Devotion is divine love unsullied by any tinge of desire

      Sairam,                                                                                                                    

Once Naradha was asked to name the most noteworthy among the things of the world. He answered that the earth was the biggest. But he was told that water has occupied three-fourths of the earth and it threatens to swallow up the balance also. So Naradha agreed that water was more powerful. But water was drunk up by the sage Agasthya and the oceans were rendered by him and he is now just a star in the sky! Naradha corrected his decision that sky is biggest. But the sky is covered by one single foot of the Lord Vishnu in his Vaamana-avathaara. But the Lord enters and resides in the hearts of devotees. So, Naaradha had to conclude that the hearts of devotees are the grandest things in creation! Bhakthi purifies the heart, elevates the feelings and universalises the vision.

Bhakthi has the power to bring the Lord down. Devotion is divine love unsullied by any tinge of desire and knows no particular reason for its manifestation. It is the nature of the love of the soul for the Oversoul; the river for the sea; the creeper for the tree; the star for the sky; the spring for the cliff down which it flows. Devotion is an unchanging attitude and a desirable bent of the mind to stand steady through joy and grief. The divine bliss comes through knowledge of the Self. This knowledge can be attained through devotion to God alone.

Have gratitude to the Creator who poured the nectar (i.e., which ensures immortality) into you. Once a slave saw a lion suffering with pain when he was fleeing through the forest. He approached it with sympathy and pulled out the thorn that has caused all the pain and left the place. The slave was arrested later and taken to Rome. They decided to throw him into the amphitheatre and let lose upon him a lion that had been recently captured. The lion is same one that slave had saved and so its gratitude did not allow it to harm its saviour. Even the wild animals exhibit gratitude. Be greatful and show gratitude to the Lord for endowing you with power of evaluation, discrimination and detachment.

Lord requires you to stand firm in the face of joy and grief. You are Bhala-Swaruupa i.e., of the Nature of Strength. Weakness, Vacillation and Ddespair will bring dishonour on you. Do not bend, cringe and barter your self-respect. Examine the faults that may lie dormant in you and try to get rid of them. Practise a few of the qualities that you preach such as Charity, Service, Sympathy, Equality and Secularism etc. Do not believe that you are this little lump of body. You are indestructible and immortal Aathma i.e., same nature as the Absolute Reality (Brahman) itself. Your goal is brought near to you when you Rise up, strengthen your detachment and establish yourselves in discrimination.

Make four resolutions about your life hereafter:

(1) Purity        : Desist from wicked thoughts, bad habits, low activities that weaken your self-respect.

(2) Service      : Serve others for they are the reflections of the same entity of which you are.

(3) Mutuality  : Feel always kinship with all creation. See the same current flowing through all the objects

(4) Truth         : Do not deceive yourself or others by distorting your experience.

--SATHY SAI

Omsai Srisai Jaijaisai