DO NOT GIVE UP SPIRITUAL PRACTICE

Sai is Sarvajanapriya (beloved to all people) and so any name which gives you joy, you can take up. Tastes differ according to temperament and the character one has earned by generations of activity as a living being in this world. The proprietor of a coffee house goes to the nearby druggist for a pill to ward off his headache, and the druggist when he gets a headache goes to the coffee house for a cup of coffee which he thinks will cure him. Men are like that; tastes of people differ. A man of wisdom says, “Sarvam Brahma Mayam” i.e., “In God is all”; another, a yogi, says all is energy; a third, who is a devotee, says all is the play of the Lord. Each according to his taste and according to his progress in Sadhana (spiritual practice). Do not hurry or ridicule them, for they are all pilgrims trudging along the same road.

Sadhana is most required to control the mind and the desires after which it runs. If you find that you are not able to succeed, do not give up the Sadhana but do it more vigorously, for it is the subject in which you did not get passing marks that requires special study, is it not? Sadhana means inner cleanliness as well as external cleanliness. You do not feel refreshed if you wear unwashed clothes after your bath, do you? Nor do you feel refreshed if you wear washed clothes, but skip the bath. Both are needed, the external as well as the internal.

Children believe your words when you say that the policeman will catch them or the ghost will beat them. They are full of fear, fortitude and faith! But having grown old and stuffed your heads with all kinds of doctrines and dogmas and theories and arguments, you have now to use your viveka (discrimination) and discover God the hard way. This I will tell you, there is no escaping it; all creatures have to reach God some day or other, by the long route or by the short route. — Baba

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