Krishna says to Arjuna

Chapter - 7
1. Krishna says to Arjuna, ‘Having given you the assurance that I shall certainly protect you if you repose faith in Me, let Me now describe how I pervade this Universe.’
2. ‘Arjuna, I am not only Eternal but also Formless and beyond both Space and Time. Space and Time have meaning only when there is Creation. I create the Universe according to My pleasure, and I dissolve it when I feel it is necessary. Space and Time are born at the instant of Creation and cease to exist when the Universe is dissolved. However, I the Creator always exists.’
3. ‘When I create the Universe, I basically project Myself on to Space and Time. I cannot be directly seen but I can be experienced by humans if they make the effort. People may not be able to see Me in a physical sense but they certainly can FEEL My presence.’
4. ‘I manifest in Creation in a million different ways, as I shall explain in detail later. Everything you see and experience in the Universe is merely an aspect of Me. In other words, there is nothing but God everywhere and in everything, both seen and unseen.’
5. ‘What I have just described may be called Manifest Divinity. There is a higher aspect, Unmanifest Divinity, that transcends Space and Time. This Unmanifest Divinity is known by various names such as Brahman, Atma, Absolute Reality, Pure Consciousness, and so on. Don’t be scared by all these names! Just think of the Unmanifest as God, and keep Him always in your mind.’
6. ‘As you know, there are both inanimate and animate entities in the Universe. Minerals, ocean, mountains, etc., are inanimate while insects, birds, animals and humans of course are animate.’
7. ‘Just as a house is built by assembling bricks, so is all matter in the Universe made up of atoms. Thus, atoms are the building blocks of matter. No wonder then that atoms are to be found everywhere, from here to the very edge of the Cosmos.’
8. ‘Living beings too are made up of atoms but there is something very special about them; they have this mysterious thing in them called life. No one can see life directly or touch it but everybody can experience life. You can also see life in other beings not only through their actions but also through their growth and decay.’
9. ‘This life-principle is sometimes called Jiva, and is an aspect of Unmanifest Divinity. Earlier I described a living person as the Atma “trapped” in a cage or the body. The embodied Atma is also called the Jivatma. Thus, Arjuna, you are a Jivatma.’
10. Arjuna asks, ‘ Krishna what about You? Are You also a Jivatma?’
11. Krishna replies, ‘No way! I am special; I am the Paramatma! Don’t ask Me for the difference right now! I shall come back to that later perhaps.’
12. ‘Getting on with what I was telling you, let Me now describe how I pervade the Universe. To start with I must remind you that everything in the Universe has come out of Me and Me alone. In other words, I am the Creator. Don’t get fooled by the fact that right now I have a body like yours, and eat, walk, talk etc., like humans do. In fact, this is how humans get deluded by appearances where Avatars are concerned.’
13. ‘Let Me stress that I am not only the Creator but in fact the Ultimate Ultimate, if you will! There is nothing beyond Me!! Remember that.’

14. ‘In the physical Universe, I pervade everything that you can think of. I am, for example, present in all the five elements – sky, air, fire, water and earth. But here I must caution you. To describe Me as being present in this or that is only a limited way of looking at things. It is more appropriate to say that God IS the sky or the ether, God IS air, God IS fire and so on. In fact, everything in the Universe IS God!’
15. Arjuna asks, ‘ Krishna, if everything in the Universe is God, then why don’t people see God everywhere?’
16. Krishna replies, ‘Ah, that is because God disguises and hides Himself to see if you can find Him! It is a game He likes to play! Consider a garland with many beautiful flowers. Can a bunch of flowers form a garland all by themselves? You need a connecting thread don’t you? Yet, when you see a garland, is that connecting thread visible? No! I am the foundation and the basis for the physical and manifest Universe. Can you have a house without a foundation? It is the same thing here; and like the foundation of a house, I remain hidden!’
17. ‘However, this does not mean My presence cannot be felt or experienced. Let us say you are very thirsty and your throat is absolutely parched. You see a clear stream with cool water flowing in it. You drink that water to your heart’s content and find it very refreshing. But you do not know that the sweetness of that cool and fresh water is Me! It is I, latent as sweetness in that water that brings joy to you.’
18. ‘Another example. It is a hot and humid day and you are perspiring heavily. Suddenly there is a gust of cool breeze and you feel relief. Arjuna, I am that breeze, giving you that refreshing experience.’
19. ‘I am the brilliance of the blazing fire and the radiant blue of the sky. Time being short, I won’t give more examples, though I can go on and on till the end of Time! It is enough for you to know that all excellence and beauty in the Universe flows directly from Me. If you see a very intelligent person, know for certain that this person’s intelligence is not his own but flows from Me. Your brother Bhima is very strong; you know that; but do you know that his strength is really a tiny part of My strength, reflected via him?’

Words of God

Words of God - Part 1 "The Avatar - HIS Role, HIS Purpose"
"..... Above all, do not give room for the canker of doubt. Why clique over Me, over this point or that concerning Me? Who exactly Baba, you discuss and debate! What does it matter to you who I happen to be? You are concerned about your goal, your ideal, yor experience, your effort, is it not? Why then worry about My Origin, My Nature, My Mystery, My Miracle? The basic thing is the hand, the cup it holds is secondary. The Adheya is less in importance than the Adhara, the Basic Reality, the Pure Existence. When you cannot reach down to your own Basic Reality, why waste time in exploring the Essence of Godhead? As a matter of fact, you can understand Me only when you have understood yourself, your own basic Truth.

The gross can grasp only the gross; its categories of knowledge can proceed only as far as that. Fish die when they have to breathe the air above the water. Children can learn the alphabet with the help of boards, slates, pencils and pieces of chalk. Sadhakas, going through the primers of spirituality, need symbols, images and rituals. You cannot discard Name and Form until you transmute yourself into the Nameless and Formless; just as the fish needed water and could not come up into the atmosphere, so long as they
did not transmute themselves into land animals, giving up their aquatic nature. That is the reason why the Nameless and Formless has often to assume Name and Form, and come before humanity with limitations imposed by Its own Will, so that it may be loved, respected, worshipped, listened to and followed; so that the Purpose of Humanity may be fulfilled.

A wooden elephant, however artistically perfect and lifelike, is but a toy; it cannot create the awareness of the genuine elephant.

A library stacked with books is incapable of imparting the authentic touch of the living Guru; you may trek to ten temples and then, at last arrive here, believing this to be the eleventh. That is as fruitless as wandering from the tenth library to an eleventh. You must see, hear, study, observe, experience, reflect; then only can you understand Me.

You will learn then that I am Prema Itself; that I give only one thing, Ananda, through that Prema. My task is to distribute Solace, Courage and Shanthi. That is to say, My characteristics are the ancient authentic ones; only the Manifested Form is new. My desire - if I can put it in so many words - is this: More and more should yearn for Me. The desire could be realised only if I assume this Form and come among you.

Those among you who have been following the unfolding of My story will have discovered this by now; though even to the best of you only a fraction of the Mystery is revealed.
..... My language, My role, My career, My purpose can be understood in a general way only by sitting through the entire film, watching earnestly and vigilantly and trying to get at the meaning of every word and act with patient attention.

As a matter of fact, language is an impediment in dealing with Me. All languages have a place in the concourse of men, bringing out their feeling, hiding their weaknesses, shaping their thoughts etc. but I speak and listen to the language of the soul. The words littered by the tongues of men confuse and confound; they breed factions and sects; they erect walls; the words that emanate from the soul radiate love and concord.

..... There are some who come here and earn Peace and Joy, but after years of sharing and serving, they fall a prey to waywardness and fall back into the old morass; declining to such an extent that they deny their very experience and play false to their own conscience! Not that I am anxious that they should worship Me or adhere to Me; far from it. I only ask that Truth must be proclaimed, regardless of the company you have fallen into; there must be courage of conviction, which will help you to overcome the temptation to deny your cherished joys.

There are again some others who are swept off their feet by hysterical demonstrations by certain weak-minded individuals, which are described as My speaking through them or acting through them! Take it from Me, I am not given to such absurdities! I do not use others as My media; I have no need to. I do not swing from side to side and prattle!

..... Their gestures, words and actions are hollow and vain;
those who burn incense before them and revere them are turning away from Me and running after Falsehood.

..... For, how can the Full ever dally with the paltry and wear the habiliment of the trifling? When God has come assuming Form, take it from Me, it will not fill inferior vessels or embellish tawdry stuff or enter impure bodies.

..... The Lord is as anxious to assuage your pain as you are anxious to secure his Grace to get rid of it. You may not know this but I know, for I feel it.

..... Do not listen to destructive criticisms and cynicisms, which are the poisons eating into the vitals of spiritual life today. Bear witness to the truth of your own experience; do not be false to yourself, or to Me. My name is Sathya Sai; it means, "He who reclines on Truth."

I am reminded now of past events, events in my previous body.
Even then, I had Sathya or Truth as my Support. A wrestler challenged Me then for a fight and he was defeated before a large gathering of villagers. Pained by the insult, he invited Baba for a second tussle the next day, so that he might win back his lost reputation. The man swore that if defeated again, he would wear a long rough kafni and move about with his head covered in cloth.
He dared Baba too to swear likewise. Baba was in no mood to enter the arena again and he was quite prepared to concede the fellow the victory he craved. So he accepted defeat and himself donned the kafni and the kerchief. The wrestler felt great remorse and his Insolence melted away. He appealed to Baba to resume his usual style of dress and released him from the obligation. But Baba stuck to his word. He was Sathya Itself. Then, as He is now, He wore the new attire. - Sai Baba

who I am

who I am
"There was no one to know who I am till I created the world, at My pleasure, with one word. Immediately earth and sky were formed, mountains rose up, rivers started flowing, sun, moon and stars sprang out of nowhere to prove My existence. Came all forms of life - plants, insects, beasts, birds and men. Various powers were bestowed upon them under My orders. The first place was granted to man, and My knowledge was placed in man's mind." -Baba