religious attitude

Message for the Day…” Love, Equanimity,Rectitude and Nonviolence are the Virtues Expected of a True Devotee …”

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Sathya Sai Baba

Some clever people might have this doubt and raise a question: “Can we kill and injure in the name of the Lord, dedicating the act to Him?” Well, how can a person get the attitude of dedicating all activities to the Lord without at the same time being pure in thought, word, and deed? Love, equanimity, rectitude, nonviolence — these are the attendant virtues of the servant of the Lord. How can cruelty and callousness coexist with these virtues? To have selflessness, the spirit of self-sacrifice, and the spiritual eminence required for the dedicatory outlook, one must have first won the four characteristics of truth, peace, love and nonviolence (sathya, santhi, prema, ahimsa). Devoid of these four virtues no one can make any deed a worthy offering at His Feet.

Message for the Day…” Time to shed your ego and greed …”

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Sathya Sai Baba

Egoism and greed are still rampant; hatred has not abated and envy eats into the vitals of society. There is no dearth of scriptural books telling you how to be free from grief. All sacred and holy books including Gita, Bhagavata and Ramayana are available in all languages at a very low cost and most books are sold in more than thousands of copies per day; but there is nothing to indicate that they have been read and assimilated. The breath of the mouth must give an inkling of the food partaken, is it not? But the habits, the conduct, the character of the readers of these books have not undergone any change for the better. Hence each of you must examine your own mental make-up and evaluate whether you have used your discrimination and worldly knowledge to clothe yourself in detachment (vairagya),so that you do not suffer from attachment to things that will fade away.

 

Message for the Day…” Light the Lamp of Spiritual Wisdom to understand the Reality of Life…”

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Sathya Sai Baba

One cannot escape from disquiet as long as the fundamental ignorance persists; mere change of occupation, prompted by the desire for more comfort or the need for satisfying some passing likes will not give lasting satisfaction. It is like hoping to improve matters in a dark room by a mere readjustment of furniture. Instead if a lamp is lit, passage across the room is rendered easier even without readjusting furniture. There is no need to interfere with the furniture at all. So too, in this world, it is difficult to move about truthfully, correctly, and peacefully without knocking against some obstacle or other. How then are you to succeed? Light the lamp of spiritual wisdom (jnana)! Let it reveal the reality! That will solve all the difficulties. You may claim that you live according to dharma, but have you evaluated if your acts are done in a spirit of dedication to the Divine? If so, they will authentically be stamped as‘dharmic’.

Message for the Day…” Practice Concentration and it will stand you in good Stead…’

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Sathya Sai BabaWhen people complain that they cannot concentrate, I laugh, for even the driver of a car is a master of the art of concentration. The taxi driver does not pay heed to the chatter from the seat behind or to the radio. He is watching the road ahead with single-pointed attention. If you have earnestness and faith (shraddha), more than half the battle is won. That is why, Krishna asks Arjuna, “Have you listened to what I have said with one-pointed attention?” Arjuna, even in the midst of the opposing armies in the battle-field, affirmed he listened to the words of the Lord with keen concentration. Practice concentration and it will stand you in good stead. Also, do not mistake the technique for the goal; do not lose your way in the tangle of scholarship. Scholarship and learning are only the means for the mastery of the Mind, to turn it from the Creation to the Creator.

 

Message for the Day…” Adhere to the Law of Truth in Your every Act…”

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Sathya Sai Baba

Why complain that the ground cannot be seen when all the while your gaze is fixed on the sky? Watch the ground and look at the sheet of water that reflects the sky —then you can see, at the same time, the sky above and the earth below. So too, to adhere to the law of truth (sathya-dharma), in your every act, you must see the reflection of the glory of the Divine (Atma);then this attachment to the Lord will transmute your attachment to the world into a pure offering. Adherence to the law of truth is in fact the practice of the immanent Atmic principle. The goal of purity should not be altered or lowered; the essentials should be kept intact. Righteousness (Dharma)does not depend on the various names and forms that its application entails; they are not so basic. Dharma depends more on the motives and the feelings that direct and channelise your every act.

Message for the Day…” Speak only Truth which emerges from Your Heart …”

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Sathya Sai Baba

Speaking truth is the foremost quality of a human being. In fact, truth must dance on your tongue. To speak untruth and talk irresponsibly does not behove a human being. If you indulge in useless and indiscriminate talk, how can it be called truth? Before you speak something, you must enquire whether it is truth or not. Speak only truth which emerges from the heart. The entire world has emerged from truth and everything merges into truth. The clouds moving in the sky sometimes obscure the Sun; once the clouds move away, the resplendent Sun is fully visible. Similarly it is only when the dark clouds of resolutions and confusions in our heart are cleared, truth manifests. The five human values are not independent of each other. They closely follow one another. These qualities are God’s gift to humanity. All human beings must manifest these five human values by practicing them.

Message for the Day…” When ‘dharma’ becomes ‘pseudo- dharma’….”

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Sathya Sai Baba

When the waves of egotist fear or greed drives one into the privacy of the home, the loneliness of the forest, or anywhere else, it is impossible to escape suffering. However in daily practice, when one’s acts are motivated by the basic principle of the reality of the Atma, every act becomes stamped with the seal of dharma (righteousness). On the other hand, when acts are motivated by convenience and selfish interest, the dharmabecomes pseudo-dharma. Why, even the feeling ‘he is a friend’ or ‘she is an enemy’ is an error. This delusion has to be given up. The Lord, the embodiment of love, is the only constant friend, relative, companion, guide, and protector. Know this and live in that knowledge. This is dharma built on the bedrock of understanding, this is life built on the bedrock of dharma.

Message For the Day…” Nothing is Permanent …Only ‘atma’ is Eternal and Immortal …”

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Sathya Sai Baba

You are unnecessarily struggling and planning several schemes, thinking about them day and night. In spite of all your struggles, what has to go out of your hands will go. The body is like a water bubble. The mind is like a mad monkey. If you follow this mad monkey, you will get into trouble. In the same manner, if you believe in the body, you do not know when this body, which is like a water bubble, will burst. Nothing is permanent. Only the Atma (Self) is eternal and immortal. ‘I’, ‘Self’, ‘God’ are all different names by which the Atmaswarupa is called. God incarnated as Rama, Krishna, and the like, and underwent several difficulties to demonstrate great ideals. Finally, they too left the mortal coil. The physical bodies of the Avatars undergo changes, but the Divine Atma in their bodies remains the same. It is omnipresent, eternal and changeless. Divinity in all the human beings is one and the same.

 

3 Coimbatore Boys Have a Plan to Tackle Hunger. It’s so Good They Bagged a $1000 Grant for It….

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Three young boys from Coimbatore have just won an international grant for their project, No Food Waste, which focuses on collecting excess food from events and parties and then distributing among the needy. Here’s more.

In India, over 214 million citizens struggle with hunger, in spite of huge quantities of food being thrown away at various events like weddings and parties.

While many of us still wonder about what can be the solution for this problem, three young boys in Coimbatore have come up with an interesting idea to address the issue.

Meet Padmanaban Gopalan and his two friends, Sudhakar and Dinesh, who started an initiative called No Food Waste. They collect excess food from events like weddings and parties and then distribute it among the hungry in Coimbatore.

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“One day a gaunt elderly lady, emaciated to the bones in a torn saree, approached me for alms, just as I left a wedding reception hall where food was carelessly discarded on used plates simply because the guests could not finish. I couldn’t stand by and watch anymore. I had to do something about it,” says Padmanabhan.

Photo: Pollination Project

Padmanabhan and his friends runs a volunteer-staffed hotline for wedding, banquet, and school organizers, who wish to donate their excess food to the needy.

This effort by the trio has now also received support from a US Based NGO, Pollination Project, who have selected No Food Waste as the best initiative among many others nominated from across the world. The team got a $1000 grant from the NGO to work further on the project. Check out their Facebook page for more details.

The winning organization was finalised based on public voting, out of the 150 applicants that the NGO received.

Padmanaban, the boy behind the initiative.

Photo: Twitter

The voting closed on July 17 and No Food Waste won by a margin of 4,000 votes. Generally, winners are chosen after scrutinising the project, but because it was the 1,000th grant, the NGO authorities planned to launch a public voting system.

Prior to this, the team used to spend money out of their own pockets to package the food and deliver it. They tried to contact many sponsors, but no one took them seriously.

To date, the team has donated about 5,100 excess meals to families and individuals. Padmanabhan now wants to expand this initiative to five nearby cities, with an aim of feeding over 5,000 people every month.

nfw3

Photo: Facebook

Padmanabhan is also planning to launch a mobile application that will enable people to locate areas where extra food can be donated. To spread the word about the initiative, he also visits schools to conduct No Food Waste audits and spread awareness about the cause. He has already helped over 60 local schools in reducing their food waste.

Kudos to the trio for addressing a big issue in such an amazing way, and congratulations for a much deserved victory.

Source….www.thebetterindia.com

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