Swami asked somebody,Do you know how to live a long life?  Do you know the secret of a long life?

"Swami, I dont know.
Swami said " Its very easy. "
What is it, Swami?
Swami said " Only two things are needed".
What are they?

Bhagawan said, " One is sacrifice and the other is love or prema.  Sacrifice and love will give you long life. Thyaga or sacrifice is the medicine, while love is the diet.  If we take the medicine without following the diet, the disease will never be cured.  If we follow the diet without taking the medicine, we are nearer to the grave.  Unless we have the diet and the medicine together, the disease cannot be cured.  So the medicine of sacrifice and the diet of love ” both are necessary to live a long life.
 
Swami gave an example from the United States  Rockefeller.  Today, in the United States there is the Rockefeller Foundation.  This charity is working all over the United States.  How did this come about?  Rockefeller was fabulously rich -- very, very rich.  He had no time to think of anything other than making money.  He reached the stage where he forgot the amount of money he had because he was so busy.
 
But Rockefeller fell sick at the age of about 48.  And the doctors said, “Look here, you are not going to survive for more than eight or ten months.  You are not going to live much longer.
 
Who said this?  His doctors in the United States spoke this.  Doctors in the U.S. are very, very responsible, to the best of my knowledge, because they will be sued in the courts of law if anything goes wrong.  Then they would have to pay money throughout their lifetime, oh yes -- so they have to be very responsible.
 
So those doctors said," You won't live very long".
 
So Rockefeller started distributing his money to everybody. Educational institutions, medical institutions and many others all over the United States, with the result that he lived for almost 90 years.  A person, who should have left this planet earth 40 years earlier, got an extension of his life.  How is that possible?  Because of his sacrifice.
 
What is required today is for our hearts, which are hard like stone, to melt. Even stones wither and become ordinary sand with continuous exposure to rain and heat.  Similarly, our hearts of stone should melt, seeing people's misery, so we will be prepared to sacrifice.

Source: www.saiwisdom.com

- From the talks given by Shri.Anil Kumar.

OUR LIFE IS OUR MESSAGE.

Sai Ram

 

Does Bhagawan require a letter to get tuned to a devotee’s problem? Answer is a firm “No”. All knowing God that Bhagawan is, He does not require a letter from a devotee to get to know his problem. Letter to Swami was this modern-day Avatar’s uniqueness, yet another sign of His supreme munificence. Before the letter reaches Him, even before the letter is written, our Bhagawan knows the contents in a devotee’s heart.

Prof. N. Kasturi writes how he personally witnessed such an incident inside the interview room proving Bhagawan’s omniscience. Extracted from Sanathana Sarathi June 1960.

Narayana: Narayana is the Lord of Water; (naaram means water). But, what is the water of which He is the Lord? He resides in the heart, and His presence when recognised melts even the stoniest heart and the water emanates from the eye as tears of joy, gratitude and fullness! His Presence is said to have been recognised by man, when he is suffused by sympathy, making him sad while another is sad and joyful when another is filled with joy. Narayana is He who brings tears of joy to the eyes! That is the function of your tear glands: to express internal joy; not to weep like a fool or a coward. - Sri Sathya Sai

“Your letter has not reached Me yet; but, I have read it already. You posted it to Madras, not knowing that I have come back here. I was near you when you wrote it. Your mother must now be very much better; is it not?” This is what Baba wrote to a devotee, some years back. He is Sarvantaryami; He is in all places, at all times.

Our letter did not reach Him. Even when it reaches Him, He need not open it and read the contents!

One day, I happened to be in His room when the post came. When He dropped on the floor one letter unread and unopened, some newly arrived person muttered, “Swami, you have not read that letter. It may be some tale of misery.” Baba smiled and said, “No, No. It is a tale of joy, He says that a son has been born to him; but, he is worried that the baby was born with frontal teeth.” Then, He told us the whole story with the envelope in His hand.

“A Vaisya couple from a village in Telangana had come on a pilgrimage to Puttaparthi a year ago; they prayed that they may be blessed with progeny. I gave the man an apple and asked him to share it with his wife. He took it in his hand and examined it. Finding some marks on the skin, indicating that it might have been bitten by a rat or so, he asked Me what it was, evidently nervous about eating it. I told him that they both could eat it. ‘Only, the baby will have two frontal teeth at birth. Don’t worry.’

He has now written that the child has been born and, (here, He tore open the envelope, took out the letter and turning over the lines showed us the very sentence) “he has asked Me whether any shanti has to be performed, to alleviate what he fears be a calamity!”

Looking at that sentence, we stood amazed, in the resplendent Presence of Bhagawan.

Baba is Sarvajna, Sarvasaktha, Sarvaantaryami.

Source :

http://theprasanthireporter.org/2012/05/with-two-teeth/

OUR LIFE IS HIS MESSAGE

Sai Ram

 

Look at Me closely,
Go beyond the form of the body and look within.
Look within deep and you will see,
That I am nothing but your own reflection.


(Sai Darshan, Part 1 - 15)

 

If man believes in the Fatherhood Of God, then he is bound to follow His precept “All Are One…” fulfilling His dictum, acting upon it, by being “Alike To Everyone…”

Quoting Bhagawan’s precious gems on service to the co-inhabiting world of creatures, Ms. Mercini Sheratt writes about the supreme significance of doing service to animals and other creatures, bringing in interesting tales of rare instincts of love and gratitude shown by the co-existing world of creatures.

“Foster the tiny seed of Love that clings to ‘me’ and ‘mine’, let it sprout into Love for the group around you, and grow into Love for all mankind, and spread out its branches over animals, birds, and those that creep and crawl, and let the Love enfold all things and all beings in all the worlds.  Proceed from less Love to more Love, narrow Love to expanded Love.” (Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. 8, ch. 16)

Once, when presented with seva projects for human beings, Bhagawan said: “What about the animals?  They need help too.  My love embraces the animal kingdom as well as the human kingdom and so should yours……….it should not just be limited to human beings.” (source: Dr. Narendranath Reddy,UK medical conference, September 2011).  To another devotee, He has said, “Real Seva is animal seva”.

Bhagawan tells us that we can learn many good qualities from our animal friends and below, you can see a remarkable act of kindness by one of them:

“Two blind people wanted to drink water at the RagiGudda temple, Bangalore. When they were unable to operate the tap, this mother monkey opened the tap for them, allowed them to drink water, drank some water herself and then closed the tap before leaving the scene.”  (extract from an Indian newspaper)

Please note well!  If a monkey can do this act of kindness for human beings, then can’t we humans also do this for our animal brothers and sisters?  Many people do feed stray animals and wild creatures and birds,  while many more never think of it…………..but hey, what a shining example this monkey is to the human beings who don’t ……she is clearly not ‘speciest’ like many humans or prejudiced against members of other species in need.

No life can be sustained without water or food.  This applies to all life forms and while humans suffer terribly when they do not have enough water to drink or food to eat, so do our fellow creatures……..especially in extreme weather conditions such as the intense and simmering summer heat of summer or freezing winter. And the love and care that we give towards those in animal form is never wasted for the same atma flows through us all.    As Bhagawan says:

“When you love and look after an animal, you help to lift the whole of creation.  If you cannot care for an animal, then at least feed the birds and wild creatures.”

While they may not be able to thank us in words, those who have fed and cared for animals, wild or domestic,  have often experienced their loving gratitude in other ways.  Our love attracts their love and helps us to realise the Oneness behind all forms.

A small example of this occurred at the time of the passing away of Lawrence Anthony, a highly regarded and remarkable conservationist and environmentalist who could communicate heart to heart with elephants.  He had been particularly successful in taming and ‘normalising’ a herd of wild, traumatised and rogue elephants, ‘delinquents, every one of them’ in Zululand, South Africa.  Although he had not seen the elephants for 15 months as he had had to distance them for their own safety, on the day that he died without warning in March 2012, the whole herd appeared out of nowhere and stood silently outside his house as if to pay homage to the human being who had so loved and understood them.  We know that elephants mourn their loved ones and to them, he had become a beloved family member. Somehow, on their jungle telegraph, they had intuited that he had passed away.

A kind and loving soul who has kept a small animal sanctuary for years told me the following story:  Alerted by her dog’s barking one day, she found a wounded baby pigeon beside him which had fallen out of a tree.  She rescued and hand reared it while it lived with her and her other pets for about five weeks……………..then one day, it was ready to leave and join others of its kind.

For 4 years it lived freely, often in her garden.  She could tell which pigeon it was because it recognised its name and was not afraid of her dog, with whom it had lived before.  Then one day, it appeared at her patio door, very sick, walked in, greeted her, the dog and the resident crow in turn and then went into its old cage which was still there.

It settled down and the next day, quietly passed away.  It had come home to die where it knew it was loved and safe.   A few days before it reappeared, she saw the outline of a pigeon on her window pane………..photo below………..rather like an angel bird……………perhaps an omen of what was to come.

An old neighbour of mine used to feed some badgers every night, as indeed many people do……….and I know, because I saw it with my own eyes, that these badgers would announce their arrival in the dark by banging on his patio door.  The food was then served and once they had finished it, they would bang on the patio door again, indicating that they would like a second helping!……..Their visit and their playful antics gave him such delight that it was not a one-way giving……..

“When a devotee seeks with humility and purity to give seva and prema to My creatures who are in need of such selfless service and sublime love;  when he considers all creatures as My children, as his beloved brothers and sisters, as the blessed manifestations of My immanence, then in fulfilment of My role as Sathya Sai,  I descend to help, accompany and carry that yogi.  I am always near such a yogi to guide him and to shower my love upon his life”.

When Australia had a horrendous heatweave in 2009, something happened that had never happened before……….Koala bears, dying from thirst, emerged from the bush and approached human beings asking for   water, so desperate were they to drink that they overcame any fear of humans . ……..luckily, some humans obliged as can be seen in the pictures below…….

They entered houses to drink and ended up cooling down in baths…………..

Like Sathya Sai Baba and Shirdi Sai Baba, St Francis, the Christian saint,   felt great tenderness for the whole of creation.  He not only fed poor and vulnerable people but always fed the birds and other creatures around him too.  At Christmas, he asked the local government to make sure that all the animals around were really fed well, especially ‘my sisters, the larks’………..

Another love-filled soul, Ramana Maharshi, attracted to him through his love, not only human beings but all kinds of animals and birds who also made their home in his ashram.   He even allowed the squirrels to make nests for their families behind his pillow.   Daily, he used to ask “Have the lads been fed today?” referring to the dogs.    At dinner-time, the dogs had to be fed first.  ……then, the beggars and then the devotees….Here, he is, feeding a monkey:

Shirdi Sai, in His love, was happy to share the food on His plate with stray dogs ………..We know how many times He scolded His devotees when they behaved harshly towards a hungry animal and how many times He manifested in that animal form to teach them that God dwells in all forms and to have the same love and respect for all of them.

As everyone knows, our own Sathya Sai Baba loved and kept many animals over His lifetime and there are many stories in which His great love for the animal kingdom is clearly demonstrated.

Lastly, Mohammed, in one the Hadiths, tells the story of an adulterous woman about to be horribly punished.  However, her sin was forgiven her in Allah’s eyes when on seeing a very thirsty dog, she took off her shoe and filled it with water from a well for the dog to drink.  This act of kindness more than compensated for any past wrongdoing.

Anyone deciding to feed stray animals should take note of the fact that onions, garlic, coffee, raisins, grapes, beans, chocolate and some other foods (lists are available online) are dangerous for dogs and cats. While dogs are omnivores and can eat anything, cats are carnivores (sorry! – God made them like that!) and although they may eat anything when very hungry, really need their own kind of food…….  Birds generally eat seeds and nuts.  Water provided should be clean.

Source :

http://theprasanthireporter.org/2012/05/why-do-seva-for-animals/

OUR LIFE IS HIS MESSAGE

Sai Ram