At the age of 14, Sri Sathya Sai Baba declared to his parents that he had come to this world with a mission to re-establish the principle of Righteousness, to motivate love for God and service to fellow man. Since then, he consistently called on all mankind to Love All, Serve All and has repeatedly asserted that the essence of all scriptures is Help Ever, Hurt Never!
Through his speeches and writings, Sri Sathya Sai Baba has offered a veritable ocean of knowledge and guidance on all aspects of spiritual, religious, and value-oriented living. He has often repeated that it is not necessary to drink the whole ocean to know its taste, that it is not necessary to read all scriptures to live a life of joy, peace, and love. It is enough to put into practice one aspect of spiritual teaching.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba has emphasized that we are all embodiments of God — we are God — and that the chief goal of our lives as humans is to realize the God within, to experience that we are Divinity, to achieve "enlightenment". Sri Sathya Sai Baba said in 1953 that, "there is no escaping it; all creatures have to reach God some day or other, by the long route or by the short route.” And he mentioned this topic of realizing who we really are in almost every one of his more than 1500 published discourses.
A few drops of the ocean of Sri Sathya Sai Baba's teachings, an attempt to encapsulate its essence, follows.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba has urged mankind to:
· Believe in God -- for there is only ONE GOD for all mankind, though He may be called by many names.
· Follow sincerely their respective religions and live their daily lives in consonance with the teachings of good behavior and morality.
· Respect all other religions -- for no religion advocates the negative and lower qualities of man.
· Perform selfless service to the poor, the sick, and the needy without thought of reward or fame.
· Cultivate in their lives the values of truth, divine love, right conduct, peace, and nonviolence and promote these values among all.
· Be patriotic and respect the laws of the country in which they live.