This is what I have learnt from Baba Sai through His guidance to others and to myself.

Baba Sai believes that if you live by example and thus through example can teach others how to spread the Light and the Fragrance of The One then we have begun our journey to The Goddess as we have begun to really live.

Baba Sai says that if we can spread the Light of love and compassion, even though there is nothing but nothingness within us, then that is the way how one is to live. If we can be happy in the happiness of others and we can feel the pain of those in anguish and try to heal them through our prayers, thoughts, words and actions, then that is how one needs to live.

He guides that if we can walk through the doors of hell so that others can pass through the gates of heaven, then that is how we should live.

He encourages us to give with such grace that we make the one receiving, feel loved and respected, then that is how we give and thus that is how we must live.

If we can convince others to walk the Path of compassion and nobility, then it is through their Light that we shall live, preaches Baba Sai.

Baba Sai often in channeling tells people, ‘live a good and a honest life.

Don’t spread hate. Don’t slander. Give your best to each moment and leave the rest to The One. That is the only thing which counts. No religion. No doctrines. Nothing else matters but to live peacefully and let live peacefully’. This is how we live.

I have been taught that we have come from The One and that to fall is also the stepping stone to rise, and to rise is to make others who have fallen rise too and life is about giving, sharing, loving and knowing that no matter what, S(H)e resides in all of us and in a strange way we reside in The One all the time. This is how we need to live.

No matter how dark the night may be, a candle or a small flame is good enough to dispel darkness. Become that flame. This is how we should live.

Nobody is as Pure as The One who is beyond all prejudices and slander. And that if we believe that all of mankind and all of Creation is Created by the Primordial Goddess, then how can that Parent discriminate amongst Her own children? If you believe that the Goddess has Created mankind, then why would the same Goddess debar one child from His or Her home. When we begin to think and live this way it shall lead us to come forth from compassion and generosity of spirit and this is how we are meant to live.

That Kindness means coming forth from compassion. Kindness towards all means coming from compassion towards all. Compassion is not spoken much about or given its true importance. When we come from compassion even our anger has a fragrance to it. When we come from ego, even our benevolence has a stench to it. And He/She cautions us that we can be most virtuous in every way but if that virtue doesn’t have the fragrance of love, compassion and kindness then that holds no value in spirituality, so come forth from kindness. This is how we live.

Baba says that if we are not compassionate we could have the knowledge and power of all the three worlds and yet we would be far away from the Path. Empathy makes us understand where the other person is coming from. We begin to take into account every possible thing that could make another person behave, speak or think in a particular manner. When we consider something from another person’s perspective we begin to understand where the other person comes from and once we do that, though you could be right and the other completely wrong, we will be able to handle the situation in a far calmer manner. We will at least acknowledge that what we see as number nine from our side of the table can be read as number six by the one sitting opposite us. The problem starts when we insist that the other person should also see the number as nine. Thus, coming from compassion or empathy is the way forward to resolve the problems between two individuals, between family, friends, and acquaintances and between two armies at war with each other. There are times when there are no rights and wrongs. It just depends on which side of the table one is seated. Courtesy is a polite way of saying we are all one and we should all move in one direction. This is how we must live.

Baba says that it is a blessing to be filled with positive energy. Those who are full of positive energy, give each moment their hundred percent and though they may not be materially rich or successful but they possess the monarch of possessions, to be in a state of optimism no matter what, as wealth may come and go, but this quality of being filled with positivity and an attitude of never giving up, shall take us all through life with one’s head held high. Baba Sai says that the very heavens rejoice as this is how we must live.

Our Sai, Sage Tiruvalluvar, The Perfect Ones, all are firm on the fact that there is no better way to deal with hardship and misfortune than by being calm, brave and unperturbed. Countless times Baba has told me and I have repeated it till my tongue has got ulcers that joyous acceptance and giving our best to life is the most spiritual way to embrace life on earth as well as in the spirit world. This is how we must live.

He believes that one’s attitude towards wealth, success, the physical body, the very future will decide whether we are going to achieve a state of peace even in adversity. For example, if an individual is aware that one’s body is not who s(h)e is and giving the body the respect it deserves but not getting entangled with the demands of the body releases us from serious grief, karma and degeneration and that individual who doesn’t identify himself or herself with the body, such an individual will be able to go through life in a state of calmness. This is how we should live.

Also being aware that happiness and sadness, success and failure, ups and downs, are a natural way of life, we will be able to go through the highs and lows gracefully. Sai Maharaj often says that only those who do not consider anything unjust or play the victim and can accept their lot with graceful surrender, will be respected not only by their adversaries and by the very Gods Themselves. This is how we must live.

When we renounce greed, then our mind and heart is free from the temptations of those things which we felt greed for. When we internally desire to embrace something it is easier than deciding to abstain from something. It is not about letting go of anger but rather about embracing peace. Not about letting go of greed but embracing contentment. It is easier to embrace peace, calmness and contentment than letting go of hate, anger and greed. This is how we must live.

When we let go of an obsession, in reality we set our self free. Let us say that we desire love and respect from a loved one and when we don’t get it, it saddens or makes us sink into depression. But let us say that one day we decide to drop this need to be loved back or be appreciated, the moment we truly let go of the need for being loved, not only are we free from regular pain, hurt and depression but that individual loses the power to cause us pain or sorrow. So if we want embrace peace and want calmness and tranquility in our lives more than we need self gratification of even being loved or appreciated we are the ones who eventually gain from that renunciation. This is how we have to live, says Baba.

Life is all about working towards excelling our own self. Don’t waste life trying to compete with anybody else, says Baba Sai. Each one is one’s greatest opponent and supporter and we have our own milestones to reach and conquer. As somebody has said, become the best version of yourself. I truly wish we raise the bar where mediocrity has no place. When Baba says mediocrity He doesn’t mean the quality of our work. He equates mediocrity with not giving our best to each moment. Not giving the best to each moment means not doing all that we do with complete honesty, dedication and love. If we do not live life like that then we are wasting away our life operating from mediocrity. The one who has relinquished self respect is the one who has embraced mediocrity. We need to strive to be better human beings. More giving, kinder, compassionate human beings, which is the only way to be and to live.

Not being in control of the tongue has got more people into the abyss of hell than most of the other known sins. There are more inhabitants in the lower dimensions that one calls hell because of the wrong use of the tongue than for any other reason. Do not underestimate the power of kind speech and using the least offensive words even when one is consumed by anger. When there are ten ways of telling somebody to leave the room, why should we choose the most offensive sentence amongst the ten alternatives? Like, my grandmother would often tell me, that ‘when a spoon of sugar can do the needful why do you want to use three bottles of vinegar’. Nothing hurts another so often as the use of wrong words and nothing leads to more karma and being chained further to the laws of cause and effect as thoughts and words. Tread with caution. Having control over one’s emotions, one’s temperamental outbursts, one’s speech and knowing when and how to say what and to whom is the right way to live.

If we can be calm and not react to those who are against us or who are our adversaries or those who are jealous of us, we have already reached a very high state of spiritual growth. To be able to be calm not out of fear or any other reason but because it is wrong and thus we refuse to be pulled into the sewage of hate, ignorance, disgust, itself is a sign of tremendous spirituality, maturity and wisdom. Sages have often failed in this sphere. Baba and Sage Tiruvalluvar say that those who abstain from food and are on the path of self cleansing and they are great and noble but still not as high as those who calmly endure the malicious speech of the ignorant, the envious, the petty. When we can rise above the pettiness of others and our own selves, then that is a sure way to be on the Path and the right way to live.

Baba has often inquired as to what are the mind sets of jealousy and envy. Eventually both of them come forth from greed. Why are we jealous of somebody’s success or wellbeing? It is because we want what the other person has or has been endowed with. Not only do we want what the other person has but we also wish that only we had it and not the other person. Jealousy means being envious, covetous and resentful of what others possess. It creates bitterness, spite, dark energies and attracts negativity and filth. Dark forces come rejoicing towards those who sip from the goblet of envy and jealousy. It is satan’s most prized goblet.

Each person eats out of his or her fruits of karma. Which means if somebody possesses something, it means that person in some lifetime has worked towards acquiring that thing. Cosmos does not dish out free meals. Each one has to work for everything that one possesses. If somebody has a quality or strength or wealth of some kind, that individual in some life time has toiled to gain that thing. To be jealous of somebody else’s life or gain or success is thus an act of self destruction as we are questioning the greatest law of our Creator. The law of as ‘you sow thus you shall reap’.

We can’t harvest roses when we have sowed weeds. We being jealous of somebody is like us wanting and throwing a tantrum over something that we do not deserve as yet. But there are people who have everything but are still jealous. They belong to the category of being miserable because somebody else is happy. It is a disease of the soul. The degeneration of the life force within. When we are happy in the happiness of others, our karmas are cleansed automatically. When we are unhappy for the wellbeing of others-*-, we add weight to our own karma and dig pitfalls on our own path. One of the most profound thoughts of Sage Tiruvalluvar is that those who are envious shall never achieve true greatness.

Baba believes that those who are envious are not only without any dignity and greatness but they are the ones who resort to slandering, gossip and back biting. Those who resort to slander are like pigs who eat their excreta.

Those who are without envy and jealousy shall always be blessed with divine greatness; to truly be happy for everybody’s success, wealth, happiness and glory of the moment. This is the way to live.

Now let us make one thing clear. When we discuss a situation with our loved ones or discuss another individual we are not slandering. There are times we want to pour our hearts out. Nothing wrong in that but the question is with whom? Why? How honest have we been? Have we revealed the entire truth? Are we certain that whoever we are pouring out our frustration to is not going to talk about it to others? Are we trying to change an opinion of somebody by slandering another? Do we really know the entire situation and all the sides to the situation? Are we judging that person while slandering that individual? Do we want to put somebody down to feel good about our self? Are we going to cause harm to that individual by speaking behind his or her back? Can we destroy that person’s opportunities of growth or happiness by maligning the individual? Are we truly going to feel better by putting somebody else down? Is it going to make our Goddess, God, Guru proud of us? Have we considered every corner stone and point and still feel that it is alright to speak about another in his or her absence where the person cannot give his or her point of view and justification of his or her conduct? If we would only truly understand the ramification of slandering and gossiping we would think a thousand times before speaking ill about another. If we have considered all these above points and then decide to speak or to remain silent, that is the way to live, according to Baba.

The right way to live, be it because of karma or because we love our Creator, is to live in a state of contentment of what has been kept in store for us and our lot. Be truly happy for the wealth and success and wellbeing of others. Be heartbroken seeing the pain and suffering of every being. Share what we have. Take care of those who are less fortunate and protect the weak and the meek. Give our best to each moment and leave the rest truly joyously to our Goddess, God, Guru, and if you don’t believe in somebody, then leave the rest to the philosophy of ‘so be it’. Be humble, spread happiness, joy and spend time in calm silence. Pray that we always live being filled with the Light and that we always spread the Light not only to our self, but to our loved ones, and for all those who need help and comfort; chanting the Name of the One, becoming one with our breath and the moment and with the silence and stillness within. Just be a decent human being. For me all of scriptures on one side and being a decent and humane being on the other, and I shall gravitate towards the latter.

This is the way to live and yes this is the way to be.

Be blessed always.

JAI BABA