kulwant Hall, let us do so in the spirit of thanksgiving.
“Oh Bhagavan, thank You for having brought us to Prashanti Nilayam. Oh Baba, thank You for making us enter Kulwant Hall. Oh Baba, thank You that I can see You. This morning’s darshan is cancelled, but this evening I can see You, Swami, so thank You. As You have not come this morning, I am now even more eager to see You this evening so thank You. I am more meditative now. Even missing a darshan is to my advantage. It’s not frustration. It’s not depression. It’s not disappointment.” We should be more prayerful, more worshipful in this way and good things will happen in our lives. Therefore, the next appeal is that we remember to be more prayerful in 2008.
We have to pray, pray, pray. Sometimes we may fail to pray. When things are going our way, we often forget to pray. We think of God only when facing difficulties. We pray only if we have a problem. That is wrong. Let life be a prayer. Let life be a song. Let life be a meditation. Let life be the one of thanksgiving. Let life be a lullaby in which we constantly sing in praise of God. We should pray continuously, fervently, because He is waiting there. You know what Bhagavan of Shirdi said? Bhagavan of Shirdi said, “I am waiting to help you. I look to those who look to Me.”
It was Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba who said, “Why fear when I am here?” Why fear when I am here? So, I am here to help you, understand that. There in Shirdi it was clearly said by Bhagavan. He said, “I don’t care about your deservedness. I don’t value your qualifications or credibility. If you have faith that I am here to help you, that is enough. You deserve all the mercy, kindness, and blessings,” said Bhagavan. So, let us spend this year praying and praying.
John I, Chapter I, Verse 12 says that all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, came the right to become children of God. All who believed in Him gained the right to be children of God. All who believed Him! That’s what Swami says!
Yes anu variki yes anu ra.
If you say yes, Swami will say yes.
No anu variki no anu ra.
If you say no, Bhagavan will say no.
Yes, No nee notiki kaani Swami ki sarvam
Swami says yes, yes, yes.
You may say ‘yes’ now and ‘no’ in the evening, but Bhagavan will always say, “Yes, yes, yes.” Please understand this. Therefore, this morning our message is to have total faith in Bhagavan so that we have the right to become children of God. It is a matter of right. When we say, “Thank You, Swami”, Bhagavan says “No, no. Why do you thank Me? I am not a third person. It is your right to ask Me and it is My duty to give to you.”
This is the relationship between a devotee and Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. It is your right to demand because He is your father, because He loves you so much. It is your right to demand and He considers it His duty to oblige. That’s what is meant by “children are born not of natural descent or of human decision or of a husband’s will, but rather they are born of God.” We are the children of God born of God. It has nothing to do with human relationships. Let us be very clear about that.
Furthermore, Swami said once that, “People offer prayers, but sometimes they don’t reach Me.” Swami? Prayer doesn’t reach you? Why? He said, “Those prayers are not genuine. Therefore, I cover my ear with hair so that I filter out all those prayers.” (Laughter) Prayers are filtered out? Something like immigration checks? (Laughter) Therefore, we should see that our prayers reach Him. Prayers should reach Him. Prayer from the bottom of the heart will reach Him, and not those born of lip service. No! Prayer should come from the bottom of our hearts as a wholehearted prayer. That’s why some prayers don’t reach Him.
Zachariah, Chapter VII, Verse 13: “When I called, they did not listen. So, when they called, I would not listen.” It is our fault when certain prayers don’t reach Him.
Brothers and sisters, I have another point to bring to your attention. Let us learn to embody forgiveness. Let us learn to forgive people. We want to be forgiven and yet we don’t want to forgive. I expect Baba to forgive me, but I don’t forgive my own friend. No, no, no! I have no right to ask for forgiveness if I don’t forgive those around me. So, let us learn forgive and forget. Forgive and forget. If anyone has done anything against you, you tend to keep reminding yourself, to calculate with compounded interest, to wait for an opportunity to get revenge, and yet you call yourself a spiritual person, a devotee. It is not so!
So my friends, forgive and forget! That’s all! Some people come to Swami and say, “Bhagavan, I did this and that. Please Swami, excuse me.” He will never ask for the details. He will never ask how many evil things you have done. He will never ask for a report outlining all of the mistakes you have made. He never asks for this. If you say, “Swami, I am so bad! Please excuse me Bhagavan!” . . . do you know what He will say?
He will say, “The past is past. Forget about it. Past is past. Past is past.” If forgiveness is embodied, if forgiveness is personified, if forgiveness walks on two feet, it is called Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba! (Applause) Therefore, we are here. We are here because He forgives and forgets all our mistakes. Suppose He went on counting every mistake, every sin we had committed so far! The whole of Prashanti Nilayam would be empty! (Laughter) There would be no accommodation problem here! (Laughter)
So forgiveness is a Divine quality. Forgiveness is a spiritual quality that we have to learn from Swami. When I do wrong, do you know what He does? He avoids me! (Laughter) That avoidance is a greater punishment than slapping on the cheek. He avoids a person whom He wants to treat. Then He gives you more treatment by talking to the person next to you! (Laughter) The person next to you thinks that he is a blessed soul (Laughter), but His Divine design is to make you cry more and more. He talks to everybody else and you are left feeling nonexistent, smaller than a mosquito. Why? Because you are under His treatment. You are in His intensive care unit.
Though it is very painful when Swami is avoiding you, after that treatment, He takes you to heaven in such a way that you forget everything, as if nothing had happened. He starts talking to you in an almost romantic way! (Laughter) He starts talking to you in the most endearing manner as if nothing in the past had happened. He makes you forget all the treatment. Yes! He does this because He already forgives us for all that we have done and the course of treatment has run its course.
In Acts, Chapter X, Verses 43 and 44, the prophets testify about our Lord, that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of his sins through His name. Will Baba excuse me? Will Baba forgive me? It is a useless question. Because He is God, He is sure to forgive you. Will the sun shine? The one that shines is sun. That’s all! The one that forgives is God, no one else! Man is not ready to forgive. If man were ready to forgive then there wouldn’t be so many high courts, but He is sure to forgive you if you believe in His name. In Verse 44, as Peter was speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came upon him as He does to all who hear the message. Before you ask for pardon, before you ask for forgiveness, you are already forgiven. You are already forgiven before you ask! That is Bhagavan Baba. So let us learn to forgive everybody. Forget that done against you!
In the Gospel of Timothy, Chapter I, Verse 15, he said, “Christ Jesus came to the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.” Of whom I am the worst! He has come to save the sinners! Understand that!
Somebody asked Jesus, “Why are you in the midst of sinners? Why are you in the midst of robbers? Why are you in the midst of illiterates?”
And Jesus said, “I have come for them.”
Somebody once asked Baba, “Swami, why are you in a human form here? When you are in human form here, why do you to keep useless fellows around you?
And do you know the answer He gave? Baba answered, “Where do you find the doctor? Where there are patients. So, I am surrounded by the patients. Therefore, I am required here. You find the doctor in the hospital.”
One finds fault with the people around Baba because they need His treatment. They need Him. He is there to save them. Bhava roga, the sickness of life after life, the sickness of the cycle of life and death. That is the disease from which we are suffering, and He has come down in human form to save us from it. Let us also pray Bhagavan give us a new heart, a new feeling, a new sentiment that melts the suffering of our friends, a feeling to replace our stone-heartedness. We are indifferent. Let the year 2008 make our hearts melt like butter, and let us share that love we then have with others.
Ezekiel, Chapter XXXVI, Verse 26 says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.” See that! ‘A new heart’ does not mean a heart transplant. ‘A new heart’ means a new feeling, a new sentiment. We find many people with new hearts after they have come to Prashanti Nilayam. The fellow who is self-centered, the fellow whose interest is only money, after seeing Bhagavan, he will have learned to share, to smile, to sacrifice. That is due to his new heart. The heart that is selfish is the old heart that he has brought to Baba for repair, for cardiac surgery, so that he will depart from here with a new heart, one full of sacrifice and truth. We pray that Bhagavan give us a new heart.
The Holy Bible says, “I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Let our hearts be human because most of us are inhuman. Let us try to be human, to be the heart of flesh and not the heart of stone. Let us have a new and transformed heart by His Grace.
Bhagavan, please grant us the boon of humility. Swami, let us learn to be humble. Please teach us what humility is. We have forgotten what humility is. We have to learn from Bhagavan what humility is. A number of times, Bhagavan has helped people to walk to the dais. A person who was over 90 was once called upon to make a speech on the dais during one of the Dasara celebrations and a pedestal fan was put in front of him. This man was wearing a dhoti, and the fan’s breeze made that dhoti wave like a flag. (Laughter)
Bhagavan was sitting next to him and, with the man’s body being uncovered, Swami kept pulling the cloth down again. (Laughter) The fan does its job and so Baba does His. (Laughter) Oh, what a beautiful scene! The man’s name is Sistla Chandramouli Sastry. He was seated on the dais with the fan spinning at high-speed, taka taka taka, with Swami just pulling that man’s clothing down again and again. (Laughter) He didn’t ask the fan to be shut off. No! This man needed the breeze because he was sweating terribly! (Laughter) Humility, humility, humility to the core!
Once when we were all seated in Kodaikanal, Swami came with a dish and said that He would like to go to see the students. All of the students were there but He was climbing the steps and saying that He wanted to meet the students. I said, “Swami, all students are here!”
And Swami replied, “No, no, you don’t know. One student is sick and isn’t here and I made porridge for him. I will make him eat this. I am going to see him.” While all of us remained seated, He went up to serve the one student who had fallen sick. Humility! That is Bhagavan! Humility! We have to learn from Him. He is very humble and He appreciates everybody because He sees Himself in everyone. Humility is a Divine quality.
Corinthian Book I, Chapter XV, Verse 9 says, “For I am the least of all the apostles and not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God, but by the Grace of God, I am.” Please, this is important! But by the Grace of God, I am what I am. Wah! I am what I am due to the Grace of God. You must have seen recently that Swami recently spoke of Hs friendship with Supreme Court Justice Bhagavati and He allowed the judge to say a few words from the dais. And do you know what Justice Bhagavati said?
This Supreme Court Chief Justice said, “Bhagavan, I am what I am today because of You.” (Applause) Because of You! Who will say that?
Former President of India Abdul Kalam said, “Swami, I am what I am because of You.” (Applause) That’s what the President of India said! Therefore, let us understand that He is there to support us. Remain humble. Don’t claim credit for everything. Without God, life is futile.
Chronicles II, Chapter XXVI, Verse 8 speaks of a King Namedjaya. This king ruled Jerusalem for 52 years. He enjoyed God’s blessings bounteously and these abundant blessings made him arrogant, so much so that he lost his entire kingdom. His entire kingdom! Verse 16 tells us that his pride led to his downfall. My friends, please remember this. Let us be grateful to God for all that we have. Know that we are what we are because of Baba. The moment I forget this, my downfall begins. The moment I forget this, my downfall becomes as inevitable as that of this king who contracted leprosy in the end. He had to suffer because he had forgotten all the good done to him by God.
Chronicles II, Chapter XXXIII, Verse 1 tells of Manasseh. Manasseh became king at the age of 12 and ruled Jerusalem for 55 years. When he had difficulties, he prayed to God, and God came to his rescue. He came to his seva. Therefore, let us learn to be humble. Let humility be the hallmark of our personalities. Let humility be at our core. It is the main quality that we need to cultivate.
Once we are thankful, once we are worshipful, once we are respectful, once we are prayerful, once we are humble, no one on earth can oppose us. No one on earth can put us in peril. No one on earth can cause us anything negative. No one can ever harm us. In the Book of Daniel, Chapter IV, Verse 34, this is made clear. “No one can speak against my servant Moses.”
No one can speak against Moses. “How dare you speak against my servant!” says the Lord. So serve the Lord humbly and no one can touch you. No one can attack you because He is your bodyguard. You are protected under the Divine umbrella. You are covered by Divine insurance. No one can ever touch you. That’s what the Lord says.
So my friends, I just wanted to share with you that we have to love everybody, be at peace with everybody, be happy with everybody, cultivate Divine qualities like forgiveness and humility, and continue to thank God incessantly, all the while with a smile.
I pray that Bhagavan Baba bless every one of you and your families with peace, prosperity, steadfastness, devotion and service. May your 2008 be filled with smiles, filled with pleasure, and filled with thanksgiving to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. I wish you all a Happy New Year! Happy New Year! (Applause)
Prof Anil Kumar concluded by singing the bhajan “Ksheerabdi Shayana Narayana...”
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