The Glorification of the Sun

Gurumayi encouraged us to apply the attitude of excellence to other aspects of our lives as well. Gurumayi said,

Live with excellence. Whatever you do, do it excellently. Whether it’s your health, whether it’s the seva you offer, your friendship, any relationship, there’s got to be heart. There’s got to be heart in it.

I always tell people when I’m saying something, turn on your intellect, not your emotional body. The emotional body is a beautiful body… for love. For everything else, it’s a cauldron—a cauldron of… stuff. If you make no effort to strengthen the emotional body, then your only experience is dying a thousand deaths and then blaming destiny, relationships, circumstances, even God. You cannot prevent the ultimate death of the physical body; however, you have the choice, you have the power, to prevent the emotional roller coaster. That is why I ask that you turn on your intellect, because you are equipped with a good intellect. Each one of you has the capacity to become an SYDA Foundation sevite par excellence.

We can be nice to each other, you know. When you see Gurumayi, you can turn and acknowledge Gurumayi’s presence. You have my permission to say hello. If it doesn’t come naturally to you, then practice. Always make the effort to learn.

If you make it a habit to respond from your emotional body, saying, “Well, I don’t know what to do, I’m shy, I’m afraid. This is who I am,” then the physical body mirrors the weakness of the emotional body, and the physical body grows weak as well. I’ve been told that when the brain perceives that something has gone wrong in one’s body, it sends a message to that specific area: “Alert! Alert! All systems here shut down!” The pain that the body feels is a signal not to use that part of the body. So to protect itself, that part of the body grows weak. However, once that area has healed, the body doesn’t get strong automatically on its own. A person must use their intellect and exercise that part of the body to strengthen it. So there is work to do.

For this reason, understand that it is important that you do not apply the weakness of the emotional body to everything you hear and everything that happens. You don’t want that weakness to shut down your systems. You want all systems to be awake. You want yourself to be awake. You want to be able to recognize if you see a message in the sky. When someone speaks, you want to be able to recognize if there is a message for you in their words. You want the emotional body to be awake so that when somebody reads something poignant, you experience your heart being moved. When somebody gracefully places an object on the table, you want to be able to perceive the grace in that movement.

Your heart should have the power to be responsive to the beauty of life. That’s the only way it will be moist. And if your heart is moist, it will never weaken or break. It is when you have not worked on the heart muscle that the heart breaks easily. If you continually work to strengthen the heart, just as you work to strengthen the muscles of the physical body, then your heart will be there for you.

So we’re having a talk. Right now, I am talking, and you are listening. I want to say to you, every one of you: wake up, grow up, and follow the mandate of the heart. I know your heart wishes well because you have a great heart. I know you have a good intellect, because you always do mean well. My request is that you demonstrate that good intellect and great heart in the little things you do. Show that you care. A simple word, “hello,” can moisten someone’s heart with love. It’s good for the heart.

Please understand, I am not advising that you go around saying hello to everybody. Your words of greeting may vary from moment to moment, occasion to occasion, person to person. Honestly, only one thing survives, and that is love. It’s all about love. This love is stronger than any organization. However, you must take care to look at each little aspect of your life and take steady, strong steps to always move with love and toward love.