Thought for the Day.Live-in-Japan.com

Date	Thought for the Day
2008-08-30	To realise God, it is not necessary to have wealth, gold, luxuries or scholarship. All that is needed is pure devotion. Without purity of thought, word and deed, it is impossible to experience the Divine. God cannot be realised through ostentation and conceit. The basic requisite is the shedding of selfishness and possessiveness so that one can engage oneself in actions in a disinterested spirit. Any person is entitled to embark on this quest irrespective of age, caste or gender.
2008-08-29	The questions that haunt us and while we live are - from where have we come? To where are we proceeding? How did the universe originate? All religions try to answer these questions. Man has set down in all lands certain rules and regulations in order to secure orderly and smooth running of his daily schedule of activities, directed to the actual process of living. Since they have become part of the code of conduct, they are also described as 'Discipline'.
2008-08-28	Never use foul words against another. Such words should never defile your tongue. Remember that there is God inside your heart, as well as in the hearts of everyone around you. He sees and hears everything. When you use harsh, angry and foul words against another, the God in you and the God in the other person is hurt. The tongue is a tool with which you can harm yourself and others too. So, be very careful; use it only for your good and for the good of others. The best way to use it is by speaking kind words, repeating the Name of God and singing His Glory.
2008-08-27	Man does not live by food alone. In fact he lives by the power of the Atma. So you must use your strength of body and mind, wealth and education with intelligence, in order to realize the power of the soul. Without discrimination, what is the use of physical strength? Everyday, when you take food, you are offering eatables to the Fire that God has put in you to digest food. You have to eat in a prayerful mood, in profound gratitude. The Bhagavad Gita says that the fire that cooked the meal is God; the meal is God, the eater is God; the purpose of eating is to carry on the work entrusted by God, or pleasing to God; and the fruit of that work is progress towards God.
2008-08-26	One's actions decide one's destiny. It is of no avail to blame others for one's misfortune and misery. Nor is it correct to blame God as being partial or cruel. When one plants the seed of a bitter fruit, one can only expect a bitter fruit to grow. God is only a witness to the chain of causes and consequences. The way to escape this predicament is by dedicating every act to God in a spirit of detachment.
2008-08-25	Be thankful to the Lord that He gave you Time, as well as action to fill it with. He gave you food, as well as hunger to relish it. But, that does not entitle you to engage yourself in action without discrimination. When you build a house, you install a door in front to admit all who are welcome and keep out those are not. You do not keep the doors wide open for all and sundry to come in as and when they please. Similarly, screen the impulses and motives that enter your mind; keep out the demeaning, the debasing, the deleterious. Admit only the highest wisdom of the scriptures, the wisdom culled out of the crucible of the experience of the ancient sages.
2008-08-24	The supreme message of the life of Lord Sri Krishna is the uniqueness of the Prema Tattwa (Principle of Love). This message is all the world needs. Krishna is the embodiment of love. This love can be understood only through love. It is strong, brilliant and unbreakable like diamond. It is extremely precious. If you want to secure such divine love, your love for God must be equally strong. You can cut diamond only with diamond. Love begets love. Hatred can only beget hatred. Jealousy begets jealousy. Anger breeds anger. Therefore, if you want to foster love, you have to get rid of hatred, jealousy and anger.
2008-08-23	Why is man so pathetically afflicted today with fear and anxiety? Are we to search for the reasons outside us or do they lie within us? The reason lies in the false emphasis we have laid on things of the material world, ignoring matters of the spirit. The body that man bears is essentially a receptacle of God. It is a temple where God is installed, where God is the Master. Hence, it does not behove you to pander to its every whim. Instead, realise it to be a very valuable instrument in your journey to God.
2008-08-22	Man has springs of joy and peace in his heart, even as a child. Cultivate them, give them fullest freedom to gush forth and fertilize all fields of activity, that is the real purpose of education. Man is born to be perpetually happy, but he is always in misery. This is tragic; it is like the man who died of thirst though he was standing knee-deep in the running stream. The source of happiness is in you. Real education has to teach man how to tap this spring of joy.
2008-08-21	God is the great Unseen, the vast Unknowable. Though you do not see the roots or know how deep inside the earth they are, you pour water round the trunk, so that it may reach them. You expect that the roots will absorb the water and the tree will grow and yield fruit. Recognise that similarly there is God as the very basis of Creation; pray to Him, and He will shower fruit.
2008-08-20	Education has to cultivate humility and discipline; but today it is yielding a harvest of pride and envy. ‘Vidya’ means: ‘Vid’ (Light) and ‘Ya’ (that which gives). So education has to shed light and illumine the darkness in the mind and the intellect. It does not indicate mere bookish knowledge. It has to clarify the kinship of man with man and his intimate relationship with nature. It must harmonize one's earlier experiences with one's present ones, and guide one to beneficial experiences in the future. It must validate the knowledge gained from the books by the experiences and in the process make man grow, until he becomes Divine.
2008-08-19	The very first Sadhana (spiritual exercise) one must adopt is the cultivation of inner silence, to put an end to the continuous dialogue with the mind. Let the mind rest for a while. Do not project on the mind irrelevant details or pollute it with fumes of envy and greed. Every idea we entertain, either good or bad, gets imprinted on the mind. An element of weakness and unsteadiness is thus introduced in the mind. Keep the mind calm and clear. Do not agitate it every moment by your non-stop dialogue.
2008-08-18	Many of you have problems of health or mental worry of some sort or the other. They are mere baits by which you have been brought to My presence, so that you may obtain My grace and strengthen your faith in the Divine. Problems and worries are really to be welcomed as they teach you the lessons of humility and reverence.
2008-08-17	The greater the number of desires, the lesser the happiness you will experience. Be contented. A discontented man loses everything; only a contented man can experience real joy. The happiness in one's life will be in inverse proportion to one's desires. In the journey of life, as in a railway journey, the lesser the luggage (desires) one carries, the greater the comfort.
2008-08-16	Life has to be an incessant process of repair and reconstruction, of discarding evil and developing goodness. Paddy grains have to be de-husked in order to become edible as rice. Cotton has to be converted as yarn to become wearable cloth. Gold nuggets have to be heated in the crucible to remove the impurities. Man too, must purify his impulses, emotions and desires and cultivate good thoughts, words and deeds so that he can progress spiritually.
2008-08-15	Devotion to one's motherland is as important as devotion to God. When integrity and patriotism are developed in an individual, his vision becomes broad and his outlook balanced. The motherland is not just a place on the map or an extent of land or a collection of names; it is verily the Mother who feeds the body as well as the mind. It teaches the art of progressing towards the supreme goal of life, namely, self-realization. It is thus the embodiment of both Lakshmi (Goddess of prosperity) and Saraswathi (Goddess of knowledge).
2008-08-14	The blazing fire of Jnana (wisdom) which convinces you that all this is Brahman (God), will consume in to ashes all traces of your egoism and worldly attachment. You must become intoxicated with the nectar of union with Brahman. That is the ultimate goal of Dharma (righteousness) and Karma (action).
2008-08-13	A devotee, filled with the love of the Lord, welcomes what may appear as punishing as something intended for his good. Even when the Lord appears to be angry, His compassion is evident. Even in punishment God's kindness will be seen. Hence no one should cherish grievance that he or she has been singled out for punishment. Even punishment is a means of leading one to God. The display of anger is for safeguarding the devotee. The true devotee is one who recognises this truth and welcomes whatever happens to him as intended for his good.
2008-08-12	Whatever the crisis, however deep the misery, do not allow your grip over the mind to get loose. Tighten it further, fixing your eyes on the higher values. Do not allow the mind to stray away from the tabernacle of the heart. Make it bow before the Atma within.
2008-08-11	Impure gold is melted in the crucible and it emerges shining and bright. The mind rendered impure by Rajas (passion) and Tamas (sloth), by anger and conceit, by the impressions of a thousand attachments and desires, can be made bright and resplendent if it is put in to the crucible of Vicahara (enquiry) and heated on the coals of Viveka (discrimination). The brightness is due to the light of Realization, the knowledge that you are the Atma.
2008-08-10	When you repeat the Name without feeling, it seldom reaches the mark. The Name of the Lord must be recited with awe and wonder, humility and reverence. The bow has to be drawn full before the arrow is released; then it will pierce the target. Feeling is the force that draws the strings taut and makes the Name reach the deity, the bearer of the Name.
2008-08-09	Many feel that it is human to err and that Bhagawan should forgive their lapses. In fact, if they were truly human, they should not commit mistakes at all. Even if sometimes a mistake is committed, willingly or unwillingly, it should not be repeated. It is a grievous error to think that it is natural for a human being to err. To follow the directives of the senses is the mark of an animal. To be guided by the Atma is the sign of a human being. None should attempt to justify his or her weaknesses and lapses as natural to a human being. They should be regarded as signs of mental debility. When you have truly acquired sense-control, you will experience the power of the Divine in you.
2008-08-08	Man seeks joy in far places and peace in quiet spots; but, the spring of joy is in his heart, the heaven of peace is in him. Even when he walks on the moon, man has to take with him his fears, his anxieties, his prejudices and his pet aversions. Have faith in God, and in the correctness of moral living. Then, you can have peace and joy, whatever may be the fare that fortune offers you.
2008-08-07	Discrimination is very essential in life. One must always inquire, “Is it good or bad?” and “Is it right or wrong?” We must accept the good and discard the bad. It is not enough that discrimination be practiced only for physical objects. We must use discrimination in our vision – in what we see. We must show discrimination in our words, in what we listen to, in our thoughts and, of course, in our actions and in our behaviour. Only then will the word ‘discrimination’ acquire significance.
2008-08-06	Whoever subdues his egoism, conquers his selfish desires, destroys his baser feelings and impulses and gives up the natural tendency to regard the body as the self, he is surely on the path of Dharma (righteousness). The goal of Dharma is the merging of the wave in the ocean, the merging of the self in the Higher self.
2008-08-05	The body, the sense organs, the mind and the intellect are the instruments for a human being. Only when one understands the secrets of these instruments will one be able to comprehend the Atmic Principle. If you cannot understand the vesture you are wearing, how can you understand the mystery of the infinite, indwelling Spirit? The body is the basic instrument for all the actions in life and for the acquisition of all knowledge and skills. The body should be regarded primarily as an instrument for the realization of the Divine. Attachment to the body for physical pleasures should be given up. It is essentially sacred and precious for it is the abode of the Atma and should be used only for sacred purposes.
2008-08-04	Look at the clouds that wander across the sky. Note that they have no intimate lasting relationship with the sky, which they hide for a short while. Such is the relationship between your body and you; you who are of the nature of Paramatma (God) and the body which is but a temporary, passing cloud that hides the Truth.
2008-08-03	The fact that in every being there is the Supreme is an inescapable reality. God will not be released if denied or enter if invited. He is there, in the very 'Being' of every being. This is the truth and if you want to know it and experience it, develop the vision of the Jnani (wise person). Just as the telescope enables you to see things that are far away, the 'Jnanascope' is essential to see Brahman (divinity) immanent in everything.
2008-08-02	The impure impulses bind you to the wheel of Samsara (worldly existence) and tie you down to this earth. The giant tree called mind has two seeds: Vasana (impulses) and Prana (life breath). The seed grows in to the tree, the tree yields the seed. The Prana moves because of the Vasanas. The Vasanas operate because of the Prana. But if beneficent Vasanas are encouraged, they will not bind the mind. They are like seeds that are fried, which will not sprout. These Vasanas are characterised by such activities as the association with holy persons, reverence for the guru, charity, fortitude, love, patience, truth, courage, sense control, etc.
2008-08-01	Only those who have filled themselves with love and have lived in the light of that love are called men. Those devoid of love are demons. Those saturated with love are incapable of spite, selfishness, injustice, wrong and misconduct. But in those who have no love, the above qualities are predominant. By love is meant love which is unsullied, unselfish, steadfast and devoid of impurity.

Total Number of thought for the day: 30