Today, we are building the mansion of our life on a water bubble. We do not know at what moment it will burst. Human nature should rest upon the eternal truth, not on a momentary thing like the water bubble. Human life is becoming more and more uncertain today. Adi Sankara described the same point thus: “Oh! Man! Do not take pride in wealth, family, friends and youthful vigour; time will destroy everything in a trice.” Nothing is permanent in this world. Therefore, why should we rely on such impermanent things? Only Atma is eternal. (Sathya Sai Baba: 23 July 2002)

Man is seated under a tree bearing twelve worries. Birth is a worry, life is a worry, family is a worry, death is a worry, childhood is a worry, old age is a worry, success is a worry, failure is a worry, action is a worry, obstacles are a worry, joy itself is a worry, all uncertainties are a worry. If you receive God’s love, all these worries will vanish. This is your only need. This should be your only desire. (Sathya Sai Baba: 28 April 1999)

Yearn always to be as close to your Divine Core as possible. You need not desert your family and run away into loneliness. You have only to keep in mind the comparative triviality of the world. Death stalks every living being; disintegration waits on all created things. From a world so transient, so uncertain and unstable, one has to win the goal of eternal peace and eternal bliss. (Sathya Sai Baba: 26 Sept 1979)

It is the bounden duty of man in this life, as also in later lives, to know and experience the basic cause of the Universe and all the love and sweetness it evokes in him. When that is done, man can have uninhibited bliss. All his misery is due to separation from that Source of all. Man is the embodiment of Sat-Chit-Ananda (Being, Awareness, Bliss Absolute) and he must become aware of this fact so that he may be happy. (Sathya Sai Baba: 6 June 1978)

If he believes that he is not Being (Sat), but a lesser principle, subject to decline, decay and death, he will be haunted by fear and uncertainty. If he thinks that he is not Awareness (Chit), he will be caught in doubt and dialectics and will wander on the devious paths of delusion. If he assumes that he is not Bliss Absolute (Ananda), he will be struck by every passing gust of disappointment and be subject to sorrow on every trivial defeat. The basic cause of the Universe is Sat-Chit-Ananda, and since man too is a spark of the same first cause, he too is made of the same components.

(Sathya Sai Baba: 6 June 1978)

God is neither distant, nor distinct from you. You are God. You are Sath-Chith-Aanandha (Being, Awareness and Bliss Absolute). You are Asthi (being), Bhaathi (awareness), Priyam (bliss). You are all. When do you cognize this Truth? When you shake off the delusions which hide the Truth. If your yearning to experience Brahmaanandha, the Sath-Chith-Aanandha is sincere and pure, from this day, keep ever in your memory what I am about to tell you:

(1) “I am God; I am not different from God.” Be conscious of this always. Keep it ever in mind. “I am God; I am God. I am not different from God.” Be reminding yourself of this. Pray that you

may not fail in this saadhana (spiritual exercise).

(2) “I am the Akhanda Para Brahman (Indivisible Supreme Absolute).” This is the second Truth to be  established in the consciousness by unremitting repetition and prayer.

(3) I am Sath-Chith-Aanandha (“Being, Awareness, Bliss”). Divine Bliss is the goal to be ever kept in view

(4) “Grief and anxiety can never affect me.” Develop this Faith and convince yourselves of this Truth by repeated assurance and prayer.

(5) “I am ever content; fear can never enter me.” Feel thus forever. Pray that this conviction grows stronger and stronger. Exhort yourself, “O self! Utter ‘Om Thath Sath’, ‘Om Thath Sath’ “the threefold symbol of Brahman. As the physical body is maintained healthy and strong by the five praanas (vital airs), these five prayers will endow you with the “awareness of Brahman,” which is the same as “the status of Brahman Itself.”

Do not demean or condemn yourself as low or small or weak. The body is but a vehicle for the journey through life. Do not mistake it as your self and impose on yourself its ups and downs.

Bhagavan’s Birthday Discourse, Prashaanthi Nilayam, 23 November, 1983.

Death: a welcome voyage …The insect on the wing is snapped up by the frog’s leaping tongue; the frog is caught unawares by the jaws of the snake; the snake is killed by the peacock; the peacock is killed by the hunter. One living thing is food for another; death lies in wait at every turn of day and night. Man is stalked

ceaselessly by death; it may pounce any moment on its prey. He is not conscious of this companion; he has not learned how to meet him and rob him of the fruits of his exploit. The Aathma does not die; only the body dies. When man knows this, death loses his sting, death is not feared, death is but welcome voyage into the known harbor.

Prashaanthi Nilayam, February 23, 1968 Sathya Sai Speaks, Volume 8, Chapter 6

The Adwaithins say, “Whatever the portion you may allot, or guess about, remember this: The Cosmos does not exist. It is an illusion. It never is, has been or will be. The Creation of the Cosmos, the dissolution of the Cosmos, these billions of individuals emerging and merging, all this is but a dream. There is no individualized Jivatma at all, no separated Atma. How can there be billions of Jivatmas? There is only ONE Indivisible Complete Absolute. Like the one sun reflected as a billion suns in a billion lakes, ponds, and drops of water, the Jivatmas are but reflections of the One in the minds that it shines upon. This is what Bharathiya thought emphasizes most clearly through the Adwaithin thinkers. Those who cannot grasp this truth are under the influence of Maya or delusion, it can be said.

Dreams too have to be based on reality. Without a basic reality, the “dependent idea or fact” cannot exist. Without a basic thing, subsequent things cannot emanate. Without a basic being, subsequent beings cannot manifest.

That base is God or Easwara. He is Full. He is the Mind, the Body, the Atma. You are only as real as a dream. For the eye that can see reality, the Cosmos is, not this multiplicity of name and form, but mere Sath-Chith-Ananda, Being-Awareness-Bliss. Just think of your dream. It does not arise from somewhere outside you nor do the varied images and activities disappear into some place outside you.

They arise in you and disappear into you. While dreaming, you consider the events and persons as real, and you experience, as really as in the waking stage, the feelings of grief, delight, fear, anxiety, and joy. You do not dismiss them at the time as illusory. The Cosmos is the dream of God. It arises in Him and merges in Him. It is the product of His Mind. These lives and repeated arrivals, all are the fanciful weavings of Maya, unreal fantasies, illusory agitations, unreal appearances. You are the Full, you are God. God is You. Those who have experienced this highest wisdom can attain oneness with the ONE, here and now. (Sathya Sai Vahini, 65-66)