Sai Center of Stamford Study Circle Sunday, Aug. 9th 2015.

OM SAI RAM!

Eight Flowers (Ashta Pushpam) forWorship

- Worshipping God with worldly flowers are impermanent - they fade away, drop down, lose fragrance, develop unpleasant odor.

- Natural flowers that have been created by the Will of God, by offering them back to the Creator Himself has no special distinction.

- Instead Worshipping God through good qualities, good conduct, good thoughts, and good company is far superior than offering/worshipping God with ritual worship and flowers.

- This is called para bhakthi (supreme devotion) - distinctive type of devotion by which you worship God with a good, clean mind and good conduct.

What are these 8 Flowers of WorshipThey are:

Non-violence

Control of Senses

Compassion for All Living Beings

Forebearance

Peace

Penance

Meditation

Truth

Non-Violence (Ahimsa)

Meaning: • Not causing harm and hurt to other living things. • not to cause hurt and harm to any other living being through your thought,

word, or deed. • Talking unnecessarily, eating immoderately, and working too much—these

are violence.

- Cleansing and purifying these three—thought, word, and is called Thriputi (summit of three). All of them should be harmonized and brought together as one unit of flower.

Wider meaning of Ahimsa

• What does Ahimsa signify? It is not merely refraining from causing harm or injury to others. It implies also refraining from causing harm to himself.

• One who harms himself cannot avoid harming others? • How to ensure that one does not do violence to himself. By

constantly examining whether his conduct is right or wrong. • For instance, in the matter of speech, he must examine whether his

words are causing pain to others or not. He must see that his looks are not tainted by evil intentions or thoughts.

• He should not listen to evil talk. All these cause harm to the individual.

Ways to follow your Conscience

• To ascertain the directive of the conscience you have to wait for some time.

• Do not be in a hurry. When you want to say something, you must consider for a moment whether it would be proper or not and then speak.

• When you want to listen to something, you must examine whether it is good or bad to listen and then decide what is proper.

Practice of Non-Violene -Conscience/Awareness

• How do you determine what is bad? By consulting your conscience.

• Whenever you act against the dictates of your conscience, bad results follow. The conscience is the form of the Divine within everyone.

• The conscience tells you whether it is right or wrong.

• Conscience is called chith. It is also called Awareness.

Ways to follow your Conscience (contd.)

• 1.Constantly examine whether my words are causing pain to others or not.

• 2. Examine whether what I hear disturbs my internal peace.

• 3. Consciously avoid waste of food, water, time and energy.

• 4. Practice at least one random act of kindness everyday.

• 5. Determine what is bad, by consulting the conscience. In consulting the conscience, do not be in a hurry. Take a moment to think before every act.

STOP Formula

• Practice the STOP formula:

• S - Step back

• T - Think

• O - Organize your thoughts

• P - Proceed

Man and Mind - An act of violence could be useful like when a doctor using his knife during surgery - it is beneficial to the patient. So it is not an act of violence.

- Only Mind experiences Pain and Pleasure, so the act of cutting vegetables cannot be termed as violence. The plants and trees do not suffer any pain because they do not have the faculty of mind.

- Only Man is endowed with five sheaths, namely, annamaya kosha or food sheath, pranamaya kosha or life sheath, manomaya kosha or mind sheath, vigyanamaya kosha or wisdom sheath, and manomaya kosha or bliss sheath.

- Man today has progressed to take care of the first 3 koshas only taking good care of his body and satisfying his desires. Starting from the food sheath, man should progress toward the bliss sheath and not get stuck halfway, in the mental sheath. This is why man gets filled with demonic qualities, which can only lead him to Naraka (hell).

Sense Control (Indhriya Nigraha)- God created each organ for a specific purpose.

- Use these sensory organs along the right path for which they have been created, We will then be entitled to God’s grace.

- understand under what conditions and in what times and in what manner we should use each of these organs and put them under control.

- Lack of Sense Control Is the Main Cause of Unrest and Agitation

How to Control Senses- First of all, one should exercise control over the tongue.

- Do not eat for the sake of satisfying your hunger and sustaining the body. Do not give undue importance to taste.

- Direct your eyes to see God instead of watching unsacred things on television or video.

- Teach your ears to listen to the stories of the Lord instead of listening to vain gossip.

- All that you see and hear gets imprinted on your heart. Once your heart is polluted, your life will become meaningless.

- Human heart is like a pen. The color of the words that you write will be the same as the color of the ink in the pen. So when you fill your heart with love, all that you think, say, and do will be suffused with love.

Senses - Taste, Hearing• You must control your tongue as it always craves for a variety of delicacies. You must ask this

question, “O tongue, how many bags of rice, wheat and vegetables have you devoured! How many delicacies have you consumed! Fie on you if you are still not satisfied.” BhikshannamDeharakshartham (a morsel of food is enough to sustain the body). You should eat for the sake of satisfying your hunger and sustaining the body. Do not give undue importance to taste.

• He has given us the mouth and a tongue so that we may take sathwic (pure) food. If we use the mouth to take in unholy food, intoxicating drinks, then we will be using the mouth for a wrong purpose.

• Teach your ears to listen to the stories of the Lord instead of listening to vain gossip. Think for a while, how you are benefited by listening to un-sacred things. In fact, you are polluting your heart in the process. All that you see and hear gets imprinted on your heart. Once your heart is polluted, your life will become meaningless.

Senses - Smell, Sight• God has given us a nose. We should make an attempt to breathe in and

breathe out through the nose and only accept fragrance through the nose. If we use such a nose to take snuff into it, the purpose will become useless.

• See Good things only. Tell your eyes to see God instead of watching un-sacred things on the television or video. All that you see and hear gets imprinted on your heart. Once your heart is polluted, your life will become meaningless.

• The human heart is like a pen. The colour of the words that you write will be the same as the colour of the ink in the pen. Likewise, when you fill your heart with love, all that you think, say and do will be suffused with love. God expects you to fill your heart with love and lead a sacred life.

- Sathya Sai Baba Discourse, 22/08/2000, Prasanthi Nilayam

Importance of Sense Control• We should understand under what conditions and in what times and in what

manner we should use each of these organs and put them under control. Our inner strength will become less and less because of excitement or unnecessary sorrow. The body will become ill by mental agitations and distractions. Man ages very quickly through excitement and sorrow. The reason for your not preserving this sacred instrument in sound condition is lack of control over these sensory organs.

• The second flower of sensory control should be used for worshipping God.

- Sathya Sai Baba Discourse, 12/05/1981, Dharmakshethra

Questions1. How do you practice Nonviolence?

2. What measures can be taken to control senses –speech/anger?

Thanks.Reference:

1. Teachings of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Volume 1 - Ceiling on Desires and Eight Flowers of Worship - Sri Sathya Sai World Foundation, publications@ssswf.org