Sri Sathya Sai Baba

You have to struggle to ensure spiritual progress

Tiffs is a chance for service for which you must feel extremely delighted, for, here you can transmute your devotion and faith into positive acts of service for the benefit of your brothers and sisters. And, since I am with you in all that you do, you have no worry about the success of the undertakings. You have only to be 'instruments;' you need not devise devious ways or roundabout tactics. Doing your duties as members, you have the need to preserve and develop trust in Sai, too.

This is Sai work, which you are invited to enjoy. This is elevating work that brings you nearer to the heart of the Divine. When Naaraayana hastened to save the elephant front the jaws of the crocodile, the Bhaagavatha says, He did not take with Him the weapons---wheel or even the Lotus or the Conch. He went empty handed, as far as eye could discern. The conscious hand must have the inert pickaxe in order to break the hard sod; so too, the Divine Consciousness must have the Prakrithi (objective world or objective instrument) to carry out His plan.

You have the chance to contribute to the happiness and beatitude of thousands. In order to carry out this duty, you have yourselves to lead exemplary lives. Your nithya jeevitha (daily living) must be transformed into live prayers and live saadhana. How much struggle are you now going through for ensuring physical comfort! You have to struggle much more for ensuring mental peace and spiritual progress, for sathya jeevitha (life in truth).

Calculate within yourselves the benefit that would accrue to you from this saadhana into which you are initiated now, and prepare for shouldering the task assigned.

 - Sathya Sai Speaks, Volume 12, Chapter 41