Thought for the day

When every action is offered to God, it becomes yoga

Hymn to Love

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,

but havenot love,

I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers,

and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,

and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,

but have not love,

I am nothing.

If I give away all I have,

and ifI deliver my body to be burned,

but have not love,

I gain nothing.

Love is patient and kind;

love is not jealous or boastful;

it is not arrogant or rude.

Love does not insist on its own way;

it is not irritable or resentful;

it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.

Love bears all things,

believes all things,

hopes all things,

endures all things.

Love never ends;

as for prophecies, they will pass away;

as for tongues, they will cease;

as for knowledge, it will pass away

On 16March 2013, Swami gave 1Corinthians,chapter13 on a sheet of paper. All of Christendom reveres this passage from the Bible known as the 'Love Chapter'. Even though I grew up a Vaishnavite living in a small village in southern India, I too was familiar with it as I attended a Christian school in my youth. In meditation,whenI askedSwami about it,Heaskedme to compare the verseswithmy own life experience. Thus,I have written,looking at the verses not from the angle ofscholars, but from my heart experience and the great wave of Prema that has swept over me,becomingmy very being. Thisismy love for the Avatar,Sathya Sai Baba.I have done as He has asked. It is my prayer that those who read this article may be benefitted and find it helpfulontheir spiritual journey. Let all people rejoice knowing the nature of Love is universal and is not the possession of any one faith, but the foundation and the unity of all faiths.  Om Sai Ram.