Make your choices wisely.

From Sai Inspires -- Oct 18, 2012 http://media.radiosai.org/sai_inspires/2012/SI_20121018.htm

A merchant was once brought before a magistrate for selling adulterated ghee (clarified butter). Judgment was pronounced and as a punishment he was asked to either consume the entire quantity of the foul ghee or receive 20 whips or pay a fine of 100 gold coins. He preferred the ghee and started drinking the stuff a little bit, but finding the smell unbearable, he then chose the stripes. He received a few but could not stand any more. So finally he pleaded with the magistrate to let him go with the fine and paid his dues. If only he had opted for this initially, he could have avoided the foul drink and the excruciating pain. By swaying in his decision, he had to taste the wreck and the rod. So too, most people do not opt for God in the beginning when grief overpowers them. They do not recognize the inevitability but eventually come to God, sooner or later. Make your choices wisely.

- Divine Discourse, Sep 8, 1966.

Do not yield to despair

If you are patient and calm, I shall grant you joy without fail. Do not yield to despair. Even the infant lotus buds will bloom, in their own good time. -- Baba

Just hold on and hang in there

I came across this today at http://saidivineinspirations.blogspot.in/2012/10/never-give-up.html and felt greatly encouraged. 

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you cannot hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." 


-- Harriet Beecher Stowe

Thick clouds of thought in young age

I came across these lines in a divine discourse transcript in the Sanathana Sarathi magazine last night. I felt greatly reassured on reading it.

"Youth is not permanent. It is a temporary intermediary stage which comes and goes like passing clouds. Do not waste your life by exulting over temporary and ephemeral youth. Youth is very sacred but students try to make it unsacred. You should not waste precious human birth just for ephemeral pleasures.

Youth is the stage when one gets all sorts of excitements. It is necessary to control these passions and excitements by recitation of God's Name and by self-suggestion: "Such unsacred thoughts are not good and proper for me. These are just passing clouds; they will come and go. My life is eternal and these thoughts are ephemeral like passing clouds."

The heart is like the sky, the mind is the moon and the intellect, the sun. Clouds of thoughts come in the sky of heart and cover the sun and the moon. Sometimes, very thick clouds of thoughts come in young age. Then, one cannot see the sun or the moon. 

But how long will the sun or the moon remain invisible? Just for a few moments because these thoughts are like passing clouds. Be patient and the clouds will move away by themselves. Hold on to patience firmly. Do not make haste. Haste makes waste. Waste makes worry. Therefore, do not be in a hurry. Haste is not good particularly at this age; maintain your quietude.
 
-- From Bhagawan's Divine Discourse in Sai Kulwant Hall, Prasanthi Nilayam on 24th June 1996.

Still the mind

"If the desire to communicate with Swami is sufficiently intense and strong, then the mind will be sufficiently quiet for Swami to speak"

From 'Conversations with Sai' - Part 15

http://media.radiosai.org/journals/Vol_03/12DEC01/conversation.htm

Message from the Lord for the start of a new month

Two messages that reassured me today.

"If you are patient and calm, I shall grant you joy without fail. Do not yield to despair. Even the infant lotus buds will bloom, in their own good time."

"Wherever you go and whatever you do, it is known to God even if you think none has noticed it. People start worrying about petty temporary things that are passing clouds and sometimes falter in faith and devotion. This is not correct. You should never give up devotion. Your good work will beget God's grace without fail." 

Proper time for everything - God plans everything 4 ur sake

"There is a proper time and a proper way for your own sake. Sometimes God withholds even a spiritual experience because God does everything for man's good. He never does anything to harm man or give him sorrow. But you must have that faith. "

-- Bhagawan Baba, in 'Conversations with Sai' (Taken from Radio Sai archives)