The flower of penance (Tapas pushpam) is very dear to God. Penance does not require you to give up your wife and children, go to a forest, and put your head down and feet up – that is not tapas! To practice real tapas, we should abandon bad thoughts from our minds as soon as they occur! The co-ordination of thought, word and deed is tapas. Whatever thoughts sprout in your mind, to utter them as words and to put them in practice as your work is true tapas. It is in this context that scriptures reveal, “Manas Ekam, Vachas Ekam, Karmanyekam Mahatmanam – the person who can coordinate their thoughts with their words and their words with their deeds is indeed a great soul (Mahatma).” Give up bad thoughts from your mind – that is sacrifice! That sacrifice will become yoga (spiritual path). Remember, giving up one’s property and one’s wife and going to the forest is not yoga! – Divine Discourse, May 12, 1981. Sathya Sai Baba #sathyasai #saibhakta