Complete Freedom ?

After creating everything, God gave man complete freedom to do as he liked.

However God has imposed a condition.

You may do what you want and enjoy what you desire, but you cannot escape the consequences.

You have to face the result.

Therefore, you alone are responsible for what happens to you.

The good and the bad that happen to you were brought about by you alone.

- quotes from Sai Baba

We are Eternal !

Once there was a poor villager who had a wife and a son. He found it difficult to make both ends meet. To improve his lot, he went to another town leaving his family behind, to take up some business there.

A few months later he decided to return to his native village.

During his last night, he had a dream in which he was a rich man and had five sons.

The next day when he arrived at his native village, he was informed by his wife that his only son had died as he couldn't bear separation from his father.

This man stood unruffled.

His wife then asked him, "Are you not sad over the death of your only son? What has happened to you?"

The poor villager replied, "I know about the tragedy. But I am at a loss to know for whom I should cry. Should I cry for the loss of five sons in the dream there or for the death of the son here?"

Similarly, you should know that one is a day dream and the other is a night dream.

One doesn't exist, when the other is present, but you are present in both the states. You are the experiencer in the waking and dream states.

Then what is the difference between the day dream and the night dream?

The former is bound by factors such as the body, time, action, reason, and duty.

Suppose, one take a bus tour which takes 10 hours and along the way you take in the sights.

Later one is able to share all these experiences as part of our duty.

However , in a dream state these factors do not exist.

How did you travel, and how long does it took to reach your place while your body remains lying in the bed?

So there are differences between the two states, but you are present in both.

So you are eternal.

- adapted from a Q&A session of Sai Baba

Why did God ....

Once a question was asked to Sathya Sai Baba, "God is the creator. He should have created only happiness. Why did He create difficulties and troubles? Pardon me, Swami, for putting this question."

Sai Baba replied :

Without difficulties you can never get happiness. You do not get happiness out of happiness.

No hardships end up in hardship. Without troubles, you will never know the value of pleasure.

For instance, you are spending your time in this air-conditioned room. If you have to know its value, what you should do is to come out and go round in the open space in bright daylight.

You should face all the difficulties as tests of God. A devotee should welcome troubles which are the tests of his devotion and faith. How do you expect a student to be promoted to the next higher class without facing a test? Otherwise, he remains in the same grade. Even a mother would not be able to love her child, if there is no death in her family. Look at an orange fruit. It has an outer bitter skin, but within it you find sweet juice. So, both good and bad co-exist. The bitter skin protects the inner sweet juice. Another thing you will notice is that a thing that gives you happiness now may make you unhappy later. Similarly, an unhappy thing now may make you happy later. So, nothing gives you absolute happiness or unhappiness. A woollen coat in winter makes you happy, but in severe summer it makes your life unpleasant. So also a heater in winter makes you warm but in summer it same equipment makes you very uncomfortable. Therefore, happiness and unhappiness depend on the time, circumstances and position. Pleasure is an interval between two pains. Pain is an interval between two pleasures. If you think of the difficulties and the intensity of suffering in times of sadness the pain doubles. In bad times, you should think of those days and moments when you were happy. Then, the intensity of suffering decreases. You should face all the difficulties as tests of God. A devotee should welcome troubles which are the tests of his devotion and faith. How do you expect a student to be promoted to the next higher class without facing a test? Otherwise, he remains in the same grade.

Supreme Power

Every Man wants to take control of his life.....but the truth is you are not in control.

Someone else is in control - a higher being ..... a Supreme Power whom we call God.

Excessive Enjoyment

We attach too much importance to the well-being of the body - hence the misery.

This world has no permanent happiness for us.

We eat, we drink - in the end the food eats us.

Excessive enjoyment through the senses will result in the senses enjoying us!

We will become incapable of enjoying -- satiated. It is easily apparent that those who over eat get bad livers, stomachs, etc.

The ancient Rishis related that the food angel went to Lord Vishnu with the complaint that people were eating him mercilessly.

Lord Vishnu solved his problem by advising, "Those who eat you unnecessarily -- you eat them!"

So, indulging in excess, loses its power of enjoyment.

An Illusion ?

We never stop to realize that the body will not last forever.

A man went to a fakir and informed him that a certain man was dying.

The fakir asked the dying man's age and was told that he was seventy two years old.

The fakir promptly said, "He has been dying for 72 years now--this is merely his last breath."

A mother considers that her child is growing, but is he?

If he is destined to live for fifty years, then when he is ten, only forty are left.

When he reaches twenty years of age, only thirty years are left.

We can never escape this paradoxical illusion without rising above the body by self-analysis.

In summay, we are dying everyday.

Daddy's Empty Chair

A man's daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray with her father.

When the minister arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows. An empty chair sat beside his bed.

The minister assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit.

'I guess you were expecting me', he said.

'No, who are you?' said the father.

The minister told him his name and then remarked, 'I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was going to show up.'

'Oh yeah, the chair,' said the bedridden man. 'Would you mind closing the door?'

Puzzled, the minister shut the door.

'I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter,' said the man. 'But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but it went right over my head.'

I abandoned any attempt at prayer,' the old man continued, 'until one day four years ago, my best friend said to me:

"Johnny, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. Here is what I suggest : Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Jesus on the chair. It's not spooky because HE promised,
'I will be with you always'. Then just speak to him in the same way you're doing with me right now...'

'So, I tried it and I've liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I'm careful though. If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm.'

The minister was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old man to continue on the journey. Then he prayed with him, anointed him with oil,
and returned to the church.

Two nights later the daughter called to tell the minister that her father had
passed away that afternoon.

Did he die in peace?' he asked.

'Yes, when I left the house about two o'clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me he loved me and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him. But there was something strange about his death. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?'

The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said, 'I wish we could all go like that.'