YOUTH CONFERENCE VALEDICTORY MESSAGE

The following are important points made by Swami during His Divine Discourse, delivered during the valedictory function of the World Youth Conference on Saturday, 28th July 2007 . The highlights are presented as bullet points. The full text of the Discourse would of course appear later in the SanathanaSarathi.

· There is no place where there is no Truth. Truth exists everywhere. Truth is the origin of Creation.

· A true aspirant is one who knows the correct path. Man today is unable to be a true seeker, having missed the correct path, which is the result of his strong attachment to the material world.

· [Swami materialises a Golden Lingam, shows it to the audience and then continues]: This is the pure and unsullied Truth and this Truth is only with this Sathya!

· All beings in the Universe – birds, insects, animals and man too – have emerged from Truth.

· There is nothing in this Universe that does not have Truth as its basis, and all that happens, flows, in one way or the other, from Truth.

· That Truth is the possession of only ONE, THIS ONE, THIS SATHYA!

· Can anyone materialise such a representation of the principle of Truth?

· Truth is everywhere. When you truly follow Truth and have firm faith in Truth, you also can get access to Truth! Therefore, hold firmly onto Truth!

· Swami is called Sathya Sai. Why this name? Because, Truth has this Sai as its basis!

· Whosoever installs Truth in his Heart will certainly experience Divinity. Therefore, one should never forget Truth.

· Truth gets reflected in action as Dharma. Thus, the Reflection, Reaction and Resound of Sathya is Dharma. In fact, there is no Dharma greater than Truth!

· These days, people specialise in many areas and try to acquire many forms of worldly knowledge. However, all this does not make them truly educated. Mere secular education alone does not constitute true education.

· True education is that which emerges from Truth, whose source is God, the resident of the Heart.

· What is the form of Truth? It has no form, but manifests as Dharma, Shanti, Prema and Ahimsa. All of these also are formless, but nevertheless, they play a great role in human life and destiny when brought forth from the Heart.

· Sathya , Dharma, etc., are all latent in the human Heart. Human values are incredibly powerful. In fact, the powers latent in man are immeasurable and NOT found anywhere else in Creation. However, effort is needed to make them emanate, come forth and shine as good thought, word and deed.

· Man thus has the highest potentialities amongst all the entities in Creation, and he must make every effort to become aware of his enormous capabilities.

· Man must realise that he is in fact Divine. Verily, the human form is the form of God. God, thus, moves about the world in human form.

· But man does not realise this and regards human forms as mere human forms, from which follow many mistakes and problems.

· Therefore, Swami wants to tell you: YOU ARE NOT A MERE HUMAN BEING! YOUARE GOD!

· Think you are God and God you would become.

· As you think, so you are; if you let your mind dwell on bad things, you will get only bad thoughts; and that in turn would degrade your actions.

· Man is the embodiment of Divine Love. However, due to restricted thinking and lack of discrimination, this love can get polluted and highly degraded, resulting in bad actions and associated problems.

· Most problems are the result of trying to excessively differentiate between beings and create a restricted as well as a separate identify for oneself, instead of seeing the Divine and Cosmic oneness of all human beings.

· In fact, you all are God; however, restricted thought, word and actions can place limitations on your outlook and weaken you. That problem is caused by attachment. Attachment and desires cut you off from the infinite power source of Love within you.

· Do not let attachment and desires weaken you. The best way to overcome the clutches of attachment is to remember that God is immanent in all and to love all as well as to serve all.

· God is present in all. There is no place where God is not; He is in space, He is in water, earth, sound and light. Indeed, every aspect of Creation is Divine.

· Ignorant of this Omnipresence of God in Creation that came out of the Creator Himself, man looks for God in temples built by man.

· Swami does not say it is wrong to go to temples. By all means do so because the Omnipresent God is present in the idols also. At the same time, never overlook or be indifferent to the Omnipresence of God.

· In particular, you must not only realise that you yourself are God, but also that God is immanent in all beings, humans included.

· The body is the temple of God and latent in it is a mighty powerhouse of energy.

· Use that Divine energy, after carefully applying Spiritual discrimination.

· You might wonder: Can energy be Divine? Can the body be Divine? How is that possible?

· That is possible because God is everywhere and immanent in everything, every cell and every atom. Forget not even for a second that not only are you are God but also that God is everywhere, in all things, all the time. Never forget your true nature and God.

· Thus, you must Always Be Careful! This is Swami's ABC!! Constantly check: Do I remember God or am I forgetting God?

· In the ultimate analysis, you must realise the fact that the correct answer to the question "Who am I?" is: I AM I!

· If this feeling is firmly established, then all feelings of differentiation would disappear. Feelings of difference come about due to Spiritual ignorance [Ajnana]. Constant reminder of this fact is the best way of overcoming Spiritual Ignorance.

· In this vast Universe, God is everywhere. He is there in this gathering; in fact, this assembly is itself the Cosmic Form of God [VirataSwaroopa].

· [Pointing to the Sai Kulwant Hall and the people gathered, Swami says]: This entire assembly is the Cosmic aspect of God. There may be many forms but in each form, God is immanent.

· Swami is in each and every one of you. I am you and you are Me! Therefore, never yield to the feeling of duality, namely that you are different from God.

· Based on this feeling of identity with God, strengthen your Love.

· With Truth installed in your Heart, you can easily share Love with all.

· Hence it is important to first taste the fruit of Love yourself and then share it with all.

· Never hate anybody. Today, feelings of difference and hatred are widespread.

· On the worldly plane, there is no doubt an empirical diversity. However, on the Spiritual plane this diversity collapses and there is only Oneness.

· When the Divine principle is ignored, all becomes zeros. God is like 1 and man minus Divine principle is a zero.

· As you know, by itself, 0 has no value. But when you put 1 before 0 you get 10 which has value. Thus, man acquires value only when he realises the Divine principle.

· In worldly life, God must be your priority number one in both grief as well as joy.

· Joy and happiness all emanate from the mind. The mind is the cause of dual feeling and it is the mind that is responsible for feelings such as pain as well as pleasure.

· The mind is very powerful; it can spread joy as well as sorrow and create disturbances. But when the mind is tamed, there is no problem.

· Divinity is the source of the power of the mind and when you recognise this, you will not allow the mind to be a monkey-mind. And that is when you would be able to enjoy Eternal Bliss.

· The Pure Mind, the Atma, Pure or Universal Consciousness – all these mean the same. These words are just synonyms. That is why the scriptures say: Truth is one, though scholars refer to it by different names.

· Different names are given to different forms for the sake of convenience; but that does not mean they are actually different. They are not in the ultimate sense, because they all represent different manifestations of One Truth.

· This body is called Sathya. That is the name given to this body but NOT TO ME!

· But Swami is not just the body. I am not the body nor am I the mind.

· Bhagavan is Bhagavan! I AM I!

· You should firmly believe that you are not the body or the mind but your Real Self.

· Doubts about this eternal truth come because of the wavering mind. The mind tends to easily drift or waver on account of the food one eats, the way one behaves, the associations one has, etc.

· That is why Swami often says: Tell Me your company and I shall tell you who you are! As is the company, so you become. Therefore, always seek good company.

· Anyone and everyone can truly attain Liberation but only when one identifies oneself fully and with deep conviction with the Atma. If you do, you are sure to be liberated.

· Just concentrate intensely and think: "Swami is in me. I am myself Swami." This should not be a mere verbal exercise but an intense thought that must be DEEPLY FELT.

· With deep faith and a matching steady Mind, contemplate on Swami saying: "I am myself Swami, I am God, I am God."

· When you do that steadfastly, you would discover the Principle of the Self, that is Eternal and Nectarine.

· The pollution that you see everywhere in the external world originates in the pollution of the mind.

· Constantly chanting God's name can bring about slowly but surely an end to all kinds of pollution. When the mind gets cleansed, the world also gets cleansed.

· Today, few do that and you are thus forced to consume polluted and contaminated products. For example, water is heavily polluted these days, and often people have to drink polluted water.

· Why has the body been given to man? So that you have an instrument that enables YOU TO KNOW YOUR REAL NATURE! But people forget that fact, allow the mind to develop body consciousness, and problems follow inevitably.

· The body is like a water bubble. Do not follow the body, do not follow the mind but follow your Conscience. If you follow your Conscience, you would be liberated.

· Do not be guided by what others tell you, but by your own Conscience.

· Pure thoughts alone lead you to wisdom and hence always keep your mind pure! Purity of Mind alone leads to Wisdom.

· If bad thoughts tend to creep into your mind, raise your defences by saying, "Such thoughts are not good for me!"

· Do all you can to develop good thoughts – they alone should be your property.

· People make such an enormous effort to acquire property but remember that Pure Love is the greatest property of them all. Love is God and therefore, always live in Love!

· If you develop that feeling, all would be well with you.

· Among the huge number gathered here, many have all sorts of doubts. True, all of you have good Hearts. Why then do the doubts come? Where do they come from?

· God sends man into the world with a Pure Mind. However, subsequent vacillations in the mind caused by external factors finally manifest as doubts and mental pollution.

· Hence it is important to protect the mind from getting polluted.

· That alone is true Sadhana that leads to a cleansing of the mind. Mere performance of Japam, rolling the rosary beads, and performing standard rituals is NOTSadhana; getting rid of the pollution in the mind is real Sadhana.

· There is a lot of confusion about Meditation. What is real Meditation? True Meditation is the intense contemplation of the REALITY within. Swami will now give you a simple method of meditating most effectively.

· Keep the Mind absolutelysteady for just eleven seconds, and you would be liberated!

· Eleven seconds may seem short but in fact, eleven seconds of intense contemplation and meditation is enough!

· With just eleven seconds of such inward looking, you can actually experience the eleven lokas . But people are not really able to still themselves absolutely for even such a short time.

· These days, people strain themselves too much. Do not strain yourself unnecessarily or excessively.

· People worry too much, waste a lot of money and also time.

· Money is God; do not waste money. Likewise, do not waste time either, for time is God. Time waste is life waste.

· Whenever you have spare time, even if it be just a second, think of Swami immediately and intensely! Swami would then manifest before you, and you actually would see this physical form in front of you! You will see Swami!

· You can not only see Swami but also talk to Swami!

· People say: "Talk to me Swami; please do this, please do that," and so forth. Concentrate as I say, and I shall appear before you and certainly talk to you!

· [CAUTION! IT IS GOD WHO WOULD DECIDE WHETHER OUR CONCENTRATION IS INTENSE ENOUGH AND NOT US! ]

· So many are assembled here and all are devotees. But you must also know what true devotion is.

· You might ask: "Swami, what is real devotion?" Know that first!

· It all starts with intense, steadfast and unshakeable faith. Where there is faith, there is Love. Where there is Love, there is Peace; where there is Peace, there is there is Truth. And where there is Truth, there is God!

· Truth is God, and to know this Principle and to achieve Peace, etc., you really do not have to strain yourself; all that is needed is eleven seconds of intense meditation and contemplation. That is enough but during those critical eleven seconds, you must keep your mind absolutely steady and focussed.

· In fact, even before the eleven seconds are over, you would start experiencing the manifestation of the Divine and Bliss, Pure Bliss!

· People sit for hours in meditation and all that results is not Bliss but pain in the joints! No need for all that; eleven seconds alone is enough, provided those eleven seconds are given entirely to God.

· The pursuit of liberation calls for much discipline. With rigorous discipline, eleven seconds of intense meditation is enough to reach the summit.

· Discipline includes among other things, strict regulation in the matter of food and eating habits. There are many subtle points regarding dietary habits.

· Eat only at regular hours, and avoid meat and fish. If you are used to eating it, then stop doing so immediately!

· Also, better to avoid cheese, and excess of milk. Many are used to meat and fish but those items expose you to many health risks.

· Cheese also is to be avoided. Many like cheese very much! Excessive eating of cheese can actually weaken you.

· The same applies to excessive consumption of milk and curds.

· Diet restrictions may seem difficult but like all good things, bliss does not come without the requisite effort.

· Discipline is required to have the vision of God.

· Bliss is the Form of God who is eternal, unsullied and nectarine.

· Where does this bliss come from? Is it available in any shop? No! It comes from within.

· Remember: since you are Divine you also are the form of bliss!

· When you are born, you are full of bliss but in due course, bliss diminishes, even as attachments build up and desires multiply.

· Desires and attachments are like heavy luggage. You must reduce your luggage! That is why Swami often tells you: Less luggage, more comfort, make travel a pleasure!

· Too much attachment and too many desires ultimately weaken a person, and increases worry!

· Fast life style and worries are not good for the heart.

· Why have so many desires? After all, money comes and goes. In life nothing is permanent. Everything passes, including both pleasure and pain.

· The body too would go one day. Hence, it is good not to have too much attachment to the body! Everything must be within limits, so that health is not impaired.

· If you want to see God and talk to God, then do as I say. Follow Swami's instructions carefully and diligently, and the experience seeing and talking to God is guaranteed!

· Do not mistake Bhakti to mean rigorous observance of rituals. Bhakti is not mere observance of rituals. True Bhakti implies steady and steadfast love for God. Love for God should be absolutely steady and unwavering. It must be firm and constant.

· There is nothing beyond Love. Body may decay but the Divine Love within is eternal and unchanging.

· Cherish, safeguard and sustain this Divine Love intrinsic to you. Then you would certainly attain God.

· Too much attachment would enthrone man's mortal enemies, Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, etc., in the Heart.

· Seek security in Pure Love and always smile. Avoid being sullen and putting on a caster oil face! Love would then manifest easily.

· Always be smiling! God always smiles and has no worries or problems!!

· Swami is filled with joy to see such a huge gathering of Love! You can be anywhere, but if you are filled with Love, Swami is happy here!

· Swami is happy merely by looking at your joyous faces.

· Being here is the result of your good fortune.

· Remember, there is no meditation greater than Love. And Love is the greatest medicine as well as cure for all problems.

· Swami's Love is the greatest medicine for you.

· Swami wants you to be filled with happiness and peace, and live in harmony with your family.

· Do not yield to any weakness such as anger or sorrow; nor should you get perturbed by any problem.

· Swami blesses you all to live in happiness, joy and bliss!