To the Mothers

Discourse of Sathya Sai Baba, Bangalore, 10 Jul 1974
Published by Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust
Web posted at Jun 20, 2002

Many of you sit in Dhyaana (meditation) and after some time start complaining, "O Why is it I am not able to concentrate? Bhagavaan! Help me to fix my mind on you!" Do not get impatient and bewail. Feel rather that you must make the mind pure and clean, so that God Himself will be tempted to possess it. He is the Chora (thief) of the heart. When thieves enter the house, they select things of value; they will not bother about firewood or charcoal bags! God too when He comes in the role of a thief, looks for the most precious thing, the thing He values most, the thing you have taken most pains to foster. He carries away the pure thoughts, the deeds soaked in the sweetness of sympathy and compassion, the feelings of love that do not crave requite. God is no ordinary thief!

This thief makes people richer by His theft! Richer in happiness, serenity and self-esteem. This thief is loved the more, the more He steals! He wakes up the sleeping and then steals what the household has kept for Him. Many times, the people pretend to sleep so that He may come and steal the things they have kept for that very purpose. He calls out: "Thasmaath Jaagratha, Jaagratha!" - "Therefore, wake up, wake up;" and then, He carries away the treasure He seeks and finds.

What is taught must be imprinted on the Heart

You have that treasure in you; but you do not know it; hence, you do not keep it ready for Him. You feel you have nothing to give Him, and that you are poor and downtrodden. Once you offer the heart to God, there is no more wail or want.

Those of you who are not affluent, have to borrow some vessels for cooking the marriage feast from some rich neighbour or acquaintance. Or, you may hire them from some institutions which keep such big vessels for helping others. The code of conduct, whether you borrow or hire, is: Clean the vessels before returning them; they have to be given back just as they were brought from the owner. Cook in them; then, cleanse them before you restore them intact to the person who lent them.

The immortal beings, who have assigned for themselves, this role, this venture of celebrating a 'lifetime on earth,' have as it were, borrowed a 'heart' from God! - the supreme giver, in a clean condition. When finally you give it back, see that they are as clean and pure as when He gave them. That is the code of conduct; or else, He will not accept them!

Even experienced teachers nowadays delight in the mere injection into the brains of the children under their care the components of the text books! For, they endeavour only to push them through the 'examinations;' so, it is just a question of guessing correctly the questions that might appear in the paper and mugging up the answers for just those! Once the boys and girls have written the things which their heads have been stuffed, they return home, with heads emptied and hollow. What you teach must, however, be imprinted on the heart, not stacked in the brain. That will mould their character and make them useful for themselves and society.

Take the examples of Dhruva. His stepmother told him that he can win the favour of the king, his father, only through God's grace, which he has to win through penance! So, the five-year-old boy went into the forest and practised austerities that were unparalleled in history! As a result of the penance, his desire was so sublimated that, in the end, he declared, "I do not care for royal favour, or even the worldly throne! I shall attain the kingdom of God; I shall sit in the lap of God." Thus, he rejected the lordship over humans and preferred the joy of being a child of God, with God.

Recognise the great Potentials of the Child

In the tender hearts of the children, there is much potentiality of devotion and attachment to higher ideals and objectives; this can be enveloped and cultivated by you. Do not think that they do not know anything; that you can divert them any way you wish; this is a mistake. Recognise the great potentials of the child; adopt such methods as the child himself might suggest or indicate. Help the child to reach godliness and become aware of its high destiny. Do not presume that the child is some inferior personality or that is incapable of attaining the heights.

The parent's themselves are not competent to guide the children; they dote on them and do not know how to correct them, they have reprehensible habits and ways of life. They smoke, play cards, gamble, drink, and fight in the home; they utter falsehoods, talk scandal, boast and slander, in the presence of the children. How then can they lead their children on right lines? You will have to persuade such parents to mend their ways and be inspiring examples, rather than enemies and obstacles.

But, before you advise the parents see that you have no defect to which they can point their fingers! Learn the right to advise, before you venture on the mission. First, set right your own homes; see that the atmosphere of the home is free from hatred, pride, slander and greed; see that love is the flywheel of the home, that faith in God is the bedrock on which the relations between the members are built.

India stand forth as the Teacher to Humanity

Indian traditions and Indian modes of living are now being fast cast away; crude manners of dress and speech and personal appearance are replacing them; children should be taught to look upon these with disgust, they should know them for what they are - aberrations and vulgarities! Now, obscene posters are pasted along the roads by cinema theatres in order to attract fans; they contaminate character very subtly and silently; children must make the elders ashamed when they permit such demeaning and deleterious posters to appear in public view! They have to waken the elders into a sense of shame, at the lowering of human values. Unless we plant these ideals in the children, India will go down to the depths of degradation.

How can you tolerate these obscene pictures, these posters publicising pornographic films, this most objectionable type of dress, this brazen behaviour and appearance? Do everything possible to root out this evil. Train the children and the young, to remove this blot, from the face of Bhaaratha Maatha (mother India).

India stands forth as the teacher to humanity, thanks to the virtue, the fortitude, the moral strength of the women of the past and the present. You have to maintain these qualities and foster them so that she might hold her head high among the nations of the world.

Children are the Roots of the national Tree

Establish the status of the mother in the home, as the upholder of spiritual ideals and therefore, the Guru of the children. Every mother must share in this effort - the expansion and steady manifestation of the God-consciousness latent in every child.

Children are the crops growing in the fields, to yield the harvest on which the nation has to sustain itself. They are the pillars on which the foundation of the nation's future is built. They are the roots of the national tree, which has to give the fruits of work, worship and wisdom to the next generation.

The Sathya Sai Baala Vikaas has been evolved in order to feed these roots, strengthen these foundation pillars and fertilise the growing crops. Children are now growing up in an atmosphere polluted by corruption, anxiety and hollow pomp, because people are enamoured of the shallow material culture, mainly imported from the West. Parents and teachers and even the leaders of the nation are devoid of admiration and adoration, understanding and practice of the basic principles of Bhaaratheeya culture; children are denied the precious heritage which is their due; they are inducted into alien ideals, thoughts and habits. They are praised for reciting foreign nursery songs, to the neglect of native rhymes! The educated child cuts himself away from the village child or the children of the unschooled.

The older persons have but a little distance to travel, before they disembark. But the children, remember, have many miles to go and they take the nation along with them, to perdition or progress! The Rishis (sages) of old knew the value of our culture and the deep peace and security that the heritage of the culture can give in times of turmoil and strife. They prescribed three disciplines for every one, young or old. They declared, "Maathru Dhevo Bhava, Pithru Dhevo Bhava, Aachaarya Dhevo Bhava." So long as a nation grows up with these three noble ideals, it can never be pulled up by its roots and get dried up. For, adoration of the mother as divine, of the father as God and of the preceptor as God will make the growing generation cherish the heritage, which is handed down by them and through them. The generation gap will not be an unbridgeable chasm.