How to be near and
dear to God |
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By Bhagwan Sri Satya Sai Baba
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imparting bookish
knowledge, and students seek education only as a means for earning a
living. This link between education and employment has to be severed,
and education must instead be transformed into the process of
acquiring True Wisdom.
In life there are two
aspects that have to be considered: Rights and duties.
Most people are concerned
only with their rights and engage in struggles to secure them. Seldom
do they recognise their responsibilities. This is true of all fields
of human activity—social, political, economic and even spiritual. Lack
of self-control is responsible for all this.
Men should regard their
senses as potential enemies and not allow senses to have their own way
They should be subject to one's control and direction. What is the
easiest way to achieve this mastery? Only the spiritual path. If there
is real faith and devotion in man, the senses would be powerless
against him. It is the decline in faith and devotion that has led man
to become a slave of the senses.
The prompting of
intellectual reasoning should not be
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identified with the
dictates of the Conscience. Rather, the directives should come from
the Heart. When you dive deep into a problem and enquire whether what
you do is in the interests of your friends and Society in general,
your Conscience will give you the right answer.
Man is made up of three
constituents, the body, the Mind and the Atma.
Man needs the body for
performing actions. But, if the actions are done without using the
discriminating power of the Mind, man would be behaving like an
animal, which acts on impulse. Moreover, if the Mind, without relying
on the eternal and ever pure Atma, follows the demands of the body and
the senses, the actions would be demonic.
Bereft of the influence
of the Atma, the combination of the Mind and the body can lead to
demonic qualities. However, when one is installed in the Atmic
principle, transcending the body and the Mind, one attains the Divine.
Hence, sanctify all your words, thoughts and deeds. Make your Heart
pure so that it becomes a worthy abode for the Divine.
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Whatever a man sees in
the world arouses fear in him. Detachment alone can free him from
fear. By failing to grasp this profound
truth, man is allowing his desires
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to multiply, without
realising that desires promote attachment instead of detachment. As
long as man is attached to the body, he cannot get over the desire to
possess the objects that attract him. A man afflicted with the
acquisitive impulse can never get rid of worries. To overcome this
attachment and possessiveness, ancient sages tailored their
educational system so that it promoted self-control. Self-control also
developed humility and thus, humility became the true index of right
education. Control of the senses is absolutely essential for achieving
humility, and education must promote such control.
Today's educational
system is concerned mostly with
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Article on the web - The Times of India Hyderabad