Desires

The problem with the modern society is, too many desires. The more you satisfy your desires, the more they increase. Our Swami always says, life is like a train journey - the more the luggage, the less comfortable the journey is. So reduce your desires and put a ceiling on desires. 

For example, when we started our life after returning from the UK in 1975, we had no phone, no fridge, no TV etc and yet, we were still comfortable. When we start accumulating things, say a TV, we want a mobile and then a laptop, and then a car and the list goes on like that. It is all right, you must have what you need, but not anything and everything to satisfy your ego. It is difficult not to have any desire at all and that is why we must have a "ceiling on desires", as Bhagawan says. Everybody will be happier when one can cut the desires to essential ones. 

We are in Puttaparthi now, without TV (which Swami says is televisham), no gas, only induction cooker, I don't use my own car - Hari is using it. Still, we are on top of the world, because our wants are less. Our expenses are less, too. One can cut short enmities too, because no one will be jealous. The more wants you have, naturally you would prefer to be higher in society and all its weaknesses like drinks and other base qualities creep in. Even children learn these and try to emulate the elders. The higher strata of society are always very showy, and and because of that, they are not true to their word, are insincere, and their entire life becomes artificial. They don't realise that it is very difficult to come out of that vicious circle, and so it is better not to opt for such a life in the beginning itself. Thankfully, our whole family has not opted for such pompous society. My children know how to live within their income and they don't aim for the "high-society life" at all. Immorality, smoking, drinking, cheating, lying, etc. all come to people in leading showy lives.

Controlling desires and putting a ceiling on them can remove anger, ego, selfishness, jealousy and hatred, which are the cause for the downfall of a many good people. This is what our Bhagawan has to say on Ego, pride and selfishness:

"When work is undertaken with an egoistic attitude, impelled by selfish motives and inspired by hopes of self-advancement, it feeds greed, pride, envy and hatred. Then, it fastens the bond and fosters the feeling of attachment to more and more profitable work. It promotes ingratitude to those who lent their hands and brains, and to God Himself who endowed the person with urge and skill. "I did it", one says when the work succeeds; or "Others spoiled my success" when it fails. Resentment, depression and despair follow when work results in failure. The more deeply one is attached to the fruits, the more intense and painful is one's grief when one is disappointed. The only means, therefore, to escape from both pride and pain is to leave the result to the Will of God, while one is happy in the thought that one has done one's duty with all dedication and care that one is capable of!"

- Divine Discourse, Sep 10, 1984.

Our present society is restless mainly because of absence of human value inculcation in our educational institutions. In our childhood, we had a subject called civics. It had in it human values in another name. That has been taken out of school syllabuses mainly because of the leftist influences due to the firebrand unions like SFI and similar groups. They have made the maximum damage to Universities and similar institutions .That is why Sathya Sai has introduced Human Values as a separate subject and brought into our educational institutions which the UGC has permitted in the curriculum recently.

The educational system has degenerated to such a level that the teachers can't even advise the students to speak only truth. Some teachers smoke and drink and come to class. These are the same ones who teach not only in schools and colleges, but even Police training schools. So the entire upcoming generation is totally aimless and confused, and they have no idea what is good and bad. "Sathyam Vada Dharmam Chara" - such advice has totally disappeared from educational institutions.

Doing service activities is an excellent panacea for all the bad trends in our present society. If someone wants to improve and avoid falling prey to bad company, Sathya Sai Seva activities can guide people in the correct direction. Once you decide to join SSSeva activities, if you are sincere enough, you will understand the pleasure of doing Seva. It can transform your attitude and make you a real human being. Just doing seva for name-sake is of no use - neither to you nor to those whom you serve. I am telling you this from my own experience. When I started Seva, in the beginning, I was self-conscious and a bit shy. All of this disappeared gradually and Seva became a pleasure. Let us see what Baba has to say today about this topic: 

"Wear the invisible badge of a volunteer of God at all hours and in all places. Let all the days of living be a continuous offering of Love, as an oil lamp exhausts itself in illumining the surroundings. Bend the body, mend the senses, and end the mind - that is the process of attaining the status of 'the children of immortality,' which the Upanishads have reserved for man. God is the embodiment of sweetness. Attain Him by offering unto Him, who resides in all, the sweetness that He has showered on you. Crush the cane in the mill of Seva, boil it in the cauldron of penitence; de-colorise it of all sensual itch; offer the crystallised sugar of compassionate love to Him. Man is the noblest of all animals, the final product of untold ages of progressive evolution; but, he is not consciously striving to live up to his heritage! "

- Divine Discourse, Jun 26, 1969.