Real Happiness and True Wealth

The happiness that one derives from virtues is far superior to the happiness that we get from the possession of wealth. Unfortunately the educated youth are striving for wealth, physical strength and friendship. But all these have little value without the wealth of character. For men or women, character is the foundation. If one lacks character, one becomes feeble in all other respects. People of those days strove for noble character. They were prepared to give up their very lives for a righteous cause. Women strived to uphold the honor of their husbands. The strength of an individual lies in one's character, not in the wealth one earns. One should be prepared to face any hardship to lead a virtuous life. The country is in dire straits due to the absence of men and women of character. Materialistic wealth is not what we need today. We need to earn the wealth of virtues.

Baba (thought for the day)

Today's thought for the day is about a happiness superior to the happiness that we get from the possession of wealth. Can we feel it that there is a happiness beyond it that is better than the possession of wealth or can we not feel it? 

He is telling us that educated youth is striving for wealth, physical strength and friendship. 

That we know, don't we, but why he is telling us that it is unfortunate?

With meditation we learnt that the tendency of nature goes towards more and more happiness no matter what and we just looked at it as natural.

Unfortunately there is little value to it, without the wealth of character. 

That is the difference, there has to be character. Character is more important than wealth.

Dharma right action and duty we experience on three levels, it has to be good for oneself and good for the others and the above all good.

If character is the foundation, we are ready to sacrifice our individual interest for the benefit of the group or family and the overall good and it will lead to peace and World Peace. 

Right action therefore results in peace and not right action doesn't result in peace.

When we went to Baba and we had spent that time with him in Prasanthi Nilayam my ex cancelled our credit card instead of asking if we needed something. As I didn't know how it would be and I couldn't trust his state of mind, I had booked a flight back to my parents and he had noticed it. Instead of asking why and that we should come back, he cancelled our credit card, what just confirmed it how stupid it would have been on our side to go back to him. 

If it is not right action, it means no spirit of self-sacrifice for others or family, but war and arguing and blaming others and just taking advantage of it and no love and from such action no peace can result.

The child had a high fever, she had to stay alone in a hotel room while I had to get the tickets in Bangalore and we couldn't fly from Prasanthi Nilayam, so we couldn't take the facilities Swami had offered to us, because in the ashram we needed cash to pay the flight and I couldn't get cash with the credit card, but we could use it in Bangalore. So we went to Bangalore had to get a hotel room and we had everything else on additional costs in the end it was more than it would have been if we would have been able to fly directly from Baba's airport and from Puttaparthi to Bombay and it was that disturbing, the peace we had to go and make with Swami as he said and why we had to go to Baba as he told him in his own dream, was already again impossible before we even left due to not right action.

As Baba had said in the daughter's dream that her father was stupid and that he was destroying himself and if she would go back to him, he would destroy her as well. It means I had to be very careful as I had to make a right decision for all of us and that is also why I didn't call him, because he had talked me before into it and he would have tried again talking us into it, that was clear and too much was depending on that decision and that was clear with the dream of my daughter. 

You must dedicate yourself to right conduct (Dharma) and always be engaged in righteousness (Dharma). Then you will live in peace and the world will enjoy peace. No one can acquire real peace, nor can they win the grace of the Lord through any means other than right conduct. Dharma is the foundation for the welfare of humanity; it is the only unchanging truth across all times. When Dharma fails to transform human life, the world will be afflicted by agony and fear, tormented by stormy revolutions. When the effulgence of Dharma fails to illumine human relationships, people will be shrouded in sorrow. All religions and scriptures expound Dharma and proclaim aloud the Glory of Dharma. The stream of Dharmic activity should never run dry; when its cool waters cease to flow, disaster is certain. God is the embodiment of Dharma; His Grace is won by Dharma.

He didn't think of the good for the family and by that also not of the overall good.

But it made clear beyond doubt that there was no way going back, it would have been also not right action if we would have gone back and that is why I had to be very careful to not be deceived by wrong promises again and his words and as he had never been telling the truth and only intended to take more advantage of it, that is why we didn't call him, and I didn't wanted to get deluded again and fooled and listening to empty words and false promises which had only one aim to fool us into something that was all different afterwards than we thought it was.

It was a clear sign that we should not go back to him and even if it was difficult for us to come back here, we couldn't go back and by listening to Baba's words we get aware of it why it would have been not right action and wrong going back. 

We went to Baba because he had a dream and in that Baba dream he told him that I had to go to him to make peace with him and he abused it, he made fun of it and he let us go as it seems in the idea that there was a need for peace, but he never questioned it or wondered why we had to go and make peace and if it was true or not, he just looked at it like we had a fight with Baba and that was it. It was scary getting aware of that state of mind. 

We went for four months to Baba and when it was time for coming back even before we had left the abode of highest peace, what is the meaning of Prasanthi Nilayam, he already showed us again that he didn't know what he was doing and by not right action he disturbed the peace even before we left. 

His only attention was taking advantage of it and no right action for his own growth or for the wellbeing of the family or others and therefore, there was also no understanding about Dharma and the overall good.

For men or women, character is the foundation. If one lacks character, one becomes feeble in all other respects. People of those days strove for noble character. They were prepared to give up their very lives for a righteous cause. Women strived to uphold the honor of their husbands.

I had to get aware of it that holding up the honor of such a person would turn into evil and destroy the family, it would have been like slavery and no honor, as Baba said, if it is misused it gets cheaper than rotten food and that was the feeling of it. 

In the thought for the day yesterday he explained clearly how right action and peace are related. It would have been not right action on my side to go back and as I had to face that decision and we expected lots of troubles and hardship coming back here, I had to be clear about right action, it would have been much easier to just go on and to take the plain back to him like it always had been before. That is why I had to know what was right and I had to be able to go for the right action and I had to be able to discriminate between right and wrong and therefore, I was not calling him, as he had already done enough harm with wrong words and false promises taking advantage of Sai Baba's Lila making the others believe he was a friend. 

I had to know  the difference to be able to go for the right decision, the life of the daughter was also in question and her wellbeing and it was not something to take it easily, it was  not only about our family, it was about everything as it was all wrong understood. 

I had to be very careful to not get deluded again by wrong promises and we knew already that he was able to tell about everything to get what he wanted, he had no scruples, I couldn't trust in what he said and also I didn't want to listen to that voice anymore and all those words coming from his lips which had no meaning and no value and no right to claim what he had claimed since we had met and he took only advantage of it. As it turned out it had nothing at all to do with a Baba Lila, not with character and even less with Dharma, he had just in mind taking advantage of it and afterwards he had the audacity to tell me he never could have done that with an American what made us feel like an idiot that we ever believed a word what he had said and still it was difficult getting aware of it as everything was hidden behind a divine Lila.

The strength of an individual lies in one's character, not in the wealth one earns. One should be prepared to face any hardship to lead a virtuous life.

That was in no way understood. After we didn't go back, some years later he wanted to come here not to see his daughter, but to open up a money box and that we could prevent, my mother was very sick and so he finally understood that it would not be good to come and she died a few months later, but he really said he wanted to come her to open up a money box.

He has never realized that not all people talk only about money as he does and that I am not the right person for this. 

His ideas are still about wealth only a kind of perverted American dream and that we are only someone if we war rich and he compares me with him and writes us bullshit to his daughter that we both would be more successful if we would have read that book, 'think and get rich' he had sent to her for Christmas. It is totally ridiculous. 

He thinks it is the Bible and if he would have known he would be a success and that means in his words – lots of money and no character, exactly the opposite of what Baba is teaching. 

And Baba tells us why the country is not okay, because of the absence of character and it is exactly the opposite what is told in the books he sends to us, the believe in the US that we need just materialistic wealth, but what we really need is the wealth of virtues.  

The country is in dire straits due to the absence of men and women of character. Materialistic wealth is not what we need today. We need to earn the wealth of virtues.

If we talk about duty in the Sai movement it means spiritual progress to us and it is good for all and Baba made sure it is also the overall good. What is good for our spiritual progress is also good for others and as it is structured in the Sai movement it is also the overall good, it is taking care of world peace and that means right action, it is also right for others and right for peace, what gives us a feeling for Dharma. 

We get aware of the difference between right action, character and peace on one side and not right action and only materialistic wealth and that is based on illusion and no peace on the other side.

The country is in dire straits due to the absence of men and women of character. Materialistic wealth is not what we need today. We need to earn the wealth of virtues.

If we don't go for the experience and we don't use it for our own spiritual progress and our spiritual path, we are in the grip of materialistic thinking and the mind and there is no way out of delusion. It is a mind prison. As he said, if we don't use the car and we don't drive it, the battery will run down. If we don't listen to Baba and we don't use the means he gives us to advance spiritually or use the car, the battery runs done and whatever we got it will be wasted.

As he said, without self-enquiry detachment is not possible. There is no such thing as detachment if we avoid it and listen to our mind only holding up material wealth high up and not the wealth of virtues.

The sense of duty takes care of it that we understand how we progress individually and by that also the other benefit and there has to be that overall good what is given when the purpose is spiritual and we work for peace. In a spiritual environment we can be sure that our duty is right action and it will lead to peace and beyond the mind. Otherwise, we are deluded by the mind and we think we know, but in reality we have no clue what we are actually doing and how stupid we behave.

We just have to look at how stupid that is, always talking about big happiness and success if there would be a bigger bank account and in reality the happiness and his family gets destroyed and the real happiness he is not able to experience, but he goes on craving in his mind for worldly happiness, what he thinks it would be if he would be rich and if he would have read a book when he was younger. The only thing that has not limitations in his mind is his boundless stupidity.

Delusion is a curse and the worst sin of all, there is nothing worse than a mind which doesn't know what it is doing constantly looking for worldly happiness at the wrong place.

What he is looking for is a mirage, the idea of happiness, while the real happiness he will never experience as he is too stupid for it and the other, that what he thinks happiness is, that he will never get … so he goes on living for a dream only in a dream world and there is no way he ever will get there, he goes on dreaming and craving in his mind all his life for something that is no real value and no real happiness and he is missing the real thing, because he goes for a dream world, it is not real.