Heart is the inside. ‘Art’ is outside. Heart is inside. Heart is the ‘consciousness’. (CWBSSB, p. 112)
A tender heart is more valuable than material possessions, when moral and spiritual excellence is gained,the divinity in man becomes patent. (SSS Vol.14, pp. 285-286)
Our whole life is aRamayana. Our heart is a meeting place for the good and the bad. Without there being some bad, there cannot be good alone. By the presence of both bad and good, bad will try to suppress the good to some extent, we must an effort to see that the good in us is not suppressed that way. (SSB 1977, p. 164)
The Vedas and Shastras declare that in every person’s heart there resides the twin natures of goodness and wickedness. When goodness predominates and is given full authority, the person will possess joy, peace and prosperity of all types. When wickedness predominates and is given full authority the person will be attacked by all types of adversity. When the vile nature is overwhelming in one’s nature, he condemns as enemies those who offer good advice and try to promote his good. (RKRV Part II, p. 165)
The heart has to be pure. Constant recollection of the glory and majesty of God, who is the In-dweller, through the instrumentality of the name helps to purify the heart. That is the B12 Vitamin that promotes spiritual health. There is no need for any other tablet. (SSS Vol.7, p. 2)
A cleansed heart is the most appropriate altar, or tabernacle. In that fragrant bower, the Lord will establish Himself; at that very moment another incident too will happen; the group of six vices that had infested the place will quit without so much as a farewell. (Bhag Vahini, p. 5)
When these vices quit, the wicked retinue of evil tendencies and vulgar attitudes, which thrive on them, will break camp and disappear, without leaving even their addresses! Then, man will shine in his native splendour of Truth and Love (Satya and Prema); he will endeavour, without hindrance, to realise himself; and finally he will succeed in merging with the Universal and Eternal. He will liberate himself from the tangle of ignorance, of Maya. His mind will fade away; the long-hidden secret will be revealed to him; he will discover his Madhavatva (Divinity). (Bhag Vahini, p. 5)
The heart should be set on achieving the task of realising the Lord within you, as the motivator. The Lord comes in human form to show this. (SSS Vol.4, p. 33)
Students! Develop largeness of heart. The heart is not a physical organ. It derives its name ‘Hridaya’ from the fact that it is the seat of compassion (Daya). Develop compassion for all. Go forward from the narrow feelings of °’I’ and ‘mine’ to ‘We’ and ‘Ours’. (SS Aug 87 , August 1987 , p. 208)
‘The occasion at Dharmakshetra was: I asked that about a hundred saris be brought so that I could select some for distribution to the women workers at Anantapur who were helping build the Sathya Sai College there. I selected 96 and asked them to return 4 to the shop. I kept the 4 aside and the 96 were placed in My room. Later, when I passed the table on which the four discarded saris were kept, (Hislop was standing by the side of that table), it was noticed that the cardboard box, which contained the four, was dripping tears! The saris were weeping that they could not get appreciation from Me and were declared unfit. Yes! They had shed tears! You may ask whether this is ever possible; I answer, there is nothing in this world, which has no heart, which is incapable of feeling joy or grief! Only, you must have the eye to see, the ear to listen, the heart to respond.’ (Uniq, p. 78)
Your heart is like the lock; and your mind is the key. Turn the key to the left, it gets locked; turn it to the right, it becomes unlocked. Similarly, turn your mind towards worldly matters; you become bound to the wheel of Samsara (cycle of births and deaths). Turn it towards God, you attain liberation. (Uniq, p. 147)
The heart of the human being is like the sky in which the ‘Self’ is the sun shining constantly. Just as passing clouds obstruct the vision of the sun temporarily, attachment to world and worries and troubles will obstruct the vision of the Inner Self but once the clouds clear, you can have vision of the Inner Self which is resplendent within. By means of Dhyana Shakti and Prana Shakti, you can experience Divinity in the Bliss sheath, which fosters the five human values.
Shanti comes from Manomaya Kosha . Satya comes from Vijnanamaya kosha. Dharma comes from Annamaya kosha. Prema comes from Pranamaya and Manomaya Kosha . Ahimsa comes from Anandamaya Kosha . In these five sheaths are encased three types of bodies: Sthula (Physical), Sukshma (Subtle) and Karana (Causal) Sariram (bodies). Annamaya kosha represents physical body. It is like the type of a lorry. If you increase intake of food it grows and the weight of the body increases.
Divinity is there in all the sheaths of the body. It is Constant Integrated Awareness in different forms in speech, action and feelings. (SSS Vol.26, p. 137)
You have been enjoying the fine arts presented here for the last five days. From where have you got this? What are these arts? Kings fostered fine arts in ancient days. Today people have no idea of what art is. The art has come from the heart. The art which is given from the heart is just its reflection. Art is outside. Heart is inside. The heart inside is reflected as the art outside. This art may be sculpture, music, literature, dance, etc. So we should develop our heart in a sacred way. How happy you become when you listen to music? From where do you get this? It is out of your own heart. We will be happy through out it if we develop the heart in this way. All sacred texts originate from the heart. It is a reflection of the inner being. Fine arts are not separate. We have to encourage them. We have to develop them. Today no one is prepared to encourage this fine art. So we have to develop the arts. When there is art, there is heart. When there is heart, there is art. One is an object and the other its reflection. That is the relation between the negative and the positive. That is the relation between the branch and the root. We have forgotten this principle today. We should never forget this. (DTB Vol.1, p. 8)
Students: Never act against unity. Today, there is no unity, no purity and no divinity but there is only enmity and community. Why does enmity enter the heart? It is because unity, purity and divinity are not seated in the heart. The chair in your heart is empty. Therefore, enmity goes and divinity sits there. The heart is not a musical chair or a double sofa. It is a single sofa. Sacred things have to be seated there. You have to welcome them. (DTB Vol.7, p. 13)
It is this heart that reaches the goal. Follow the heart, for a pure heart seeks beyond the intellect - it gets inspired. (EL, p. 9)
Just as a small gramophone plate contains many songs, poems and dialogues, likewise the human heart contains the entire universe in a suitable form. You can neither see the script of the dialogues and songs by keeping the gramophone plate close to your eyes, nor can you hear the sound by keeping it close ears. Only by playing it you will be able to hear the music and dialogues that are in it. The human heart, which can compared to gramophone plate, contains in it all the traits of past lives. The reaction, resound and reflection of all that you have seen, heard and experienced are different places that you have seen, heard and experienced are contained in it. The infinite oceans, the mighty mountains and all the different places that you have visits are imprinted in your heart. In short, the entire universe is imprinted on the human heart. So, it can be said that human being is Vishva virata Swarupa (Embodiment of Cosmic Principle). But, man not being able to realize this truth considers himself low, and is affected by pleasure and pain, good and bad. (NNSG Vol.5, pp. 47-48)
Your heart should be like glass, with the spiritual light inside illuminating the world outside. The inner urges on interacting with the world outside should make one lean towards service, empathy and mutual help. Presently, people read and study all kinds of unintelligible Vedantic texts and struggle with commentaries and translations to grasp their sense. Knowledge is being poured down their throats; but the potion does not get down to soften their heart. The spiritual truths should not be put on for mere public exhibition, as in a drama, where appropriate dresses are worn on the stage but taken off when the actor moves off the stage. They must be adhered to all the time to derive the Atma ananda (Bliss of the Soul) which they genuinely confer. Bliss is easily attained by careful, well-timed and regulated discipline; it cannot be got by spurts and skips. You must take the effort to learn each lesson of virtue through systematic study and diligent application to attain success. (DD on 21.09.60 )
The heart must yearn for His voice, His form, His flute, His smile, His sport and His pranks. That is the tapas (penance) which is rewarded by His grace. The yearning must be so deep that all body consciousness is lost, the senses are ineffective, and the mind is inactive, the intelligence is at a standstill, and all ideas of duality disappear. The individual sees before him only step after step of Ananda leading him to the highest bliss of merging in the Lord. The culture of Bharat has marked out the guidelines for achieving this bliss. This bliss is the consummation of all sweetness, all the joy, and all the fulfilment derived from all the highest desires. But yet man is struggling to achieve petty things, paltry joys and low desires. When you seek God, you must not be misled into by-paths and mirages. The seeker after gold must cast away brass and other yellow metals which may distract or at times even destroy him. - (DD on 19.08.68)
A tender heart is more valuable than material possessions. When moral and spiritual excellence is gained, the divinity in man becomes patent. (SSS Vol.14, pp. 385-386)
I have been telling you one truth always: your master is your heart, where God resides. You, yourself are three persons, not one: the one you think you are, the one others think you are and the one you really are. The one you really are, is God. God is in you, with you, above you, around you, behind you. All of you are Divine in reality; differences in name and form are but temporary and external. (SSS Vol.13)
People are ignoring the very beacons which illumine the darkness and reveal the path of liberation from the bonds of incessant struggle, endless pursuit, bewildering agony and ceaseless activity to gain the ungainable! What is the reason? The mind guides him, not the faculty of the intellect. The intellect discriminates; it probes, it analyses. But the mind follows blindly every whim or fancy. The intellect helps one to identify one s duties and responsibilities. Slavishly bound to the vagaries of the mind, man hops from one spot to another, without rest or peace. He runs to catch a bus, rushes to the office, to the cinema hall, to the club and has no moment of calm silence. Peace has to be attained through spiritual efforts, that is to say, through spiritualising every thought, word and deed. What has to be planned today to set the world aright is not a new spiritual order or institution but men and women with pure hearts. They alone can uplift this land from the morass.
To purify the heart, one must practise sama, dama and other sadhanas which can control the senses of perception and action. These may seem difficult in the early stages but any work that is worth doing has that drawback. Take riding a bicycle, for example. You will have to go through many falls and scrapes and lose many square inches of skin before you learn to balance and pedal on an even line. But once you have mastered the art, you can ride safe without holding on to the handlebar.
It is the same for a person learning to drive a car. At first, when you keep your foot on the clutch, you cannot hold the steering wheel; you cannot lift the foot from the clutch, when you hold the wheel and when you manage both, you forget the brake. When you attend to all three, you do not watch out for pedestrians who run across. But when you have mastered the art, you are aware of the ups and downs, the stops and lights, and the roads---along and across--- quite spontaneously and you can drive safe and fast conversing with the persons sitting to your left and on the back seat, and even singing a song to win their acclamation. (SSS Vol.15)