<http://www.ssso.net/pnews-2015/SI151215.jpg> As your day progresses, as one enters the field of daily work and toil, you are infused with the passionate quality (rajoguna). Before you take your lunch, meditate on the Lord again and dedicate the work, and the fruit derived from it to the Lord Himself. Start eating only after this act... of devotion and grateful remembrance. This is the meaning of the noon (maadhyannika) worship. By observing this ritual, passion is kept in check and is overpowered by the satwic nature. During the day, people are possessed by a third nature, tamas or dullness. When evening descends, one hurries home, eats one’s fill, and is overpowered by sleep. But a duty still remains. To eat and sleep is the fate of idlers and drones. When the worst of the qualities, tamas threatens to rule, one must make a special effort to escape its coils by resorting to prayer in the company of those who extol the Lord, reading about the glory of God, the cultivation of good virtues, and the purposeful nursing of good rules of conduct. This is the prescribed evening worship (sandhyavandana). - Dharma Vahini, Ch 7. Prayer alone makes life happy, harmonious and worth living in this universe.-BABA. <http://www.ssso.net/pnews-2015/SI141215.jpg> Twenty hammer strokes might not succeed in breaking a stone, but the twenty first might. Does this mean the first 20 blows were of no avail? No! Each stroke contributed its share to the final success which was the cumulative effect of all 21 strokes. So too, you...r mind is engaged in a struggle with the internal and external world. Needless to say, you may not always succeed. You can attain everlasting bliss by immersing yourself in good works and saturating your mind with the love of God. Infuse every moment of life with that love. Then evil tendencies will not obstruct you. When your mind dwells with the Lord always, you will be drawn automatically only toward good deeds. The objective of all spiritual practices is to destroy the mind, and some day, one good deed will succeed in destroying it, just like the 21st stroke. Hence no good deed is a waste - every little act counts! - Prema Vahini, Ch 28. There is no greater blessing than having good thoughts. - BABA. <http://www.ssso.net/pnews-2015/SI131215.jpg> To fix your mind on God, activities must be controlled. To successfully control them, you should overcome the handicaps of the gunas - satwa, rajas, and tamas. When these forces of natural impulse predominate and try to direct along their channels, you must pray to God to negate their p...ull. That is the first duty of a good devotee. The rule of nature is that the morning is the period of pure (satwic) quality, the noon of passionate (rajasic) quality, and the evening hour of dusk of dull (tamasic) quality. At dawn, the mind is calm and clear when awakened from the comfort of sleep liberated from agitations and depressions. In that mental condition, meditation on the Lord is very fruitful. This is the purpose of morning prayers (pratah-sandhya). But, ignoring the significance, people do rituals in a blind mechanical way. From now on perform the dawn worship after realising its inner and deeper meaning. - Dharma Vahini, Ch 7. The Lord judges the devotee by the purity of their heart and not by the type of worship they perform. - BABA. <http://www.ssso.net/pnews-2015/SI121215.jpg> Have the Lord’s name within and the practice of your duty (swadharma) without. Even while engaging in selfless service, let your mind repeat the Lord’s Name. When rains pour on the mountain peaks and the water hurries down on all sides, ...no river emerges therefrom. However when the waters flow in a single direction, first a brook, then a stream, then a torrent, and finally a river is formed, and the rains reach the sea. Water that runs in one direction reaches the sea; water that flows in four directions soaks in and is lost. Mental tendencies (samskaras) are like this. Of what use are they if they merely come and go, this way today and that way tomorrow? The holy stream of good inborn desires must flow full and steady along the fields of holy thoughts and finally abide in the great ocean of bliss at the moment of death. - Prema Vahini, Ch 28. The one steady in Wisdom stands closest in the company of the Lord. -BABA <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5y7busPbic> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5y7busPbic> The Golden Jubilee Year - Sai Baba's 50th Birthday Celebrations Documentary (Russian Language) __._,_.___ -- --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "saimsg" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
