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KRISHNA JANMASHTHAMI
By Swami Ramakrishnananda
Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chinnai
King Kansa was the most absolute and tyrannical monarch of the period; the bare mention of whose name was sufficient to send fear through the hearts of all good and peace-loving people. His sister's name was Devaki upon whom his brother Kansa showered brotherly love. And that is the reason why, on the day of Devaki's marriage to Vasudev, when the time came for Devaki to travel to her husband's house, that king Kansa wanted to drive the carriage himself as a token of his brotherly love.
The newly married couple were simple and beautiful, yet noble and majestic to look at. They were really very happy. The royal carriage richly decorated with precious gems and ornaments, was being followed by a large retinue of people wearing colourful gala dresses. Everything was pleasant all round.
Suddenly the face of nature changed. The birds stopped singing; the sun was obscured by a cloud; the soft breeze became a howling wind creating dust storms. Ill omens were pointing to imminent danger. An unaccountable fear suddenly gripped the minds of all in the procession. At such a time, an unseen voice, an oracle, was heard from above which said:
"Oh you foolish one, whom are you driving so merrily? Would you not know that the eighth issue of her womb shall be the cause of your death?"
On hearing this, the terrible Kansa sprang up from his seat, drew his sword, and was about to kill his sister on the spot, had not Vasudev intervened. Falling upon his feet, on behalf of his newly married wife, reminding Kansa that not Devaki but her eighth child would be the cause of his death. So he requested Kansa most humbly, to spare her life, she being fully innocent, and promised, since he had fear from her children, that each and everyone of them would be given over to him. Kansa felt the force of the reason and agreed to the proposal of Vasudev.
Besides his newly married bride Devaki, Vasudev had another good wife, named Rohini and with these two loving and dutiful wives he managed to live in peace and comfort.
In the course of time, the first male child was born to Devaki. Vasudev, true to his word, sent the news to King Kansa, who sent his servants to fetch the child whom he instantly killed with his own hands. Six children were thus killed by the cruel king, who foolishly wanted to avert the course of fate.
In the case of the seventh child, somehow or other the womb appeared to be fruitless, although it was really transferred, through divine agency, from Devaki to Rohini, who in due course of time, brought forth a child that, on account of its transference from one womb to another came to be known by the name of Sankarshana.
Now when the time for the birth of her eighth child was approaching, Kansa ordered Vasudeva and Devaki to be cast into his prison, bound with the same chain.
Both the wife and husband did not know what to do. Every minute of their lives they called upon their only hope, their only deliverance, God. The solace of the unhappy, ardent prayers proceeding from the very bottom of their souls, incessantly flowed out of their hearts; and the almighty Lord of the universe, in His own mysterious ways, was infilling their souls with infinite power of endurance which kept the fragile vessels of their delicate frames steady and safe in that gloomy and stormy sea of life.
For us, there is a lesson to be derived from this. We can draw great comfort from the Gita where the Lord tells us: Ch.8,verse 58-"Fixing your mind on Me, you shall by my grace, overcome all obstacles..."
Devaki was about to usher into the world its saviour, and she along with her husband, bewailed her lot and beating her forehead said: "O darling, be not born of me to be smashed to death by the cruel king Kansa". And with this, both Devaki and Vasudeva fell into a swoon. In the gloom of that unconsciousness, suddenly a light flashed, and a beautiful youth of sixteen, holding mace and discus, conch shell and lotus in his four hands, rose above the horizon of their mental firmament, healing all their mental wounds, cheering and exhilarating them with his sweet smile."Father and mother, weep no more. I have come at last to your rescue and to the rescue of all the good people. Open your eyes and see me as your child. Carry me father to the house of your friend Nanda in Gokula. His wife Yashoda has given birth to a daughter just now. Exchange me for that daughter. Bring her back to this prison leaving me on the lap of Yashoda who will be sleeping at the time. Nothing shall bar your path".
With these words, the soul-solacing charming youth vanished.
When Devaki and Vasudeva opened their eyes, they saw the most charming and beautiful baby ever a parent was blessed with. That was at midnight of Ashtami-Rohini day, the divine baby was born in Prison. The earth and the heavens were filled with joy. Flowers blossomed, rains fell from the sky, peacocks danced, the gods rained flowers, and divine music was heard. Devaki and Vasudeva forgot their miserable condition for a while, looking at the smiling baby playing with its tiny limbs. The mother kissed the sweet face and forgot her danger. Then after a while, they realised the real state of affairs and both the husband and wife shuddered. Then the sweet instructions of the fascinating youth in the vision flashed into their minds. Vasudeva clasped the child at once in his bosom to start for Gokula, but found that his legs were in chains. He did not know what to do. In his haste he gave a jerk, and his legs were released! He sprang upon his feet and ran towards the door of his dungeon. The massive iron-barred doors were locked with three fold locks; but the guards were all asleep, and therefore fearlessly he gave a push forward and the gates were unlocked and flew open of their own accord. The crossing over the river Yamuna was just as miraculous. Vasudeva reached Gokula and to his astonishment found the door of Nanda's house open. He exchanged the babies and hurried back to the prison of Kansa. Early in the morning, all the people at Gokula came to know that a beautiful male child, a prince had been born the previous night at midnight to Nanda's wife, and their simple hearts were filled with unbounded joy.
Source: http://www.hinduism.co.za/krishna.htm
Many a Gem of Golden Ray Serene
What is of utmost and supreme significance to man is the inward journey or the spiritual exploration to know the ultimate reality. As for the romance hero, the questor in medieval romances, so for each of us there is the basic need and necessity to undertake the spiritual pilgrimage to arrive where we started and to know the place for the first time, our real home. Sai Baba of Shirdi often spoke about a foolish young man who went to the seaside with a view to dive deep into the unplumbed depths of the ocean and fish out precious pearls there from. He waited all night, sitting listlessly at the promontory and looked forward to the rosy dawn light when he would dive into the sea and fish out the precious gems. But as he waited tense and expectant for the dawning of the light that would make the seascape clear and bright, time seemed to have a stop and he felt utterly bored and disconsolate. So, he looked around and set his eyes on the dark facade of the horizon, not aware of the darkness within his heart In the dim light of the fading moonlight, he saw a mound of stones nearby at the sea beach. So, in order to pass his time and by way of a pastime to while away the desultory moments, he picked up a stone and threw it into the waves. The sound of the splash, produced by the fall of the stone in the water, pleased him no end. And he continued with his game throughout that humid and sultry summer night. Just before the day-break, the film of mist disappeared and the horizon's mirror tilted and in that beautiful and tranquil atmosphere, the young man looked at the heap of stones nearby and found that the heap of stones was not as high as it was during the night. He had picked up stone after stone and had thrown them into the ocean. Just then, the first rays of the sun fell on the beach and the remaining stones of the mound shone with a strange glimmer and lustre. The young man picked up a stone and looked at it closely. He found that it was a precious gem of golden ray serene. He cursed himself for his rank folly; he had thrown away the entire treasure of pearls into the sea without knowing it. Sai Baba told the devotees who surrounded him every night at Dwarkamai to hear his words of wisdom, that this was the tragedy of the human lot. He presumes to know himself and considers himself to be clever and wise, but he simply deludes himself by running after strange gods. On account of his inordinate lust and desire for material glory he is all the time hankering after precious pearls from the depths of the sea, little knowing that all the treasure, the priceless gems and pearls are all stored within his own heart and consciousness. Thus, in his foolishness, the young man threw away the precious pearls into the sea and had no option but to lament over his lot. Sri Sathya Sai Baba has also emphasized the fact that man runs after material treasures and overlooks the priceless gems that are buried in his own back garden. Howard Murphet makes this point explicit when he says:
There is the story of a young man who travelled the world seeking a hidden treasure, the pearl beyond price. Finally, he met a wise man who taught him many wonderful things. The important and most astounding thing was that the buried treasure was buried in his garden back home. He had to dig for it himself but the wise man gave him instructions about how to find it. Likewise, Swami has told me, and all others who drink the cup of his wisdom, that the spiritual pearl beyond price is buried in the garden of one's own heart, one's own spiritual heart. It is there that I must dig for it. So the end of the outward journey, bringing me as it did to the feet of the Avatar, the Master of all wisdom, was not the end of my journey. I had to set off on another one, perhaps even more difficult, more hazardous. Swami calls this the Inward journey.
Sai Baba, being a great world teacher, has given us the guidelines for this our momentous inward journey. All that we have to do is to follow his directions truthfully and live by them. His chief stress is verily on a quartet of moral values or human values, whatever we may call them. They constitute a symphony and a quartet so that while the music of one is audible, that of the others is also heard. This is also true of Sermon of the Mount delivered by Jesus Christ to his disciples. It is true that the teachings and messages given by the saints, sages and great Avatars have strange, unique and universal quality since they are meant both for the individuals and the widest commonalty so that the entire mankind whose spiritual transformation and regeneration is at the centre of their mission, may benefit by them. Love, Truth, Righteousness, Peace and Non-violence are the five gems that Sai Baba has underlined as the gems of golden ray serene which constitute the central kernel of his teaching and the chief burden of his avataric mission. Sai Baba like Jesus Christ is the very embodiment of Love. In the following part of the chapter, it may be fair to describe the full implication of the concepts of Truth, Dharma, Prema, Santhi and non-violence and how can they take us on to the inward journey reaching the still centre. At the same time, these five attributes prescribed by Baba are not merely abstract or symbolic virtues. For one thing, they are remarkably precise and concrete and can form the cornerstone of man's spiritual quest. These are composite values falling into a beautiful pattern. They are closely interrelated, one with the other. That is to say, the practice of one of these values leads to the practice of the other. However, the stress on the five human values is not altogether new or original. As we know, these are the gems that we find in all religions of the world and in the annals of perennial philosophy. Since these are the eternal verities, which the human race must live by, they have to be constantly restated and reiterated from time to time. Krishna gave a concrete shape to these eternal verities in the song celestial, the concentrated essence of the Vedas and Upanishads and Christ reframed them in his own idiom and transmitted them to crowds through parables. Sai Baba also uses parables and analogies in order to drive home the meaning of his sayings. When the words are clothed in the vesture of thought and feeling, they seem to go straight into the heart and have a profound effect on the listeners. Baba often plays on words and shows his complete mastery of the norms of language. Thus, most of his sayings take on the quality of memorable speech and cannot be easily forgotten.
The five gems which matter most to mankind are Sathya, Dharma,, Prema, Santhi and Ahimsa. If one imbibes these priceless virtues in one's character, he perfects himself in the will of God Almighty, and earns the grace of the Lord for further union and deeper communion with him. These virtues can be acquired through the difficult and arduous process of sadhana, a spiritual exercise costing not less than everything. These are the ideals that make man grow into the image of God himself. The acquisition of these priceless gems is a matter of sustained and ceaseless spiritual exploration. The practice on the spiritual plane involves confidence within oneself. Without this self-confidence one can get nowhere. Without self-confidence one is tossed on the stormy seas of confusion and doubt. The first step on the ladder of spiritual ascent, of course, is the confidence in the self, the inner self or atma, which is the divinity within. As Baba says,
The first thing you have to do is to develop confidence in yourself. It is people who have no confidence in their own self who begin to wander about and to waver and take to various different paths.
The aspirant must have faith in himself, which means faith in the divine. He must chart out his course in the spiritual voyage undeterred by doubt and confusion. Baba has advised people to have full faith in their inner vision because as Baba has pointed out:
Self-confidence is the basis of faith in God also. People who do not know who they are and have no confidence in their own strength and power assert that there is no God. But how can they declare that the God in whom you believe and who exists for you does not exist?
Truly, self-confidence is the first requisite for the seeker and is the precious gem beyond price; it arises from the atma, the inner reality and is of divine origin. The second important step in the ladder of spiritual destination is what is termed as discipline. Sathya Sai Baba lays great stress on practising the right discipline. Discipline is essential for attaining self-realization and is the starting point for all spiritual endeavour. As Baba has rightly declared:
The real you is the atma. This can be learned only by constant meditation, by moving in good company, by listening to the talk of realized men, by following some prescribed form of discipline. That is why I lay so much emphasis on discipline.
And Baba has said the last word on the quality of a disciplined mind and heart in quest of God:
Discipline comes to the rescue during crisis when the world flows towards you as a dark flood of hate or derision, or when those in whom you have put your trust shun contact and shy away. Without discipline, the mind of man is turned into a wild elephant in a rut. You have to catch it young and train so that its strength and skill can be useful to man and harmless to life around.
Amongst the five gems of golden ray serene, Sathya (Truth) comes in the first place and tops the list. Sathya is also the name of Baba. It means the unchanging, eternal Absolute, which is the chief adjunct of God.
Truth may be described as a pole star that guides our journey through life in the darkest night. Truth is the prime mover since it is the very nature of the divine. It is truly the base and foundation of our atma. Truth manifests in action as dharma (right action), in our being as love and purity of heart. According to Baba, the search for Truth is the avowed duty and destination of man. Thus Truth is the gem of infinite beauty and splendour, the brilliance of which illumines our existence and saves us from indulging in falsehood. Sathya Sai Baba points out:
The chief duty of man is investigation into Truth. Truth can be won only through dedication and devotion and they are dependent on the grace of God, which is showered on hearts saturated with love.
The unique distinction of man in the entire creation lies in the fact that amongst all creatures in the phenomenal world, it is only he who is bestowed the powers of intelligence and discrimination. It is central to the basic nature of man to seek love and truth, for these are springs of atmic origin. We all have come from God, our original home, and it is our duty to return to him.
Thus, the search for truth is basic to human nature and is the sure and reliable pathway that leads us to the supreme since God is truth and when we tread confidently on this path, we are sure to feel at one with God. That is precisely why Truth has been placed at the top of the five moral virtues recommended by Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Baba has very nicely summed up the cardinal importance of Truth as an eminently desirable virtue:
There is in everyone a spark of truth; none can live without that spark. There is in everyone a flame of love, life becomes a dark void without it. That spark, that flame is God, for he is the source of all truth and all love. He seeks to know the reality because his very nature is derived from God, who is truth. He seeks love, to give it and share it, for his nature is of God and God is love.
After Truth, the next most important gem of moral and human values has to do with Dharma or right action. Sometimes, the full meaning and implication of this term is grossly misinterpreted and even missed. It is generally believed that dharma means adherence to some religious creed or doctrine and has a predominantly moralistic and ethical content. But it is not fair to take such a limited and restricted view of dharma. Dharma is an all-embracing term and has a number of connotations. It does certainly have its basis in what we may call moral or religious obligation. But, broadly speaking, dharma is the spiritual obligation; attendant on one's responsibility to self, to others and to God and it entails introspection and self-discipline based on the knowledge of one's inner divinity. That is to say, that a person who is not conscious of his inner divinity and is not concerned with his spiritual obligation to self, to others and to God, cannot perform his duty or dharma in the true sense of the term.
However, the most puzzling question is to determine how does one perform one's dharma or spiritual obligation in action? Dharma is something that depends on certain specifics of time and circumstances. According to Sathya Sai Baba there are unchangeable constants, which must be adhered to, always and at all times. Baba lists them:
And what is dharma? Practising what you preach, doing the way it has to be done, keeping the precept and practice in line. Earn virtuously, yearn piously, and live in ‑the fear of God, live for reaching God: that is dharma.
These, then, are the basic, universal laws, which are at the core of all religions. They are the golden rules enumerated by Jesus Christ in his Commandments as well as in the Sermon on the Mount. One must strictly observe the golden rule contained in the saying: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' In a nutshell, Baba has surnmarised the basics for the observance of the dharmic way of life:
What exactly is your duty? Let me summarize it for you. First, tend your parents with love and reverence and gratitude. Second, speak the truth and act virtuously. Third, when you have a few moments to spare, repeat the name of the Lord with the form in your mind. Fourth, never indulge in talking ill of others or try to speak ill of others or discover faults in others. And finally, do not cause pain to others in any form.
These five injunctions constitute the recipe of a virtuous life dedicated to dharma and can offer mankind the mode of salvation. At the same time, these injunctions are not hard to follow for each of us. Nor do they require any sadhana, mantra or tantra. All one has to do is to chart out one's course in the perilous ocean of samsara, keeping always in mind the awareness of one's spiritual obligation. To tend one's parents with love, affection and reverence is just the repayment of one's debt and homage to those earthly people who have given us birth. Similarly, remembering God in one's spare moments is the spiritual obligation and duty of the pilgrim soul towards the heavenly father. And one should always be loving and considerate to one's fellow beings as all are brothers and sisters, emanating from the same divine essence. So, these are the gems of golden ray serene that shine in their intrinsic glory and resplendence.
Sathya Sai Baba has said that his life is his message. He has declared that he is dharmaswarup, the very embodiment of righteousness. Although he is not circumscribed by the concept of duty and reason, he is doing his karma out of his own volition so as to set an example for mankind and to provide joy to others. His advent has been for loka kalyan, and he has founded many educational institutions including schools and colleges as well as hospitals, all for the welfare of the people. Even without having any karmic necessity or compulsion, he is devoting every moment of his life for the sake of his devotees, fostering them, instructing them in pious and virtuous living, counselling them and curing them of dreadful and terminal diseases. If one spends a day at the Nilayam, one finds that Baba's day is crowded with activities right from the dawn to midnight only for the benefit of his devotees who are ever so near and dear to him.
Though Love figures in the third place and is third in order amongst the priceless gems offered by Swami, it is the apex and crown of all, since love is the very basis of creation. Indeed love is the primal energy that manifests itself in the creation of whole cosmos, the earth and the sky, the rivers and the oceans, mountains and deserts, the birds and beasts, man and all sentient things. As Baba has very nicely said :
The basis for the entire world is prema (Divine love) of the Lord. Even if one is able to get by heart the essence of all the Vedas (sacred teachings) and is able to compose poetry in a very attractive manner, if that person does not have a purified heart, he is a useless person. What other greater truth can I communicate to you?
Thus, love is the central jewel in the well-wrought urn of Sai teachings, the greatest and most precious acquisition of mankind, which transforms man into the image of God.
Love is something that has to be cultivated with care. just as we require the proper fertile soil for the growing of flowers and their blossoming, similarly to grow love into proper, luxuriant bloom, we require to weed out the weeds of attachment and greed and selfishness from our hearts.
Once we realize that love is many a splendoured thing and represents the principle of unity with the eternal Absolute, we begin to work for the expansion of our love beyond the self to include parents, friends and the entire humanity. Since there is no limit to the attributes of God, our love for God is, in reality, becomes all-absorbing, annexing all creatures of the created world. The secret dawns upon us that the universe is the image of the divine and expresses the tapestry of God, we begin to see God in all and begin to identify ourselves with everyone. Their joys and sorrows become our joys and sorrows and there is no longer any sense of separation or alienation. Through the alchemy of love we reach our true destination and experience the bliss of oneness with the divine essence. Baba rightly directs us to extend our love for further union and deeper communion with him.
Love is God, God is love. Where there is love, there God is certainly evident. Love more and more people. Love them more and more intensely. Transform this love into service, transform the service into worship. This is the highest sadhana.
It is apparent that all the five moral virtues and human values advocated by Baba are related, one with the other, and their practice involves spiritual exercise of a very high order. As Baba has stated,
If we really want to experience Prema we will have to understand what peace or shanti means. If we want to follow the path of peace we will have to accept the path of dharma. If we want to follow the path of dharma, we will have to accept the path of truth.
It is mainly through the expansion of love beyond self that one can reach beyond one's worlds and grasp the importance of universal values. All the great visions of humanity germinate through a heart full of love. If we wish to know and experience God, who is Being, Awareness and Bliss, we must love all the creatures and the creation, which are the handiwork of God. When we experience the source of love within, we view the world with glasses of love. Thus, love is the roof and the crown of all values. Sri Sathya Sai Baba emphasizes the supreme value of love as a priceless gem, our greatest acquisition and possession that leads us to our goal. Baba's prescription to us is to follow this way of love in our daily life. He teaches:
Start the day with love
Spend the day with love
Fill the day with love
End the day with love
that is the way to God.
And Baba communicates to us the pearl of wisdom when he says:
I must tell you of the paramount importance of love. Love is God, live in love. God is the embodiment of perfect love. He can be known and realized, reached and won, only through love. You can see the moon only with the help of moonlight. You can see God only through the rays of love.
Peace and Non-violence are the remaining two gems of golden ray serene, which are eminently desirable for mankind. Jonathan Roof in his beautiful work, Pathway to God, has characterized Peace as the sign of God's creation working in harmony. Peace is like a river flowing from the mountain to the sea along its bank always maintaining its equilibrium with the shore. Everything in the cosmos follows a definite pattern reconciled in the drift of the stars. Thus the creation is preserved and maintained by perfect harmony and balance. Similarly, peace for the spiritual aspirant is a state of spiritual equanimity based on the understanding of his spiritual obligation or duty. When we have a clear perception of the divinity working in the nature and cosmos, we tend to live in consonance with the divine norms and recognize the hand of divinity in everything.
And when one lives a virtuous life one is at peace with oneself. As Sathya Sai Baba says,
When man thinks, speaks and acts along virtuous lines, his conscience will be clean and he will have inner peace. Knowledge is power it is said, but virtue is peace.
To live in a state of perfect peace and serenity, one has to keep one's senses under control, do away with unreasonable desires and longings. When one has unreasonable expectations, one feels ruffled and upset by failures and disappointments. So, a mind in peace follows the path of the golden mean, thinks, lives and acts wisely and virtuously, leaving the fruit of his action on God. When desires are burnt away through discipline and sadhana what remains is the purity of consciousness and the realization of the inner divinity within. As Baba has said:
There is no mind as such. The mind is a web of desires. Peace of mind is no desires, and in that state there is no mind. Mind is destroyed, so to speak. Peace of mind means purity, complete purity of consciousness.
Jonathan Roof has rightly pointed out that:
Atmic peace is our true nature, it is acquired when we look within. If we are concerned only with outward circumstances, the jumble of daily events we will be unable to experience peace. Ignorance of our divine origin causes us to be elated restrained or stilled. To keep the monkey mind on the leash, the best thing is to repose our faith in God and cling our thoughts to God and God alone.
As Eliot says:
We shall be still, and still moving
For further union and deeper communion.
If the mind centres on God, the experience of perfect peace will inevitably follow and peace, thus gained, will be our priceless possession. The attainment of inner peace in the mind of man has a far-reaching consequence. Baba has put it very nicely when he says:
If there is righteousness in the heart
There will be beauty in the character
If there is beauty in the character
There will be harmony in the home.
When there is harmony in the home
There will be order in the nation.
When there is order in the nation,
There will be peace in the world.
The last gem of golden ray serene is non-violence which is closely connected with the other four: Truth, Dharma, Love and Peace. It seems that Baba has composed a symphony of the traditional moral virtues coming from ancient times and glorified by all religions, prophets and various incarnations of the Lord. These values are traditional, but have universal appeal and the acquisition of each or all of them carves out the destiny of man in the very image of God. That is why I have described them as gems or priceless treasures. Man looks before and after and pines for what is not. He goes in search of spiritual treasures in the wilderness of the material world, little knowing that the gems are all buried in his back garden. These gems shine brilliantly and radiate their golden rays serene all round and are repository of radiance and splendour like that imperial planet, the sun. If one is asked to point out the basic and integral teaching of Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, it will not be wrong to say that the five moral virtues or human values with their diamond like hardness, transparency and serene luminosity constitute the crux and the kernel of his message.
The last, but not the least of the human values, is non?violence or ahimsa. It has close kinship with love, truth, peace and righteousness. Non-violence is the attitude of the mind that leads people to live in perfect harmony and kinship with others. At the same time, non-violence presupposes high degree of faith and belief in truth and right action. For practical purposes, non?violence is an attitude of the mind when one avoids causing or inflicting pain on others. It implies strict adherence to truth and morality. In the words of Baba,
Ahimsa (non-violence) is another phase of truth. When once you are aware of the kinship, the oneness in God, the fundamental Atmic unity, no one will knowingly cause pain or distress to another.
The safest rule to follow is the injunction 'Do unto others, what you would have them do unto you.' Thus, non-violence must be a part of our perceptions and outlook. However, in doing one's duty one may be called upon to do harm to others. In performance of his duty a policeman may have to harm a criminal. A soldier in the battle-field may have to annihilate the enemy. There are different standards of judgment. A dacoit who murders a person may be said to have committed violence; whereas a surgeon who amputates a part of the patient's body to save his life is just doing his rightful duty as surgeon. Lord Krishna, who was an apostle of peace, encouraged prince Arjuna to wage a war against the Kauravas to vanquish the evil for the greater good of the society and lasting peace in the world. Baba has very nicely stated:
Krishna wanted the peace of the world and yet he encouraged the big battle in which forty lakbs of people were killed. Is this himsa (violence) or ahimsa (non-violence)? Even then Krishna gave an appropriate answer to this. He said, 'Arjuna, let us take the case of a cancerous growth of the body, and this cancerous growth gives pain to the whole human body, although the growth itself is confined to a localized area. In this battle or the operation, forty lakhs of disease causing germs will be killed for the benefit of the world. Is this bad or is this for the good of the world?'
Sathya Sai Baba illustrates further:
The meaning of ahimsa is that either in thought, deed, or word, you should not cause harm to anybody. Gandhi took a vow that until the end of his life, he would follow this. But on one occasion when he saw a cow suffering from pain, he could not bear it and he advised the doctor to give an injection and end the life of the cow. Thus, in order to help the suffering individual, we may sometimes have to harm him.
Thus, non-violence is beautiful and resplendent gem of golden ray serene; the acquisition of this priceless treasure may transform the life of the practitioner into a saga of peace and love and bring him closer to God. Ahimsa is integral with the other highly cherished and desirable virtues that are the essential ingredients for a virtuous and meaningful existence on this planet.
This author has used the analogy of music to explain the significance of these five moral principles in his work, Sai Baba: The RoseA quartet is chamber music played within the chamber in which four instruments constitute the ensemble. The distinctive mark of a quartet is that the four instruments are played on simultaneously. While the one is played, the other three are continually and concurrently heard. This creates a fugue as opposed to a solo or a symphony; and the music is heard so deeply that it is not heard at all! The five instruments or notes, sathya, dharma, prema, shanthi and ahimsa, constitute the ensemble and each is conterminus with the other. Swami says that if one practises a single of these virtues honestly and truthfully in one's daily life, the other four will automatically be his own possession.
At this stage, it may be fair to refer to the medieval quest romances in which the romance hero or the questor has been projected as a paragon of virtue. Thus we have a Sir Galhad, Sir Percival, Sir Gawan and the Green Knight and numerous others. King Arthur and his knights of the round table are all paragons of chivalry and courtesy. They are noble and pure-hearted persons whose chief loyalty is to their country and to their lady-love. They perform deeds of courage and valour so as to please their lady?love and prove themselves to be worthy of their noble calling as knights. They are not tainted by any radical defect in their character and are emblems of courtesy, valour and purity. In the process of their quest, they undertake the perilous journey to the Grail castle and encounter the Grail girl who asks them a number of questions. On giving the correct answers to these questions, they can get the mythical and symbolic grail and are ultimately united with the Grail girl, which is the ultimate goal of all their quest. King Arthur has been described as the ideal knight. Even in Spenser's The Faerie Queene, the main task of the Renaissance poet is to fashion a gentleman in the noble and virtuous disciplines. In this moral allegory, each knight represents a particular moral discipline, such as holiness, chastity, friendship etc. And Prince Arthur represents the twelve moral virtues as described by Plato, Plotinus and in Nichomacean Ethics. He is the very epitome of perfection and purity. He may be the exponent of magnificence which may be termed as the supreme virtue combining all others in a grand design. The Faerie Queene is a fable, a romance and an allegory, which operates on three different planes of meaning, the literal, the romantic and the moral or spiritual. By the same token, the priceless gems offered by Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba are aimed at the noble ideal of fashioning out the spiritual quest of mankind. Once we imbibe the golden rays of sathya, dharma, love, peace and non-violence and make them the mentor and guide of our daily living, thought, word and deed, we shall march with confidence to our avowed destination of merging with the infinite, supreme Ray of the universe, because that Absolute Eternal can be known only through adherence to these five ways of knowing.
The central teachings of Sri Sathya Sai Baba are strongly reminiscent of the perennial Indian philosophy and have a remarkable one-to-one correspondence with the Sermon on the Mount preached by Jesus Christ. We might even discern a close similarity between the main teachings of Jesus Christ and those of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. This may largely be on account of the fact that there is a basic and essential unity of all religions and that the incarnations of the Absolute Eternal think alike. In Christian theology, there is a prime emphasis on love, truth, charity and compassion and on non-violence.
In Koran and Buddhistic religious texts we again find great stress on the five-fold path of moral and spiritual regeneration. Of course, there are differences of presentment of these eternal verities depending on the individual distinctive factors and the compulsions of time and clime. The techniques and modes of presentation are bound to differ depending upon the personal outlook and genius of the teacher. For instance, Jesus Christ, who spoke to the crowds, used parables to drive home the message effectively to his audience. Sai Baba has striking resemblance with Jesus Christ so far as his mode of delivering his sermons is concerned inasmuch as he makes copious use of parables, figures of speech, analogies and homely illustrations. And, it becomes apparent as we hear him, that he hammers his points persistently to convince us and there is always a tough reasonableness beneath the lyric grace of his poetic and often impassioned discourses. Even those who do not understand Telugu seem to be swayed by the rhetoric of his speech and the music of his oration. It may safely be presumed that Baba is a poet, a great poet that only God can be. He has all the resources of language, speech, gesture and intonation and rhythm, which result in the rhythmic expansion of his message and meaning beyond the limitations of time and space. Apart from the five gems of golden ray serene, there are many a facet of the divine diamond that require attention. Baba has declared that the first sixteen years of his life will be devoted to mahima and the next sixteen years to miracles and that the remaining years will be devoted to upadesa or preaching sermons but at the same time, he has said that mahimas, miracles and upadesa would continue together.
Some of the salient features of Sai Baba's teachings have to be highlighted because they provide the basis for the salvation of mankind by offering the true perspective for spiritual progress. Baba is never tired of hammering out the point that man is pure atma, a fragment of the paramatma, which is his true and real home; as such man has to ultimately return to his divine origin and strive to seek merger with the Absolute. The body of man is no more than a temporary and temporal vestment. The atma resident in the body is formless, but it creates the forms it requires. It creates five sheaths in the body, namely, anamayakosha, paramanayakosha, manomayakosha, vijnamayakosha and finally, anandamayakosha. Baba stresses the point that in order to reach the stage of liberation and beatitude, man must get rid of earthly desires and attachments. This, according to Baba, involves long and continuous sadhana. Baba says that to get immersed in the Eternal Absolute one has to fully understand the atma principle, the divinity within, and if this is achieved, man can become God by merging his soul with the universal atma or paramatma. It follows from this that the basis of love and brotherhood of man is the truth of the Atma principle. When you come to realize that God resides in everyone, all feeling of separateness vanishes. Baba uses the analogy of the electricity current. The same current flows through everyone.
The other important teaching of Sai Baba has to do with the nature, existence and immanence of the Divine principle. Although God is formless, he manifests himself in any form. In his famous pronouncement Baba has said:
There is only one caste, the caste of humanity; there is only one religion, the religion of love; there is only one God and he is omnipresent.
According to Sri Sathya Sai Baba, God is without form or formless.
The Lord can be addressed by any name that tastes sweet to your tongue, or pictured in any form that appeals to your sense of wonder and awe. You can sing of him as Maruga, Ganpathi, Sarada, Jesus, Maitreyi, Sakti or you can call him Allah or the Formless, or the Master of all Forms. It makes no difference at all. He is the beginning, the middle and the end, the basis, the substance and the source. Baba says that God is nearer to us than our hands and feet. We don't have to search for him beyond the starry constellations, for the loving merciful God, our eternal charioteer, is ever close at hand and can rush to our rescue in moments of crisis provided the voice of our calling is sincere and prayerful. As Baba has reassured all: 'As the doctor is found where patients gather, so the Lord is ever with the suffering and the struggling ... wherever people cry out for God, there God will be.' Baba's chief message to humanity is that exhorts mankind to reach and realize the divinity within through the exercise of love, truth, peace and non-violence and selfless service to all. Baba does not prescribe a life of ceaseless penance in a cave or in the mountains by renouncing the world. Rather he advises us to lead the ordinary life in the world and yet engage ourselves in spiritual practices without being bound to the attachments and allurements of the world. Baba gives the analogy of a boat on the crest of the tempestuous seas. A boat cruises on water, but the water must not get into the boat. Similarly, one must live in the world, but the world must not get into one. Giving another analogy of a drama, Baba says that the world is a puppet show in which one has to act one's roles, but one should not identify oneself with the shadow play and must steer clear of the temporal and the insubstantial and must always remember that he is the child of immortality and has the power to discriminate between appearance and reality, shadow and substance.
Sathya Sai Baba also points out the need for following the pathways of yoga for disciplining the mind and moving towards the divine centre. These paths of enlightenment have been prescribed in the sanatan dharma. They are known as Karma yoga, Jnana yoga and Bhakthi yoga. Baba says:
Base your action on knowledge, the knowledge that all is one. Let the action be suffused with bhakthi, that is to say, humility, mercy and non-violence. Let bhakthi be filled with knowledge, otherwise it will be as light as a balloon which drifts along any current of air or gust of wind. Mere knowledge will make the heart dry, bhakthi makes it soft with sympathy and karma gives the hands something to do, something, which will sanctify every one of the minutes that have fallen to your lot to live.
Baba has described the three lanes of spiritual realization in a perfectly convincing manner. As Howard Murphet has said:
I once heard Baba talk of these three lanes to self-realization. He called them the three Ws, work, worship and wisdom. Work (karma) alone is, he said, a slow passenger train with long stops and some changes at junctions before you reach the end of the journey. But if you add bhakthi to work, you will have an express coach and get in your destination more quickly and easily. Work and worship together will further?more develop wisdom or the knowledge of the real Unana). With this you will then be in a non-stop train right to the end of your journey. So worship while you work and strive meanwhile for the self-knowledge that will help these two to bring the true wisdom.
The beauty and the power of Sai Baba's teachings lie in their instant and immediate appeal to our mind because they are clothed in simple and homely medium and have the weight and sanction of the true voice of feeling. Baba talks to his audience as man to man and, of course, as sadguru, a world teacher who is also a world redeemer like Jesus Christ. The central thrust of his teachings is that we must aspire to reach a level of consciousness where all is one and the same divinity is there entrenched in the hearts of all. One must seek God through ardour, selflessness and self‑surrender. And to achieve this kind of supreme effacement of the ego, one has to undergo the difficult exercise of a lifetime's death in love, ardour and selflessness and self‑surrender. Baba's teachings are neither abstract nor metaphysical like the teachings of some doctrinaire philosophers or religious theologians of different faiths; they are remarkably plastic and concrete, practical and empirical in the extreme. Sai Baba, in his Shirdi body, had given his devotees some important and crucial hints for God realization, and Sri Sathya Sai Baba has also been hammering on these points in his discourses. These in a nutshell can be simplified to absolute formulae:
The spiritual aspirant must realize the absolute triviality and insignificance of things material and worldly honours, laurels and titles. His aim must be higher, that is to turn his gaze inwards and discover the divinity within which is the mirror reflection of the God himself. He must always follow the master, his conscience, the indwelling God.
The aspirant must control his mind and his senses. If the mind is unrestrained and senses unmanageable, like wild and vicious horses drawing a chariot, he cannot reach his destination. The mind should not only be controlled, it must also be purified to be a vessel of divine love.
Finally, the most important thing is that one must have the grace of the Lord without which nothing can be attained.
The teachings of Lord Krishna in the Srimad Bhaguvat Gita and those of Shirdi Baba and Sri Sathya Sai Baba have the same universal quality. They represent the concentrated essence of all that the Vedas, Upanisads, Puranas and Bible have taught.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba has emphasized the fact that in the present age, Kaliyuga, the remembrance of the Lord's name is enough to lead man to the path of self‑realization, and bhakthi marg is the easiest to practise. He lays stress on the fact that a true seeker must lead a life of absolute devotion to truth, love, peace and non‑violence and steer clear of all impurities, falsehoods, and crazy attachments to worldly desires. We know that in his Fire Sermon, Lord Buddha also has preached the gospel of desirelessness, the burning out of all base passions, attachments and temptations so as to reach the cherished goal of attaining Nirvana.
In his conversations with John Hislop, Swami has clarified many points about the essential unity of everyone in the divine tapestry.
Hislop: When does one really experience that he is the same as another? Because, now one feels for another through compassion. But compassion is not direct experience. When someone hit a dog, Shirdi Sai Baba had the bruises. That is the actual experience of unity.
Sai: All is divine. When YOU are firmly established in the fact of your divinity, then you will directly know that others are divine. Compassion for others is felt as long as you consider yourself as a separate entity. The story about Shirdi Sai Baba as related in books is not fully correct. The facts are that a lady made a plate of sweets for Shirdi Baba, and a dog ate them. The lady drove the dog away with blows. She then carried another platter of sweets to Shirdi Baba, who refused them saying that he had eaten the sweets she previously provided and his hunger was satisfied. The lady objected that it was the first time the sweets had been offered. Baba said, no, she had offered them before and had also beaten him. In this way, he gave the lesson that he was omnipresent and that there was only one life. During the lifetime of Shirdi Baba not much attention was paid to him. Recognition of him as an Avatar, and interest in his life developed only after his death. The same lack of recognition of divinity is illustrated in the lives of Rama and Krishna. Krishna was considered just as a cowherd boy, and, then, just as a charioteer.
Sai (at the start of an interview with a group of Westerners): Follow the master, the inside atma, the super conscious. Life is a challenge; fight to the end. Life is a song; sing it. Life is divine; realize it. Life is character; there is one path.
Sai (to a young Westerner about age 16): What do you want?
Boy: Liberation.
Sai: What is liberation?
Boy: End of the path.
Sai: Immortality is the meaning. Removal of immorality is the only way to immortality. Who are you? Not the outside, not the body. Who are you? Inquire. Love is everything. Expansion love, not selfish love. Selfless love of the Self, not Ego love ... Life is a cosmic stage in which all are actors. In one scene an actor may take one role, and in other scenes, different roles. Creation means change. How can these changing scenes give bliss to persons who are also changing? Your bliss can be made permanent only by immortality, not change.
Thus, in his conversations with John Hislop, Baba has thrown light on various topics, puzzling the minds of devotees. He has offered the most priceless gems that shine like golden rays of the sun and ever become part and parcel of our mental furniture.
Sai Baba has prescribed for the spiritual seekers many resplendent gems of golden ray serene which take us along the sunlit path of sadhana and self-enquiry and take us nearer to the end of our divine pilgrimage. In the last chapter of this book, an attempt will be made to analyze the various grounds of our beseeching and the different modes of our apprehension of the divine reality or the voice of our calling. But here, some broad hints have been listed whereby one can move on the straight path to heaven. Dr. Samuel Sandweiss has given in the following the precise contours of Sai Baba's central teachings which are the essential prerequisites for moving on the fateful pilgrimage to God.
The nine steps in the pilgrimage of man towards God along the path of dedication and surrender are (1) developing a desire to listen to the glory and grandeur of God, the handiwork of God and the various awesome manifestations of God divinity. This is the starting point. It is hearing about the Lord again and again that we can transform ourselves into divinity. (2) Singing oneself about the Lord, in praise of his magnificence and many other exploits. (3) Dwelling on the Lord in the mind, revelling in the contemplation of his beauty, majesty and compassion. (4) Entering upon the worship of the Lord by concentrating on honouring the feet or the footprints.(5) This develops into a total propitiation of the Lord and systematic ritualistic worship in which the aspirant gets inner satisfaction and inspiration. (6) The aspirant begins to see the favourite form of God, which he likes to worship, in all beings and all objects wherever he turns, and so he develops an attitude of vandana or reverence towards nature and all life. (7) Established in this bent of mind, he becomes the devoted servant of all, with no sense of superiority or inferiority. This is a vital step, which presages great spiritual success.(8) This takes the seeker so near the Lord that he feels himself to be confidant and comrade, the companion and friend, the sharer of God's power and pity, of God's triumphs and achievements, his Sakha in fact, as Arjuna had become. (9) As can be inferred, this is the prelude to the final step of total surrender or atmanivedanam, yielding fully to the will of the Lord, which the seeker knows through his own purified intuitions ... One of the principles of straight living is silence, for the voice of God can be heard in the region of the heart only when the tongue is stilled and the storm is stilled and the waves are calm ... silence is the speech of the spiritual seeker. Soft sweet speech is the expression of genuine love. Hate screeches, fear squeals, conceit trumpets. Love sings lullabys. It soothes. It applies balm. Practise the vocabulary of love, unlearn the language of hate and contempt ... The second sign is cleanliness; not outer clean?liness alone, but, even more, inner. There is a strange glow on the face of a guileless person. Inner cleanliness has its own soap and water the soap of strong faith and the water of constant practice, The third sign is that the true aspirant will have a reverent attitude to the duty he is bound with. He will carry out every task assigned to him as if it is the act of worship by which the Lord will be pleased, through which he can approach the pedestal of God. Work is worship-this is the motto ... render every thought into a flower, worthy to be held in His fingers, render every deed into a fruit, full of the sweet juice of love, fit to be placed in His hand, render every tear holy and pure, fit to wash His lotus feet...
Obviously, Sai Baba has given the recipe for leading a straight and pious life lived under the shadow of the divine in consonance with the awareness of divine presence. This is what the spiritual path is all about. Baba goes on to say adherence to these golden rules can confer permanent bliss on the seeker won through self-control and self‑realization. Baba says:
Do not judge others to decide whether they deserve your service. Find out only whether they are distressed: that is enough credential. Do not examine how they behave towards others, they can be certainly transformed by love Sewa or service is for you as sacred a vow as Sadhana, a spiritual path. It is the very breath, it can only end when breath takes leave of you.
One can say in conclusion that there are many a ray of golden ray serene that are hidden in the basic core of one's being. One can dig them up by developing an attitude of independent self-inquiry. Such an attitude comes naturally to us since our basic nature is love, purity and reverence. If we follow the nine basic steps formulated by Baba and live a virtuous life based on sathya, dharma, prema, shanthi and ahimsa, we can travel the path leading to the celestial city of God.
Not only in his conversations with John Hislop, but also in his numerous interviews given to different groups of western devotees, Sri Sathya Sai Baba has clarified many points relating to the practice of the spiritual path. These suggestions are, in a different sense, illuminations, which sharpen the focus on the essential quest of reaching the state of supreme bliss, Being, Awareness and Bliss. Here are some of the relevant excerpts that throw a flood of light on the attendant modes of sadhana or spiritual practice.
Devotee: Baba. Please tell us how you are attained. I find my sadhana (spiritual practice) unproductive.
Sai Baba: I know you are inflicting many austerities on yourself. I must tell you I am attained only by devotion and a way of life that is illumined by that devotion. Do not deprive the body of the elementary needs; it is a sacred instrument you have earned, for taking you to the goal. Lead a simple, satwic (balanced, pure, good) life, eat simple satwic food, be sincere in speech, do loving service, be humble and tolerant. Maintain undisturbed equanimity. Direct all your thoughts towards me, resident in your heart.
Devotee: How, Baba, can we progress in our devotion?
Sai Baba: There are different modes of devotion: that which foolishly weeps for me when I am not physically present; that which surrenders to me with wild abandon; and that which is steady and strong, ever attached to my will. I accept all these forms of devotion. The choice between the one or the other is not yours, because it is I who rules your feelings, modifies them. If you try to go where I do not will, you can do nothing apart from my will. Be assured of that, this is the highest devotion.
Devotee: So what remains for me to do?
Sai Baba: What makes you think that doing is so important? Be equal‑minded. Then you will not be bothered about doing or not doing, success or failure. The balance will remain unaffected by either. Let the wave of memory, the storm of desire, the fire of emotion pass through without affecting your equanimity. Be a witness to these. Commitment engenders holding, narrowing, limiting. Be willing to be nothing. Let all dualities subside in your neutrality.
Devotee: Yes, Baba. But when it is pain that one has to endure...
Sai Baba: Do you think that I would confront you with pain were there not a reason for it? Open your heart to pain, as you do now for pleasure, for it is my will, wrought by me for your good. Welcome it as a challenge. Do not turn away from it. Do not listen to your mind, for mind is but another word for need. The mind engenders need; it manifested as this world because it needed this. It is all my plan: to drive you by pangs of unfulfilled need to listen to my voice, which, when heard, dissolves the ego and the mind with it.
Devotee: But being full of defects, how can we rise to such high expectations?
Sai Baba: Your deficiencies make you need me and curb the arrogance of your mind. They are there on purpose, as instruments to prod you on. Through them, I am making you want me. The feeling of separation is just a trick of your mind. You form conclusions; they become beliefs, they shape your activities and attitudes.
Devotee: It is hard to undergo your tests.
Sai Baba: It is like baking a cake. I stir, I knead, I pound, I twist, I bake you. I drown you in tears; I scorch you in sobs. I make you sweet and crisp, an offering worthy of God. I have come to reform you. My plan is to transmute you into a successful sadhaka (spiritual aspirant). I won't leave you until I do that. Even if you stray away before you become that, I will hold on to you. You cannot escape from me ... All are my instruments. Perhaps you believe that I choose: this one is good ... that one is worse, etc. No. Either will do. My will is the source of all that is and happens, it interpenetrates every thing and act; it includes everything. Finally, let me tell you this: My will is that you should manifest my will in you and through you.
Lastly, before this particular chapter on the priceless pearls of golden ray serene is terminated, it may be fair to quote the important observation of Sathya Sai Baba in respect of the spiritual exercise as a means of the purification of one's motives and to see the one single flame that is inclusive of the entire cosmos, substance and weight, as together fused into the blazing light of the single flame.
Sai: The purpose of all sadhana is to see the good the Divine in everything and to be able to overlook the bad, the evil. From the viewpoint of Divinity, there is no good or bad all is Divine. But the mind sees this as good and that as bad, this as right and that as wrong. It is the mind that must be trained to see the Divine in everyone and in each difficulty ... Do not fill the mind with thoughts of the evil actions that may be perceived in the world. The purpose of all types of sadhana is to see the Divine in everything. This is true adjustment sadhana. This you can carry on in everything you do.
Thus, we have taken a measure of some of the precious gems beyond all price that are and can be our precious acquisitions and possessions once we voyage on the path of atmic sadhana and spiritual exploration for the attainment of the true purpose of our life.
Author: Swami Sai Sharan Anand
http://www.indiangyan.com/books/otherbooks/sai_baba/many_a_gem_of_golden_ray_serene.shtml
A Symbol Perfected in Love
If one is asked to say what Sai Baba is all about, the answer would be clear and definitive Love. A German woman, who saw Sai Baba for the first time, felt that he was the embodiment of love. And Professor Varoneshky of the University of Arizona, a noted and renowned specialist in the study of aura surrounding the faces of individuals, was struck with awe and wonder because he had never in his life seen such an aura on the face of any individual in the world. He had the wide experience of studying the halo on the faces of great and eminent men of the present century, men of power, statesmen, scientists, artists, social reformers, saints and sages. But all seemed to him to be just human and mortal. But after seeing the halo on the face of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, he felt the thrill of joy akin to ecstasy and wondered if such an expansive aura can ever surround the face of a mere human being. Professor Varoneshky described this particular aura as white and pink of the colour of love. When bhajans were sung in the prayer hall, the white and predominantly pink aura turned golden, the colour of the sun and then into an expansive blue, and the boundless energy of creation. And we know that blue colour is also symbolic of love. Professor Varoneshky saw in the eyes of Baba diamond like brilliance. Though Varoneshky is a Catholic, he felt convinced that aurawise, Sri Sathya Sai Baba was God, the primal source of love. Indeed Sathya Sai Baba was the very quintessence of Love. Many other devotees of Baba have also had the experience of witnessing the halo surrounding the face of Baba. We have already noticed in the earlier chapter how John Scher, an American devotee, witnessed the pink and bluish halo expanding and spreading all over the sky and the faraway horizons.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba has said:
I am the embodiment of love and love is my instrument mine is love that is pure, free, selfless and unconditional.
And further he has said:
Sai is infinite love. It is this love that pervades and appears in the entire universe around us. This love is seated ever in your hearts. The universe is Sai. You are Sathya Sai. Love is my form, truth is my breath, and peace is my food. My life is my message.
Through constant reiteration of this love, he has clearly and transparently demonstrated both by precept and actual practice that he is the living configuration of love that only God can be. He is the kind of love that surpasses in magnitude and intensity the love of one thousand mothers.
Sai Baba has declared explicitly that Love is God.
It is love that transfigures and transubstantiates everything and binds all into one volume.
Sai Baba has made some extremely precious and beautiful and memorable observations that are truly reminiscent of the teachings of Jesus Christ and offer concrete and tangible suggestions for mankind to live by. For instance, he says:
God is the source of all love. Love God; love the world as the vesture of God, no more, no less. Through love you can merge in the ocean of love. Love cures pettiness, hate and grief. Love loosens bonds. It saves man from the torments of birth and death. Love binds all hearts into a soft, silken symphony. Seen through the eyes of love, all beings are beautiful, all deeds are dedicated, all thoughts are innocent, and the world is one vast kin.
And here is another practical and easy way to work for the expansion of this universal love to attain the bliss of attaining God:
Love for all should spontaneously flow from your heart and sweeten all your words. The best spiritual discipline that can help man is love. Foster the tiny seed of love that clings to me and mine. Let it sprout into love for the group around you and grow into love for all mankind, and spread out its branches over animals, birds, and those that creep and crawl and let the love enfold all things and beings in all the world. Proceed from less love to more love, narrow love to expanded love.
And furthermore, the practice of expanding the love rhythmically to embrace all and every sentient thing and the recognition of sparks of the same divinity is the end of all spiritual exploration. Baba says:
When you know that you are but a spark of the divine and that all else are the same divine spark, you look upon all with reverence and true love. Your heart is filled with supreme joy and the canker of egotism is rendered ineffective. Man is seeking joy in far-off places, in quiet spots, not knowing that the spring of joy is in the heart, the heaven of peace is in himself. Love is God; God is the embodiment of perfect love. So he can be known, reached and won only through love. You can see the Moon only with the moonlight.
Such facets of the divine diamond can be seen and realized through intensive study of all that Baba has said in his discourses and vahinis. But the important and crucial question is the apprehension and true understanding of the secret of Baba's extreme love and its redeeming, transcendental power. That is to say, divine love and its eternal radiance and transforming power can only be experienced because as Professor Gokak, the renowned Indian English poet, has said in images of poetry,
... But divine love
is the naked majesty of midnight stars
It is an infinite and luminous downpour
That fills all your being
To the very cells of the body...
Divine love descends on you
As from the Milky Way
And more and more, the more open you are.
It upholds your sail on the ocean of being
And is the chart(er) of uncharted seas
Human love is the fire of the body
That created man in the image of man.
It is the sallying out of the self to self.
But divine love is the light of the heaven
That recreates man in the image of God.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba has declared that his love flows to everyone, to every sentient thing of the universe. In fact, it is this love that sustains the universe. He says, 'If you take one step towards me, I shall take a hundred steps towards you. If you shed one tear, I will wipe a hundred tears.' His love is selfless and without any condition. 'Love is my very nature,' he says. The greatest attribute of selfless divine love is that it is not bound by the fetters of attachment or craving for any return. It is universal as well as impersonal. In the words of Professor Gokak, 'Baba's love floods the vast spaces of the soul. Although it is marked by supreme detachment, it irrigates the arid heart that it may burst into bloom. It is beautiful itself.' Further, Professor Gokak says:
At an informal meeting, one of the group asked Baba, 'Swamiji, what is the secret of the' cure that many afflicted persons experience in your presence Baba said simply and instantly: 'It is my experience that I am one with every sentient thing, every human being. My love flows out to everyone, for I see everyone as myself. If a person reciprocates my love from the depth and purity of his heart, my love and his meet in unison and he is cured of his affliction. Where there is no reciprocation, there is no cure...' Baba's love knows no frontiers. It overflows all boundaries. Like the universal sun it shines on all, whether they be sun worshippers or owls.
Sai Baba as the single flame and still centre holding the universe in his palm is the fountain of love, pure love. He is indeed a symbol perfected in love. God who is SatBeing Awareness-Bliss, can also be fairly described as a symbol perfected in love. Human love is generally fragmentary just as the finite human consciousness itself. 'Who, if I cried, would hear me among the angelic orders? That was the dilemma before Rainer Maria Rilke, the modern German poet. Torn up and disconsolate at witnessing the great conflagration during the second world war and assailed by thousand and one doubts and distractions he mused over the human condition and had a true vision of the essential human frailty and human lot. He felt as never before that human consciousness is finite and fragmented in the extreme. But there is another kind of consciousness that is undivided and complete. Rilke saw a series of visions at Scholos Duino. Plagued and tormented by the insufficiency of the human condition, the poet set out to capture that elusive and beautiful vision of supreme felicity as represented by the angels, the lovers and all those who have gone to the world of the dead. Similarly, human love is broken, transitory and fragmented, and the central thrust of the pilgrim soul is to aspire for divine love as also for the final merger with the Eternal Absolute, SatSai Baba in some of his letters and poems, addressed to the beloved students of Sri Sathya Sai College of Arts and Sciences, has urged them to move into another intensity and merge themselves into Him. He says in one such poem:
Live ... live ... live in perfect accordance
With My laws, and wonders will ensue.
Let old memories well up in you
From my subconscious in you...
Old patterns...
Old forgotten patterns and thoughts.
Now plunge them into the Ocean of Light
Burn them from the Consciousness
So that you may be
True emblems of my Being.
Right now visualise my burning Flame
Rising higher and higher
As it burns through you...
It is a flame that is cooling
Cleansing and healing;
That soothes the hidden sorrow...
And leaves you calm and quiet.
Test in my Love
Let all that you have been through
In your many lives up to this day,
Melt away in my redeeming Light.
Children of My Being
Dissolve your sorrows and fears in me.
Let me efface all your Karma
Come back into my Consciousness, which is your own true consciousness Let your petty human consciousness fade away, right now, when you
come to me, who am your inner self.
You are my own radiant Glorious Self
No longer separate from me
Melt with Me, merge with Me..
Become Me.
It is great poetry as it represents the true voice of feeling and the depth of highest kind of ardour and love which are the hall?marks of the Divine. As a Professor of English literature, this author feels frankly and candidly that it nearly transcends all existing monuments of devotional poetry that he has known. In the greatest of devotional poets, from Dante downwards to Milton, Donne, Herbert and Vaughan ... to Mira, Tulsidas, Hopkins to T.S. Eliot, the motivating force has been the prayer and the supplication of the meditating and the praying mind to voice the spiritual aspirations of the poet in apt and adequate metaphors of poetry. Most of such great poetry has either been devotional or else visionary, tenuous or abstract. But here is another kind of poetry, not penned by the aspirant praying for the one barely prayable prayer for the one Annunciation, divine grace and mercy from that Ocean of Mercy. It is the blessing and grace of the Divine exhorting the devotees to merge with Him and become Him. In this sense, it is the fullest gift of grace and love that mankind can ever hope to realize. This is a burning example of what Divine Love can be and how it can confer salvation on the spiritual aspirant. In another beautiful prose passage, Sri Sathya Sai Baba explains and points out the plenitude of Divine Love:
My dears,
Sai is Love. He is compassion and kindness itself. He is ever dwelling in the hearts of you all. To trust him means freedom from all anxiety, fear and doubts. He is you, all-in pall. When you have a Lord of the Universe to depend upon why should you be afraid or anxious about anything? His great assurance should always sustain you ... The Almighty Lord of the world is seated in your heart, is the sole doer. You are mere puppets. Let him make you dance as he wills. Yours is not to question 'Why? Difficulties and worries are not due to outside causes. They are due to a mind not surrendered unto God.
With love and blessings,
Baba
In another beautiful and memorable poem, Baba voices his great love for the students and uses resilient and functional imagery of a rare sort. The sense of complete oneness or unity of the human and divine could not have been better expressed than in the following lines:
The bird with you, the wings with Me;
The foot with you, the way with Me;
The eye with you, the form with Me;
The thing with you, the dream with Me;
The world with you, the heaven with Me;
So are we free, so are we bound;
So we begin and so we end;
You in Me and I in you.
Sai Baba, as we have seen, is the repository of love, the perennial comforter of bruised and torn hearts. He knows the agitation of every mind. One may wonder, who, then, devised the torment, Love? No, the torment is the fruit and consequence poem of G.M. Hopkins where he voices his tone of desperation and anguish at not receiving the divine comfort. He voices his agony in his characteristic style:
No worst, there is none, pitched past pitch of grief,
More pangs will, schooled at at fore pangs, wider wring,
Comforter, where, where is your comforting,
Mary, mother of us, where is your relief?
Hopkins voices his sense of anguish and desolation. But in Sai Baba there is the loving and caring parent who is always beside his children. Baba has said:
I am always with you, behind you, beside you, in front of you, in your very heart.
And furthermore, he says:
You shed one tear and I will wipe a hundred from your eyes.
He also assures mankind that God is ever ready to help man in calamitous time and clime:
God is the nearest, the dearest, the most loving, the most eager companion for man.
Not only this, Sai love is so powerful, expansive and intense that guards and protects all those who reciprocate his love and surrender to him. This love is, in nature, both protective and redemptive. In another beautiful poem, Sai Baba gives positive assurance to his beloved children that he is always with them:
Dear, dear loved one
You ask:
How will you know when I am near you?
When on a sultry night
Everything is hot and still
The first cool breeze
Brushes your cheeks
I am caressing you
Think of Me.
When the pangs of hunger are satisfied
And loneliness is pierced by happiness
Think of Me.
When I sprinkle your face with rain
And wash the earth; the dry brown leaves
The first smell of clear rain I am cleansing you.
Think of Me.
When pain dissolves
And fear disappears
Think of Me.
While steadfast eyes are horrified
By the cruelties of life
The first glance of the silent setting sun
I am comforting you
Think of Me.
Then you ask:
How will you know when you are near me?
When pain becomes unbearable
You smile
And you love Me.
When I take from you
Your most cherished possession
On the first loss of your sight
Darkness envelops you
And you love Me...
For everything you see, hear, smell, taste or touch belongs to me. So how can you give to me what I already am but your love? And that I gave to you before time began as your sole possession. When you return it to me, then you will know you are truly mine and I will dissolve your sorrow and happiness into me. That.... being me, I will place you in Bliss forever for I love you and think of you constantly.
From your most loving Father.
Sai Baba being both the Divine father and mother, the creator and the preserver he is always with us sustaining our love for him. And we love him because he first loved us.
Thus, we come to the inevitable conclusion that Sai love is many a splendoured thing, which like a sunbeam gives life and energy to all. And like a rainbow it is compounded of many colours. It has multiplex dimensions and can be fully absorbed and assimilated if one is ready to receive it. Its sure and most remarkable manifestation takes place only when the positive and negative poles of electricity meet in unison. This analogy of the electric current has been given by Sai Baba himself when he explained to Mr. R.K. Karanjia how the miraculous cures, remote controlled surgical operations, rescue of the devotee from drowning and other such critical situations overtake the devotees. The effect of Sai love is exquisitely comforting and far‑reaching and its limit is the sky itself. Baba's love is greater than the sum total of the love of a thousand mothers. At the same time one cannot understand the magic and alchemy of this love and its boundless transforming power unless one has experienced it oneself. In this context, it may be fair to quote here the statement of Professor V.K. Gokak. When questioned by the representative of Movement Newspaper in America how living with Sai Baba so closely for many a year has affected his own character and being, Professor Gokak said:
M.N.: I have heard you say that living so close to Baba you sometimes can get 'burned'. To what does it refer?
Gokak: It means that he is all perfection. In that light around him, no iota of untruth can survive. No insincerity can have any place around him. But we are imperfect; that is why we are human. In our dealings with him we will try sometimes to impose that imperfection on him without our knowledge. He is very sorry for us because he knows that we are going to be burned...but if one understands what is happening that it is the impurity that is being burned, and then one can understand it all right. Plus, there is Baba's game ... While this is happening, his love is still there ... It still flows to the person. This is what saves and heals him ... You are on the top of a volcano ... As Baba has been saying 'The nearer and dearer you are, the greater are your chances of getting burned.'
Professor Gokak has given a personal testament saying how Sai wrought a miracle, bringing about a sea-change and transformation in his emotional life. A poet that he is, Professor Gokak says that his personality was an adamant rock that prevented the waters from flowing out. His predominantly intellectual make‑up, spirit of detachment, restraint, poise and central control of emotions prevented him from giving vent to his feelings. He says that the living contact with Baba took him from the arid desert of impersonality to the vast expanse of emotion. It seemed as though Baba had cut a little of that adamant rock to allow the fertilising waters of love to flow. That is what Baba did for him without his knowing it. At this stage, the present author, who had known Professor Vinayak Krishna Gokak for a number of years, nearly thirty years, can very well testify to the change registered in the personality of the learned professor and an eminent intellectual of the country. Having worked with him at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Simla where Professor Gokak was the Director, and again at Prasanthi Nilayam where he was the founder Vice Chancellor of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, the author had numerous occasions to perceive the soft, tender, warm and affectionate nature of the late Professor. Indeed, the gush of the fountain of love and jets of its energy came out unhindered from the inner spring of his heart.
Another reference and grateful acknowledgement to Baba for bringing about a change in the nature and world-view by the impact of Baba on his personality and character has been made by no less a person than Dr. Samuel Sandweiss. He says in answer to the following question:
Question: Dr. Sandweiss, you described in your chapter on psychiatry a new element that Sathya Sai Baba has added to your understanding of human nature that of divine love. Can you tell us a little bit how that's affected your work in the United States?
Answer: Baba's love touches us at such depth and with such intensity that one can only describe it as omnipresent, unconditional, boundless, divine. It is his greatest gift to us, a gift that transforms the devotee and I'm sure will transform the world as well. My first experience of this love was so profoundly moving that I saw in it the basic force, which supports and sustains us all. Since then I have come to see my life's work as trying to purify my own capacity to love, to express this love with those who come to me for help and to help modem day psychotherapists come to know of this love that heals all illnesses.
... Perhaps I can begin by describing the impact and meaning of my first experience of Sai love. Throughout my personal and professional life, I had been searching for peace of mind, how I achieve this for myself and help with its achievement by others ... Although many patients were brought through crisis and felt better emotionally; there was still uncertainty, worry and unresolved sufferings in their lives. Still unanswered were such basic spiritual questions as 'who am I in the vastness of this infinite universe? Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life? How shall I lead it? I could see that Western psychiatry had no answer. Neither my patients nor I had the deep sense of peace and protection in our lives that one would hope to find a closer relationship with a loving, caring God.
This may be considered to be a very revealing, convincing and vital statement of Sai love not only for its impact on the personal level, but also for its therapeutic value. Dr. Sandweiss goes on to describe his feeling of ecstasy and bliss on receiving the shaft of sunlight that Baba's love indubitably is. He says:
One evening after hearing Baba speak to his students I retreated dejected and almost broken. I stood a great distance away from him, many walls and many people separating us. I was in the moment of my greatest pain, attracted by Baba's greatest vitality, love and sheer beauty yet wanting to retreat ... I pictured myself being a penniless outcast ... As I stood, steeped in this dark cloud of pain, I looked up to find the most precious, tender healing light of love I had ever witnessed. Baba came directly to me, smiling tenderly and playfully capturing me in the radiant light of sheer bliss which sparkled in his eyes. I was immediately immersed in his great joy and happy beyond measure ... He reached out and gave me a small piece of candy but the spiritual gift was immeasurable. What an immense revelation to me; his understanding of another being deeper than anything I'd ever realized before. In an instant he showed me he was nearer to me than my very breath, that he actually resided in my heart, and, what's more, he responded to my pain. He had waited for the moment when I would be ready to understand and accept. In this tender, intimate act of compassion, I saw the glory of his omniscience and omnipresence, the mighty transforming and healing power of his unconditional love. And he wanted nothing in return.
The personal experience of Dr. Sandweiss is no longer personal; it is the externalization of the innermost realization in the internal castle of the mind, the awareness of a love that is truly like a boon and a blessing. It fertilizes the groundswell of one's urges and apprehensions to soar highter and still higher and to purify and expand one's love beyond self. Baba has said in his own inimitable way:
Love. Love alone can bind you to others and to God, who is the embodiment of love. Love knows no fear, no anxiety, and no grief. I am love. I shower love.
(Sathya Sai Baba)
Perhaps, it may not be out of place at this point, when the glory, the splendour and the majesty of Sai love, which is mysterious, unique, infinite and unknowable, to relate some of the deeply felt tremors of that love which this author has come to realize during the moments of his calamitous torments and sufferings and how soothing, sweet and comforting can this love be in which one gets fully immersed with the whole soul alive and have a fair glimpse of divine love. The author would share some of the contours and magic of Sai love and for this purpose a narration in the first person may be necessary and desirable for the simple reason that only within the texture of subjective presentation can the immediacy and urgency of an intimate journal be properly communicated to others. Such an account may fairly be described as a personal testament.
I lived a, more or less, lucid, calm and serene existence in my adolescence and early youth. I was noble and idealistic and loved people as loving was my innate and original impulse. I was full of the milk of human kindness. Deeply attached to my family of parents, brothers and sisters, I was ever ready to make the maximum sacrifice for them. An emotional and loving temperament was my greatest acquisition and strength. This was at the source of my kinship with people. Coupled with this, I was endowed with a creative imagination that expressed itself in my creative writings in Hindi short stories, to be more precise, and at a comparatively tender age while I was studying English literature at the Bachelor and Master's level, I had the privilege of being known all over the country in the field of Hindi fiction as a promising young writer. My short stories appeared regularly in prestigious magazines and periodicals of the country and they were taken note of by general readers and critics alike. By the time I graduated with honours in English literature and joined the master's course as graduate student in the same subject, two collections of my short stories had been published. And there was no turning back; the sky seemed to me to be the limit. And then dame Fortune smiled on me and I was awarded a teaching Fellowship of substantial value from an American University and I spent nearly two and one‑half years at the university and was awarded the degree of doctor of philosophy in English. My doctoral dissertation on T.S. Eliot's later poetry was highly commended by the examiners ... so much so that my major professor said that I was the best student he had ever had. And another German Professor was simply lyrical in my praise. He gave me a testimonial saying that 'Krishna is a poet, not the kind of poet who writes verses. He is a poet who sees the simple in its inexorable complexity and the complex in its tantalizing simplicity. He will be an eye and a voice to his people. Whoever will be kind to Krishna will receive the blessings that come from a noble mind and a beautiful soul. He is an honour to his country and a source of pride for all men.'
I experienced the warmth, love and admiration of all my fellow students, teachers and the President of the University, which filled me with ecstasy. I was truly on the crest of the wave. Back in India, I was in for a phase of disaffection and disillusionment. I was baptized in pain and suffering and even the Gods who love honest and sensitive men put me on the wheel of fire. My efforts to get a good position in the universities failed and I felt terribly sad and disconsolate. What was worse, the very base of my life, my family posed many a problem for me. My only daughter, Rashmee, showed symptoms of the terrible disease schizophrenia when she was a teen-aged student in the high school and I knew for the first time how unnerving and tragic the whole situation can be. Life, then, became a blazing inferno, a cauldron of fire where I had to dance in measure like a dancer. My very existence, safety and work were threatened, for there was no knowing what would happen the next day. Rashmee was very unwell. She raged and raved and it became increasingly difficult to contain her or to keep her in the house. I took her to all the major psychiatric clinics and sanatoriums of mental health, but there was absolutely no relief whatsoever, and the tender plant that she was, withered and there was no end to the withering of flowers. It was at this time that I sincerely prayed to some super power to terminate the torment and save the life of my beloved daughter. At that time I was serving as a Visiting Fellow at the All India Institute of Advanced Study, Simla, where Professor V.K. Gokak was the Director. As he knew about my problems, so he sincerely advised me to pray to Sai Baba. It is he who can cure her. 'Look, Professor Sinha, yours is a difficult problem in which none else but God can help. It is a dilemma which I myself had gone through. My daughter, too, had mental weakness. I kept her at home and had to pay the price. I was away to the United Kingdom on a short-term assignment as Visiting Professor at Leeds University. One morning when I was going to the university to continue my lecture on Indo-English Literature, I got that dreadful news through a cable from home. My crazed daughter, poor girl, had jumped down the well in the compound of my house and had thus ended her life. It was a tremendous shock but assuming that work is worship, I proceeded to the university and somehow delivered my lecture with a broken heart. There is nothing one can do but bear the onslaughts of outrageous fortune. The other alternative, though it may sound extremely callous, even heartless, is to put your daughter permanently in a lunatic asylum so that you can live in peace. This is a pragmatic approach and perfectly logical and practical. But I know it is easier said than done. Of course, Sai Baba can cure her by his Grace. Why not take a chance? Professor Gokak whispered in a sibilant voice.
However, the situation took a turn for the worse. Rashmee suffered yet another setback and lost her balance altogether. I got alarmed and felt that I would lose her in the hilly terrain of Simla with deep ravines and precipices. So I had no option but to resign my post prematurely and rejoin my post at Bihar University, Muzaffarpur. Soon a research student, Miss Shelia Prasad, came to see me and offered me a coloured photograph of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. 'Sir, I am aware of your problem. Please worship Sai Baba. He is an ocean of mercy. He will listen to your prayer, I believe!
Thus, there was the beginning of the end of my problem. The visiting card of Baba poured in the shrine and fragrant aroma of vibhuthi appeared on the pictures as well as on the floor. The whole house smelt of a strange aroma and excitement was high. My ardent desire now was to visit Puttaparthi and to seek the blessings of that God incarnate who walks the earth in human form. But where was the wherewithal, the money to undertake that long trip? But Baba had a different design for me. His calls are strange and unique and when the right time comes, even Karma has to be burnt out. Another research student of mine, a lecturer in a women's college, had submitted her doctoral thesis on the poetry of Wallace Stevens, under my direction. I had put Professor Narasimmaiah of Mysore University on the panel of examiners. Although he had given his approval to the thesis, he declined to travel way up north to conduct the vivatest of the candidate; rather he suggested that the test could be arranged at Mysore itself should the administration of Bihar University agree to it. The Vice Chancellor of my university was pleased to sanction the holding of vivatest at Mysore. And in the summer of 1973, 1 proceeded to Mysore along with my wife and daughter. The candidate and her husband also accompanied us so that there was good company. After the vivatest was completed, we made our maiden journey to Puttaparthi and waited tensely for the darshan of Baba. Swami went straight to the women's section in the darshan line and picked up my wife and daughter for a personal interview. And Baba asked Rashmee, 'Where's your papa? Call him.'
Words fail to describe that momentous interview which was bound to have a lasting impact on me and initiate me to the world of deathless devotion and ardour without end and love unlimited. Baba took me to an ante room below the stair and looked at me with his eyes brimming with love, 'Ah, what a suffering!' I remember, there was so much of feeling and concern over my lot and that of Rashmee. I instantly broke down and tears gushed forth from my eyes. 'Swami, you know everything. Now I have come to you.' Baba smiled serenely and said, with great assurance in his voice, 'Don't worry. Swami will set right everything. She is mentally weak, but she will gradually improve. Give her the vibhuthi in a tumbler of water. She will be all right.' We knelt at the lotus feet and holding the packets of vibhuthi emerged out of the interview room to the open field lit up by the rosy beams of the setting sun. I felt comforted and radiantly happy, and said to myself, 'there must be some merit in your life that after so much of suffering and parched landscapes of your life, Baba, like the benevolent God, has sent you rain. His words never fail. Be assured that Rashmee will recover from her ordeal and be whole subsequently. So, cheers!'
I mused: hadn't my cup of suffering been full? And I grieved and grieved and cried in total anguish and ceaseless torment. I wondered if there was some super power in the cosmos that could bring me relief like sunlight on a broken column. And I had waited all these years of crucifixion and baptization in pain for the advent of a ray from the supreme which could open up for me the new vistas and avenues of hope, faith and love. I returned home with a new sense of faith, hope and love. It was now heartening to notice a gradual and certain change in the mental condition of Rashmee. She was calmer than before and took special keenness in reading books about Sai Baba and performing pooja in the shrine and usually getting ecstatic and thrilled whenever she noticed traces of vibhuthi, kumkum and turmeric on the photographs. And what is more, she often reported that she had seen Sai Baba in her dreams. She was quiet and fairly composed and her usual tantrums of the previous months were now a thing of the past. Everything seemed to be going on pretty well and I came to realize that I had found a new anchor for my soul, something to live by. A new awareness had dawned upon me that of faith. Tender bud of faith, hope and love seemed to sprout and both my wife and myself lived in continual enchantment and feeling of security. But Baba had ordained yet another test for us so as to help us perfect our will in his will. During my outings I used to take Rashmee along with me so that she could feel mentally refreshed and see places. In one such outing, a mishap overtook us. I had an official conference at Magadh University, Bodh Gaya. Rashmee was sleeping on the terrace of the bungalow where we were staying. At midnight, she screamed as though she had a nightmare and rushed towards the stair. She took a false step in the waning moonlight and fell supine on the level ground below the open terrace. It was a calamity; she was rushed to the medical college hospital where X-ray was taken; a hairline fracture in the first lumbar was detected, requiring immediate hospitalization and three weeks' complete rest on bed. The orthopaedic surgeon who treated her, expressed his apprehension that her condition was alarming and may ultimately lead to permanent paraplegia. However, we waited and prayed to Sai Baba to redeem the situation and shower his grace on the unfortunate girl. There was nothing else that we could do in the situation. I took a long leave from work and nursed the patient amidst fluctuating moods of hope and despair. After three weeks, the surgeon allowed the patient to go home and use an orthopaedic belt around her waist and take regular walks in the open air. He told me that he was amazed at the improvement in the patient's condition and wondered how it had come about. Very soon we were back toMuzaffarpur where the doctor of doctors, our beloved Lord Sai Baba, took the entire responsibility of the patient. By virtue of his omnipresence he arranged for profuse supply of sacred ashes. All that we did was to place a piece of paper in front of his photograph in the worship room and he did the rest. Vibhuthi gathered in thick cluster inexhaustibly and it was administered with a glass of water at least twenty to thirty times in twenty-four hours. And the result was astonishing. The improvement registered on the patient was phenomenal and X-ray plates now showed complete healing and her movement and gait became nearly normal. It was indeed a miracle of love, the like of which I had never seen before. As a consequence of this, our faith in, and love for Baba deepened and increased a hundredfold. My wife particularly joined the local Sai Samiti and attended Majans and participated in other social service. At her behest weekly Majans were held at our residence in which a large number of devotees were present and the many miracles continued taking place. Large footprints of Swami appeared on the stairs and the entrance routes and exit doors. The fluorescent tubes were aglow on their own and the scent of jasmines floated in the air. On one occasion, a mysterious visitor in the guise of a demented woman came to the prayer hall and after the bhajan was over, she went out and faded in the thin air on the street going out of the campus.
Messages also appeared mysteriously in the shrine and in one such message there was a direction penned in green ink to the author to write a book on Swami. All these phenomena were beyond my comprehension, plunging me in a state of enlightened mystification. And finally, I came to the only conclusion that Baba was surely and truly divine ... the very embodiment of love. What he had done for Rashmee was something, which only the divine parent could do.
Not that Rashmee was completely normal mentally; she still was excessively emotional and flew into rage at the slightest provocation and always wanted to have things her own way; but by and large, life was peaceful and we enjoyed a session of serenity and pinned our faith in Swami's words that she would recover in good time. His love was in action and had fertilized the very ground of her consciousness. She read all the books on Swami with great relish and regarded him as her saviour. She always kept on insisting that she be taken to Puttaparthi for the darshan of her saviour.
However, there was yet another reversion in her mental condition in the year 1977, and this time in the hotel room at Bangalore. Rashmee was tired and fatigued on account of the long journey and did not eat and sleep well. As soon as we booked a room at Kapila hotel, she started fretting and fuming unnecessarily and ran out of the room and rushed to the crowded streets. It was difficult to restrain her. I was utterly hopeless and disconsolate and was at my wits' end. It was night time. There was heavy traffic on the streets and I feared if Rashmee could save herself from being crushed by a car or a truck plying on the road. At that time, help came from an unexpected quarter. At once a driver stopped his tonga and accosted me. I told him about Rashmee and her present mental condition. He offered to render all possible help. He persuaded Rashmee to sit on the tonga and took her to a hospital. I followed him on a scooter. The doctor on emergency duty advised me to take her to the Institute of Mental Health, which was located twenty kilometres away. Again the tonga driver offered to accompany us. He left his tonga at the hospital and accompanied us in a taxi to the famous Institute. I thanked him very much. Rashmee was asked to wait in the ladies' waiting chamber so that she could be admitted into the Institute on the morrow. The doctor cautioned me to keep strict vigil on the patient so that she might not run out, a possibility that often happened in the case of deranged minds. I made her sleep on an empty bench and waited outside in the verandah. But sleep and fatigue got the better of me and I lapsed into temporary sleep. When I woke up and cast a look I was stunned to find that the bench was empty and Rashmee was not there. I made a frantic search all round the premises and even looked for her in the sprawling verandah and adjoining lawns and even across the street and tree-lined avenues and gardens nearby. But there was no trace of Rashmee anywhere. I reported the matter to the doctor on duty, but he was of no help either. 'Didn't I warn you to keep a vigil on her? Now what can I do? Please go out and report the matter to the police station. There is one round the corner. Maybe, they will manage to get hold of her. You should have been careful/ the doctor said in a sulky and accusing tone. My heart beat faster and my mind seemed to reel. Tension filled my bloodstream. Many dark and gloomy thoughts crowded my brain. 'Shall I ever see Rashmee again? What chance was there to locate her in the desert wilderness of the metropolis? Swami, I had brought her for your darshan and blessings ... and she has been lost and that too in a state of schizophrenic attack. But your will will be done. Please have mercy on her and save her from possible disaster! I thought and voiced my prayers to Swami. I returned to the hotel where Rashmee's mother was anxiously awaiting our arrival. She looked askance at me, but I could not utter a single word. Sensing that I was dazed and in a state of shock, she asked with concern, 'Where is Rashmee? Where have you left her?' I sobbed and sobbed unable to speak a word. But after a while I composed myself and related to her how Rashmee disappeared from the waiting chamber in the Institute when I temporarily lapsed into sleep. She consoled me and said gravely, 'It is not your fault. It's all her karma and her fate. But do not worry. For those who have no refuge, there is Swami to take care of them. His love for Rashmee has always been demonstrated and I have no doubt in my mind that he would protect her this time as well from any calamity. Let us go to Whitefield rightaway! She said in a warm and resonant voice which seemed to ring with firm faith and conviction. When the day dawned and the golden rays of the sun wove patterns of red and vermilion we were on way to Brindavanam, Whitefield with one member less. All our thoughts were now centred on Swami. We reached Brindavanam and waited in the darshan line. I scribbled a note hurriedly praying Swami to intervene, and handed over the note to Swami when he came near me. He cast a glance, which seemed to caress me as though waves and waves of sympathy rolled over to me at least so it seemed to me. When Swami returned to his bangalow and the bhajans started we sat all through the session, thinking only about Rashmee and her sad plight. Time passed. We did not even care to have the morning tea or breakfast and even at lunch we did not feel like taking any food. It was an Ash Wednesday for us. How could we think of taking any nourishment when Rashmee was not with us and she might be hungry, desolate and without protection? She was my daughter lost, the favourite child so near and dear to me and the prospects of her recovery seemed very dim indeed! We could not even summon the courage to get back to the hotel and brood over the consequences of what had happened. Doubts assailed my mind once again. Swami had blessed her and had promised to set right everything. But in spite of improvement in her mental condition for some time, there had been a reversion landing her in a difficult situation when her safety and well-being has been threatened. So, we remained at Brindavanam for the whole day and attended the evening darshan and prayer. But nothing pleased us and we desperately prayed to Swami to do something and soon. When the shadows of the evening lengthened and dusk spread its inky mantle on the streets, buildings and the facade of the horizons, we reluctantly boarded a city bus and alighted near the Railway Station. Once again, gloomy thoughts gripped our mind and tears trickled down our face. As we moved slowly towards the crowded street near the Kapila hotel, we saw a swarm of people crossing the road. And we recognized a form resembling Rashmee in the melee of the unfamiliar crowd, as she came closer, there was no doubt. It was she-Rashmee, My beloved daughter. Was she the long lost daughter of King Pericles in Shakespeare's Winter's Tale. Feeling surged in our hearts and tears of joy welled up in our eyes. I fondly embraced Rashmee. She looked tired and was coughing. 'Where had you been last night and the whole day today?' I asked her in a numb voice.
'I was with Sai Baba,' she said enigmatically.
'O.K. you must be feeling hungry. Let us go to the cafe across the road. We shall have some coffee and talk,' I told her.
Seated in a secluded cabin of the cafe, I ordered some snacks and coffee and felt a deep sense of repose now that the precious and lost member of the family was with us. She looked fairly quiet and composed as though the delirium and the hysteria of the previous night had subsided.
'Now tell me, dear, what happened when you slipped out of that waiting hall?'
Rashmee said something that was truly amazing. She said: 'I ran out of the hall because I had the impression that it was a hospital for mad people. And I was very angry with you because I suspected that you would leave me here alone amidst mad women. I was terrified and ran out. I walked out of the hospital and came on the desolate street. There was no traffic and no one was walking on the street. I found a park adjacent to the road and entered it. I found a bench and slept on it. Early in the morning at day break I was aroused by the piercing rays of the sun falling on my eyes. I remembered that I had none to look after me; both my mother and father had left me alone and conspired to put me in a hospital for mad women. So I sobbed spasmodically. At that time a fakir, wearing a loose gown and a cloth tied to his head, came near me. He asked me tenderly, 'Why are you crying, baby?'
'My parents have left me. I have to go to Whitefield to see Sai Baba. Can you tell me how to go there? Can I get a bus to Whitefield?' I asked him. He thought for a while and said, 'You have not taken any food. You must be feeling hungry. Come with me. I will take you to an eating-place and put you on a bus back to the place where your parents are staying. They have not left you; rather they are worried about you.' He bought some ground?nuts for me and took me to the bus stand.
I asked, 'Tell me, father, who are you?
'Have you been to Shirdi? No? Come some time. I am always there/ he whispered.
'But I have to go to see Sai Baba at Whitefield. Which bus will be going there?? I enquired.
'Think that I am Sai Baba. First go to the place where your parents are. They are greatly concerned about you. Then you can go to Whitefield/ he advised me.
Rashmee continued, 'I reached the Railway Station and for the whole day I have been wandering on the street. Papa, I must tell you the fakir looked very much like that saint whose picture is in our worship room at Muzaffarpur 'You mean Sai Baba of Shirdi?
'Yes,' she nodded.
It was a night of rejoicing. Next morning I took the bus to Brindavanam, Whitefield and waited for Swami to come. He came out and moved gracefully. The whole sky was lit up with the purple and pink aura and the sky seemed to become orange. He came straight to me and paused for a while, then he smiled faintly and whispered, 'So you have got her. Are you happy now?' He sailed ahead, leaving me in a state of trance. It was a message of joy, perennial joy. Here was the loving and caring God ever ready to help us in the hours of our need, all-knowing and omnipresent.
His love for Rashmee has again and again been manifested, the positive poles of the electric current meeting the negative one. As years have passed, Rashmee has shown steady progress towards normalcy. But for that temporary reversion at Bangalore, there has been no more disturbance in her mental poise. It may be said that Rashmee's life is full of Sai love and it has taken her out of critical situations. Another instance of Sai love can be related when in 1990 Rashmee had some recurrence of pain in the spine and she was really miserable. Sitting in the darshan line at Prasanthi Nilayam, she was awaiting the arrival of Swami. It started raining very heavily. Many devotees thought that it was an ordeal by water. In another sense, it was a downpour of divine love, at least so it proved to be for Rashmee. She was praying to Swami: 'Swami, how can I bear this pain in my back? ... I do. not want to live in this condition ... either cure me of this or take me to yourself for eternal rest...' There was commotion in the line as Swami came to the devotees on a car. Many village maids had thronged the place and as Swami approached, they rushed towards him. Rashmee, who was in the second line, was flung down by the terrible rush of rustic women and fell on the feet of Swami. Swami assisted her to get up by giving her a prop and in the process placed his palm on the affected spot in the first lumbar and spoke to her softly, 'Do not harbour such gloomy thoughts. Life and death are not in your hands. Be happy and full of ananda always ... Swami is always with you. Remember...' Rashmee felt from that moment onwards that all her pain had vanished and she had regained her physical and mental well-being. It has been a miracle of love. From these examples, it becomes apparent that the love of Sai Baba is the greatest boon on earth that one can hope to acquire. It is a transcendental sunbeam that illumines the whole soul of man. Thus, Sai Baba, more than anything else, is a symbol perfected in love.
This love operates continuously and on all levels. It was in the year 1985 that I relinquished my position as University Professor and Chairman, Department of English, University of Bihar after the completion of my term of service and joined the University of North Bengal on a similar assignment. But again, Swami had some definite plan for my future and I was one of the few fortunate ones who were asked to serve at the lotus feet. On the fifteenth of July, 1985, 1 joined the most coveted and prestigious position as Professor and Chairman, Department of English, Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, a deemed university of which Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba was the Chancellor and Professor V.K. Gokak, the founder Vice Chancellor. I found the maximum level of satisfaction working at an elite institution where work was akin to prayer and the challenges were exciting. I have had the privilege of working at many universities at home and abroad, but never before did I witness such devotion and discipline, such an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity and such a silken bond of love and affection permeating the campus life. Swami was there to oversee the whole programme and loved to meet the teachers and students with a good deal of frequency, addressing them on spiritual themes and transmitting the electric waves of pure love. The teachers sat on the front verandah in front of the mandir in the mornings and evenings and Swami was easily accessible to everyone and he spoke to them whenever he liked to do so. There was always a sense of nearness and intimacy and Swami's invaluable counsel was available for the asking. All seemed to bathe in the effulgence and radiance of divine love. Life was all this and heaven too, and I felt that such singular good fortune of being so near to the Lord of the Universe must have meant great merit in one's so many earlier incarnations. At least I felt so and realized that such sweetness flowed to me that I was blessed and everything about me was blessed. It was a feeling of oneness and belonging to the whole creation, nature, living objects, the earth and the sky and the entire cosmos.
Time passed although I lived in the sempiternal regions of the timeless. And then the time came when one finds oneself on the threshold of illumination more illumination, and has the epiphany of a rare kind standing at the frontier of life and death. On the eleventh of January 1987 1 was face to face with death and oblivion. I suffered a stroke leading to left-sided monoplegia. I had left my quarters to proceed to the annual sports meet of the university colleges at the Hill View Stadium. It was a very important function and Baba was to inaugurate the function. It was dark in the morning and after a night of disturbed sleep I was moving on the busy street, tense and uneasy. Some kind of fever sang in the mental wires and my head was heavy. When I passed by the gate of the College of Arts and Sciences, I remembered that I had to pick up some important papers from my office. So, I turned around and came to my office in the building. My head seemed to reel for a moment and I somehow steadied myself and went to the toilet to wash my face and sprinkle some water on my head. It was then that I felt a severe numbness in my left limb and fell on the floor. I lay unconscious in that condition for a while; then the instinct for survival made me exercise my will. The first thought that came to my be?numbed mind was to send earnest and eager prayers to Swami. 'Swami, you are the absolute sole Lord of Life and Death. I have no lust for prolonging my life except to dedicate it to your service. I have still many promises to keep; so I do not want to sleep forever, not at any rate in the roomless toilet. I do not fear death and oblivion but I have some promises to keep and to make myself worthy of your love. You are omnipresent. Will you pull me out of this desperate situation? At this stage, I decided to exercise my will and using my right limbs I crawled slowly up to the lavatory door and unfastened the latch. Now I was on the verandah and could see the entrance gate of the college, the green shrubbery, the red and pink flowers and the vast blue expanse of the sky. The effort was too much for me and my energy was sapped. I reclined on the floor and fainted. My head was spinning like a top, and my nerves were on edge. I do not remember how long did that swoon last, but I was aroused from my slumber by a voice: 'Sir, what's happened? You look so terribly unwell. Can I help you?
'Do please. It seems I've suffered a stroke. Do please run to the Hill View Stadium and inform my colleagues and my family. But first bring a rickshaw and take me to my quarters. I want to rest/ I muttered in a feeble voice.
The young man disclosed his identity saying that he was an assistant in the college and when he was passing by the college gate, he heard a voice directing him to go to the college. 'Don't worry, I'll soon be back with a rickshaw,' he said. He was very helpful and took me to my quarters, When he left the room, I lapsed into sleep and lost all sense of time and space. When I opened my eyes next I was lying in a cabin in the Sathya Sai hospital under the shadow of oxygen mask and saline water was being injected through my veins. I saw my wife and daughter, both standing near my bed and anxiously looking at me. When I opened my eyes, the doctors came towards me and asked 'How do you feel now? There is nothing to worry; your B.P. has come down. You will feel much better tomorrow. Now do try to sleep,' the superintendent of the hospital said :
I have a faint recollection of the goings on in the hospital on the first two days. When I was sufficiently stable and my mind was beginning to be alert, I asked my wife all about it. I was told that my condition had gone on deteriorating in the afternoon and the blood pressure was still rising. The attending physicians were all at sea and hardly knew what to do. They suggested that my wife and daughter should rush to the maiidir and speak to Swami when he came near them in the darshan line. Swami came in the evening to the sick room. He looked intently into my eyes for a long time and withdrew quietly. My wife entreated him to have mercy and save her 'sohag' (marital state). Swami raised his hand as a gesture of benediction but he did not speak a word. However, the visit of Swami proved to be salutary. By night, the blood pressure registered a fall and eventually became normal. The film of haziness before my eyes was dispersed and I was able to see clearly. I could speak fairly audibly. I beckoned my wife to come near me and told her, 'You look so anxious and disconsolate. But there is no need to worry. Swami will take care of me, believe me.' 'Yes, we have been sending our anxious prayers to him day and night/ she whispered.
'I know ... I know,' I mumbled.
On the fourth day after the attack, I was feeling reasonably well, although left limbs were immobile and I lay limp on the bed, unable to sit up or stand. A terrible paralysis had overtaken my nerves and there was nothing I could do about it. In the morning of the fifth day a visitor came to my cabin and introduced himself as a male nurse from Canada. He told me that he was of Indian origin and was settled in Canada and that Swami has asked him to attend on you and help you in your daily chores. He sponged my body with a towel, shaved me and helped me change my clothes and took me out on a wheel-chair to the terrace outside where I found plenty of sunshine, fresh air and a sense of openness and happiness. After many a day I had seen the blue expanse of the sky, the teeming vegetation and heard the sweet and soothing melody of the birds. I cast a lingering glance at the domes of the temple and the huge regal building of the university office located at the top of the hill. In short I felt a sense of oneness with the world of nature and experienced a new upsurge of life within me. Mr. Gopal, the compassionate male nurse from Canada, proved to be a very good companion. He was warm and affectionate and what is more, he was a very good devotee of Swami.
He told me 'You are very lucky, brother Sinha. Swami is deeply interested in your welfare and quick recovery. He has given the doctors a piece of his mind and is not very happy with their initial response and reaction to your critical state. But he has now entrusted me with the job of seeing you and keeping company. He has asked the Vice Chancellor and the colleagues and students of your Department to be with you in the nights so as to provide relief to Mrs. Sinha. I want you to do me a favour. When Swami comes to see you next time, do have a word put through on my behalf. This is my only wish to come back to India and serve at the hospital. If Swami is pleased with my service to you, he may call me here. So, do please commend my case. I shall ever be grateful.'
Since I had already developed a soft corner for him in tiny heart, I assured him that I would do all I could at the right time.
During my illness, all my friends and acquaintances came to see me at the hospital to enquire about my welfare. I was overwhelmed by their fine gesture of affection and their interest in my well-being. Sambhavna, my granddaughter who was studying at the Sathya Sai Primary School, could not come as the Lady Principal thought that the child would be greatly upset to see me in my present condition. Sambhavna was a favourite child of Swami. She had a congenital defect in her heart that required open-heart surgery for plugging a hole in the heart. I had prayed to Swami to cure her and he regularly gave her vibhuthi and once when she was down with fever, he had taken her to the hospital himself on his car. The principal of the school used to tell me that the child was really fortunate that she had earned the grace of Swami. The Vice Chancellor, Dr. Saraf, was a regular visitor to the hospital to see me and always expressed his confidence that Swami would see to it that I would soon be all right with the blessings of Baba. In fact, everyone in the campus was watching my condition and was feeling gratified that Bhagwan Baba, who was an ocean of infinite mercy and compassion, would not forsake me. And, assuming the serious?ness of my stroke with blood pressure touching 220/110 mark, worse could have happened, heart failure or cerebral haemorrhage, but Swami had sent timely help and had taken control of the whole situation.
Now my condition was very much stable and I was more alert and hopeful than ever, and talked intimately with my family members, doctors and visiting friends and students. The only limiting factor was that there was yet no return of power to my paralyzed left hand and leg. But Mr. Gopal took me out on the wheel-chair to the terrace and I spent longer periods sipping tea, reading a book or just talking to Mr. Gopal about life in Canada. He advised me to go in for physiotherapy at a good centre so that the return of power to the affected parts may be hastened. There was no facility for physiotherapy at the Sathya Sai hospital during the eighties, and it did not seem practicable to go over to Bangalore for that exercise. My son, a Reader in Economics at Magadh University, came to see me, but he could not get a longer leave from his university to be able to accompany me to Bangalore. So, it was decided that I should go back home in Bihar and take intensive course in physiotherapy. But before I left, Swami once again sent word that he would be visiting the hospital to bless me. One morning, word went round that Swami's car had arrived and that Swami would soon come up to my cabin. The Superintendent and other doctors waited in my room. Presently, the orange-robed figure of Swami appeared in the room. He came near my bed and cast a caressing and loving glance at me for a few minutes. His eyes met with mine and it seemed to me that beams of love and only love fell on me and I was on the receiving end. There was no immediate effect except the dawning of a feeling of well-being as though my burden of karma had been lifted by a divine miracle, the cleansing ray of celestial love. Swami spoke in a firm voice: 'Professor Sinha, I am very happy with you ... very very happy! You need not worry. You'll be all right and in good time. You have still to do a lot of my work...'
I was on the crest of waves of joy at that moment and felt not only happy and sublime, but also very proud of myself. And the words of my German professor in the United States echoed in my mind: 'You are so noble and tender and proud ... You are a poet and God loves the poets already!' And now I was experiencing that supreme continence of affirmation coming from the mouth of God himself. I was bathed entirely in the white radiance of divine love. And for a moment it seemed to be that one's sufferings and afflictions, even physical undoing and crucifixion are all for the best because they take one several steps closer to God, even force the divine to bring about the wished for transfiguration and consummation and union by love. As suffering alone had been the ground of my beseeching all my life, I was not surprised that God had heard the voice of my calling and had rushed to my rescue and preservation. I remained in a state of dizzy rapture for many days and the tender, loving words of Swami continued to ring in my mind: 'I am very happy with you ... very very happy. You have still to do lots of my work...'
On the fixed date of departure, Swami sent word to Mr. Kutumba Rao to arrange a car to take me and my family to Dharmawaram Railway Station and he also expressed his desire to see me at the time of parting just after the morning darshan in the field in front of the mandir. It was Mr. Gopal who took me on the wheel‑chair to the centre of the field. Most of the devotees had departed and the field was comparatively less crowded. Swami walked up to me. He looked at me lovingly and with perfect serenity and love. He waved his right hand and clusters of thin white vibhuthi came into his hand. He rubbed the z0huthi gently on my left arm and leg and gave me some to eat. I was unable to control my emotions and looked on tenderly. Words seemed to fail me. I knew that the hour of separation had drawn near. Swami had called me to serve at the university for three years, but even before the termination of that term, sickness had forced me to leave. Now I shall be thousands of miles away from him and would suffer the agony of separation from my divine master. What could I tell him now? Then words rushed to my mouth and I said faintly, 'Swami, what about Sambhavna? Should I leave Sambhavna here at the school? Should I take her back with me?'
'Better take her with you since you will not be here/ Swami said. Then, showing a pen, he asked me, 'Is it yours? 'Yes, Swami,' I assented. But it was hard for me to understand how he got my pen. Maybe while he was applying vibhuthi on my forehead and the left hand, my pen might have fallen down and he had picked that up. But it strikes me as a symbolic act. He had said I still had to do lots of his work and I surmised that continuing with my job at the university was not possible in my present state of health and there was hardly anything else, much less community work or social service ... could come under my purview. But my mind was as keen as ever and my intellectual prowess, sensitivity, vision and insight remained as sharp as before even sharper with the acquisition of mellowed perceptions and transfiguring force of divine love. I could perhaps devote the remaining years of my life in my creative and critical writings and maybe, I could write my memoirs about Swami, the assignment which he had ord
THE GOLDEN AGE OF SAI [Part 2 of 2]
Compiled by Nirmal, Vancouver
1976
Kali Yuga
Evil is so widespread that humanity itself would be destroyed in a nuclear holocaust in the event of a world war. It is to prevent such a catastrophe that this present Avatar has come to raise human consciousness above the existing syndrome of anger, hate, violence and war and save the world from disaster. There will be minor wars and skirmishes. (Baba in 1976 in SM)
Baba's Mission
I incarnate from age to age, time to time, to save dharma from anti-dharma. Whenever strife, discord and disharmony overwhelm the world, God incarnates in human form to show mankind the way to love, harmony and peace. The Avatar takes the human form and behaves in a human way so that humanity can feel kinship with the divinity. At the same time he rises to godly heights so that mankind also can aspire to reach God. The realization of the indwelling God as the motivator of life is the task for which Avatars come in human form. The godliness which is present in everybody in the form of a little spark exists in me as the full flame, and it is my mission to develop every little spark of God in everyone to the fullness of the divine flame. The first imperative of this development is that the receiver of the grace also provides from his or her side the devotion necessary to the consummation. (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985)
Baba is a Full Manifestation of God
In my present Avatar, I have come armed with the fullness of the power of formless God to correct mankind, raise human consciousness and put people back on the right path of truth, righteousness, peace and love to divinity. (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985) The present Avatar has come invested with the totality of cosmic power to save dharma (righteousness) from anti-dharma. (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985) I am everything, everywhere, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent; and so whatever I will, instantly happens. (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985)
How the Avatar Works
There are two ways in which an Avatar can help people: an instant solution as against a long-term one. Any instant solution would go against the fundamental quality of nature itself as well as the karmic law of cause and effect. Most people live in the material world of their desires and ego, which is governed by this law. They reap the fruits of their actions. This brings about their evolution or devolution. If the Avatar intervenes to instantly solve their problems, it would stop all action, development, even evolution. This solution can be ruled out because it totally negates the natural laws. The other and more effective alternative presents a long-term solution whereby the Avatar leads the people themselves to a higher level of consciousness to enable them to understand the truth of spiritual laws so that they may turn towards righteousness and steadfastly work for better conditions. This will relate them back to nature and the karmic law of causation. They would then transcend the cycle of cause and effect in which today they are involved as victims and thereby command and control the natural forces to be able to avert the calamities you mention. (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985)
[Men will] become shareholders of my Sankalpa Shakti (divine power, universal energy). I have to work through them, rouse the in-dwelling God in them and evolve them to a higher reality in order to enable them to master the natural laws and forces. If I cure everything instantly, leaving the people at their present level of consciousness, they would soon mess up things and be at one another's throats again with the result that the same chaotic situation would develop in the world.
Suffering and misery are the inescapable acts of the cosmic drama. God does not decree these calamities but man invites them by way of retribution for his own evil deeds. This is corrective punishment which induces mankind to give up the wrong path and return to the right path so that he may experience the godlike condition of sat-chit-Ananda -- that is, an existence of wisdom and bliss. All this is part of the grand synthesis in which the negatives serve to glorify the positives. Thus death glorifies immortality, ignorance glorifies wisdom, misery glorifies bliss, night glorifies dawn.
So, ... if the Avatar brings the calamities mentioned by you to an immediate end, which I can, and do, when there is a great need, the whole drama of creation with its karmic (universal, inescapable duty) law will collapse. Remember, these calamities occur not because of what God has made of man but really because of what man has made of man. Therefore, man has to be unmade and remade with his ego destroyed and replaced by a transcendent consciousness, so that he may rise above the karmic to command. (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985)
Shirdi Sai
The previous Avatar, Shirdi Baba, laid the base for secular integration and gave mankind the message [that] duty is work. (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985)
Sathya Sai
The mission of the present Avatar is to make everybody realize that [the] same God or divinity resides in everyone. People should respect, love, and help each other irrespective of color or creed. Thus all work can become a way of worship. (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985)
Prema Sai
Prema Sai, the third Avatar, will promote the evangel news that not only does God reside in everybody, but everybody is God. That will be the final wisdom which will enable every man and woman to go to God. (Sai Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985)
The Three Sais
The three Avatars carry the triple message of work, worship, and wisdom. .... [The holy mission and divine purpose of the triple incarnation is] to unite all mankind into one caste or family in the establishment of the unity -- that is, Atmic realization -- in every man or woman, which is the basis on which the entire cosmic design rests. Once this is realized, the common divine heritage that binds man to man and man to God will become apparent and love shall prevail as the guiding light of the universe. (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985)
Humanity One Family
Once this primary lesson [of harmony in word, deed, and thought] is taught in the family, the school, the college, the society, the cities, the states, the nations of the world, then man will become conscious of the fact that all mankind belongs to one family. (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985)
Everything points to the terror of [a thermonuclear] conflagration coming; and my mission is to preempt the fires by reestablishing dharma and the spiritual law of one God, one religion, one language [of the heart] embracing one humanity. ... I want to build one humanity without any religious, caste or other barriers in a universal empire of love which could enable my devotees to feel the whole world as their family. (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985)
I preach only one religion of love for all, which alone can integrate the human race into a brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God. I know only one language of the heart beyond the mind and intellect which relates man to man and mankind to God, thereby creating mutual understanding, cooperation and community life in peace and harmony. On this basis I want to build one humanity without any religious caste or other barriers in a universal empire of love which would enable my devotees to feel the whole world as their own family. (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985)
Science
How can science which is bound to a physical and materialist outlook investigate transcendental phenomena beyond its scope, reach or comprehension? This is a fallacy on the face of it. One belongs to the material and the other to a spiritual plane. Science must confine its inquiry only to things belonging to the human senses, while spiritualism transcends the senses. If you want to understand the nature of spiritual power you can do so only through the path of spirituality and not science. What science has been able to unravel is merely a fraction of the cosmic phenomena; it tends, however, to exaggerate its contribution.
... The very fact that science is changing all the time proves its incapacity to investigate the ultimate and absolute truth. Some time ago scientists maintained that the atom cannot be broken, but recently they succeeded in breaking it. They are still ignorant about the realities of the pranic force behind the atom, which is the least of its components.
Science is a mere glow-worm in the light and splendor of the sun. It is true that it can research, discover and gather a lot of information about nature and its material functions and use it for the development of worldly things. Spiritualism, on the other hand, reigns over the cosmic field where science has no place. That is why some discoveries of science are useful while others can be disastrous. (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985)
Choose Spiritual Values
We need to transform society from false to real values. We have to convince people that the ideal of a high standard of life is wrong. It must be replaced with a high level of living and thinking on the basis of humility, morality, compassion and detachment, as against the existing greed for competitive luxury and conspicuous consumption. People have to be convinced that the only way to rouse the latent divinity in them is to master desires and conquer greed for pleasure and luxury instead of being a slave to these false materialistic values. (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985)
It is the spiritual path that can save this country and the world from the wrongs of a materialistic order. What we need is a synthesis of the spiritual and material aspects of life. That will provide man with the social conscience and cooperative spirit imperative to the creation of national wealth and prosperity through selfless, cooperative labor. (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985)
Curb your desires, reduce your wants, live in spiritual austerity, and the available material will be sufficient for humanity. More than that, the tensions of a competitive socioeconomic system will be dissolved and peace of mind will be restored. (Baba in 1976 in SM, 1985)
1978
Time Not Ready for Publicity
[Hislop:] Leelas [miracles] are happening throughout India in tens of millions of homes. Swami keeps His hand down so that publicity about the Leelas will not spread. The rulers of the country know, but they keep it quiet. If the facts were to have publicity, millions would converge on Swami. The Government would surround Him with security guards, and devotees could not get close to Him. The time is not ready. (CSSB, 1978, 27)
Baba's Declarations about the Golden Age
Presently, there is great disorder amongst both politicians and students. This will continue for a time, but at a certain point Swami will step in and bring about some order. (CSSB, 1978, 100)
SAI: Crime has become very bad in India. There is no safety.
JOHN HISLOP: Swami, this is not particular to India. The same is true all over the world. How will it end?
SAI: To the good. In a few years, all will be peaceful.
JH: But Swami, it is getting worse, and it is the Kali Yuga (a world period of diminishing virtue).
SAI: No. It is not as bad now as it was. It is like in the ocean. There is a time of high waves, and there may be some peak waves that crash heavily on the shore, but this is followed by a calm and peaceful sea.
JH: Many people are saying that, very shortly, we will enter a period of great catastrophe.
SAI: There may be some peak waves, as I mentioned, but the world will be happy, peaceful, and prosperous.
GUEST: No world war?
SAI: No. No world war.
JH: We are fortunate to be alive so that we may see this peaceful world.
SAI: You will all see it. Even the old men will live to see it.
GUEST: Then Prema Sai will not have much work to do! Swami will have made the world peaceful.
SAI: That is some 40 years away. At that time the world will be peaceful. That is the Name: Prema Sai. All will be love -- love, love, love everywhere.
GUEST: It would be good to be reborn in the time of Prema Sai!
SAI: It is best to merge with God. No rebirth. (From Dec. 1978 talk in MBI, 188-9)
Foster Righteousness
If God Himself is here to foster Dharma, and you engage yourself in the same task, then you are worshipping Him. Then you are near and dear to Him, for you are serving Him, His devotees, and yourself. (CSSB, 1978, 41)
1979
Baba's Mission
God has incarnated in human form, in order to inspire man to follow higher ideals not only in India but foreign countries also. (SSS, XI, 14; from talk given Dec. 25, 1979)
Humanity is One Family
There is only one race really, and that is the race of mankind. We now consider petty distinctions of nationality, race, religion and language as vital and hold back Love which must flow to every one from the heart. (SSS, XI, 14; from talk given Dec. 25, 1 979)
1980
Baba on the Coming Golden Age
SAI: In all countries there is a rapid deterioration of the human quality.
JOHN HISLOP: When will it change for the better?
SAI: Soon there will be a change.
JH: When is soon, Swami? Twenty years? Ten years?
SAI: No. Now. Already there is some slight improvement in India. One cause of the general deterioration in the world is rapid communication. This allows advertising and publicity to have a strong influence on people. Your American election is an illustration of how the leaders are television actors.
JH: Swami, there is no evidence of a change for the better.
SAI: If there is a change, it will be a universal change. Not local. It will occur every place.
JH: This rapid world-wide communication also results in common knowledge of how to build an atom bomb. Is there not a great danger of some small nation using the bomb?
SAI: The danger is not of someone using the bomb. People are no longer afraid of death from the bomb. So long as they can pursue their objective of getting money, they are willing to risk death and to die. It is not the bomb that is the danger; it is the mind that is the danger. The bomb exists only as an instrument of the mind. The need is for a change of mind.
JH: But Swami, people do not care to learn about that. They have no interest in Swami or in listening to him.
SAI: Minds can and do change. For example, the life style of people can be so bad that they become ashamed and change. The hippies' life style is so low and so dishonest and immoral that groups of hippies, observing their own life reflected in another group, become ashamed and of themselves they change.
JH: Well, at least Swami's devotees know about changing the mind and can do so.
SAI: Were it not for the mind change of Sai devotees the world would already have fallen into complete chaos. The deterioration of mind and man has been very rapid and abrupt, even precipitous during the last fifteen years. That the world is not in total destruction is due to the change in mind of Sai devotees and to Sai's Grace. You are not aware of it, just as you are not aware of your eyes until they are lost. In the same way, the world is not aware of Sai's Grace. (Baba on November 7, 1980 in MBI, 189-9 0)
1981
Baba on the Golden Age
Many people are scared because they believe that the Kali Age in which we live will witness the ultimate Deluge. Others call it the Kalaha Age, the Age of Conflict, for it is now well-nigh omnipresent. No, no. This age is the Golden Age for the seekers of God, for earning and learning Viveka. (SSS, XI, 186; from talk given June 11, 1981)
1982
Earth Changes
There will be physical repercussions because of growing selfishness, minor adjustments to the planet, and a certain clear-out. (SSBEL, 1982, 21)
Baba's Mission
To meet the needs of different ages, God sends sages and Divine Incarnations to sustain human life on Earth. These living examples of Divine Law lead ideal lives and guide humanity in the disciplines needed to live according to the Divine Plan for each Age. (EVJC, 1982, 66)
I have come to revive the ancient wisdom contained in the scriptures of every religion. (EVJC, 1982)
JOHN HISLOP: When Swami says He will confer liberation at death, what does that mean?
SAI: It means that birth is finished with, there is no more birth again.
JH: But Swami, there is this temporary liberation that was mentioned. Maybe it is that kind?
SAI: No, it is not like that. Sai gives total, final liberation. (MBI, c1985, 203; talk with Baba on Dec. 2, 1982)
Golden Age must Recur
The Will of God cannot be stopped. The events God ordains must take place. The joyful Golden Age will recur. (EVJC, 1982, 12)
Knowledge Of Baba Will Spread Slowly And Naturally
JOHN HISLOP: Swami has said that the entire world will know of his presence. At this time only a relatively few people know of Sai. As of now only local individuals represent him, and they do not draw the attention of people of substance and importance throughout the world.
SAI: Sai does not look at status and worldly importance. He looks at the heart.
JH: Yes, Swami, but it is the leaders in society who tend to arouse the attention and interest of the general population.
SAI: Sai does not force such things. He will be in [the] body for many more years. What you refer to will develop naturally. Devotees of world stature, able to speak of Sai, will be present when the time is correct for them. (MBI, c1985, 205; from talk with Baba, Dec. 2, 1982)
Time of Change in Avatar's Career
After age 60, Sai will directly give added strength to the minds of those persons who are actively working with Him. Now is starting a time of change [in the career of the Avatar]. It is just as when a strong wind comes up and blows away the husks, leaving only the sound kernels. In these times, many devotees will fall away from Sai, leaving only those devotees whose faith is sound and solid. (MBI, c1985, 204; talk with Baba on Dec. 2, 1982)
1982- Baba's Desire
I want each and every one of you to reach the highest spiritual state. I wish each of you to know the joy of full Unity with God. (EVJC, 1982, 80.)
Hold Satsang
It is wise to form a spiritual study circle with others who are honestly seeking the spiritual life. Exchange truths, discuss virtues, and listen to the glories of the Lord. (EVJC, 1982, 26)
Connect with Others
Look at the "other person". Try to discover a point of contact, not a point of conflict. Use your knowledge to make yourself kinder. Don't worry about failure; life will become worth living. (EVJC, 1982, 47)
See God in Everyone
You must see that all persons are simply different faces covering the Divine Face of God. Attempting to hate God is the height of ignorance. There is no room in your lives for hatred of anyone. (EVJC, 1982, 86)
To see all things as One you must expand your outlook. You must develop a broad loving heart. Selfishness must disappear. You must find the greater meaning of life - Godliness. ... Striving to lead godly lives is the only truly sacred behavior. (EVJC, 198 2, 87)
Serve
If you wish to blossom forth as your true Self, your Higher Divine Nature, you must spend the life given you serving humanity with great humility and no concern for selfish gain. (EVJC, 1982, 76)
Sai Organizations
The Sai Organization may be limited in size now, but as time goes on, it will attract so many people that the general public will not be able to be accommodated in the Sai gatherings. All available spaces will be assigned to the people within the Sai Organization. Thus, the Sai Organization membership affords a chance. (MBI, c1985, 209; from talk with Baba, Dec. 2, 1982)
1983
Sai Avatar
The Sai Avatar is the only such where his Divinity is known to all peoples of all religions. Never has there been that before. With Krishna, only the Gopis were aware of him as God. (MBI, c1985, 212; talk with Baba, Jan. 10, 1983)
Swami ... builds slowly, but it is firm and sound and it continues. (MBI, c1985, 213; talk with Baba, Jan. 10, 1983)
1984
On Life in the Universe
The question about life in the universe arises because you project your own particular circumstances. You feel that other ways of life would be intolerable because such ways of life would be intolerable for you. In the hot, blazing Sun, for instance, beings are living. This life exists in circumstances considered to be intolerable by you. Elsewhere in the universe, life feels it is Divinity, is one with Divinity, and is quiet happy, and feeling all is right. ... This small planet Earth is very special. It is unique in the universe. One who can understand the mystery of the Earth is great indeed. He is infinite. (MBI, c1985, 226; Oct. 23, 1984)
1985
Baba and America
[Phyllis Krystal:] At about the same time as the announcement of the Rome Conference [c. 1982-3], Baba had given instructions for the American Sai centers to start organizing open public meetings to introduce him and his teachings to a larger audience. It was clear that he was getting ready to bring his message to the rest of the world. He has said that on his sixtieth birthday he will announce his special mission to bring balance into the world chaos fast accelerating everywhere. (SBUE, 1985, 272)
Servants of Sai
Men who are my dasas (servants) are full of love. They stand by dharma or righteousness. They speak the truth. Their hearts melt with mercy. They are devoid of wrong conduct. They avoid sin; they will renounce everything gladly. They act in moderation. They are engaged in doing good to others. They are not selfish. They are not worried by doubts. They do not lend their ears to flattery. They are eager to listen to the praise of others. (GOS, 1985, 84)
Opportunity Baba Presents
Today, this day, [the] precious elixir of knowledge is ours if we are sufficiently awake to reach out and take it. This precious knowledge is available to us in the teachings of that extraordinary being, the divine Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Full release from the turning of the wheel of birth, death, and rebirth may be ours now, in this brief lifetime, now that we know of Baba; and if we have the good sense to pay careful attention to his teachings and the will to take appropriate action. However, if we, by our carelessness and inattention, gloss over this extraordinary and unique opportunity, who can say to what distant shore we will be carried by the hurricane of karmic consequences readying itself to manifest as another of our continuing existences? (MBI, c1985, 83)
Here to me is one of the most wonderful miracles of Sathya Sai Baba. The fettered heart, turning to Baba, can be free from all its bondage. Seeing him, being sure that he will not betray, is a most wonderful feeling. With joy the heart responds to this trust. With each day, love for Baba grows stronger. He is divine Mother and Father to his devotee. One may love him without reserve, without guard, without fear, however guarded one may still be with fellow human beings. (Hislop in MBI, c1985, 64)
Baba is a Towering Personality
Sri Sathya Sai Baba is a towering personage in the world today. His stature in the eyes of men will grow to a supreme height before death removes him into the realm of history. A thousand years from now, five thousand years from now Baba's correspondence will be a treasure for historians as well as for people of that age whose hearts are pulled to him as they read of his glorious life. (MBI, c1985, 231)
1986
He is Parabrahman
[Devaraha Baba:] He is Parabrahma incarnate. ... The Lord incarnate has strictly forbidden the siddhas to mention this fact to anyone. As such we cannot even discuss the matter among ourselves. This mystery about the incarnation of Bhagawan Sainath can be discussed briefly only in the company of the highly realized Sadhaks, who are really inquisitive. ... The time is not far off when seers, sages and saints from all over the country will assemble in Puttaparthi to receive the blessings of the Lord incarnate. (SBNNGA, 1990, 35-6)
Difficulty of Realizing God with Form
It is very difficult for people who stay around me to understand that I am Bhagawan. Only a Sadhak who is ever alert may succeed. (SSBNNGA, 48)
Baba's Promise
Mankind can and will be saved. ("Christmas Message, 1986," SMFYM, II, 1988, 37)
Use This Opportunity
My children awaken now while the divine Avatar is here to guide you. The way ahead is clear, sign-posted through the teachings of the Lord, and you have this unique opportunity to escape from the darkness into light simply by putting those teachings into practice in your daily lives.
Open your hearts and let the love flow, knowing that love can overcome all barriers. See God in everyone and everything and become part of the universal whole which is My reality. ("Birthday Message, 1986," SMFYM, II, 1988, 28)
My children, the time of awakening has come and that time is NOW. But for many of you it will pass without any positive action or participation on your part until, one day, you experience something traumatic which finally awakens you from your placid sleep. (SMFYM, II, 1988; c1986, 31-2)
1987
Liberation is the Goal of Life
Liberation is the goal of mankind: release from the constant cycle of birth and death. It is desire and the craving for material pleasures that bind man to the earth plane, and he will only find liberation through purification and enlightenment. (SMFYM, II, 1988; c1987, 56)
The integration of all mankind will come in the course of time and it will result from better understanding of the truth. I am the truth and I have come to teach the truth so that man can escape from darkness, ignorance and illusion. It is these which have led man to experience antagonism, hatred and even war.
My children, God is love, you are God, and you should awaken to that truth. See the light, live in light, and let love blossom in your hearts so that it lights up the world and cleanses it of the evil and the ignorance of the present age. (SMFYM, II, 1988; c1987, 43)
Your future is assured once you find your own self, the divinity within, the real you, the child of the living God who lives deep in your heart. (SMFYM, II, 1988; c1987, 45)
Man's Stagnation
Man tends to stagnate on the earth plane, even though the awakening may have begun. The same habits and desires have ruled his life for so long that he finds it difficult to change. But change is essential if you want to move forward. (SMFYM, II, 1988; c19 87, 64)
Golden Age is Man's Creation
The Golden Age is the creation of man, not of God. (SMFYM, II, 1988; c1987, 71)
Transition has Begun
The transition from that unhappy state to the state of bliss cannot be achieved overnight, but the changes have begun and the seeds are sown. Man is living at the dawn of a Golden Age and he himself will determine the timing of the transition by his own acts and thoughts. (SMFYM, II, 1988; c1987, 71)
The time has indeed come for a great awakening, when the days of ignorance and illusion are replaced by a new Golden Age. That Golden Age is here now, just waiting for man to move into it and find the peace that has eluded him all this time. (SMFYM, II, 19 88; c1987, 73-4)
Day of Awakening is Here
The day of awakening is here and the day of reckoning, or weeding out, is not far away. The cleansing of the world will take place and only those awakened souls will be left to experience life in the divine state. Others will fall by the wayside, left behind and lost in a world of illusion and darkness.
When the Lord incarnates in human form it is a time of great opportunity for those who are ready. All of you here today have that opportunity, but that alone is no guarantee of liberation. Much effort is required, also an irreversible commitment to the spiritual path, leaving behind for ever the life of illusion with all its worldly desires, attachments and false values. So long as desire remains, you cannot firmly establish your feet on the spiritual path.
Surrender to the Lord and love Him as He loves you, then extend that love to all mankind, for the Lord is in all. Only in this way can you find true peace, happiness and ultimate bliss. ("Christmas (II) [1987]," SMFYM, II, 1988, 63)
Although the Golden Age lies in the future, man can prepare himself by turning to God and living his life in complete harmony with the Infinite. That is possible now, if you surrender your will to God and dedicate your life to Him. You will become His instrument and, in that capacity, you will find fulfillment through service to humanity. (SMFYM, II, 1988; c1987, 70)
Human Family is One
The unity of mankind is the goal.
Unity will come only through love, the motivating force which flows throughout the universe. That love, that motivating force, is God, and all of you are part of it. (SMFYM, II, 1988; c1987, 73)
The unity of mankind will come when man becomes awakened and when he allows love to flow from his heart all the time. Then he will recognise the same love in others and see them as they really are, part of himself, part of God, divine.
Divinity cannot be divided into separate parts, so how can man himself be separated?
An understanding of this basic truth is the key to the future of mankind. The time has indeed come for a great awakening, when the days of ignorance and illusion are replaced by a new Golden Age. That Golden Age is here now, just waiting for man to move into it and find the peace that has eluded him all this time.
Everyone has the opportunity to enter the new Golden Age. But each one has a choice, the free will, to decide his own future, whether he wishes to continue living in the wilderness, a life of illusion, or move forward along the spiritual path and enter the new Golden Age.
Perfect peace awaits him at the end of the path which leads to ultimate liberation. (SMFYM, II, 1988; c1987, 74)
What the Golden Age will be Like
When the Golden Age dawns there will be harmony throughout the world and love will flow everywhere. All thoughts of hatred will disappear. Today you cannot visualize such a state because there is chaos everywhere, fighting, scheming, hatred, evil; all the negative emotions are in the ascendant. But eventually the change will come. (SMFYM, II, 1988; c1987, 70)
The arrival of the Golden Age shall be heralded by a new coming as well as some upheavals, sufficient to uproot the evil that is so prevalent today. (SMFYM, II, 1988; c1987, 70)
Use This Opportunity Fully
My children, the time has come for a great awakening of mankind. You are the leaders and I have given you this great opportunity to join in the work of the Lord. Do not lose the opportunity to help lead mankind out of the wilderness, back to the divine state. That state exists now, if only you can light the lamp of love which is in the heart of every living soul. (SMFYM, II, 1988; c1987, 65)
Man is sick, engrossed in physical and material pursuits which will lead him nowhere. Yet he continues blindly, imagining that his present way of life will eventually bring him success and some form of satisfaction. But he is mistaken and his vision is clouded by illusion. What is he really doing? He is doing nothing of any consequence, merely wasting his precious time and ignoring the divine opportunity which he has been given by the Lord in this lifetime. All of you have the same opportunity, a chance to see the light in this lifetime; otherwise you would not be here. ("Christmas [1987]," SMFYM, II, 1988, 62)
Only the Spiritual Path is Fruitful
Arise, My children, awaken to the truth, listen to the word of God and know that only the spiritual path can lead you out of the wilderness. Love is the key, love is the way. Open your heart and let the love flow. (SMFYM, II, 1988; c1987, 64)
Spiritually Advanced Souls are Alive to Help
Many spiritually advanced souls are here today, full of understanding, and they all have a part to play in helping humanity. Often, much effort and sacrifice are required because the task of spreading the truth is never easy. Too many prejudices exist from the past. However, the world is crying out in agony, and there are more and more people everywhere searching for the truth and seeking a light to draw them out of their darkness. You have the chance to radiate that light and you should join in this great work.
So, in your lives, by your examples, live and practice My message, knowing that some will understand and others will not. Have no concern with the outcome of your efforts, for some people are ready and others are not. Each one is free to go his own way in his own time. Many will choose to remain in darkness with all the attachments that hold them back from the true path. But, eventually, their time will come and, one day, all will be re-united in the Kingdom of God. (SMFYM, II, 1988; c1987, 58)
Start Now
It is the only path, the divine path, and it is there in front of you now. Start the new journey hand in hand with God at this very moment and never turn back. The path ahead is glorious and will bring peace of mind, something which has eluded you for so long. And the Lord will always be there to guide and protect you. (SMFYM, II, 1988; 1987, 45)
The Lord is omnipresent and appears in human form from age to age. Many of you have seen the Lord, but others should know that the Lord is always present everywhere, dwelling in your heart. He remains awake, even while you sleep a sleep which continues for decades before you become awakened.
Now is the time for that awakening, the awakening of man to the truth. The days of illusion and wrong living should be put behind you for they lead nowhere. ... Once you experience this awakening, you leave behind you for ever the attachment to materialism and the illusion that goes with it. Instead, you live on the divine level and place yourself in the hands of the Lord who looks after all your needs.
Christmas is truly a time of celebration and the Lord waits patiently, watching for signs of an awakening of those souls who have been struggling in the darkness for so long. The Lord has shown the way and many have heard the call. Everyone here today should listen again to that call and leave behind them their lives of illusion and attachment to materialism, a type of life that conceals the truth and the way ahead. Turn, instead, to the spiritual path and realise your own divinity. That indeed would be something to celebrate! I will always be with you to help and sustain you. ("Christmas [1987]," SMFYM, II, 1988, 53-4)
The Avatar will Lead You
Today, the divine Avatar is here to lead man back from the brink, back towards the ultimate goal which is liberation and the merging, once again, with God. The process has begun and many are now following the spiritual path, the road to ultimate liberation. (SMFYM, II, 1988; c1987, 56)
1990
Reason the Lord Comes in Human Form
People could not stand the Lord in super-human form. ... If the Lord came in all His majesty people would be afraid and would have nom opportunity to know and love him. It is only when the Lord comes in a human body that people are able to approach him and learn to love him and know him even a little bit. But one should not make the mistake of thinking that is all there is. ... For instance, the airplane flying high in the sky descends to the airport. But one should not make the mistake of thinking that the plane is a ground machine because they see it on the ground. In like fashion, although the Lord has made a landing here on earth, so to speak, He is not limited to His human form. (SV, 1990, 66)
Sai is the Totality of Divine Energy
The totality of Divine Energy has come unto humanity as Sathya Sai. ... This is a human form in which every Divine Entity, every Divine Principle that is to say, all the names and forms ascribed by man to God are manifest. (GDOE, 1990, 31)
Attempts to Win Baba's Grace
Once in Prashanthi Nilayam ... a lady got up from the last row and spoke loudly, "Swami! I need your Grace." The lady repeated these words a number of times. ... Suddenly, the Lord stopped, turned towards her and said, "Grace, grace. Do you really know the meaning of Grace?" The lady replied, "Swami, it means your compassion, your blessings." Baba said, "No, it means much more than that. If you really want My Grace you should prepare yourself to face every type of calamity. You will lose all your wealth and happiness and still instead of crying and repenting you will have to completely merge yourself in meditating upon me and utter my name in your heart. Your near and dear ones will turn against you. People will implicate you in conspiracies with which you have nothing to do. They will find faults with you where you are totally innocent. Under all such circumstances, you will have simply to think of Me and Me alone and suffer everything silently. Come on, are you prepared to face all these things?" The lady was stunned. She could not utter a word and sat down quietly. (SBNNGA, II, 1990, 31)
Baba [refers] to two ways of getting His favour by the devotees. He calls one of them ... entry through the front door and the other ... entry through the back door. Some scholars, Sadhaks, and artists among His devotees expect an interview or a miracle in their favour on the basis of their scholarship or Sadhana or love and execution of performing arts. But these people do not succeed as they want their entry through the back door. They have an inflated ego and carry the impression that because they are some one in particular they are bound to get the favour of the Lord. There are others who are simple minded and egoless devotees. They have nothing to fall back upon except their true love and devotion to the Lord and want entry through the front door. (SBNNGA, II, 1990, 68-9)
Universal Acceptance of Sai Avatar Predicted
My name and form will ... be found getting established everywhere. They will occupy every inch of the world. (GDOE, 1990, 37)
Success of Mission Guaranteed
The success of the task for which I have come will very soon reverberate throughout the world. (GDOE, 1990, 58)
Remember, God has incarnated Himself as SAI. I am Truth and My Sankalpa [wishes, will, determination] is inevitable. (SBNNGA, II, 74)
Golden Age Unfolding
A silent revolution is going to pass through every structure of human society. Those who are present in this hall and all those who have total faith in Sai, though they may not be here, have a golden opportunity of earning My grace and thus [achieving] their goal; i.e., Liberation. If you miss it, you miss it for ever. (SBNNGA, II, 1990, 74)
[Justice V.B. Eradi:] Bhagawan has declared that His objective is to bring about a global integration of the entire mankind where the whole human race will be united as one world-family, knit together by strong bonds of mutual love and respect believing in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. The recent most unexpected developments in the international sphere, such as the sudden termination of the cold war, the removal of walls and barriers separating Eastern and Western Europe and the most welcome signs of establishment of friendly relations between the "Big Super Powers", which were hitherto ranged on opposite sides and were piling up nuclear and conventional weapons for use against each other, are clear signs that the divine Sankalpa is fast taking concrete shape. Bhagawan has His own time schedule for completion of His programmes. ... The day ... when the whole humanity gets unified as one big family observing strictly the principles of Truth, Righteousness, Love, Peace and Nonviolence ... will mark the establishment of the Sai Rashtra and blessed indeed are those who will be able to experience that Heaven on earth. (SV, 1990, 25)
Our Mission
Your mission has begun. ... Each of you has a unique and valuable part to play in this lifetime. Only those whom I have called can serve me.
My Mission has now reached that point in time when each one of you now has work to do. This planet has a purpose in the great galaxy in which it is held. That purpose is now unfolding before your eyes. I call upon you to radiate the Devotion within you so that its unseen power will envelop all who come into your orbit. To successfully perform your part always remains centered upon me. Allow yourself to impart that purity of heart within you towards all human beings and all living creatures and do not reach for the fruits of your work. This part of My Mission is performed in absolute silence. You are My instruments from whom My love will pour. Be always aware that the moment you let your ego descend upon you, My work ceases. When you have overcome your negative unmindfulness you will again become My source. The multiplication of My Love will be felt throughout the world. I have drawn you to Me. I have made great steps in My Mission over these past Incarnations.
My work is ceaseless and so your work, too, is without end. Know that I am within you and without you. There is no difference. Rid yourselves of petty matters for ever more. You are now ME and I am now THEE. There is no difference. My Darshan will pour forth from ME to and through you. You may be unaware of this constant action. Be ever pure in heart and soul, and mankind in your lifetime will benefit from your unique qualities. (SV, 1990, 126)
1991
The Kali Yuga
Today the world is sick, poisoned by man. (SSSBFM, 1991, 224)
The world situation today is dreadful and frightening. Wherever you turn, fear confronts you. Whether you remain at home or go out into the street, whether you travel by train or walk on the road, fear haunts you. The world is enveloped in fear. If you want to banish this fear, you have to develop firm faith in God as the sole refuge. Then you are freed from fear. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 1, Jan. 1991, 10)
Men today are lost in the pursuit of fleeting sensuous pleasures and material possessions. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 6, June 1991, 151)
[A] Rise in income has been followed by a decline in morality. With the collapse in morals, the nation has become a prey to violence and disorder. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 9, Sept. 1991, 251)
In the competition for over-reaching each other, men are immersed in selfishness and are pursuing wrong courses. Politics and economics are bedeviled by crises. Men are driven by caste and religious conflicts. The appetite for power and position has become insatiable.
These are causing the disintegration of the sacred land of Bharat. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 6, June 1991, 151)
With the collapse in morals, the nation has become a prey to violence and disorder. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 9, Sept. 1991, 251)
If there is no love of God, fear of sin, and practice of social ethics, how can there be peace in the world? (SS, Vol. 34, No. 6, June 1991, 151)
[Today] there is no trace of humility and discipline [in] education. In the place of character and good conduct, which should be prevalent among students, we notice today the spread of materialism, ostentation and arrogance amongst them. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 9, Sept. 1991, 249)
Developing insatiable desires, the modern student is vitiating his mind. He lacks the capacity for introspection. But his external vision is turned in all directions. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 9, Sept. 1991, 249)
With no prospect of getting jobs, educated young men are getting frustrated and mentally upset and are turning into ... terrorists. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 9, Sept. 1991, 251)
What is the reason for the lack of peace in the world today? It is because there is no harmony of thought, word and deed in the lives of the people. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 1, Jan. 1991, 4)
Today ... because there is no unity of thought, word and deed among men, Dharma (righteousness) has declined. As a result science (Vijnaana) has lost its true form. The nation's prosperity and well-being have been destroyed. Security has become scarce. Morality and integrity have disappeared. Mammon-worship reigns supreme. In the insane pursuit of wealth, men are losing their morality and integrity. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 11, Nov. 1991, 302)
All people in the world suffer from delusions of different kinds. Consequently they suffer from various fears and hallucinations and have no peace of mind. The only way to get rid of these delusions and fears is to practice love and realise the divinity that is present in all beings. Once this spiritual unity of all beings is recognised, the relevance of this truth for every sphere of life - the physical, the social, the political, the economic, the ethical and the spiritual - will become clear. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 1, Jan. 1991, 7)
Failure of Science and Technology
With the rapid advance of science and technology in the world, there is a corresponding decline in peace and security. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 9, Sept. 1991, 249)
Science and technology are undoubtedly necessary. But they should be utilized properly. Scientists are trying to discover everything about the external world. But they make no attempt to understand the truth about themselves. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 6, June 199 1, 152
Mankind's problems today cannot be solved by science and technology alone. Only a transformation in the character of man can serve to solve the present crisis. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 6, June 1991, 151)
Spirituality in Eclipse
In our daily life, we are all the time involved in the pursuit of endless desires and are immersed in sorrow. It must be realised that in such a life spirituality is like a beacon that beckons man to a higher life. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 7, July 1991, 175)
There can be no refinement (of conduct) without spirituality. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 7, July 1991, 175)
Unfortunately, today spirituality is in eclipse. Many refer to spirituality derisively. But it is only those witless persons who are lost in the trivialities of the mundane world who indulge in such derision. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 7, July 1991, 175)
Sai Baba and Nuclear War
Today only the grace of the Divine can save the country from the chaos and disorder in which it is plunged. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 11, Nov. 1991, 303)
Only the power of the Divine can save the world and not any tank or bomb or Government. Therefore engage yourselves in prayer to God for the welfare of the world. Always chant the name of the Lord. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 11, Nov. 1991, 302)
If atomic war [were to take] place, then the whole of mankind shall be destroyed. To prevent this, this Avatar will raise the conscience of man in such a manner that he can be free from the feelings of hate, envy, anger, revenge and violence. (SSSBFM, 1991, 224)
Sai has come in order to achieve the supreme task of uniting as one family all of mankind, through the bond of brotherhood; of affirming and illumining the Atmic reality of each being in order to reveal the divine, which is the basis on which the entire cosmos rests; and of instructing all to recognise the common divine heritage that binds man to man, so that man can rid himself of the animal, and rise into divinity, which is his goal. (SSSBFM, 1991, 119)
At this time, whatever competitive spirit to destroy others is prevalent, it will be removed and in its place co-operation shall be enthroned and thereby the world war will be prevented. (SSSBFM, 1991, 224-5)
No Cataclysms Ahead
[Kasturi:] In categorical terms, Bhagawan Baba repudiated, on February 13, [1991] at Prashanthi Nilayam, certain reports circulated in various countries attributing to Him predictions of various disasters facing the world in the coming years. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 3, Mar. 1991, 63)
Some persons in overseas countries as well as some people within India have been [saying] that Swami has stated that in a short while the world will be deluged by a great flood. [According to them] large areas will get submerged and ... other disasters will overtake the world and many countries will suffer very much. Such thoughts have never occurred to Swami and will never occur. These are the fancies of ... idle minds. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 3, Mar. 1991, 63)
In no circumstance should devotees believe in such stories. Nor should they give them currency by passing them on by word of mouth. ... It is a sign of weakness to listen to such stories or discuss them. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 3, Mar. 1991, 63)
Over the vast globe, there may be some mishaps here and there, from time to time. The Iran-Iraq conflict lasted ten years. You should not consider it a major war. Even in India, terrorist activities have been going on in the Punjab. Is it a major struggle? Some disgruntled individuals have been resorting to these methods. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 3, Mar. 1991, 63)
No disaster is imminent for the world. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 3, Mar. 1991, 63)
The Golden Age will Come
Fear not, My children, all will be well. Love and light will replace the darkness and a new era will be upon you very soon. (SSSBFM, 1991, 110)
After the storm there will be a completely different beginning and the atmosphere will be completely different. It will be ... the age of love, harmony and cooperation replacing the age of war ... hated ... and greed. (SSSBFM, 1991, 223)
Love and peace will ... cleanse the horrors and excesses of the dark ages which today pollute the very atmosphere. (SSSBFM, 1991, 10)
Life will change, it will improve and you will experience richness in the quality of life which has eluded you in the past. (SSSBFM, 1991, 221)
[Kasturi:] Let us wait joyfully for the new world order, the Perfect Sai Order, not in a far off future, but very soon, sooner than any human mind can comprehend, looking at the present state of affairs in all walks of life. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 8, Aug. 199 1, 224)
Day of Awakening, Day of Reckoning, Hour of God
The day of awakening is not far away and when it comes there will be a revelation of the true power of God [Gokak's 'Hour of God'?], a manifestation of the omnipresence of the Lord. This will be the signal of a great move forward and the weeding out of those who are [not] ready to accept the challenge of the moment. (SSSBFM, 1991, 223)
Prema Sai
Prema Sai ... will work ceaselessly for the good of the world and will establish love, goodwill, and peace. His Name and Fame will reach every corner of the earth. He will be the Universal Guru, the World Teacher, a Leader of leaders. ... His Voice will be heard all over the world. He will receive universal recognition and devotion and will directly lead the world towards truth, love and peace. (SSAV, n.d., 34)
Role of India
India will be the leader of the world in all respects - spiritually, culturally, socially, politically and economically. (SSAV, n.d., 34)
[She will] play the role of World Teacher. (SSSBFM, 1991, 224)
All her past glory, culture and traditions will be revived and she will shine forth as the leading nation of the world. This is how it was yugas [ages] ago and this is how it will be once more. (SSAV, n.d., 34)
Responsibility of Humanity
Now is the time for change, change of vibration, change of ideals of consciousness. It is achieved through closer links and better communication with God. Now is the time to start. (SSSBFM, 1991, 222-3)
Transformation must begin with the individual. When the individual changes, the world will change. This transformation has to take to take place in the minds of men. Right thoughts will lead to right actions. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 1, Jan. 1991, 4)
To keep your minds pure in such [an] environment [as today's world], fill your hearts with love and keep your daily actions pure and unsullied. ... Avoid wasting of food, time, money and energy. When you move in the outside world, your life should be exemplary. Look upon God as your only true Friend. Follow the dictates of your conscience. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 9, Sept. 1991, 252)
Shedding all fear, carry on your work with courage and determination, without any worry about the future, and plunge into service activities. If you act with this faith, you will be able to serve the nation well. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 1, Jan. 1991, 10)
When there is understanding and harmony in the family, peace will spread to the community, and from there to the nation and the world. Unity confers joy and peace. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 1, Jan. 1991, 4)
Forego Hankering for Wealth and a High Standard of Living
What men have to aim at is not wealth (sampada) but right conduct (samskara). Life is governed by restraint at every stage. The eye cannot tolerate the glare of blazing lights. The body cannot bear a rise in temperature. Anything in excess is a cause of trouble. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 6, June 1991, 152)
There is a need to acquire wealth for living. But excessive wealth is harmful. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 6, June 1991, 152)
Money earned by unworthy means is nothing but dust. That wealth will be of no use to you. Hoarding wealth is of no avail. Ill-gotten wealth is not truly yours. There are four covetous elements waiting to get at it. The first entity is the Government. In the name of some tax or law, the Government will make a raid on the hoarded wealth. The second entity is fire: somehow or other fire reaches the ill-gotten wealth and destroys it. The third entity is a thief. The thief is after secreted wealth. Somehow he tries to steal it. The fourth entity is disease. To deprive a person of his ill-gotten wealth, disease seizes hold of him and makes him spend money on treatment. Misers, who will not part with a paisa to a beggar, will spend any amount on doctors and medicines. These are the ways in which money earned by dishonest means is taken away. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 11, Nov. 1991, 302)
Therefore, you ... who are the Nation's hope for the future should rigorously eschew unfair means to earn money, adhere to morality and integrity in your professional life, uphold Dharma through love and truth and serve the nation. Only then will the nation [of India] recover its ancient greatness and glory. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 11, Nov. 1991, 302)
Live up to High Ideals
It is not your intellectual ability that will serve to protect the country. If you adhere to Truth and Righteousness, they will protect both you and the country. Live up to the truth of your being. Act righteously. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 1, Jan. 1991, 10)
All things in the world are perishable. Mortality is the inescapable destiny of every man. But the ideals for which men live and for which they are prepared to give up their lives last for ever. Hence [everyone] should have great ideals and try to live up to them. That is the secret of immortality. By [our] exemplary lives, [we] should transform the world. This was the role of Bharat in ancient times. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 6, June 1991, 151)
Whether it is Bharat or any other country, its security lies in the promoting of right attitudes. Who are our friends and who are our enemies? Our own good thoughts are our friends. Our evil thoughts accompany us like shadows. When our thoughts are purified, our lives will be transformed into ideal ones. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 3, Mar. 1991, 63)
Engage in Service
Always remembering that you are a fragment of the Divine, you have to engage yourselves in service. No Government or other service Organisation has this attitude. Only Sathya Sai Organisations can render service successfully in this spirit. Very soon you will experience the bliss and peace to be got from such service. Whatever the difficulties or obstacles, you are bound to overcome them. These are incidental to any undertaking. Do not bother about what has happened in the past. Get immersed in the tasks of the present. Render service with a pure and selfless heart. The delight of the individual gladdens the Divine. Equally the Divine esteems you. Do everything with the Lord's name on your lips. Develop all that is good in you and share that goodness with one and all. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 1, Jan. 1991, 11)
How is the mind to be purified? Through service to society with dedication and identification with everyone. You have to cultivate this feeling of oneness with all.... By engaging yourselves in service, you develop this sense of oneness. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 1, Jan. 1991, 6)
Try to be helpful to others in all your activities. There is no greater Sadhana or Pooja than this. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 11, Nov. 1991, 302)
The spiritually realised person will recognize the permanent that subsumes the changing entity. Such a realisation can only come when a person is pure in thought, word and deed. Purity must express itself in loving service. Help to the needy has been described as the highest virtue (Punya). Harming others has been condemned as a sin. Sai devotees must engage themselves in acts of service, which will sanctify their lives. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 1, Jan. 1991, 7)
It is only when man is filled with the spirit of service that his divine nature is revealed. He then experiences the peace that passeth understanding. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 1, Jan. 1991, 4)
Sai Service Organisations must grow in numbers and cover the entire country. Only then [will] the country ... enter on an era of prosperity. (SS, Vol. 34, No. 1, Jan. 1991, 10)
Don't Delay
Everyone should prepare NOW for this change, for I promise you that it will come, and only those who are ready will survive. (SSSBFM, 1991, 223)
Do not delay action to put right your own life style and change it to the way of God. There is no other way. (SSSBFM, 1991, 110)
Men will be My Partners
Men will be partners in My Sankalpa Shakti (Determination). (SSSBFM, 1991, 225)
All of you should play a part in bringing forward the transformation [leading to the Golden Age] and the instrument you should use is Love. (SSSBFM, 1991, 224)
I shall be grateful to each child of mine who helps me in my task. (SSSBFM, 1991, 125)
[And] I will help you all, for each one of you is helping My mission in one way or another. Never doubt or have any fear. (SSSBFM, 1991, 114)
It Will Happen as I Say
I have given the warning. I have given My message a thousand times and no one who hears My words can proclaim ignorance. (SSSBFM, 1991, 110)
What I will, must take place; what I plan must succeed. (SSSBFM, 1991, 117)
It will be just so. Mark my words. But few will listen, very few. (SSSBFM, 1991, 223)
1993
Humanness has reached its nadir
Today every step of man is marked by unrighteousness. Every word is tainted by untruth. His thoughts are not free from evil. All his desires are rooted in selfishness. ... In short, humanness has reached its nadir. (SS, Vol. 36, No. 12, Dec. 1993, 318.)
Nature is reflecting the human condition
In various parts of the world Nature is causing various disasters such as earthquakes, famines, floods and volcanic eruptions. What is the reason? The spiritual lapses of man account for these calamities. Disturbances in the heart (human heart) are reflected in earthquakes. (SS, Vol. 36, No. 11, Nov. 1993, 292)
All the evil tendencies that are manifest today are indications of the impending disasters. (SS, Vol. 36, No. 12, Dec. 1993, 332)
Why do untoward events happen? Only to promote what is good. They have a cleansing effect. (SS, Vol. 36, No. 12, Dec. 1993, 332)
Very soon the Glory of Sai will Spread
Very soon the glory of Sai will spread to every part of the world. It will increase a thousand fold. (SS, Vol. 36, No. 12, Dec. 1993, 333)
The winnowing
After the harvest when the sheaves of grains are winnowed, the wind blows away all the chaff, leaving only the grains behind. Through this process, the true devotees will remain steadfast. The wavering puppets will drift away. This is the process of winnowing. (SS, Vol. 36, No. 12, Dec. 1993, 333)
1997
My airplane about to take off
When an airplane is about to take off, it must first approach the runway. When it reaches the runway, it must make a full turn in order to face the direction of takeoff. This turn is navigated slowly by the aircraft. After the turn has been completed, the airplane receives a signal from the tower and begins to accelerate rapidly for takeoff. When the craft has reached sufficient velocity, it leaves the ground. Swami's mission has made this turn to face the runway. The 70th birthday was the signal from the tower to accelerate. In the 75th birthday, the airplane will leave the ground. (Sri Sathya Sai Newsletter, USA, 31, Winter 1996-1997, 29)
OM SAI RAM
Today the seeds are still in the ground, slowly germinating, as the teachings of the Lord begin to spread throughout the world and infiltrate the mind of man. Soon those seeds will begin to grow, and what emerges will brighten the world as the beauty of the absolute truth begins to reach so many people. It is a process which takes time and the new Golden Age will evolve gradually.
So you should live in hope.... Let the divinity within shine forth and become one of the great beacons to light up the world and hasten the arrival of the new Golden Age. It is there now for some, those enlightened souls who have already reached the state of God realisation. It is that awakened state that will lead to the new age. (SMFYM, II, 1988, 71)
1008 Pearls of Sayings of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
From 101 to 200
101
THE Gita was Arjuna and Krishna, though Krishna supplemented it with
Captious explanations of why and wherefore. Arjuna admitted that he
was a profaner. He had to surrender to His Wait, so that there was
no need for Krishna to argue with him. He was convinced of the
correctness of His command. Still, in order that Arjuna might fight
with a full heart, He gave him the reasons, which supported the
course that He laid down for him. I too want you to know why I
designed it so you should act in a particular manner, and I do not
like you to behave in another manner.
102
BISHMA was a Bhakta and by winning the Lord's Grace he was clothed
with more Majesty and splendour than any early emperor. What majesty
has these scepter-holders? They cannot claim to have inner peace,
inner joy, they know not the joy of sharing love with all. Bhishma
surrendered to the Lord when He challenged him with the su-darsana
(Vishnu), that is to say, when He offers su (good) dharsana (vision)
one must be wise enough to surrender, give up all, that is what
Bhishma did.
103
ARJUNA exclaimed Krishna as the Omnipresent, Omnipotent and
Omniscient God, when the foe was defeated day after day. But when
his son Abhimanyu was killed in the conflict he raved in the grief
that Krishna had not guided him properly and guarded him
efficiently. His mind wavered with every wind of fortune. To many
the mind is the master of the intellect also. One must be vigilant
and preserve the impartiality of instrument called Reason of
Intellect. Clarify reason, then it will reveal God everywhere, even
in you once you accept God as the core of the universe, and you have
that strong and steady faith.
104
FILL every moment with energy enthusiasm and effort. The Epics teach
you how to succeed in this. The Mahabharatha describes how and when
every other of the hundred Kauravas died. The eldest Duryodhana was
challenged by Bhima to meet him in a duel, when at last he fell on
the ground; Bhima struck his head with his foot in order to add
insult to injury. Duryodhana's pride was hurt, a Kshatriya, such as
he, could not pass that insult by. He retorted even when he was
dying. Do not exult that you have done some big heroic act by
tramping on my head! In a few seconds dogs and vultures will be
doing that act. It does not require a hero to plant his foot on a
dying man. You dared not do this when I was capable of hitting back,
you coward! That kind of awareness of one's potentialities and quick
response to all happenings must be present in you too. Heroism
gushed out even when he was passing away!
105
KRISHNA, whose advent you should celebrate, is not the cowherd boy
who charmed the village folk with His flute, but Krishna the
indefinable inscrutable Divine Principle that is born in the navel
of the body (Mathura) as the product of Divine Energy (Devaki) that
is then transported to the Mouth (Gokulam) and fostered by the
Tongue (Yashoda) as its source of sweetness. Krishna is Yashoda
gained the Visualization of the Atma that the repetition of the Name
grants, the vision; you must foster that Krishna on your tongue.
When He dances on it, the poison of tongue will be ejected
completely, without harming anyone as happened when as a child He
danced on the hoods of the serpent Kalinga.
106
PURITY of motive is the best guarantee that you will have Peace. An
uneasy conscience is a tormenting compassion. Righteous action will
have no bad effects, to disturb your sleep or health.
If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be
beauty in character;
If there is beauty in character, there will be harmony
in the home;
When there is harmony in the house, there will be
order in the nation;
When there is order in the nation, there will be peace
in the World.
So, be righteous; avoid all prejudices against others on the basis
of caste, creed, colour, mode of worship, status, or degree of
affluence. Do not look down upon any one; look upon all as Divine as
you really are.
107
ALL Faiths are inter-related and mutually indebted to each other for
the principles they teach and the disciplines they recommend. The
Vedic Religion was the first in time; Buddhism, which appeared about
2500 years ago, was its son; Christianity, which was influenced much
by the Orient, was its grandson. And Islam, which has the Prophets
of Christianity as its base, was the great grandson. All have Love
as the Fundamental Discipline of the Mind in order to chasten it and
merge man with the Divine.
108
VINAYAKA is called the child of two mothers, Gowri and Ganga. You
are the pet children of four mothers, each of you; Sathya, Dharma,
Shanti and Prema. Do not ridicule them by your act. Honour them and
be grateful to them. Do not claim "Anyaya" (Injustice), "Akrama"
(Indiscipline), and "Asathya" (Falsehood and "Anachara" (Evil
behaviour) as your mothers Instead, expand your heart, taking in all
humanity into the circle of your kin, even the birds, beasts, worms,
and insects, trees and plants. The Vedic Prayer asks that the
aspirant's heart may be expanded "Brhathe Koromi" - I make myself
Vast! The vastest is "Brahman" which comes from the same
root, "brh", to enlarge.
109
I EAT as you do, move about as you do, talk in your Language and
behave as you can recognise and understand, for YOUR sake - not for
My sake! I turn you towards the Divine, winning your confidence,
your love, your submission, by being among you, as one of
yourselves, one whom you can see, listen to, speak to, touch and
treat with reverence and devotion. My plan is to transmute you into
Seekers of Truth (Sathya-anveshko). I am present everywhere at all
times; My will must prevail over every obstacle; I am aware of the
past, present and future of your innermost thoughts and carefully
guarded secrets. I am "Sarvatharyami", "Sarva Shakti"
and "Sarvajna". Nevertheless, I do not manifest these powers in any
capricious manner or merely for display. For I am an example and an
inspiration, whatever I do or omit to do. My Life is a commentary on
My Message.
110
LOVE must be manifested as Service or Seva. Seva must take the form
of food for the hungry, solace for the forlorn, consolation for the
sick and the suffering. Jesus was himself out in such Seva. The
heart full of compassion is the temple of God. Jesus pleaded at the
sight of the poor. Jesus is worshipped but His teachings are
neglected. Sai is being worshipped but His teachings are neglected.
Everywhere pomp, pageantry, hollow exhibitionism and Lectures,
Lectures and Lectures! No activity, no love, no seva. Heroes while
lecturing are Zeros while putting what is said into practice.
Develop Compassion. Live in Love. Be Good, Do Good and See Good.
This is the way to God.
111
THE nature we have around us and with us is the vesture of God. We
have evidence of His Beauty, Goodness, Wisdom and Power all around
us; wherever we turn our eyes. But the art of recognising Him is
strange to us and so we deny Him and live on in darkness. We have
all around us, in the atmosphere, the music emanating from all the
Broadcasting Stations of the World, but they do not assail your ear
at any time. You are not aware of any Station; but, if you have a
receiver and if you tune it to the correct wavelength, you can hear
the matter broadcast from any Station; if you fail to tune it
correctly, you will get instead of news only nuisance! So too, the
Divine is everywhere above, around, below and beside, near as well
as far. For cognising it, you require not a "Yantra" (machine) but
a "Mantra" (mystical formula potent with a psychological undertone).
Concentration of Dhyana is the fixing of the exact location of the
Station in the Band; Love is the correct tuning in; realising the
Reality and the Bliss it confers is the happy clear listening!
112
THE Divine is a wine that would intoxicate you. The nectar that the
Name of the Lord is saturated in produces it. Taste it and you
forget everything else; you are transformed. Man is, they say, a
monkey that has lost its tail; well, he must lose many more
attributes of the monkey before he is entitled to call himself Man.
He must dedicate his thought, word and deed to God and surrender to
His Will. Then only is this animal entitled to become a Man in whom
the Divine is enshrined.
113
THE body is the ball filled with the air of Divinity; it is kicked
in play by six players on the side (the six foes: Lust, Anger,
Greed, Attachment, Pride and Hate); and six on the other (the six
friends: Truth, Right, Peace, Love, Compassion and Fortitude); the
goal-posts are on each side, and if the ball is hit so that it
passes through them, they achieve "Dharmavidya" (Moral attainment)
and victory. Or else, their kick results in an "out"! Learn to speak
what you feel, act what you speak; do not allow them to be at cross-
purposes. Man, with the feelings of a demon fuming with hate,
engages in fighting, holds Peace Conferences and prides himself on
his Plans for Peace! Transform the heart into a Tabernacle of Peace,
then Conferences to deceive oneself and others become unnecessary.
What can mere talk achieve?
114
DISCIPLINE trains you to put up with disappointments; you will know
that the path of life has both ups and downs, that every rose has
its thorn. Now, people want roses without thorns, life has to be one
saga of sensual pleasure picnic all the time. When this does not
happen, you turn wild and start blaming others. If each one cares
for his own pleasures, how can Society progress? How can the weak
survive? Mine, not thine, this sense of greed is the root of all-
evil; this distinction is applied even to God! - My God, not yours!
Your God, not mine!
115
GOODNESS, compassion, and tolerance: through these three paths, one
can see the Divinity in one-self and others. Softness of heart is
condemned by people today as weakness, cowardice, and want of
intelligence. The heart has to be hardened, they say, against pity
and charity. But that way lies war, destruction, and downfall. Love
confers lasting happiness and peace. Sharing can reduce grief and
multiply joy. Man is born to share, to serve, to give and not to
grab. When you have faith in God as a precious truth in the altar of
your heart, you will welcome, with equal alacrity, the blows and
blossoms of fortune.
116
HAVING come to this place and availed yourselves of this
opportunity to treasure in your hearts the things you have seen and
heard, resolve to plunge into a practice of them. Your resolution
and your practice must happen simultaneously. Have a master plan and
start from tomorrow the execution of the program, drawn in
consultation with others. This must happen in all countries. Do not
think that only the Andhra State is Sai's. All are Sai's. All are
one. We must endeavor by all means to realise and establish this
Truth in this Kali Yuga. This is the message I am giving you today.
I am fulfilling all your desires. So you must fulfill this one
desire of Mine. I bless that you have long life, good health,
Ananda, Peace and Prosperity; and that you will dedicate your
physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual strength and skills for
the service of the country and of all mankind.
117
THERE are some ignorant persons who laugh at "Bhajans" and other
acts of worship and consider them a waste of valuable time. Those
persons might laugh at your pouring bags of paddy seeds on a slushy
field and condemn that act too as waste of valuable food-material.
But you know that, for every bag of paddy-seed, Mother Earth will
give back grain tenfold or even twenty fold, in a few weeks. Time
spent in contemplation of God or adoration of the Divine is indeed
well spent, for it rewards you with a rich harvest of mental peace
and courage.
118
WHEN Jesus was emerging as the Supreme Principle of Divinity, he
communicated some news to his followers. The statement of Christ is
simple. (He, who sent me among you, will come again) and he pointed
to a lamb. The lamb is merely a symbol, a sign. It stands for the
voice BA-BA. The announcement was "The Advent of BABA". - "He will
wear a robe of red, a blooded robe". He will be short, with a crown
(of hair). The lamb is a sign and symbol of Love. Christ did not
declare that he would come again, he said, "He, who made me, will
come again". That BABA is the Baba; and Sai, the short curly hair
crowned, red-robed Baba has come.
119
MANY believe that a pilgrimage to holy places is conductive to
spiritual progress. They journey to Tirupathi, Rameswaram, Badrinath
or Amarnath and pray for the removal of their mundane troubles. They
vow to remove their hair if, through Divine intervention, they win a
prize in the State Lotteries, as if God is in need of hair. This
trick of bargaining is only cheating oneself in an attempt to cheat
God. Do not pray to God for wealth or fame, positions of power or
for the fruits of your actions. The genuine seeker will pray for
nothing else but God.
120
HUMAN lives are now passing on and on, filth over filth, bent,
broken, diseased, distressed and disheartened. To enrich their lives
and to make the human heritage worthwhile, I have come, I am
evincing all this enthusiasm to teach you the prayer attitude to
Seva, for Love expresses itself as Seva, Love grows through Seva,
and Love is begun in the womb of Seva. And God is Love. The Avatar
is a Child to the children, a Boy to the Boys, a Man among men, a
Woman among women, so that the Avatar's message might reach each
heart and receive enthusiastic response as "Ananda". It is the
compassion of the Avatar that prompts His every action.
121
HAVE no thorn of hate in your mind. Develop Prema towards all.
Desire is a storm; Greed is a whirlpool; Pride is a precipice.
Attachment is an avalanche; Egoism is a volcano. Keep these things
away, so that you can do Japa or Dhyana; they do not disturb the
Equanimity. Let Love be enthroned in your heart. Then there will be
sunshine and a cool breeze and the gurgling waters of contentment
feeding the roots of faith.
122
THE title "Sathyam Sivam Sundaram" is full of meaning. It speaks of
HE, imminent in every one of you. Sathyam is the basic reality of
you all; that is why you resent being called a liar. The real "you"
is innocent, you will not accept an imputation that is false. The
real "you" is joy, happiness, and auspiciousness. It is not Savam
but Sivam; it is Subham, Nithyam, and Anandam. How then can you bear
being called ugly? The Atma has got entangled in the body, which it
does not like; it is weighed down by shame, when you identify it
with the body and attribute to it the weaknesses and deficiencies of
that physical vehicle.
123
I NEVER speak through another; I never possess another or use
another as a vehicle of expression. I come direct, I come straight,
I come, as I am to confer Peace and Joy. I do not accept from you
flowers that fade, fruits that rot, coins that have no value beyond
the national boundary. Give Me the Lotus that blooms in your Manasa-
Sarovar, the clear, pellucid waters of the lake of your inner
consciousness. Give Me the fruits of holiness and steady discipline.
I am above all this worldly etiquette, which enjoins you to see
elders with some fruit or flower in your hand. My World is the World
of the Spirit; there, values are different. If you are happy with
faith in God and fear of sin, that is enough "Service",
enough "Kainkaryam" for Me. It pleases Me so much.
124
YOU must speak soft and sweet words to everyone. Do you like the
voice of the crow? No, you drive the crow away when it starts to
caw; its speech is harsh, it is too loud for your ears. You must
have heard the Koel, the cuckoo, haven't you? That bird looks very
much like the crow; it grows in the nest of the crow with the baby
crows; the mother crow, along with her own kids, feeds it. But no
one will throw a stone at a "Koel"; every one likes to hear its
sweet voice. Speak soft and sweet; then every one will like you.
125
NO service is too low or mean; every emergency is immediately
noticed and attended to. They need not be sorry that during those
days they had no time to sit for Dhyana or do Japa or even to go out
on Nagarsankirtan! Why? You can have the Name on the lips, when you
sweep the streets or lift a corpse in the morgue or when you walk
towards or away from the area of distress. People may dub you mad!
But be elated that you are not affected by the insanity they suffer
from!
126
THE mind plays many tricks with you, the chief of which is to foster
the ego and hide the Prompter and the Power within. You must have
heard of an Accountant in the Court of the King of Death,
Chitragupta, by name. He maintains a Register of the good and the
bad deeds done by each living being, and on death, he brings the
book to the Court and strikes the balance between debit and credit.
Yama, the king, then meets out the punishment that can expiate and
educate. This Chitragupta has his Office in the mind of man, all the
time, awake and alert. The word means the secret picture; what he
does is to picture all the secrets from promptings that blossom into
activity; he notes the warning signals as well as the occasions when
those signals were ignored or wantonly disregarded. You must see
that the warning of the Divine against the merely human or even the
bestial inclination is heeded.
127
YOU have the chance to see, experience and be sanctified by the
incarnation of the Lord; this chance you have received as a result
of the accumulation of merit in many previous lives. That merit has
brought you here when I came down. For this chance, Rishis and Devas
have prayed long in the past. Having won this chance, strive to
taste the sweetness and achieve the Bliss of Merging without wasting
even a single moment. The rays that emanate from Me are of three
grades: the "Sthula", filling this Prashanthi Nilayam;
the "Sukshma", pervading the Earth; and the "Karana", covering the
entire Universe. The people who have the privilege of living in this
Prashanthi Nilayam are indeed lucky, for they are nearest to
the "Kiran" (rays). The "Sthulakirana" makes a man a "Sadhaka";
the "Sukshma" makes him a "Mahatma"; and "Karana" converts him into
a "Paramahamsa".
128
I NEVER deviate from Truth. Since I recline on Truth, I am called
Sathya Sai; Sayi (as Seshasayi) means reclining. The name is very
appropriate, let me assure you. It is only those, who fail to follow
My instructions and deviate from the path I lay down, that fail to
get what I hold out before them. Follow My instructions and become
soldiers in MY army; I will lead you on to victory. When someone
asks you in great earnestness "where the Lord is to be found", do
not try to dodge the question. Give them the answer that rises up to
your tongue from your heart. Direct them. He is here in Prashanthi
Nilayam. All Avatars teach, as the first step in the long road
of "Sadhana", the giving up of attachment. In the Thretha Yuga, the
Yoga-Vasistha taught the same rule. In the Dwapara Yuga, Krishna
taught Arjuna to give up Vishaya-Vasana, attachment to the objective
world. People utter with apparent faith, "Krishna, Krishna,
Krishna", but they never give up "Thrishura" (Thirst) for worldly
goods or fame. In each Yuga, you have the Avatar of the Lord come to
redeem, review and rebuild. At the present time, Maha Shakti,
Mayasakthi, and Yogasakthi have come all together in One Human Form.
Your endeavor should be to draw near and earn Grace therefrom.
129
WHAT is the immortal part of man? Is it the wealth he has
accumulated, the residences he has built, the physique he has
developed, the wealth he has acquired and the family he has reared?
No, all that he has done, developed or earned are destroyed, he has
to leave them all to the ravages of time. He cannot take with him
even a handful of earth, the earth he loved so much. If only the
dead could take with them a handful each, the earth would have
become so scarce that it should have been rationed by now! Discover
the Immortal "I" and know that it is the spark of God in you; live
in the companionship of that vast measureless Supreme and you will
be rendered vast and measureless. Consider all objects that you
collect here as given on "Trust" to be used in this caravanserai
during your pilgrimage in this Karuna Kshetra.
130
UNLESS you brighten your vision with Love, you cannot see the Truth.
Love helps you to see God in everyone and everyone as Divine. The
Jagath is not false, it is not a trap; it is the splendour of God,
His reflection. He reflected and the Jagath happened! It is His own
substance, manifesting as multiplicity, as latent or potent energy-
matter. When activity is in accordance with awareness that is
befogged or belittled, dried up or deluded, there Dharma is decadent
and the Avatar appears among men!
131
EVERY one must learn the secret of happiness, which consists in
refusing to shed tears for anything less than God. You have won this
human body, this human life, as the reward for many lives spend in
acquiring merit. You have won this chance, this unique good fortune
of being able to get Darshan of Sai. Plunging deep into the waters
of this tumultuous ocean of Samsar, you have heroically emerged from
its depths, with this rare Pearl in your hands - the Grace of Sai.
Do not allow it to slip from your clasp and fall into the depths
again. Hold firmly on to it. Pray that you may have it forever and
be filled with the joy that it confers. This is the way by which you
can render this life fruitful.
132
UTILISE the World as the means to an end; do not desire to stay in
it. It is a caravanserai, where you can rest a while during your
pilgrimage to the source. It is a bridge wide and strongly built.
Can any pilgrim build a house there on for himself? The Cosmos is
changing constantly. The minutes that are past cannot be retrieved,
even if tempted by a billion rupees. The past is not ours any more;
the present slips from our grasp; and the future is uncertain. You
come naked into the world, you go out of it without informing the
survivors of the address where you can be contacted. In spite of
this, attachment grows and you cultivate bounds. This is the great
illusion.
133
THE grace of God cannot be won through the gymnastics of reason, the
contortions of Yoga or the denials of Asceticism. Love alone can win
it; Love that needs no requital; Love that knows no bargaining; Love
that is paid gladly as a tribute to the All Loving; and Love that is
unwavering. Love alone can overcome obstacles, however many and
mighty. There is no strength more effective than Purity, no bliss
more satisfying than Love, no joy more restoring than Bhakti and no
triumph more praiseworthy than Surrender.
134
HIN means "Hinsa" (Violence) and "du" means "dura" (distant); so
HINDU means a person who is devoid of violence, who loves and
sympathizes, who helps and serves - not one who hides and hits,
harms and draws blood. The same sky is over everyone's head; the
same earth supports everyone's feet; the same air enters everyone's
lungs! The same God brought all forth, brings up all and brings
about the end of this earthly career. Why then this inhuman role of
foe and fanatic; of fight and feud?
135
I AM the embodiment of Love; Love is My Instrument. There is no
creature without Love; the lowest loves itself at least. And
its "self is God". So, there are no atheists, though some might
dislike Him or refuse Him, as malarial patients dislike sweets or
diabetic patients refuse to have anything to do with sweet! Those
who preen themselves, as atheists will one day, when their illness
is gone, relish God and revere Him.
136
STRUGGLE to realise the Atma, to visualise God; even failure in this
struggle is nobler than success in other worldly attempts. The
buffalo has horns; the elephant has tusks, but what a difference? To
live in the body, with the body, for the body is the life of a worm;
to live in the body with God is good, for God is the life of man.
The dull, activity-hating Tamasic persons have ego and their love is
limited to their kith and kin. The Rajasic, active, passionate
persons seek to earn power and prestige and love those who will
contribute to these. But the Satwic, the pure, the good and
equanimity-filled love all as embodiments of God and engage
themselves in humble service.
137
THERE are three types of approaches towards the Lord; the Eagle
type, which swoops down on the target with a greedy swiftness and
suddenness which, by its very impact, fails to secure the object
coveted; the Monkey type, which flits hither and thither, from one
to another, unable to decide which is tasty; and the Ant type which
moves steadily, though slowly towards the object which it has
decided is desirable. The ant does not hit the fruit hard and makes
it fall away; it does not pluck all the fruits it seeks; it
appropriates just as much as it can assimilate and no more. Do not
fritter away the time allotted to you for sojourning on the earth in
foolish foppery and fanciful foibles, which always keep you
outdoors. When are you to walk indoors into the warmth and quiet of
your own interior? Retire into solitude and silence now and then;
experience the joy derivable only from them.
138
WHAT is the sanctity of Shivaratri? Your answer, "Linga emerges from
Swami's Udara (abdomen)". "Today is the fourteenth day of
the dark of the month, when the moon is all but invisible, just a
minute fraction remains visible to man. The mind is the source of
all the entangling desires and emotions. The mind is, therefore,
almost powerless this day; if only this night is spent in vigil and
in the presence of the Divine, it can be fully conquered and man can
realise his freedom. Vigilance this night is to be secured
by "Sadhana", this is by means of "Bhajan" or the reading of sacred
texts.
139
RAMA, Krishna and Sai Baba appear different because of the dress
each has donned, but it is the self same Entity, believe Me. Do not
be misled into error and loss. The time will soon come when this
huge building or even vaster ones will be too small for the
gatherings of those who are called to this place. The sky itself
will have to be the roof of the Auditorium of the future. I will
have to forego the car and even the airplane when I move from place
to place, for the crowds pressing around them will be too huge; I
will have to move across the sky; yes that too will happen, believe
Me.
140
SEE all as Narayana Swarupa and worship all with Prema. You can
understand even My nature only when you wear the glasses of
Holiness. Holy things can be cognised only by the Holy Seeker. You
get what you search for; you see what your eyes crave for. The
doctor is found where patients gather; the surgeon stays in the
operation ward; so too, the Lord is ever with the suffering and
struggling. Whenever people cry out in agony "Oh God", there God
will be.
141
YOU very often condemn the mind as a monkey; but take it from Me, it
is far worse. The monkey leaps from one branch to another; but the
mind leaps from the heights of the Himalayas to the depths of the
sea, from today to tens of years ago. Tame it by the process of
Naamasmarana. Make it as Ramdas did into a Bhadrachalam, a stable
and steady mountain. That is the task I assign to you. Make your
heart an Ayodhya by means of Ramanama; Ayodya means a city that can
never lie captured by force. That is your real nature: Ayodhya;
Badrachala. Forget this and you are lost. Install Rama in your
heart; and then no outer force can harm you.
142
THINGS are not so important; the transcendental truth of things is
of value. You must visualise the spiritual in the material, the gold
in the jewels, the Divine in the diversity of character and conduct
and seek to know the Atma. All are equal in birth and in death.
Differences arise only during the interval. The Emperor and the
beggar are both born naked; they sleep equally silently; they bow
out without even leaving their new address. Then how can their
reality be different? There can be no doubt on this score. All are
basically the same.
143
LISTEN to Me. When you wake up, feel that you are entering the stage
to play the role assigned to you by the Lord; pray that you may act
it well and earn His approbation. At night, when you retire to
sleep, feel that you are entering the green-room after the scene,
but with the dress of your role on; for perhaps the role is not yet
over and you have not yet been permitted to take the dress off.
Perhaps, you have to make another entrance the next morning. Do not
worry about that. Place yourself fully at His Disposal; He knows; He
has written the play and He knows how it will end and how it will go
on; Yours is but to act and retire.
144
WHEN the mind of man is unattached to the ups and downs of life, but
is able to maintain equanimity under all circumstances,
then even physical health can be assured. The mental firmament must
be like the sky, which bears no mark of the passage through it of
birds or planes or clouds. Illness is caused more by malnutrition of
the mind than of the body. Doctors speak of Vitamin deficiency; I
will call it the deficiency of Vitamin G, and I will recommend the
repetition of the Name of God, with accompanying contemplation of
the glory and grace of God. That is the Vitamin G. That is the
medicine; regulated life and habits are two thirds of the treatment,
while the medicine is just one third only.
145
CARRY on your highest duty - following the four F's:
Follow the Master;
Face the Devil;
Fight to the End; and
Finish the Game.
Then you win My love in full measure. Love is My highest Miracle.
Love can make you gather the affection of all mankind. Love will not
tolerate any selfish aim or approach, Love is God. Live in Love.
Then all is right; all can be well. Expand your heart so that it can
encompass all. Do not narrow it down into an instrument of
restricted one.
146
THE tongue is the armour of heart; it guards one's life. Loud talk,
long talks, wild talk, and talk full of anger and hate; all these
affect the health of man. They breed anger and hate in others; they
wound; they excite; they enrage; they estrange. Why is silence said
to be golden? The silent man has no enemies, though he may not have
friends. He has the leisure and the chance to delve within himself
and examine his own faults and failings. He has no more inclination
to seek them (fault) in others. If your foot slips, you sustain a
fracture; if your tongue slips, you fracture some one's faith or
joy. That fracture can never be set right; that wound will fester
forever. Therefore, use the tongue with great care. The softer you
talk, the less you talk and the sweeter you talk, the better for you
and the World.
147
BIRTH is the consequence of "Kama" (desire, lust); Death is the
consequence of "Kala" (Time, the lapse of Time). The God of Desire
(Kama) was reduced to ashes by Shiva; the God of Time is Kala or
Yama. He was subdued by sin. So, one has to surrender to Siva (God)
if one has to escape the consequences of these two frightfully fatal
forces. If between "Kama" and "Kala" you take refuge in Rama, then
you can escape the rigour. For Rama is the Atma who has no "Kama"
and is unaffected by "Kala".
148
WHEN you seek to learn swimming, you will have to enter the water
and struggle with the strokes. When Bhasma (Vibuthi) is given, doubt
haunts some people whether Swami is wishing that the recipient
should be a Saivite! It is a symbol of the indestructible basic
substance, which every being is. All things become ash; but ash
remains ash, however much you may burn it. It is also a sign of
renunciation, of sacrifice and of "Jnana", which burns all "Karma" -
consequently into ineffective ash. It is a sign of Iswara and I
apply it on your brow to remind you that you too are Divine. It is a
valuable "Upadesh" about your identity. It also reminds you that the
body is liable any moment to be reduced into a handful of ash. Ash
is a lesson in detachment and renunciation.
149
THE river of human life meanders along, through many a valley, leaps
over many a cliff, loses itself in many a marsh and seeks to empty
itself in the ocean of Divine Grace; though, what happens is that it
falls into the undrinkable expanse of salt. The flood flows from the
heights to the depths; only the flames of fire do ever rise from the
depth to the heights. That is why we speak of "Jnanagni", the Fire
of Wisdom of Realisation. Man suffers because he has developed
hunger as vast as the sky, with a throat as narrow as a needle. His
throat must become as vast as the earth; his heart must blossom wide
through Shanti and Sahana; that is through equanimity and fortitude.
Then the desire of man for full lasting undiluted "Ananda" can be
attained.
150
LIFE on earth is as on the ocean, ever restless with the waves of
joy and grief, of loss and gain, the swirling currents of desires
and the whirlpools of passion, greed and hate. To cross the ocean,
the only reliable raft is a heart filled with the Love of God and
Man. Man is born for a high destiny, as the inheritor of a rich
heritage. He should not fritter away his days in low pursuits and
vulgar vanities. His destiny is to know the Truth, live in it and
for it. The Truth alone can make man free and happy. If he is not
prompted by this high purpose, life is a waste and a mere tossing on
the waves, for the sea of life is never calm.
151
OUR car is not meant to be kept as showpiece in a glass garage. It
is meant for the roads, for taking you fast and safe to the place
where you want to go. So too, your body must serve the purpose of
your journey. Journey to where? Not, as it has been happening, to
the cemetery. You have nobler things to do than merely die! You must
know your own Reality before you die and merge in that Supreme Joy.
Eat just enough to keep the body trim; use the body to discover this
Reality, namely, God. Sanctify every moment of your sojourn here
with pious deeds and sacred thoughts.
152
IT is to persuade you to engage in Naamasmarana that I am concluding
My discourses with singing a few Namavalis. An Officer of the Indian
Civil Service has to write on the slate, A, B, C and D and pronounce
those letters, in order to teach his children the alphabet. When you
find him doing so, you do not infer that he is himself learning the
alphabet, do you? Therefore, do not be surprised if I sing Bhajan
songs; I am but initiating you into this most efficacious Sadhana.
Strengthen yourself, purify yourself, and educate yourself by
this "Namasankeertan". Do it loudly and in company. Let those who
join you listen and imbibe the nectar of the Name.
153
WHEN you call out in all sincerity, the response will certainly
come. Give up all low desires and call from the anguished heart. Do
not pray from the lips, as you do now, from the Puja room, which is
but a corner of the kitchen. You worship the Lord with an eye on the
dishes or cooking on the oven, with a nose inhaling hungrily the
smells of the hot curries. "Vishavasana", attachment to sensory
objects, vitiates your thoughts of God. There is a vast gap between
what you say and what you do; and between what you are capable of
and what you accomplish.
154
FOOD received by foul means and clothing procured through ease and
comfort are the main things in life. Do not think that ease and
comfort are the main things in life. Disappointment, disease and
distress are the lot of all, rich and poor, educated and uneducated,
young and old. They are the common lot of all. Let not your pure,
immaculate hearts be rendered dirty by false-hood and wrong. Do not
soil your tongue using it for uttering dirty words. Utter the name
of God; it acts like a spark, which can burn into ash a big hill of
cotton! All evil thoughts, wicked plans and plots will disappear
like fog before the Sun when the Name of God is remembered sincerely.
155
ONCE man is free from undue attachment to the body and its
appurtenances, he is liberated also from the pulls of joy, grief,
good, bad, pleasure, pain, etc. He is firmly established in
equanimity, fortitude and undisturbed balance. There man discovers
that the World is one in God; that all is Joy, Love and Bliss. He
realizes that he himself is all this apparent World that all the
multifarious manifestations are the fantasies of the Divine will,
which is his own Reality. This expansion of one's individuality to
cover the ends of the Universe is the highest leap of man. It gives
supreme "Ananda", an experience for which sages and saints spent
years of prayer and asceticism.
156
MAN has been enslaved by money. He lives a superficial, hollow,
artificial life. This is indeed a great pity. Man should seek to
possess only as much money as is most essential for his living. The
quantity of riches one must earn can be compared to the shoes one
wears; if too small, they cause pain; if too big, they are a
hindrance to physical and mental comfort. When we have more, it
breeds pride, sloth and contempt for others. In pursuit of money,
man descends to the level of the beast. Money is of the nature of
manure. Piled up in one place, it pollutes the air. Spread it wide;
scatter it over fields; it rewards you with a bumper harvest. So
too, when money is spent in all the four quarters for promoting good
works, it yields contentment and happiness in plenty.
157
MOVE forward towards the light and the shadow falls behind you. Move
away from it and you have to follow your own shadow. Go every moment
one step nearer to the Lord and then, Maya, the shadow will fall
back and will not delude you at all. Be steady; be resolved. Do not
commit a fault or take a false step and then repeat it! Have
the "Thaapam" (the deliberation, the decision, the discipline)
first; that is better than "Paschaath Tapa" (regret for the mistake
made).
158
GIVE something divine if you want the Divine. Prema, Shanti, Dharma
and Sathya are Divine. Do not try to get it for a flower that fades,
a fruit that rots, a leaf that dries and water that evaporate. There
are some who write and speak as if they have known Me, all that is
to be known of Me. I can only say this: they can never know Me and
My nature, even if they are born and reborn a thousand times. To
know Me, one has to be like Me, rise to this height. Can ants
discover the depth of the Ocean?
159
IN this Kali age, the wicked have to be reformed and reconstructed
through love and Compassion. That is why this Avatar has come
unarmed. HE has come with the message of Love. The only weapon which
can transform the vile and the vicious is the Name of the Lord
uttered with Love. The Name is redolent with Divine Glory. So when
it is turned over in the mind, it transmutes it into an instrument
for liberation from delusion.
160
THREE disciplines are essential to become aware of Divinity in all
and in the Avatar; no activity should be taken up with individual
aggrandizement in view; intellect and emotion must be directed to
the revelation of the Resident of the Heart, Atma; and every act
should be done sincerely, with Love, with no yearning for acquiring
personal profit, fame or benefit. Above all, listen to the voice of
God within. As soon as one contemplates a wrong act, the voice
warns, protests and advises giving up. It pictures the shame that
has to be suffered, the punishment that has to be faced and the
disgrace that it entails.
161
IF God is implanted in the heart, you will see God everywhere, even
in the objective World. "Sarvam Brahmamayam" is a fact. Resolve this
day to engage only in virtuous deeds, good thoughts, and good
company. Let your mind dwell on elevating thoughts. Do not waste a
single moment of your time talking in idle gossip, vain boasting or
demeaning recreations.
162
THE journey into the inner consciousness, to calm the storms that
rage, is more important than the journey to the Moon or Mars. The
latter may be more spectacular, but the former is the more
beneficial. Life without goodness, good thoughts, good actions and
good words is like the sky in the night without the moon or stars.
It is like a wheel without a hub or spokes! No one can push a
boulder away while standing on it; you cannot be free from anxiety
while all the entrances through which it sneaks in are open. Stop
catering to the senses and feeding the desires that haunts you.
163
THE ceremony of Brahmopadesam is Upanayanam, because the word
means, "taking near", taking the young aspirant near Brahman, that
is to say, and introducing him to Brahmajnana, the path of Brahma.
It is one of the Samskara, that is rites, which reconstruct the
personality, reform the mind, purify it and rebuild it. It makes the
person receiving it a "Dwija", twice born! The boy is born first
into the World; now he is born into the Sadhaka World. He becomes a
Brahmachari, a person who walks towards Brahma.
164
SEE God in every being and then true "Sneha" will blossom. This type
of true "Sneha" can come only when you follow the advice of
Krishna. "Adveshta sarva bhoothanam maitrah karuna evacha Nirmano
nirahamkaarah Sama dukher Sukha Kshami": "He who has no trace of
hatred towards any creature, who is friendly and compassionate
towards all, who is free from the bondage of "I" and "mine", who
takes pain and pleasure as equally welcome and who is forbearing in
spite of provocation". Grow these qualities in you, for they are the
signs of true "Sneha". It is only when you are proceeding on the God
ward journey along the nine stages of Bhakti that you can attain
this Divine ideal of true friendship.
165
MOHAMMED, who sought to establish the primacy of the One Formless
Absolute, had a large share of persecution, defamation and
privation. Jesus, who attempted to rebuild mankind on the basis of
Love, was crucified by little men who feared that their tiny tower
of hate and greed would be toppled by his teaching. Harischandra,
who had resolved never to waver from Truth, was subjected to ordeal
after ordeal, each more terrifying than the previous one. Those who
seek to know God must steel themselves to bear insult, injury and
torture with a smile.
166
UGADHI: THE word "Ugadhi" means: the day of the Inauguration of
the "Yuga or Age". On this day dedicate your life anew to the
spiritual discipline, giving up all habits that interfere with the
constant remembrance of God. Nature puts on a neat garb of green,
but man alone continues with his old prejudices, out-worn habits and
moth-eaten principles, which tarnish and demean him. The spiritual
discipline prescribed by the Scriptures for the Krita (Yuga) Age is
Dhyana; for the Thretha Yuga it is Dharma; for the Dwapara Yuga it
is Archana or Ritual worship; and for the Kali Yuga it is
Naamasmarana and Seva. With the constant remembrance of God, worship
the Lord, leaving the result to the All-powerful, All knowing and
All Merciful. The New Panchangam reveals the position of the Sun,
Moon and Stars. Saint Thyagaraja sang that Rama's Grace could
counteract the evil effect of Stars. Expand yourself. Take in all.
Grow in Love. That is the new dress you have to wear and shine on
this day.
167
I AM showing you by My example. You must fill every moment with
useful beneficial activity. You talk among yourselves, "Oh Swami is
having his rest hour; Swami is sleeping", but I have never craved,
for a minute's rest or sleep or relief. Shall I tell you at what
time I feel restful, relieved and content? When I know that you are
all earning supreme Bliss through detachment and spiritual
discipline; not until then. I am ever engaged in some activity or
other for your benefit. Things that I could get done, I do not
entrust to others; I do them myself, so that they may learn self-
reliance and get experience thereby.
168
YAMA or the God of death is described as dragging his victims to his
abode by means of the rope or "Paasa". Well, He has no rope-factory
there, for supplying him with the rope he needs. You manufacture the
rope yourself and have it ready around your neck; he has only to
take hold of the rope and pull you along! It is a three-stranded
rope, the strands being "Ahamkara" (Egoism); "Vishayavasana" (sense-
attachment); and "Kama" (Desire).
169
LEARN a lesson from the tree. When it is heavy with fruits, it does
not raise its head aloft in pride, it bends low, stoops, as if it
does not take any credit for its accomplishment and as if it helps
you to pluck the fruit. Learn a lesson from the birds. They feed
those who cannot fly far. The bird relieves the itch of the buffalo
by scratching it with its beak; they help and serve each other with
no thought of reward. How much more alert must man be then with his
superior skills and faculties? Service is the best cure for egoism.
170
I WOULD advise you to dwell always on one Name of God, one
personification of one of His innumerable attributes of Glory. Then
there is the expansion of your Love, the removal of hate and envy
from your mental composition, seeing the God whom you adore in every
other person intently as you see Him in yourself. Then you become
the Embodiment of Love, Peace and Joy.
171
REMOVE the cataract and the vision becomes clear. So too, remove the
feeling of inferiority that dwarfs you now; feel that you are "Atma
Swarupa", "Nithya Swarupa", and "Anandaswarupa"; then every act of
yours becomes a "Yajna", a sacrifice and a Puja. The ear, the eye,
the tongue and the feet become tools for your uplift, not traps for
your destruction. Transform "Tamo guna" into "Thapo guna" and save
yourself.
172
REMOVE the weight from your head by transferring all burdens to the
Lord, leave everything to His will and His Law. Feed your mind with
sweet and wholesome food: "Satsang", "Satpravatana", and "Sarveswara
Chintha"; then you are full of joy. I am "Anandaswarupa"; come and
take "Ananda" from Me and, returning to your avocations, dwell on
that "Ananda" and be full of "Shanti".
173
HE greatest single cause for darkness in the World today is envy.
When one is happy and contented, others envy him and strive to ruin
his peace of mind. When any one is acclaimed as great, malice moves
others to invent calumny in order to tarnish his reputations. This
is the way of the World. There is in life the tragedy of ignorance
and selfishness. They force man to take the wrong road; and suffer
calamity.
174
A STRONG will is the best tonic. The will becomes strong when you
know that you are a child of Immortality or a person who has earned
the Grace of the Lord. Medicine and hospitalization are for those
who doubt and hesitate and argue about this doctor being more
efficient than the other and this drug being more powerful than the
rest. For those who rely on the Supreme Doctor, His Name is the drug
that cures.
175
YOU can call me on the phone, but I will not be available for all
those who do not have the sincere and steady yearning for the Lord.
For those who say, "No, You are not my Lord", I say "No". For those
who say, "Yes", I too echo, "Yes". If I am available in your heart,
I will be available over the phone. But remember, I have My own
special Postal and Telephone Systems. They operate from the heart
straight to the heart. There are rules and regulations for the
operations of the Systems, which the Sastras declare. You can find
them there. I am glad that devotees have today acquired this new
convenience at Prashanthi Nilayam.
176
TRUTH can reflect itself in your intelligence only when it is
cleaned by "Thapas". "Thapas" means all acts undertaken with higher
motives and all acts indicating yearning for the spirit; repenting
for past blunders; staunch determination to adhere to virtue; self-
control; and unyielding adherence to equanimity in the face of
success or failure. "Thapam" means heat, burning intensity and
earnestness of endeavor. It is "Thapas" that fosters Renunciation
and discipline.
177
THE Rama and Krishna Avatars performed the mission of restoring
Dharma and fostering virtuous living, besides punishing the wicked
and teaching the World that vice will not succeed. Man is an amalgam
of Humanity, Animality and Divinity. It is a tragedy if he cannot
get rid of the Animality; and it is a greater tragedy if he cannot
cultivate his Divinity. Contemplation of the Rama and Krishna
Avatars and their Leelas and Mahimas is the surest method of
cultivating the Divine in Man.
178
GOD has four qualities and it is only when you cultivate them that
you can understand Him. They are: Prema (Love), Beauty (Soundarya),
Sweetness (Madurya), and Shoba (Splendor). The development of Prema
is enough to add into you the other three. When you are full of
Prema for the Divine in all creation, that stage is Beauty; when you
are immersed in the sea of Universal Love, you reach the acme of
Sweetness; when your mind loses its identity and merges in the
Universal Mind, then there is Splendour indescribable.
179
MY task is not merely to cure and console and remove individual
misery. It is something far more important. The important task of
the mango tree is to produce mango-fruit. The leaves, the branches
and the trunk of the tree are useful in their own way, no doubt, but
the main aim is the fruit. So, also from the plantain-tree, the
fruit is the main gain. The leaves and the edible core of the stem
are all incidental. So too, the removal of misery and distress is
incidental to My Mission. My main task is the re-establishment of
Veda and Shastra in the heart of Bharthavarsha and the revival of
Knowledge about them in the people. This task will succeed.
180
NARADA once asked Krishna the secret of the attraction His flute
play had on the cowherds of Brindavan. "Do they run to You or do You
run to them?" he queried. "Among us there is neither I nor they; how
can a picture be separated from the cloth on which it is painted? I
am imprinted on their hearts so inseparably and so inextricably",
Krishna replied. Have God imprinted on your hearts; be ever so
inextricably established in Him - that is My message to you.
181
THIS Sai has came in order to achieve the Supreme task of uniting
the entire mankind as one family through the band of brotherhood, of
affirming and illumining the Atmic Reality of each being in order to
reveal the Divine, the basis on which the entire Cosmos rests, and
of instructing all to recognise the common Divine Heritage that
binds man to man, so that man can rid himself of the animal and rise
into the Divine which is his goal.
182
DO not get elated at the riches, status, authority, and
intelligence, which have been given to you on trust, so that you may
benefit others. They are all signs of His Grace, opportunities for
service and symbols of responsibility. Never seek to exult over
others' faults; deal sympathetically with the errors and mistakes of
others; hear only good things about them; and do not give an ear to
scandals.
183
NOW, there is a wave of anxiety spreading over the World as a result
of rising prices; and attempts are frantically being made to bring
down the level. The fundamental cause for the rise in prices is the
decline in the price of man. Man must realise his pricelessness; he
should not regard himself as a cheap nut or bolt that has no higher
purpose in life. He should know that he is the imperishable,
unconquerable Atma; and the body is only a vehicle for the Atma.
184
DOES thou know why you are given eyes? To see whatever can be seen?
No! No! To fill the eyes with the vision of God who resides on Mount
Kailas. We have to cast our looks at sacred sights. We must
visualise in everyone only the good and the Godly. That is the
purpose for which God has equipped us with eyes. He has not gifted
them to us to observe and judge others, to follow people into the
bazaar or to see unsightly films.
185
THE snakes move in curves, not in a straight line; man too, when he
is following the senses, has to move in a crooked path. He has
greater poison in him than the snake; his venom is to be found in
his eye, his tongue, his hands, his mind, his heart and his
thoughts - whereas the cobra has it only in its fangs. The cobra
raises its hood and sways in joy when it hears music - so, man too,
when he realises the stage of "Nirvikalpa", (steady unchanging
establishment in the ultimate Reality), dances in heavenly Bliss.
186
GOD is the source of all Love; Love God, Love the World as the
vesture of God, no more and no less. Through Love, you can merge in
the Ocean of Love. Love cures pettiness, hate and grief. Love
loosens bonds; it saves man from the torments of birth and death.
Love binds all hearts in a soft silken symphony. Seen through the
eyes of Love, all beings are beautiful; all deeds are dedicated; and
all thoughts are innocent. The World is one vast kin.
187
GOD is all-powerful; God is everywhere; God is all knowing. To adore
such a formidable limitless principle, man spends a few minutes out
of the 24 hours and uses a minute idol, image or picture! It is
indeed ridiculous; it is practically futile. Adore Him so long as
you have breath and so long as you are conscious. Have no other
thought than God, have no other aim than knowing His command; no
other activity than translating that command into action. That is
what is meant by Surrender. Surrender yourself unto Him.
188
GOD is the guardian, the corrector, the admonisher and the savior;
so, people must get into the habit of calling on Him as a living
presence. The temple helps to soften the hearts! It instills the
virtue of compassion and charity. Greed and cruelty will spread in
an atmosphere that has no devotion and adoration to God. Make
yourselves into moving temples. Become aware of the God that resides
in you. It is He who protects you, provides for you and prevents you
from falling prey to pernicious propensities.
189
THERE are three types of persons: those, who confess their own
faults and mention the excellence of others, are the highest type;
those, who highlight their own excellence and decry the faults of
others, are worse; those, who parade their own faults as excellence
and deride the excellence in others as faults, are the worst. The
last type is nowadays most rampant.
190
GOD has no will or want; He does not confer or withhold; He is the
eternal witness. To put it in the language that you can understand:
He is like the postman, who is not concerned with the contents of
the letters that he hands over to the addressees; one letter might
communicate victory; another defeat; and you receive what you have
worked for. Do good and have good done in return; be bad and accept
the bad that comes back to you. That is the law; and there is really
no help (or) hindrance.
191
THE relief and joy that you give to the sick and the sad reach me,
for I am in their hearts and I am the One they call out for. God has
no need of your service; does He suffer from pain in the legs, or
ache in the stomach? Try to serve the Godly; be "Dasanudasas", the
servants of the servants of the Lord. The service of man is the only
means by which you can serve God.
192
THYAGARAJA said that, if he is armed with the Grace of Rama, the
planetary missiles could never injure him. Purandaradasa, another
great saint, asked, "What are eyes for?" and answered the question
himself, "To visualise the Lord". "Eyes that do not yearn to see
you, are black balls; ears that do not hear your praise, are narrow
mountain caves where jackals live; and the tongue that does not
relish the repetition of your Name, can only croak like a frog",
says Purandaradasa.
193
ALL who come embodied are Avatars, that is to say, advents of the
Divine, Manifestations of God. What then is the special feature of
Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Christ? Why do you celebrate their
Birthdays with such reverential enthusiasm? The specialty is this:
they are Aware; you are unaware of the Atma, which is the Truth.
Awareness confers Grace, Glory, Majesty, Might and Splendour.
Awareness confers Liberation from bonds, time, space and causation,
and sleep, dream and wakefulness. Avatars are ever alert, aware and
alight.
194
THE name of God, if recited with love and faith, has that power.
Once the mother of Agastya boasted that her son drank all the waters
of the ocean; but the mother of Hanuman, who was there, said; "Why
go to that extent? My son leaped over it in a trice". But there was
the mother of Rama with them. She said, "Your son leaped over the
ocean, uttering my son's name. Without it, he was helpless". The
name has that overmastering power. It can bring unheard of and
unimagined strength and courage.
195
FOR Naamasmarana, no expense is involved; no materials are needed;
there is no special place or time to be provided. No qualification
of scholarship or caste or sex has to be proved. When a bit of iron
is rubbed to and fro on a slab of stone, heat is generated; only the
rubbing has to be vigorous and continuous. When you do so at
intervals and with poor pressure, the iron will not get hot. So too,
in order to get sufficient heat to melt the soft heart of the Lord,
rub the name "Ram", "Ram", "Ram", "Ram" vigorously and
unremittingly; then, the Lord will shower His Grace.
196
THIS is the best time to tell you something about the authenticity
of this Advent. I only wish to communicate the Truth. There are many
who can not bear or tolerate the Splendour that I am manifesting,
the Divinity that is expressed in every act, the wonders and amazing
happenings that are the result of Grace; these people label these as
acts of mesmerism or miracles or feats of magic! They hope to bring
these down in the estimation of people. Let me tell you this; mine
is no mesmerism, miracle or magic. Mine is genuine DIVINE POWER.
197
LIFE sustained by food is short; life sustained by the Atma is
eternal. Do not lay claim to long life; but to Divine life. Do not
pine for more years on earth, but for more virtues in the heart.
Buddha knew and made known to the World the Truth. Everything is
grief. Everything is empty. Everything is brief. Everything is
polluted. So the wise man has to do the duties cast upon him with
discrimination, diligence and detachment. Play the role but keep
your identity unaffected.
198
IN order to escape being tossed about on the waves of joy and grief,
one should cultivate unconcern (upeksha), an attitude of welcoming
either as a sign of Grace. Sri Ramakrishna said that if you must
avoid the sticky fluid in the jackfruit from contacting your fingers
when you peel it, you have to apply a few drops of oil on them. So,
too, said he, "If you do not want the World and its reactions to
stick to you, have a few drops of unconcern applied on your mind".
199
THE foundation for real peace is, according to the Vedas, the
quality of Maithree. Maithree means amicability, friendship,
compassion and, kindness. It can also be taken to mean "My three",
that is to say, my word, deed and thought shall be in accordance
with words, thought and deed; that is to say, we shall speak, think
and act together without friction or faction, in an atmosphere of
love and understanding. That is what is wanted in the world today:
My three.
200
ALL men are Mine; so the whole World has to be saved from the
consequences of ignorance or limited knowledge. I will get all My
people near Me, for they are Mine, and I am theirs. Then, I will
start teaching and training them, until they become entirely ego-
free. For the last 25 years, it has all been sweetness, kindness,
soft persuasion; hereafter, it will be different. I will drag them,
place them on the table and operate. That is to say, I have no anger
or hate. I have only Love. It is Love that prompts Me to save them
and to open their eyes, before they get deeper into the morass.
http://www.saibaba.ws/teachings/pearls/101-200.htm
The Magical "Sai"
by Sai-Saurabh
"Sal", the magical name that signifies and controls all the elements of this
cosmic universe, whether known or unknown to the common man, has to be
experienced. The beauty silhouetted in the name "Sal" has to be felt and
then believed. "Sai", the powerful weapon, the weapon of ultimate security,
faith, peace and success to the destination of self-realization.
The magic of chanting "Sai" (Nam Smarari)
Nam Smaran (I. e, repeatedly enchanting the Lord's name in one's heart) is
the most powerful action that takes one across the streams of life. This is
the best method to purify one's soul. This is the best technique for
strength and peace. "Sai" has said that if you adopt this behaviour then I
will do all your work myself and take you beyond the ocean of life and death
to attain moksha. What a wonderful name is "Sai"! Isn't It? Try chanting the
divine name and experience yourself.
The magic of writing "Sai" (Likhita Japa)
As one writes a thing on a sheet of paper, one realises that the extent to
which one is in volved is extremely increased because the heart, the mind,
the indiriyas -all are involved to a greater extent and hence the emotions
as far as the single pointedness of the mind is concerned is definitely
increased. Hence it is a very powerful weapon to attain peace. Don't be
lazy, try it!
The magic of speaking "Sai"
As one speaks "Sai" loudly, one realises that even though the mind is
wavering in its own wild thoughts, subconsciously, the person has the
satisfaction that consciously he is doing the ultimate thing. This gives a
divine feeling of satisfaction and Baba 's presence is felt undelayed if
called out lovingly.
The magic of singing "Sai"
"Bhajans" through music denote the ultimate "Bhakti". "Bhakti" after
surrendering one's self to the Guru (the link between God and human) is the
best and the most difficult method to be the closest to the Almighty.
"Music" does a magic on one's soul which increases us to a level of
spiritual enhancement and our sentiments may take a form of the flowing
river of tears which are the best gift for our "Sai", How lucky are we to
have chosen "Sal" who is our Samarth Sadguru - God Himself, isn't it?
The magic of looking at "Sai"
Why fear when I'm here
If you look to me I look to you.
These words are the ultimate which attract the beginner who wants to
discover "Sai". In this Kaliyug one is subjected to so many stresses which
arise from work, family money, our interests, (that are ultimately
destined), so just by looking at "Sai" the person is offering a prayer. How
simple indeed!
Not difficult at all. Look into those hypnotizing eyes of "Sai" and try
surrendering yourself at His feet to realise ultimately, that "Sai" (the
Guru) and you (the Bhakta) are not different and see how your life changes
as it changed mine.
OM SHRI SAI! SAI BLESS ALL!
HINTS TO ASPIRANTS
By Swami Ramdas
By surrender to the will of god alone you can realize him and become a
radiant instrument in his hands. Constant repetition of the 'Divine name is
the path that leads you to 'His supreme goal. 'Know that God is dwelling
Within you. By continued Sadhana you will be able to control your mind.
March onward boldly. 'May your heart be hummed with 'His light, love and
bliss.
'Japa prepares you for the highest yoga. 'The. Goal which 'Rarndas places
Before you is the same as the one which Sri Aurobindo does. There is
absolutely no room for conflict. So look upon him and the Mother as your
spiritual guides. True all saints and sages are the manifestations of the
One Supreme '-Reality.
'When you have accepted god as your protector, why do you give yourself to
anxiety? 'Rely completely on 'Him and bear all things patiently with His
name on you lips. His will workss always for the Best. Sufferings are in all
cases mind-made, fill the mind with His remembrance and you will be happy
wherever you are, whatever your situation. The Burden is not upon you. It is
upon Him.
Life Becomes sweet and free when it is in tune with God. To leave everything
to him and to depend upon Him all times is the secret of true peace, Your
present life itself is a fit vehicle for attaining this inner peace and
happiness.
This article appeared in the Souviner published on INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION
OF SHIRDI SAI DEVOTEES & UNVEILING OF SAIBABA'S STATUE, this souviner can be
read at www.saileelas.org)
Courtesy: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sabkamalikek/
Gospel of Sri Sai Baba
R. Radhakrishan
"There will never be any dearth or scarcity of food and clothes in my
devotees' home. It is my special characteristic that I look always to and
provide for the welfare of those devotees whose minds are ever fixed on me.
Lord Krishna has also said the same in the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter IX Verse
22). Therefore, strive not much for food and clothes. If you want anything
to beg of the Lord, leave worldly honour, try to get the Lord's grace and
blessings and be honoured in his court. Do not be deluded by wordly honour.
The form of the deity should be firmly fixed in the mind. Let all the senses
and mind be ever devoted to the worship of the lord. Let there be no
attraction for any other thing; fix the mind in remembering him always so
that it will not wander elsewhere towards body, wealth and home. Then it
will be calm, peaceful and carefree.This is the sign of the mind being well
engaged in good company. If the mind be vagrant, it cannot be called well
merged. (Sai Satcharita, Chapter - VI}.
Now, I will relate the life story of two ardent devotees of Baba namely,
Dasganu Maharaj and Balaram Mankar, who implicitly obeyed Baba's orders and
got all the benefits (both material and spiritual) from him which bear the
testimony to Baba's words stated above.
Shri Ganapatrao Sahasra Buddhe alias Dasganu Maharaj was a police constable
and an orderly of Baba's ardent and a great devotee, Shri Nana Saheb
Chandorkar Deputy Collector.
Once Dasganu visited Shirdi along with Nana and had darshan of Baba. Baba
(looking to his future bright spiritual prospects), told him to resign from
the constable's post, come to Shirdi and stay with him. But, Dasganu replied
that he would do it after becoming fouzdar (Sub-Inspector). Although Baba
repeatedly told him to resign, he did not. But, finally Baba created a grave
situation for him - he was to be killed by a notorious dacoit by name Khana
Bhill in Ram Mandir, when he took the oath as follows: "Baba, I will resign
this time if I am now saved." Wonder of wonders! The dacoit warned him not
to try to catch him nor hand him over to the police and let him go scot
free.
This happened in the year 1903 and Dasganu finally left the job, went to
Baba, prostrated before him and said with tears in his eyes "Baba, I am
without any property and I have no income. Unless there is some provision,
myself and my wife have to starve" (No children were born to him). Then Baba
said, "Do not fear. I will provide for you, Ganu." Baba did provide. He told
him, "Go to Nanded in Nizam's state. Attend to your Brahaminical duties
(Swadharma) of reading' Puran', explaining them and conducting keertan,
etc." Dasganu did so. He had an excellent voice and had a good mastery of
the art of keertans (singings). He used to keep Baba's photo by his side
while doing keertan and used to draw thousands of devotees (through his
melodious voice). His name was a "household word" throughout Maharashtra. It
was said in those days that Dasganu Maharaj by his inimitable keertans and
Nana Saheb Chandorkar by his talks and discourses on Baba to his friends,
spread Baba's name and fame (glory) throughout Maharashtra. Ganu was a great
devotee of lord Panduranga and he used to make "Vari" trip to Pandharpur
every year. He died at the ripe age of about 90 at Pandharpur itself as per
his wish. Thus Baba made him to cast his mortal coil and fulfilled his wish
to attain "Sadgati" at the abode of Lord Panduranga. In fact, Baba and
Panduranga are one and the same. It may not be out of place if I say that
his Samadhi is at 'Umri' near Nanded and hundreds of his disciples even now
flock there (Umri) every year to participate in the Samadhi Utsav
(function).
It is also to be mentioned here that Dasganu, after becoming Baba's devotee,
never had to suffer for want of food and clothes. Always someway or other
money was pouring in and later he began to own land in Nanded, which he gave
to his adopted son. Baba's undertakings for his Bhaktas are never left
unperformed.
Let us see what was Dasganu (Police constable Dattatreya Ganpatrao Sahasra
Budhe) before becoming Baba's ardent Devotee; He was leading a sinful life
and he used to take pleasure in composing "Lavanis" (Marathi poems in
typical language) and the same was sung by groups of nautch girls (dancing
girls) during the performance of "Tamashas" (very popular stage dramas) in
villages throughout Maharashtra arousing passion in the minds of audience
(viewers). How great our Lord Sai is! He transformed a sinner into a great
saint - par excellence.
Then again take the case of Balaram Mankar, who attached himself to Baba
with intense love, solely for spiritual purposes. His relatives complained
to Baba that he was the only earning member in his family and by his staying
on with Baba at Shirdi there was utter damage done to the family welfare.
They said that Mankar had a number of sons who would be left destitute by
his neglecting business. Baba then said, "I will provide for Mankar's sons."
Mankar was sent away to Machindragad for spiritual meditation and especially
for learning the fact that Baba was as much with him at Machindragad as he
was at Shirdi.
Baba one day appeared to him at Machindragad and told him that the object of
his being sent there was to demonstrate to him that Baba who was at Shirdi
was, at the same time at Machindragad also and could talk to him and guide
him, Mankar had very great spiritual advancement and it was one time hoped
that he would be the successor to Baba's "throne". So high was his spiritual
position. But, unfortunately he died in the year 1913, long before Baba
attained Mahasamadhih 1918. As for provision for his family, all the four
sons of Mankar are now well placed and are in high positions drawing incomes
mostly in seven to eight figures (in 1913). Baba's statement that he would
provide for Mankar's sons (Yoga, Kshemam, Vahamiaham) has proved to be
absolutely true.
In conclusion, it is to be stated that Baba had also provided hundred of his
devotees (when he was living) to mention a few, Shri Abdul Baba, Madhavarao
Deshpande (alias schoolmaster Shama), Anna Saheb Debholkar (all's Hemadpant;
Mahalsapati, Appa Shindi, Kashiram Meghapa, etc. Even now he is providing
every sincere and ardent devotee who has completely surrendered to him with
"Tan, Man, Dhan" (Body, mind and wealth) and worship him with wholehearted
devotion.
Therefore, let us always remember Baba's leelas/stories, meditate on them
and chant his "Taraka Mantra"- Om Sai Sri Sai Jaya Jaya Sai, so that we may
easily cross over the sea of Samsara (Mundane Existence) and finally merge
in the eternity of Baba (Self -Realisation).
(Adopted from Souviner published on INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION OF SHIRDI SAI
DEVOTEES AND UNIVEILING OF SAI BABAS STATUE AT FARIDABAD (OCT 1997) -
The book can be read at www.saileelas.org)
A feature film about Sathya Sai Baba
Pritam Rai Kapur and Rowdy Productions inform about a feature film about Sathya Sai Baba "My Man."
The film is inspired by true story about a beautiful and successful singer Lauren who searces the love. She finds she has everything but Love and her life does not have a meaning. Her way to escape from reality is through drugs and alcohol. She becomes so heavily dependent on her ?relief? that she becomes suicidal, she has no one she can trust and finally cries out to God for help.
Lauren, out of the blue, meets Prem, which changes her life. He lives in India. He guides her mental and physical health, putting her feet back on the ground, saving, transforming and enlightening her with his philosophies.
Eventually Lauren realises that she is in love with Prem. This realisation that she has finally found some one she can trust is heightened when Prem disappears. However, she has now found a reason for life and sets off on a journey to find Prem. But Prem is a mysterious, elusive character.
Lauren is finally guided to a small village in South India, where she reflects back on all that Prem had said to her. At the Ashram of the divine spiritual leader, Sai Baba, Prem finally reveals his true identity to her. Lauren returns home, a complete woman, able to confront and cope with the vagaries of human life within her business and family.
Story by: Pritam Rai Kapur
Screenplay by: Gareth Slade
Producer: Peter Jaques
Executive Producer: Pritam Rai Kapur
The Music Composer: Geoff Levin
The leading role plays Norah Jones - award winning singer / writer/ composer/ daughter of Ravi Shanker the legendary Indian Sitar Maestro.
Rowdy Productions was incorporated 23rd of July 2002 for the sole purpose of producing a feature film for the worldwide audience on the divinity of Sai Baba. The Directors believe that tens of millions of people from 160 countries have experienced the Divinity of Sai Baba, we should share this phenomenon with all in the world.
The Directors view is that films similar to My Man owe their success to the reality of an Avatar like Jesus, Buddha and Sai Baba.
From homepage 'Sai Baba Film' Pritam Rai Kapur and Rowdy Productions:
http://www.saibabafilm.com
The Ray Supreme and the Voice of Our Calling
As Jonathan Roof has rightly observed, the present age and this moment of human history is of the greatest and momentous significance. In his own words,
For aspirants whose intuitive vision is open, this is a time of great opportunity. The pooma Avatar of the Kaliyttga is now incarnate as Sri Sathya Sai Baba. He has come possessed of the sixteen attributes and physical signs foretold in past ages. He manifests the energy and powers of a superhuman being, yet some observers are still unsure of his stature. On occasions, he pretends not to know the visitor or where the visitor comes from, but that is his play. The devotee must overcome this the illusion, which blinds him to the magnificent reality.
Sai Baba has also cautioned the people not to be swayed by maya or delusion but to catch the fleeting glimpses of the divine whenever they have a chance to do so. Baba says:
Since I move about with you, eat like you, and talk with you, you are deluded into the belief that this is but an instance of common humanity. Be warned against this mistake. I am also deluding you by my singing with you, talking with you, and by engaging myself in activities with you. But any moment, my divinity may be revealed to you. You have to be ready, prepared for that moment. Since divinity is enveloped with humaneness, you must overcome the maya (delusion) that hides it from your eyes.
Unlike the past ages, the present age is an age of rank scepticism and of the lost dimensions of belief. So, the incarnation of the age has come to educate and lift all humanity by his mission of love, peace, righteousness and non‑violence. Not only this, he has set up his own example in the manner of Rama and Krishna, Jesus Christ and the Buddha. Sri Sathya Sai Baba is truly the guide and example for the Kaliyuga. There are certain ways in which the advent of an incarnation can benefit humanity, the only condition is that one should be prepared to follow the guidelines set by him and walk the straight path, that is the great highway to God. Baba says:
The way in which the Avatar has to be used for one's liberation and uplift is: watch his every step, observe his actions and activities, follow the guiding principles of which his life is an elaboration. Mark his love, his compassion, his wisdom and try to bring them into your own life.
One of the tasks of the present Avatar is the deliverance of all those who have earned the right of liberation or mukthi from the ceaseless whirlpool and cycle of birth and death. Baba gives the analogy of an aeroplane:
The airplane has to land at certain places in order to take those who have won the right to fly by the tickets they have purchased. So, too, the Lord has come down that those who have won the right to be liberated may be saved; incidentally, others too will know of the Lord, of his grace, of ways of winning it, of the joy of liberation.
Verily the Avatar is a ray from the Supreme, come to light the lamp of love and to illumine the hearts and souls of men and women; all one needs is to listen to him with reverence and learn the lessons taught by him, and obey him with love, hope and faith. It is as simple as that.
Since the light from above has descended on earth, it is our The Ray Supreme and the Voice of Our Calling duty to bathe in the effulgence of its radiance, warmth and grace. If we miss this chance, there is no knowing when we shall get another chance.
Our great Lord Sathya Sai Baba is the very quintessence of the Divine principle. He is a loving and forgiving God, ever ready to stand by his devotees and true spiritual aspirants. There have been numerous instances of his deep compassion, profound pity and mercy. While engaged in running the cosmos and the entire universe, he takes time out to attend to the needs of his devotees whom he holds near and dear to himself as his very breath. He has expressed this in answer to a query from John Hislop:
H.: Swami. We have just now actually witnessed a part of this amazing story. How can that all be? Swami holds the entire universe in his hand. He bears the responsibility of this inconceivably immense universe. And how can he, at the same time, give the detailed attention to the lives of individual devotees?
Sai: It is as you say. Swami holds the universe in his hands. But devotees learn of the glory and majesty through Swami's attention to each one personally. That Swami holds the universe yet at the same time, fully cares for the lives of his devotees even to the smallest details is a measure of his glory that the devotees can understand.
The same point has been stressed again in a different context, which illustrates the universal omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence of Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba:
H.: Baba has the inconceivably immense task of the universe. How can he afford to spend time talking to people like us?
Sai: Baba, with his limitless bodies, is everywhere doing his tasks, a thousand heads, hands, feet - Sahasra sheershaa purushah samraksha, sahasrapaad‑it is just this body that sits here talking to you. That is Baba's omnipresence. The Avatar is beyond the five elements. He is the Creator ... God is not subject to any limitation. He is the creator of the elements, their modifier, their preserver, their destroyer ... Baba means Being Awareness-Bliss-one Reality.
W.H. Mackintosh, a renowned British writer and intellectual who had the occasion to review Dr. Samuel Sandweiss' famous book The Holy Man and the Psychiatrist, has indeed taken a very empirical, rational and enlightened view of Sai Baba and his Reality and does not dispute the idea that Sai Baba may be, in reality, an Avatar. His comments are so illuminating that this author is tempted to quote it in full :
The embodiment of deity in human form is a rare event; it happens only when the human condition has deteriorated to such an extent that nothing else can bring about a redemption. It cannot be denied that the present situation seems to demand an Avatar's appearance. Dr. Sandweiss, an American psychiatrist, is very much a man of the time. He is trained to regard the scientific method as the most consistently reliable way of reaching the truth, and is imbued with the tenets of modern psychology, which lays so much stress on the need to avoid repression. He seems to be an unlikely advocate of the spiritual discipline, which rejects the most cherished beliefs of contemporary materialism. Yet again and again, he had made pilgrimages to Bangalore to sit at the feet of Sai Baba and partake of this holy man's infinite wisdom. He found in Sai Baba a being whose nature and power were utterly incomprehensible to him. This was no ordinary Guru, a publicity seeking Swami, but a Master about whom stories were told strangely reminiscent of Jesus, Buddha and Krishna.
Is Sai Baba an Avatar, an incarnation of God? This is an important question that demands a considered answer. If he is an incarnation of God, he is the greatest being in the world and indeed the greatest being who could exist.
Like others born and bred in a humanistic environment, I find the idea scarcely credible. I am bewildered and perplexed by the implications. I have lived long enough to learn a few lessons, not many perhaps, but sufficient in number and magnitude to convince me of the limitations of my understanding. I know too little either to affirm or deny the possibility of a miracle and the incarnation of God would certainly be a miracle. We have no right to assert that the infinite intelligence cannot assume a finite embodiment of itself. For, if the attributes of divinity are omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience, God's assumption of human shape is a very simple exercise of his power.
However much my skeptical but limited intellect may want to reject the notion of an Avatar, the deeper insight into reality afforded by imagination and intuition does not allow me to deny that Sai Baba may indeed be an incarnation of God. Many witnesses testify to the extraordinary effect, which Sai Baba's presence has on them. It is not the subtle influence of a God-intoxicated man but a much more powerful direct emanation and outflow of indescribable bliss which transforms the consciousness of those present.
As I have never been in Sai Baba's presence I cannot assess the effect to which I have referred. But, as this book includes numerous quotations and extracts from his teachings, I can comment on their content and quality. The style in which they are written is clear and concise. As I read them I was conscious of an immediate impact, which seemed to penetrate the very depth of my mind. The emphasis is always on God and his inexhaustible love.
Of course, the review appears to be forthright and candid and may be said to represent view of the cross-section of a vast number of people who have not had the chance to experience Sai Baba, but the unending trek from far-flung corners of the globe continues and the recognition of the divinity of Sai Baba may become universal in course of time. As a general rule, the recognition of an Avatar during his lifetime is fraught with exceptional difficulty.
How many recognized Rama and Krishna as Avatars in their own times and how many considered Jesus Christ to be the son of God? Baba has himself thrown sufficient light on this problem, and we have to take his words in absolute faith. Baba says:
On previous occasions when God incarnated on earth, the bliss of recognizing him in the incarnation was vouchsafed only after the physical embodiment had left the world, in spite of plenty of patent evidences of his Grace. And the loyalty and devotion they commanded from men arose through fear and awe at their superhuman power and skills, or their imperial and penal authority.
And further, he has clarified that he had taken upon himself the responsibility of disclosing his divinity. Not only in his famous address delivered at the Sathya Sai World Conference in Bombay in 1968 but also on many other occasions he has been pleased to reiterate that point for the benefit of his devotees. He says:
It is very difficult to demarcate clearly the manifestation of the Lord, so I am announcing myself, and am myself describing my mission, the task, the characteristics, the qualities that mark out the Avatar from the rest.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba's answers to some of the intimate queries of John Hislop clarify many doubts in this regard.
H.: It seems strange that only a few people recognize the Avatar.
Sai: No, not strange! How would you know the Avatar?
H.: By faith.
Sai: Faith is one thing. Knowing is another ... You know Swami as an Avatar?
H.: Yes.
Sai: No doubts?
H.: No doubts, whatsoever.
Sai: Your own experience is that Swami is omnipresent.
H.: Yes, that is my direct experience.
Sai: Yet when you leave Swami at Brindavan and arrive at your hotel you think of Swami as being at Brindavan. You see it is not easy to know the omnipresent Avatar. Of course, there are always some who know. In the Krishna Avatar there were some who knew. Likewise, there were some who knew the Rama Avatar. Not every blossom opens to the sun when it rises. Only some are ready. There is the factor of ripeness. Not every fruit on a tree is ripe at the same time.
That Sri Sathya Sai Baba is a Ray from the Supreme should no longer be called in question. The scientists with keenest intellect think that he is a phenomenon; the rationalists are simply confounded; the atheists and non‑believers are dismayed and confused and begin to doubt their previous stance. But those who possess simple faith and natural intuition do not find it difficult to believe that there are many things on heaven and earth that philosophy cannot dream of. And God is such a thing. In this regard the attitude of Mr. Mackintosh seems to be most plausible and correct. One must wait until such time as the Divine showers his grace and the petals naturally open up to the sun. It seems quite fair to suggest that one should wait for the dawning of the light when, all on a sudden, the beloved face of God is revealed to one in a blaze of light. Most of the devotees of Sai Baba have had the glimpse of Baba's divinity and his calls have been unique and extraordinary. It is he who manifests his visiting cards in the shrines of potential devotees, all those who are destined to see him in this lifetime, and calls them unto himself by strange logic of circumstances. This author has absolutely no doubt about it as he has undergone the same pattern of initiation. This is quite legitimate also as, like Christ, he first loved us and, then, kindled the flame of that love within us.
The experience of Allen S. Levy, recorded in Transformation of the Heart, ed. by Judy Warner, deserves to be mentioned here because it is typical of how incessant and compulsive the call of Baba can be.
I walked up the three flights of stairs of the dilapidated building, a dark contrast to the upper middle class home in which my brother and I had grown up. I knocked on the door at the head of the stairs, and a tall young man answered. In spite of my grave doubts, he confirmed that this was indeed my brother's place.
I could smell a flowery essence wafting towards me from the interior; I could hear the strangest music, music so joyous that it filled me with a feeling of sheer delight. I danced into the apartment, moving in little circles, Jewish style, hand held high above my head. Reaching my brother's bedroom, I greeted him, 'Hi, Lou.' He was sitting on the floor on a mat, which, I was startled to learn, he called his bed, and burst into laughter at seeing me so happy (a strange occurrence), doing an even stranger dance in the middle of the room.
'What are you doing?' He asked.
I enthusiastically replied, 'I'm so happy. I can't help but dance. This music is wonderful. Who is it?
Lou responded, 'Oh, that's Sai Baba singing bhajans.'
'Who's he? I asked.
Sai Baba: A Ray from the Supreme.
His reply threw me off a loop. 'He's God. He lives in India.'
'God. What God? The one in your fantasies? Come on!'
Lou's response hit me right where my stubborn intellect was most vulnerable. 'See for yourself. Read about him.'
Lou gave me a book, Baba by Arnold Schulman. Within a few days I reluctantly opened it, and read. After ten pages I put the book down, my mind numb. In fact, my mind seemed to have stopped‑an impossible occurrence especially for me. After a few all too brief moments it began again but all I could think was 'Oh! God. This is God.' In a state of sheer excitement, I picked up the phone, dialed my brother. 'Lou, you're right! This is God. Sathya Sai Baba is God. What do I do now?'
He calmly replied, 'Relax. Sit down and meditate. When I see you next we'll talk more about it. Keep reading.'
This was the beginning, and I may add, only the beginning of magnificent, munificent grace which Baba would shower upon me.
We also have on record the experience of Walter Cowan who used to make astral travels and return to the body; but one day he was lost in the astral plane and found difficulty in returning to the body. But he was rescued by a benevolent figure. Later, when he saw the photograph of Baba on the title cover of Howard Murphet's book Sai Baba: Man of Miracles, he at once recognized his helper and benefactor. And from that day onwards, the Cowan couple became the most ardent devotees of Sai Baba. Even in the case of the present author, when life had become a saga of perpetual crisis and torments, the visit of a research student and her offer of a coloured portrait of Sai Baba set off a series of incredible events cementing the author's staunch faith in Baba's divinity. Such instances can be multiplied. But it is all the handiwork of the Divine father and mother to collect his children and open up the sunlit and rose-lit avenues of paradise.
So, we come to the inevitable conclusion that the present is the most exciting period of human history to live in as the sacred and hallowed time of Tretayuga and Dwaparyuga when Rama and Krishna incarnated on earth. And in Kaliyuga, the self‑same divinity has made its appearance in all its fullness as Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
The question asked by Allen S. Levy seems to be quite relevant:
'Yes, He's God. Sathya Sai Baba is God. So, what do I do now?'
She found the answer in the teachings of Sai Baba as detailed below. She describes in her own words:
In the following year while reading his books called Sathya Sai Speaks, Volumes 1, 11, 111, etc. in the midst of a treasury of teachings, I came across what I thought as a most practical one for an overworked college student. 'The fruit of action belongs to the actor; therefore, renounce the fruit. Act, but renounce the fruit of the action; dedicate every action to God and renounce all desire for the fruit; call upon God to be the doer of action, and totally and fully, without recourse, renounce every vestige of attachment to the fruit of action.'
And, strangely enough, this formula worked for her miraculously. She had to write a final paper on American Civil Rights Movement and Black Political Thought and was stuck up. So, she resolved to retreat to her brother's apartment, and she narrates:
Thanksgiving eve I sat down, paper on desk, pen in hand, and lit a candle before a picture of Sai Baba. I prayed: 'Oh God, It's Al Levy calling. Can you please write this paper on black political thought for me? You are the doer of all deeds, the speaker of all words, the thinker of all thoughts. Please, then, write this paper and bear the fruits. I surrender this all to you. Thanks.'
For the next sixteen hours or so, he wrote. Every time I seemed to reach an impasse, I called Baba for help, praying as I had done before.
Not only this, Allen S. Levy was able to write her doctoral thesis by calling upon Baba to write the thesis for her as he was the doer of all deeds, speaker of all words and thinker of all thoughts and surrendering everything to him and asking him to bear the fruit of action. It follows from this that Allen S. Levy has been the exemplar of the highest type of Sadhana, taught by Lord Krishna and Sri Sathya Sai Baba about the need for disinterested action and complete surrender to the Lord without any attachment for the fruit of the action. But, apart from Karma yoga there are other ways of knowing and the method has to be adopted by a devotee strictly in accordance with his state of spiritual development and the ground of his beseeching. Apparently, his atmanivedan to the Lord would depend exclusively on these variable factors.
What we call the voice of our calling is, broadly speaking, the surge of feeling rising in the inner core of our hearts to adore the divine and merge with the great God. And whichever path we take, the central urge or the dominant passion to immerse in the Supreme Godhead remains basically the same. As T.S. Eliot says in the final movement of Four Quartets,
If you came this way,
Taking any route, starting from anywhere,
At any time or any season
It would always be the same.
And, the quest for the eternal reality is never-ending:
We shall never cease from exploration
And the end of our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time.
This, indeed, is the burden of the quest. Only through the pilgrimage of love can one envision the radiant face of the beloved who is the Supreme Being, without beginning and end. The journey to the still centre becomes a distinct possibility. His anchor and hope is love. Now the light falls on a secluded chapel in Little Gidding as on the minarets of the temple at Prasanthi Nilayam and the seeker knows the place for the first time:
Through the unknown remembered gate
When the last of the earth left to discover
In that which was the beginning;
and the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall.
And the children in the apple tree
Not known, because not looked for
But, heard, half-heard in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
But the trouble is that for most of us the vision of the Divine is not vouchsafed or even if it is the moment is lost in the shaft of sunlight. However, the matter is entirely different for saints:
But to apprehend the intersection of Time
With the timeless is the occupation of the saint,
not occupation either but something
Given and taken in a lifetime's death in love,
ardour and selflessness and self-surrender.
Thus, we see there is Raj Rani Mira who loved Krishna from the very core of her heart right from her angel infancy and even after she was married to the King, she did not swerve away from her constant devotion to her eternal beloved, Krishna.
Sai Baba of Shirdi has also said that the true disciple of the Lord thinks of nothing else except the Lord always and at all times. For him life without the presence of the Lord has no meaning whatsoever. This is what true devotion is all about. Even Sathya Sai Baba tells his devotees to yearn for him. This yearning is the motivating force behind infinite love.
Since the basic assumption in this work is that Bhagwan Sathya Sai Baba is a Ray from the Supreme and is a full Avatar of Kaliyuga, it becomes the duty of each individual to crave for him, and express deep reverence, ardour and yearning for him. What follows in the rest of the chapter is a blueprint for showing the profundity of our devotion and ways to give a full-throated expression of the resonance and power of the voice of our calling.
Let us start with a prayer, which has been penned by none other than Sathya Sai Baba himself. This is a poem, instinct with the feelings of deathless love and complete devotion to the Lord. This is a prayer, phrased in profoundly moving imagery and metaphors which find an echo in our hearts:
Prayer
Oh Lord. Take my love and let it flow
In fullness of devotion to Thee.
Oh Lord. Take my hands and let them work
Incessantly for Thee.
Oh Lord. Take my soul and let it be
Merged in one with Thee.
Oh Lord. Take my mind and thoughts and
Let them be in tune with Thee.
Oh Lord. Take my everything and let
Me be an instrument to work for Thee.
With love and grace,
Baba
This prayer was written by Baba for use by the hostel students at the Sathya Sai colleges. This may be said to express the innermost feelings and sentiments of the tender and pure? hearted boys and girls who love Baba from the very core of their hearts. But, even the grown-ups, who live at faraway places and have faith in Baba, can conveniently use this prayer and find the exercise fairly wholesome and rewarding. Assuming that the Avatar is with us and we have the freedom to have his darshan, to speak to him and even touch his lotus feet, we can voice our sincerest prayers and supplications to him and work out our salvation with diligence. In this sense, we are very fortunate because the physical form of the Avatar can be seen by us, and the voice of our calling can be heard by him. If we pray to God, it poses some problems and difficulties. It requires a sense of no dualism and complete identification with everything, the beauty and splendour of the universe. God is without form, but we know him through his creation. We know of his love and wisdom by seeing his beauty around us. As our divine vision grows, we begin to see God in everything. He is the essence of the self and everything that exists. God is ultimately formless, but we perceive him through form. Only through shape, colour and size can God be known. As Baba says:
The Sadhana (spiritual discipline) can be to realize God as formless (nirguna) or with form (saguna). When one walks, the right foot and the left are both necessary. You cannot hop long on one foot. The saguna sadhana and nirguna sadhana are as the two feet.
However, if we are face to face with the entity in whom all the attributes of the divine are concentrated, our devotion becomes much more tangible, concrete and convincing than in our supplication to the Nirguna Brahman.
The first requisite for our loving approach to the Divine essence is faith, which goes on deepening with the progress in one's spiritual sadhana. When the edifice of faith is laid down firmly on unshakable foundation, one proceeds further by cementing it through remembrance of the name, keeping company of the good and the holy, devotion, meditation, self-surrender, song and service which is the gift of love. Indeed it is love that is the quintessence of all. As Baba has pointed out:
Love in action is right action; as speech is truth; as thought is peace; as understanding is non-violence.
And we know that Sathya, Dharma, Prema, Shanthi and Ahimsa are the five priceless gems that Baba would like humanity to possess as the true facets of character. And Baba also assures each and everyone of us of his grace. He says:
You may wonder, 'Why would God pay any attention to me? What could I possibly offer to Him that He would accept when the entire cosmos is already His? If even angels and Gods cannot see Him, what chance is there for me? But such demeaning and belittling thoughts will get you nowhere. As long as you think this way, you will be unable to earn the grace of God and be fit to serve Him. Give no place to such displays of weakness. You must install God in your heart and say to Him 'Beloved Lord. I know you occupy the entire universe, but you are also here in my heart. With all my power I will keep you here, firmly established within me. You are, it is true, the greatest of the great but you are also the smallest of the small. In that minute aspect you reside always in my heart.' If you have this firm faith in yourself and a steadfast resolve to fix God unalterably in your heart, you will surely attain Him.
It follows from this that faith is the most invincible factor that takes one to the summit of belief and engenders the momentum of the whole spiritual journey. Verily, faith springs from self-understanding and awareness of one's inner divinity. This internal source or the Atma is the motivator and is a spring of courage and self-confidence. As Sathya Sai Baba has rightly pointed out,
... You believe in yourself because yourself is God and have an unshakable faith in God, deep down in you. Faith in yourself and faith in God are identical. You tap the strength of the God within when you stand attention against an enemy without.
Knowledge comes from experience, but first we must act on faith. Baba says that faith is a tender plant that must be guarded so that it grows into a big tree. Faith can work wonders and can even impel the Lord to manifest himself. Baba has very nicely stated that faith in God is vital for the security and well being of the individual:
Faith in God is the secure foundation on which hope has to be built. The faith has to be stable and strong. The feeling that God will come to our rescue has to be vivid and vital, motivating and activating all that we do or speak or think.
What we call the voice of our calling is, for all practical purposes, the discipline of prayer. It is prayer that works miracles and is the royal road leading to victory. The sceptic and the atheist may question the validity of prayer and dismiss it as a figment of imagination. Here two things are of vital consideration. Does prayer actually work? Is the voice of our calling to God Almighty phrased properly and does it ring with the true voice of feeling? And the basic thing is, as we have seen, whether one has strong faith in God and his absolute power. If the answer of all these is in the affirmative, there is no doubt that the prayer will work, if not to the extent one imagines, at least it brings one closer to God. In the words of Sai Baba,
Prayer is the very breath of religion, for it brings man and God together, and with every sigh, nearer and nearer.
There are certain rules that must be observed while starting the prayer to God, who is the ocean of infinite mercy and compassion. He is as near to us as we are to him; and the conscious praying mind establishes itself on the same wavelength and opens up direct communion with God.
At the very outset, we must practise the habit of regular prayer at a regular time and place, for prayer gives us an additional advantage, for it helps us concentrate and reach a state of calm, all passions spent. However, when through regular prayers we find out that God is omnipresent and we can address him at any time and at any place, we can pray to him no matter where we are, for the prayer will reach him. Baba has advised:
It is our duty to ask God. Words must be said and the words must correspond to the thought. The thought must be put into a true word. It is true enough that the divinity knows all, but he requires that the true word be said. The mother knows that to maintain life, the child requires food, but milk is given when the child asks for it. It is imperative for us to know what we should pray for:
Our devotion and prayer to God should not be for the sole purpose of obtaining something, or fulfilling some desire of ours. This should be for the sake of the Atma (inner divinity) and for the sake of becoming one with the Lord and for the sake of getting the bliss that one can get by being close to the Lord.
However, there is no absolute formula about the choice of one's prayer. Generally speaking, prayer for the removal of obstacles on the spiritual path has a greater chance of being answered than those that relate to personal ambitions and desires, miraculous cures and worldly acquisitions. In any case, it is always necessary to put absolute trust in God. He takes proper care of our needs without being asked for, when we try to live a good life and dedicate all our thought and actions to him. Since the Lord is our eternal parent, he grants us the boons beneficial for us. In the words of Sathya Sai Baba,
If a bhaktha (devotee) has dedicated his all-body, mind and existence to the Lord, the Lord will himself look after everything, for he will always be with the bhaktha. Under such conditions, there is no need for prayer. But have you so dedicated and surrendered yourself to the Lord?
Sathya Sai Baba has often stated that in the present age, Namasmaran or the remembrance of the name and form of the Lord is enough unlike in the other ages where other modes of spiritual exercises were practised. In the words of Sai Baba,
The present age is described in the Sastras (sacred texts) as very conducive to liberation. In the past ages religious practice was prescribed as the means; the Kali age in which you are requires only namasmaran (remembrance of the name of the Lord) to win liberation.
But Baba states the crux of the problem when he says,
Namasmaran is the best means but you do not really believe that it can cure or save you: that is the tragedy. People only believe in the efficacy of costly, brightly packaged, widely published drugs; the simple, easily available remedy which is in everybody's dooryard is ignored as useless.
Thus, the name of the Lord, if remembered with sincerity and feeling, enables us to win God's grace and reach our goal. The name of the Lord is like a lantern in the forest wilderness of the world. It is the easiest and the most practical type of sadhana for everyone. As Jonathan Roof has wisely remarked,
We may not command the spiritual power to rise in meditation to formless bliss. We may not possess the devotional heart that allows us to float in the warmth of the divine sea. We may be unable to perform the dedicated service that unfetters the chains of our actions. But if we hold fast to the name of God, we can still achieve fulfilment.
Constant remembrance of the name is complete spiritual discipline; it fosters the virtues of devotion, patience and faith. The practice grants us strength and confidence to travel the spiritual path to its conclusion. In time it can endow us with God realization. Then we will know that the God we worship is within us, in our own hearts, ever present and joyful.
No wonder that the name is enough to give you all the results of every type of sadhana (spiritual discipline).
Satsang or keeping spiritual company with the holy has always been the preoccupation of all those who seek enlightenment. They simply want to bask in the atmosphere of light and love, which the association with the saintly and the holy provides them. On the contrary, unwholesome company washes us away on the dark current of grief, self-indulgence and sin. As Sathya Sai Baba has put it,
The easiest and most fruitful method of keeping yourself free from dust and rust is satsang (good company). The company of the good and Godly will slowly and surely chasten and cleanse the persons prone to staying away from the straight path towards self-realization.
That is why in spiritual life, one must vicariously cling to the company of the good and noble persons set on the pilgrimage on the Godward path. Good company is desirable and important both for the advanced spiritual seeker as well as the new-comer. Baba asks us to join Satsang, the company of the godly. Just as the tame elephants surround the wild tusker and rope him and bind him hand and foot, and immobilize him before taming him, the spiritually minded will bring the doubter around.
The benefits of satsang are immense. It can not only generate tremendous spiritual energy but also inspire us to turn God ward and make our task of achieving liberation easier. It can grant us a vision of our destination and provide a model for our journey.
While considering the different voices of our calling, we cannot afford to overlook song or bhajan, which is the very quintessence of our aspiration and apprehension of the divine. Song is the tonic for the weary traveller; it lightens our souls and fills us with the taste of heaven.
Spiritual music is the universal language of the heart; it is the truest and the most resonant voice of our calling, or atmanivedana.
Whereas everyone can express his soulful ardour, devotion and yearning through the medium of the beautiful songs or bhajans composed by eminent devotional poets, for the poet it is the outpouring of the sweetest elixir of the soul. We have the example of the medieval lyricists, the Sufi poets and of the seventeenth century Metaphysical poets who have all excelled in composing the greatest religious poetry. In India, the bhajans composed by Mira, Surclas and Tulsidas have been set to music and are household bhajans sung by the common man. Group singing has many more advantages than the singing of Majans in solo. Bhajan can be indubitably great poetry and can instantly move the hearts of the listeners and promote the atmosphere of sanctity, love and self-surrender. The bhajans composed by Mira and sung by M.S. Subulaxmi, the renowned South Indian singer, leave the listeners almost spell-bound. The same M.S. Subulaxmi sings the Sai bhajans in her melodious and incantatory voice during the birthday festival of Sri Sathya Sai Baba and then we come to realize what great poetry and great music can do. The ecstasy is total and all-inclusive; the greatest impact of great poetry and great music sung in chorus can create a lasting effect, that of elemental joy and tranquillity. Love and devotion well up spontaneously in the heart. Remembrance of God becomes constant and steady. When we sing in devotion, joy is likely to remain in our hearts all day long. The effort results in the expansion of our consciousness and consequent transformation of our hearts. God, the almighty is no longer afar or abstract or unreachable. He becomes our kin and we are blessed by the effulgence of his presence. It may not be wrong to say that song or bhajan is the most emphatic and effective voice of our calling. Sathya Sai Baba has said in his inimitable style:
You must pass your days in song. Let your whole life be a bhajan. Believe that God is everywhere at all times and derive strength, comfort and joy, singing in your heart in his presence the glory of God. Let melody and harmony surge up from your hearts and let all take delight in the love you express through that song.
The joy, which we derive from song, helps to sustain and encourage us on the path. It binds us to the Lord and attracts his grace. At the same time, God derives joy from our joy. The bliss of song binds us to him as few other practices can. Baba himself admits:
The ananda (bliss) that I derive from bhajan I do not get from anything else.
That is the reason why Swami manifests his presence mysteriously wherever his glory is sung. At Prasanthi Nilayam almost always at the end of his discourse, Swami makes it a point to sing a few bhajans, which evoke the feeling of elevation and ecstasy to the assembled devotees. And that is perhaps the reason why the pink and blue halo on the face of Swami increases, extending to the limitless sky and the distant facade of the horizons, a fact that has been noted by Professor Varoneshky of Arizona University and by many a discerning devotee.
Harmony and devotion must ultimately be the result of a good song meeting. All who participate must work together with tolerance and the knowledge that the Lord himself is present. Baba says:
Wherever my bhakthas sing my name I am present there.
Apart from the different ways of remembering and calling the Lord there are a few others which may be said to be of seminal importance. However, these are not so easy to follow because they involve long and continuous sadhana costing not less than everything. Some of these also presuppose a native, inborn quality, an attitude of the mind and natural tendencies that come from one's inheritance and as rewards for good works done in one's past lives. In the remaining portion of this chapter, we shall discuss the two important modes of spiritual sadhana, meditation and fostering of devotion for the eternal Absolute. While meditation is something that can be practised by all of us, the flower of devotion for the Lord can only blossom in the heart that is saturated with love.
Meditation means absorption in God for the purposes of attaining enlightenment and bliss. Moreover, meditation is not and can never be a conscious process. So long as one knows that he is meditating, he is not really meditating. Since meditation is a mystique, in practising meditation, the mind stops and one gets totally immersed in God. For the spiritual aspirant, meditation is the inner contemplation. With time, meditation develops true understanding of the self and thereby leads to the blissful merger with God. Although meditation is not actually a voice of one's calling or supplication to the Divine, it does establish a sense of oneness with God.
Sai Baba has described as the most universal the light meditation. Baba suggests that a small lamp or candle may be used which may help the meditator to visualize the flame of light and truth. This flame is pictured between the eyebrows as the light of wisdom; from there it is brought on to the heart, and visualised as a lotus of love blooming petal by petal. As the light grows, it purifies all the senses and impulses, taking all in the light of divine love. Over time, the meditation purifies the individual's thoughts and actions, making him or her fit for realization of divinity.
Sathya Sai Baba has said:
In real dhyana, you soon get over the consciousness that you are doing dhyana. In fact, every moment in life must be utilized for dhyana. That is the best way to live. When you sweep your rooms clean tell yourselves that your hearts too have to be swept likewise. When you cut vegetables, you feel that lust and greed too have to be cut into pieces. When you press chapatis wider and wider, desire in addition that your love take in wider and wider circles and expand even into the regions of strangers and foes.
And finally, Sathya Sai Baba declares:
By means of dhyana you can realize that I am the resident in all hearts, the urge, the motive, the guide, the goal. Yearn for that vision, that awareness, and make it your priceless possession.
Sathya Sai Baba has explained the full significance of light or the flame in meditation. In answer to a question put by a western devotee Baba has stated:
Why a light? From the sand, if one takes it will be depleted, from the water tank, if each one takes, the tank will go dry. But a thousand people can take the flame of one candle to light their candles and the flame is in no way diminished. Light a lamp or a candle. Gaze straight ahead at the flame. Then take the candle flame, the jyoti into your heart and see it in the midst of the petals of the heart. Watch the petals of the heart unfold and see the light illumine the heart. Bad feelings cannot remain. Then move the flame into the hands and they can no longer do dark deeds. In turn, move the flame in like fashion to the eyes and ears so they may henceforth take only bright and pure sensations. Then move the light outward and into your friends, relatives and enemies, and then into animals, birds and other objects so that all are illumined by the same light. Christ said, 'All are one, be alike to everyone.' In this way you will no longer be limited to the body, but will expand throughout the universe. The world, which is now so big, will become very small. To expand beyond self and to see that your light is the light of the universe is liberation. Liberation is not different from this.
This kind of pointed meditation ensures expansion of the self beyond desire to an infinity of love and provides elemental bliss and serenity that is the sure mark of illumination. Meditation, thus, is the most useful and effective way of calling the Divine.
Total and unqualified surrender to the divine will and selfless service to the suffering humanity are the other two vital factors, which make the voice of the aspirant heard by God. The point to be noted here is: what do we actually surrender to God? What do we have which we can offer to him? Since he is the master of the creation, every sentient object of this shadow world is already his. The flower that we offer to him in worship or the service that we offer him are all his. So, what we surrender to him is our acceptance of his divine will ' the renunciation of the illusion of our separateness from him and our self effacement and abandonment of our ego. We must perform actions without desire for the fruits of action, surrendering everything to God. In a different sense, what we actually surrender to God is our agonizing feeling of dualism. In the real sense of the term, surrender to a higher power is tantamount to surrender to oneself, to the Atma or the inner divinity enthroned in our hearts. In the words of Sai Baba,
Surrendering to the Lord is surrendering all thoughts and actions, not wishing for the fruits of the action, not doing the action to gain its fruit, but doing the action because it is one's duty. The act is dedicated to the Lord, and the results, therefore, are borne by the Lord.
Such surrender envisages full faith and complete reliance on God as the doer of all deeds:
Rely on the Lord and accept whatever is your lot. He is in you, with you. He knows what to give and when. He is full of Prema (love).
The path of total surrender to the will of the Lord is the safest one and is sure to produce the desired result. The only condition is that the surrender should be true and complete. Baba emphatically declares:
Surrender to me only. When the surrender is complete and all acts, words and thoughts are dedicated to the Lord along with all their consequences then he has promised that he will free you from sin and sorrow.
The practice of complete and unqualified spiritual surrender is a spiritual exercise of a very high order. It costs not less than everything. The greatest obstacle to this is our ego, the big 'I' which takes pride in its supremacy over everything and queers the pitch of our surrender. It is necessary, therefore, to cross the service to suffering and the afflicted is another sure way of earning the grace of the Lord. Service to the society and the community is our obligatory duty since we are part of the society and the community. In fact, we are an integral part of the whole community of mankind. If we do not serve God in the form of our unfortunate brothers and sisters, how can we serve God or experience a sense of oneness with the divine father? We have to work incessantly for the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. In all important world religions, as well as the tenets of humanism, there is great stress on service to the poor, needy, diseased and afflicted. It is said that service to mankind is service to God. The motivating force for undertaking selfless service to our unfortunate brothers and sisters is, of course, our love and compassion and the realization that all are the important components of the same divinity that presides over the destiny of all mankind. In this sense, the act of serving others becomes a spiritual discipline, which engenders spiritual joy and satisfaction to the server. It promotes the awareness within us in no uncertain terms that we are in others; others' suffering is our suffering and the joy of the others is our joy. Such a feeling is unique and entirely salutary; it broadens our vision and widens our compassion. As Baba has rightly pointed out,
If the individual is deluded into believing that he is serving others then woe be to him, for there is no other at all. All are one; one man's sorrow is everyone's sorrow. The fundamental flaw is the ignorance of man. If only he was wise, he would have known that all individuals are waves on the surface of the Self-same Ocean.
Thus service can develop into a highly beneficial spiritual discipline and with constant practice it becomes indispensable and essential trait of our very nature. Furthermore, the joy we derive from selfless service blossoms into detachment. When we serve God in others, we find that God is resident in our own hearts. The desire for selfish gains vanishes and we experience lasting happiness. As Baba has said,
One cannot cross the ocean of this cycle of births and deaths by visiting many sacred places, nor one can do it by performing japa or studying Sastras (holy books). It is only possible to do so by performing Sewa or service.
The obvious lesson is that service to suffering humanity enables us to grow spiritually by expressing our love in action. Thus, we should be grateful to those who offer us opportunity to serve them and have thus opened for us the glimpse of the celestial city where God resides.
Finally, the supreme motivation for our resonant call and anguished cry is what we call our devotion to the Lord. Devotion is the latent quality in the heart of man that has come into his proud possession mainly on account of his noble and virtuous antecedents in his former life. As we know, according to the doctrine of karma we reap what we have sown in our past lives: there is no escape from the consequence of karma. But devotion to God removes the bad effects of karma. The good, virtuous and noble deeds done in the past lives influence our prarabdha (earned destiny) and have the capacity to offset the adverse effect of such karma. It is in this sense that devotion, whole-hearted devotion to the Lord, burns away all our sins and shortcomings and makes us a vessel for the blessings of the Lord now and forever more.
In the words of Jonathan Roof,
Devotion is a mystery of the heart. No amount of argument can persuade us to feel devotion towards the Lord, for it is the bond between the creator and the created, which surpasses our rational understanding. Perhaps, it is our nature to feel and express devotion. It may result from lifetimes of spiritual striving. Actually devotion is comprised of many feelings, emotions and thoughts. It includes gratitude, reverence, adoration, love, thanksgiving; even fear of sin, but ultimately all descriptions must fail. For, in truth, devotion is only experienced by the bhaktha as the bhaktha is understood only by the Lord.
The spiritual path of devotion to God is called in the Hindu religious texts as bhakthi marg, the other paths are the way of selfless action (karma yoga) and the way of knowledge and wisdom (jnana yoga). Each of these paths is difficult to practice as each demands the reduction and annihilation of the ego to be able to merge with the divine principle. However, in the present age, bhakthi marg or the way of devotion is the easiest to practice. The bhakthi devotee seeks to realize God by reducing ego to nothing. When our ego disappears, only God is left. Devotion promotes humility and surrender to divine will.
Sai Baba has made this point very clear when he dwells on the excellence of the devotional path. He says:
Bhakthi is the through carriage. Though it may be detached
From one train and connected to another, if you get into it,
You I need not worry; so long as you stick to your place, It
is bound to take you to your destination.
Fervent devotion to the Lord is the first step to the spiritual ladder, always be tempered with duty and discipline. Baba's injunction to each one of us is:
Imbibe the ideals of duty, devotion and discipline. Devotion must be tested in the crucible of discipline. It must be directed on the lines of duty.
Devotion is a full‑time endeavour. It consists in seeing divinity in everyone and in all places. Its aim not only is self?transformation but also God realization.
When grief overtakes you, you run to God-when joy is restored you throw him overboard. Bhakthi is not temporary salve. It is unbroken contemplation of God without any interposing thought or feeling.
How do we start on the path of devotion towards God? There is no formula absolute for such a beginning. It depends largely on the temperament and sensibility of the aspirant. If his heart is full of love, universal love, he sets off on his journey pretty soon and with extreme confidence. Because he loves God already, the Lord himself takes the full responsibility and becomes his mentor and guide. The devotee establishes his own particular and favourite relationship with God. No single relation for all is either necessary or desirable.
One person may assume the attitude of a child towards the parent; another may love God as a friend or companion; yet another like Mira may love God as a spouse or a bridegroom. What is of the greatest significance is the intensity of that love, the sanction of the weight of feeling. All forms of relationship is accepted by God so long as the craving and the yearning arise from the very core of the heart. So, we come to the conclusion that there are different modes of calling the divine master and if we endeavour to please the Lord and to ~appropriate him through coronets and garlands of deep devotion and love, God is bound to listen to us and our prayers are answered immediately. Baba has said that one should yearn for him and lead a life of constant devotion, ardour and self-surrender. The crux of the problem is the steady, constant and continual devotion.
God is ignored in sunshine; he is wanted only when there is night. Devotion must persist and flourish, unaffected by time, place and circumstance.
The Lord guides and protects us when we surrender to his will. To win grace, however, we must immerse ourselves in God and strive to do his will.
It is God's word that if you have devotion in God, he will look after all your future. He will look after all the welfare that is due to you.
The culmination of full‑time devotion is seeing God in all things. Then, all events and beings are seen in the light of God. Nothing is separate from God, for when we are filled with God, we see only God. Then we know beyond doubt that we have reached the summit of the practice. We experience joy and peace beyond measure. Sai Baba has said the last word about bhakthi which is the consummation of our love for the eternal Absolute who draws all of us like a magnet unto him. Baba says:
Bhakthi is the state of mind in which one has no separate existence apart from God. His very breath is God, his every act is God, for God; his thoughts are of God; his words are uttered by God, about God. For like the fish which can only live in waterman can only live in God in peace and happiness.
With this submission about the supreme and paramount value of devotion as the pitch and the volume of our supplication to the Divine, we again return to the glorious and august presence of Sathya Sai Baba in our midst who symbolizes the Eternal Absolute and the Ultimate Reality, the reservoir and fountainhead of all love, power and glory. He is a Ray from the Supreme to take humanity to the life eternal and to offer us liberation from the recurrent and painful cycle of death and birth. It is indeed our duty to take full advantage of his divine presence. All we need to do is to follow the guidelines given by him for living up to the exacting standards set by him. And the rest is not our business. The loving merciful Lord who is spreading the splendour of his redemptive love all round through every nook and corner of the world, will see to it that we reach our destination and be worthy of his love now and forever more.
Sathya Sai Baba, like Krishna and Jesus Christ, is the path, the way and the pilgrim, the means and the goal. Sai Baba says that love is his form and that consciousness expands by and through the fostering, cultivation and expansion of love. Teaching love by love for love and through acts of love, unconditional, selfless love the Avatar gives the faith, strength and inspiration to reach for heaven and to that glorious unitary state beyond. Baba has penned the following inspiring message to all the spiritual aspirants who strive to reach that blessed state of Being, Awareness and Bliss:
Let the different faiths exist. Let them flourish. Let the glory of God be sung in all languages and a variety of tunes. This should be the ideal: respect the differences between the faiths, and recognize them as valid as far as they do not extinguish the flame of unity. I have not come to speak on behalf of any particular religion. I have not come on a mission of publicity for any sect or creed nor have I come to collect followers for any doctrine. I have come to tell you of this universal, unitary path, this path of love, this duty of love, this obligation to love...
The totality of divine energy has come into humanity as Sathya Sai to go to each and everyone to wake up the slumbering divinity of every human being. Even if in your sleepiness or in your weakness for sleep, you growl, grumble or groan, kick, criticise, quarrel or cry, I will not forsake you. I will not let your divinity to go to sleep. Mother never forsakes the child she carries or lets the child fall down, even if the child works out its resentment and anger on her. I have come to help, to accompany and to carry you. I can never forsake you, I will never fail in my duty to my children and I shall be very grateful to each child of mine who helps my task...
Wake up my children. Wake up to the dawn of knowledge; wake up to your divine duties, wake up to your divine rights and wake up to your divine reality.
The central basic assumption in this study, which has now been reiterated and stated precisely and tangibly with enough supportive evidence, is that Sai Baba is a Ray from the Supreme. He is a divine power station. As Professor Gokak has beautifully described:
... But these laws of Nature can be transcended whenever a ray direct from the Supreme penetrates the universe. This ray is power, will, thought and feeling combined in a solar flash. The Word, which is at the very root of Creation, is a complex seed symphony of Truth, Beauty, Goodness, and Love, Delight and Power ... When does the ray descend? As the Gita says, whenever righteousness is at a low ebb and the unrighteous ride on the crest of the wave, the Ray takes human form to establish the reign of Truth again, to protect the good and to punish the wicked.
The present moment of history is precisely a time of crisis when mankind is poised precariously at the very brink of a precipice and a conflagration, a veritable pralaya seems to be imminent, the advent of an Avatar was very much anticipated. The saints and sages prayed and the Eternal Absolute, the Supreme Brahman incarnated on earth as Sai Baba. He has been continuing his mission and with the incessant labours of an Avatar has already cleared many of the mists that had darkened not only the scenario of the world but also the outlook and attitude of man. By his insistence on the age-old verities of truth, love, righteousness, peace and non-violence and by the instrument of the magical redemptive power of love, he has taken us out of the black pall surrounding us and we now stand on the summit of the hill from where we can visualize the resplendent minarets of that celestial city which is our true home. Mankind has, thus, experienced the vision of the divine and is engaged in the spiritual sadhana that would take the pilgrim to his destination.
As a fitting sequel to this, our last chapter, we would like to quote from Howard Murphet's wonderful book Where the Road Ends the portion that relates the exciting experience of Collin Best, a young technician of Sydney, Australia who sensed the utter emptiness of the existential encounter and took recourse to the techniques of meditation and astral projection or travel outside the body. This is how Howard Murphet describes the momentous experience of Collin Best:
Then one day, after about eight months, he made an unexpected breakthrough in astral projection. Finding himself outside his physical body, he was so alarmed that he went straight back to it. But he persisted, going a little further each time, until eventually he travelled right around the world... It was eight O'clock in the evening in the year 1972, he told me, when he made a desperate effort to breach the solid wall of the mind. He sat cross-legged on the floor in front of a full-length mirror and concentrated on the point between his two eyes. For twenty minutes nothing at all happened. Then several strange things happened. The first was the production of copious saliva from his mouth. When this stopped, tears began to run down his cheeks, and after that came a tingling in his scalp ... the fourth was that his image in the mirror completely disappeared and greyness took its place. A strange voice near him asked, 'What do you want to happen next?'
Somewhat startled, Collin asked, 'Who are you?
'A friend.'
'What is your name?
'Peter.'
'Oh!' said Collin who had been brought up as a Christian. 'Peter, the fisherman?
'No,' the voice replied. 'He is on a different plane.'
... Something prompted Collin to ask if there was anybody on earth today who was as great as, or greater than, Jesus Christ?
'Yes,' Peter replied, 'There is one who is greater.' 'What is his name?'
'I cannot tell you.'
'Well, where is he?'
'I cannot tell you that either!
'Why?'
'Because it's your search.'
'Well, when will I find this one?'
'In fifteen years' time!
Collin could think of nothing else but this one living being on earth greater than Jesus, He could not wait fifteen years. He must leave his body and find this great one wherever he was on earth. So leaving his physical body sitting cross?legged before a mirror, he was over to India in a flash hovering over the country and looking down from his astral body ... He thought undoubtedly, this great one for whom he was searching, must be surrounded by a bright light. So, soaring slowly in his astral body above India, he concentrated on finding this bright light ... It was no longer before he spotted it outshining the pale street lights ... he went straight towards the light and says that within the time of a heart?beat, he was there standing before what looked to him like a temple ... He says, 'In front of me, sitting on a stage, was a small man, dressed in a red-orange robe with a mop of fuzzy hair...'
Towards the end of his fifteen years' wait, Collin met a girl named Sue who had similar interests to his own.
... One day Collin wanted a certain book and Sue told him that he could find it in a certain bookstall in Sydney. Obtaining the book, he took home and here is what happened in his own words: 'I turned a few pages and there, lo and behold, was a photo of the little fuzzy headed figure sitting in a chair. My heart almost stopped. But now I knew his name and address.'
... Within a very short time, Collin was at Prasanthi Nilayam sitting at the feet of Sathya Sai Baba. It was now 1987, just fifteen years after he had tried in vain to come to the feet of the great one.
Stranger is the story of Klaus Remme, who was told by a German doctor: 'When you are sixty years old, you will look into the eyes of God. Now prepare yourself by living a good life.' This was prophesied forty‑two years before Klaus Remme actually sat on the darshan line at Prasanthi Nilayam and looked into the eyes of Swami. Earlier, he had seen in a dream vision that Swami held his face in both hands and said, 'My love for you is eternal.' Klaus Remme responded, 'I love you, too.'
On this note, triumphant note, we would like to close the chapter knowing full well that in spiritual realm, what we call the end is often the beginning of an hope that the love and blessings of Sai Baba will be our safe guide and lighthouse to cross the ocean of the samsara.
Author: Swami Sai Sharan Anand
http://www.indiangyan.com/books/otherbooks/sai_baba/ray_supreme_and_the_voice_of_our.shtml
THE GOLDEN AGE OF SAI [Part 1 of 2]
Compiled by Nirmal, Vancouver
Introduction
30 March 1996
Sri Sathya Sai Baba has declared that He will usher in a new era of Love, Peace, Righteousness, and Truth. This "Golden Age," as He calls it, is destined to begin soon with an event (or series of events) that will draw world attention to His Divinity. Many of Baba's devotees wonder what these events will be like, what the Golden Age represents, and what our duty is towards it, Bhagawan, and each other.
This book of quotations, written for Baba's devotees, draws together all the material that I have been able to find on the nature and characteristics of the Golden Age and on our duty in regards to it
Baba tells us that we are fortunate to live during these times. Never in human history has the planet witnessed a full Incarnation of the Divine working with the world's population to raise human consciousness to a level where world peace and fulfillment are possible. All power resides in Swami's Palm and yet He does not intend to correct the Earth's problems with a sweep of His hand. Instead, He proposes to work with humans from within, to raise our awareness so that we are empowered to solve our own global predicaments. Swami promises all of us accelerated spiritual growth, and even liberation for those who stick to their Sadhana to the end. The opportunity of these times should not go uncontemplated.
Baba's is an unfolding gospel. He adds to His revelation daily. We sit, mere spectators, watching and waiting for the golden moment to arrive when He announces Himself to those in the world who remain unaware of His Presence on Earth. Talk circulates of an impending economic crisis, during which the leaders of the world turn to Baba as the only one who can solve it. Miracles occur such as Ganesha statues drinking milk. Food animals such as salmon and cod disappear from the Earth's oceans and whole herds of cattle are infected with disease and must be destroyed. To what extent are these evidences of Baba's activity in pushing and pulling the world towards some unknown consummation? We cannot know until Baba unfolds for us the whole of His Plan.
For my part, I find more satisfaction than I can say in being able to watch over and participate in these events as a Sai researcher and writer. I thank Bhagawan for answering the prayers and pleadings of saints and sages, whose supplications have brought Him here. And I thank Him for allowing me to serve Him in this way as a means of earning His Grace.
Om Jai Sai Ram!
Nirmal
PROPHECIES ON BABA
Aurobindo on Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Twenty-fourth November, 1926, was the descent of Krishna into the physical. A power infallible shall lead the thought in earthly hearts, kindle the Immortal's Fire, even the multitude shall hear the voice!
Mohammed on Sai
[Sanjay Kant:] According to an article published in "Two Worlds" magazine of London, an Iranian writer was irresistibly drawn to a huge volume in Tehran. This Book, called "The Ocean of Light", is in 25 volumes. It is claimed to be the collection of the discourses of Prophet Mohammed. Volume 13 of these discourses is called "Mehedi Moud" in Arabic, meaning "The Great teacher that was promised." The teacher is also referred to as "Master of the World", "Master of Time", "God?s President" and "God Speaking and Advising". Prophet Mohammed is quoted by Peggy Mason to have indicated a large number of signs or marks by which the great teacher would be recognized. Prominent among these hallmarks, which remarkably identify ... Sathya Sai Baba are: "His hair will be profuse. His forehead will be large and concave. His nose will be small, with a slight bump at the bridge. His front teeth will be spaced apart. He will have a mole on his cheek. He will not have a beard but will be clean shaven. His clothing will be like a flame. He will wear two robes (one an under robe). The colour of his face will be some times yellow like gold, some times very dark and some times shining like the moon. His body will be small. His legs will be like those of a young girl. All the teachings of all the religions of the world will be in his heart from birth. All the science and knowledge of the world from the beginning of time will be in his heart.
All things which you will ask from God, he (the Master of the World) will give you. All the treasures are under his feet. He will give gifts that are light in weight. He will go around among his devotees and touch their heads with his hand. Every eye that sees him will be happy, not only humans but disembodied souls. He will live 95 years. (Sai Baba has said that will be in the present body for 96 years -- this means he would leave his present body around 2022 A.D.)
In the last twenty years of His life, He will be the 'King of the whole world', but at that time only two thirds of the world will believe Him... (This period would then be 2000 A.D. -- corroborating [the] Cayce Prophecies [see below]. Muslims will recognise him only nine years before his passing from the world. He will make the world light and full of peace. So as not to be deceived, you should know that the Master of the World will bring things out of His body, through His mouth.
According to all prophecies and predictions Sathya Sai Baba is going to emerge as the universal Messiah and savior by the end of this decade. All prophecies and predictions also point to great upheavals on the economic, geographic and political fronts by 2000 A.D. Recent changes in Russia and eastern Europe are evident examples.
[Swami Maheshwaranand:] Irani Ma, one of the old devotees of Bhagawan, wanted to publish what prophet Mohammed had prophesied ... "Ocean of Light". In this book 27 attributes pertaining to the Avatar have been mentioned in full detail. Baba, however, did not give permission for its publication.
Cayce on Sai
[Sanjay Kant:] When those that have gradually forgotten God entirely have been eliminated ... there will come at the close of this next year, the period when there will be no part of the Globe where man [will not] hear, 'THE LORD HE IS GOD," and when the period has been accomplished, the new era, the new age, is to begin. (Edgar Cayce cited in GDOE, 21. The year of Cayce's prediction is around 1998.)
Nostradamus on Sai
[Sanjay Kant:] According to ... Nostradamus who recorded his prophecies in his book 'Centuries' about 400 years back, a very great leader would be born in South India.... He would have unlimited wisdom and power, and He would be the greatest conqueror in history. He would be [an] immortal ruler. With His efforts, world war would be over, and India's spiritual message to humanity would be spread far and wide. He would observe Thursday as the holy day. (GDOE, 36-7)
Sai Baba is the Apocalyptic Conqueror and the Kalki Avatar
And I saw, and behold, a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering and to conquer. (St. John, Revelation 6:2.)
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name, written, that no man knew, but he himself.
And he was clothed with vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
... .And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. (St. John, Revelation 19:11-13 + 16.)
[Howard Murphet:] There are Sai devotees in the West who think that the Sathya Sai Avatar is the promised Conqueror of Saint John's Apocalyptic vision as given in the Book of Revelations in the New Testament. Like all visions lying beyond the space-time dimensions, the Apocalypse is couched in symbolic language. It has, therefore, been given many different interpretations by different people. But in general its theme is the return of the Godman, the Avatar, who will come as a Conqueror of evil forces and establish the Kingdom of God.
In one place St. John writes, 'And I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.'
In her book The Hidden Manna [Patrizia Norelli-Backlet, The Hidden Manna. Aeon Books: 1976], Patrizia Norelli-Backlet endeavors to interpret the Apocalypse according to cosmic astrology and the language of the zodiac which, she says, was understood by the initiates of old. She states that the Conqueror is, in fact, the Kalki Avatar who is pictured riding a white horse in Hindu Puranas.
Swami has not, himself, stated that he is the Kalki Avatar, but people have experienced, in his presence, visions of that evolutionary Avatar, mounted on a white horse.
[Kasturi:] The ten incarnations [of Vishnu] were revealed to [a] gentleman, now deceased.... Baba took him to the river and asked him to watch His reflection in the water. The man announced later that he saw at first Sathya Sai Baba Himself, then only the halo of hair that surrounds His Head, and then all the ten incarnations in the order in which they are mentioned in the legendary histories of India; the tenth and last incarnation on a white horse, had the form of Baba Himself!
[Hilda Charlton:] As I sat in the Bhajan hall at Prashanthi Nilayam, listening to the joyous songs sung by the devotees, and looking at Sai Baba sitting in his chair on the dais, suddenly over Baba's head there appeared a figure of great beauty, riding a white horse. At this time I did not know the significance of this symbolic figure. I asked someone if there was in Hindu scriptures a person who rode a white horse. I was told that the Kalki Avatar rides a white horse, and Kalki is the Avatar for whom people are looking forward.
[Murphet:] Norelli-Backlet believes that the Hindu Puranas are cosmic revelations, containing the cycles of Times, and the manifestations of divine truth, in their structure, and that the Puranic stories corroborate the Apocalypse of Saint John.
... Some western students of the Sai Movement ... equate him with the Apocalyptic Conqueror, and the Kalki Avatar. If they are right, we can, according to the Apocalypse and the Puranas, [expect] some violent clashes of opposing forces, some cataclysmic world struggles ahead. Avatar Rama led the armies of righteousness in a great war against the demonic forces. Avatar Krishna was involved in the holocaust of the Kurukshetra war. The prophecies foretell even more terrible wars in the time of the Kalki Avatar and St. John's Conqueror.
[Murphet:] Many rumors fly around as to what Swami has said about frightening large-scale events and conditions of the near future. But when I, and others in my presence, have asked him about these matters, he has never said that cataclysmic wars, with wholesale destruction, are imminent.
[Murphet:] In [a] talk [with Sage Markandeya] a few years before the Kali Age began [and recorded in the Mahabharata], Lord Vishnu told how Light would come to earth when the evils of the [Kali] Age had reached a level that required the direct action of God. Lord Vishnu said to the sage Markandeya: "When evil is rampant upon this earth, I will take birth in the family of a virtuous man, and assume a human body to restore tranquility by the extermination of all evils; for the preservation of rectitude and morality, I will assume an inconceivable human form when the season for action comes. In the Kali Age of sin I will assume an Avatar form that is dark in color. I will be born in a family in South India. This Avatar will possess great energy, great intelligence and great powers. Material objects needed for this Avatar's mission will be at his disposal as soon as He will think of them. He will be victorious with the strength of virtue. He will restore order and peace in the world. This Avatar will inaugurate a new Era of Truth, and will be surrounded by spiritual people. He will roam over the earth adored by the spiritual people."
"The people of the earth will imitate this Avatar's conduct, and there will be prosperity and peace. Men will once more betake themselves to the practice of religious rites. Educational centers for the cultivation of Brahmic lore, and temples, will reappear again everywhere. Ashrams will be filled with men of Truth. Rulers of the earth will govern their kingdoms virtuously. The Avatar will have an illustrious reputation. "
This prophecy concerning the Kalki Avatar, from the Mahabharata, is collaborated in the ancient classic, the Vishnu Purana, which also mentions that this Avatar will display great superhuman powers in establishing the new age of Truth. It adds that, "His parents will be devotees of Vishnu, and will reside in a village worshipping the cowherd form of Sri Krishna."
Baba Mentioned in Ancient Hindu Scriptures and Naadis
[Swami Maheshwaranand:] What is special about [the epic called the Jaimini Mahabharata] is that it contains a detailed and complete account of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, an incarnation of Lord Shiva. It mentions the name of the Avatar, a full account of his dynasty, and contains descriptions [of] several wonderful miracles performed by the Lord indicating the beginning of a new era by establishing true religion on the lines of Sathya Yuga.
The Siddhas who visited the Gufa Ashram had the good fortune of going through this holy book. They were amazed to see, read and hear the contents. They realised then that over five thousand years ago the great Muni Jaimini who was [farther] advanced in spirituality than them predicted.... the incarnation of Lord Sainath.
[Swami Maheshwaranand:] When the Sadhaks staying at Gufa Ashram sought permission for the publication of the reference about Bhagawan Baba in Jaimini Mahabharata, Baba refused.
[Swami Maheshwaranand:] Acharya Ganjur Narayana of Bangalore is in possession of a rare script of 'Sai Charitamrutum'. This was written by Shuka Muni five thousand years ago. There is a detailed description about the incarnation of Lord Sai in Kaliyuga. Some of the Sai lovers approached Bhagawan and sought permission to publish this important document. But their request was not granted.
[Shakuntala Balu:] A well known astrology professor ... of Bangalore, Sri Ganjur Narayana Shastry, recently traced a Shuka Naadi Grantha (a volume of palm leaf manuscripts by Sage Shuka) on Sri Sathya Sai Baba, entitled Sai charitamrita Grantham. It consists of hundreds of palm leaf manuscripts written in Sanskrit and is thought to have been set down over 5000 years ago. It describes, accurately and at great length, Sri Sathya Sai Baba's family tree and many facts about him. ...
His glory will spread, and many people will get near him. ... Total equanimity will be his. ... He will not be concerned with public opinion and will only do what is right. ... His life will be for the good of mankind. .... The Naadi astrologer says that Adharma (unrighteousness) has grown to three fourths proportion. When it increases by one fourth more, that is when all becomes unrighteousness, Sri Sathya Sai Baba's full powers will come into play and be known in the world. In other words, evil has to rise to its uttermost before his divine quality can be fully realised.
As things stand at present, Sri Sathya Sai Baba displays only one tenth of his real self. After a while, his efforts to save the world will increase tenfold.... He will show that he alone can control the fury of nature. ... In a short time, his greatness will spread further and there will be universal worship of Sathya Sai. ....
If people recognise the truth of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, salvation will not be long to follow. ... The Shuka Naadi emphasizes that Sainath (Lord Sai) is Mahavishnu Swarupa, a form of Great Vishnu Himself. Seeing Him is the same as looking upon Lord Vishnu. ...
Very soon, more and more people will come to accept his divinity, for they will have seen his divine powers. After the spring of 1979, the tide will turn and dharma will slowly reassert itself, atheism will begin to decrease. India will come into better days, too, and once again the influence of the present Maha Purusha [great being] or Maha Shakti [great power] will be decisive. Sri Sathya Sai Baba will perform even greater miracles, more wondrous than any he has performed up to now. One of the examples of his miracles mentioned in the Shuka Naadi is ... he will keep an airplane airborne for a long time after it runs out of fuel, through his will alone. ... Very soon now, the days of his great glory will be upon us.
One article, which was taken from Sanathana Sarathi of February 1961 is entitled "Bhagawan Sathya Sai Baba's 500-year old Horoscope." It reads: "There is an institution in New Delhi known as Indian Astro-Occult Research Association. Dr. E.V. Sastry [evidently not the same as Sri Ganjur Narayana Shastry of the previous instance], a famous and prominent member of the association happened to read the book Sathyam Sivam Sundaram. He then began a search to find out from Nadi Grandham available in Tamil Nadu, about the indications in Baba's horoscope. ... In these collections of grandhas which are more than five hundred years old and are considered as one of the wonders of the world, were found some parts describing Baba, all of which were not in a single instance different from what is published about Baba's life in the book Sathyam Sivam Sundaram. This truth made him wonderstruck. ... Dr. Sastry ... [whose] pen name is Leo ... happened to come to Puttaparthi in November 1960 on the birthday of Baba. On that occasion Dr. Sastry had with him an old palm leaf taken out from the Naadi Grandham, which contained details about Baba written by ... an old, famous and well learned pundit.
... In one Naadi Grandha the following is said: "The person to whom this horoscope relates in his previous birth was Sai Baba, who was a famous Maharshi. He was also a world famous Sad Guru!" Another Naadi says, "I am an avatar of Sai". ... In all three Nadis [Agastheya, Budha and Sukra Nadis], the names of his father and mother are mentioned, clearly, truly and accurately. In addition, another fact clearly mentioned in these is, "the person to whom this horoscope relates, whose name is Sathyanarayana Raju, will renounce the world in his boyhood, will start schools and hospitals, will publish books for the upliftment of the world, will spend every day of his whole lifetime for the establishment of dharma, which is his ideal and objective." Another fact written in Budha Nadi is, "the person to whom this horoscope relates will spend the whole of his lifetime always enjoying the bliss from uniting Jivatma with Paramatma." In Agastheya Naadi it is mentioned that Baba will be an all merciful avatar of God. Not only that, but it is also mentioned that He will be Akkilathara pitha, i.e., authority of Manava vamsam, preceptor, protector, and father of the world.
In Sukra Naadi it is written, "Baba will have all the Siddhis, possessed by Sai Baba; by love, kindness and knowledge he will establish eternal bliss in this world. He will establish a Mandir which will be conducive for practicing tapas, etc." On top of all this is another important passage in Sukra Naadi, i.e., "the person to whom this horoscope relates will be an Avatar amongst the Avatars." Another sentence is, "He will derive immense pleasure in the service of mankind."
... The fact about [Baba's] coming into being, written separately, several centuries before His incarnation by three special expert astrologers, ... describing His character which is in no way different from what we see now in Him, is an agreeable surprise.
BABA?S DECLARATIONS
1955
Baba's Mission
In this Avatar [Divine Incarnation], the wicked will not be destroyed; they will be corrected and reformed and educated and led back to the path from which they have strayed. (SSS, I, 22; from talk given Maha Shivarathri, 1955)
Follow My Advice
You can get Anandam [Divine Bliss] only by following the advice I give you and that is why I am particular that you should listen carefully and take to heart all that I say. (SSS, I, 15; Maha Shivarathri, 1955)
1956
The Avatar's Mission
When man loses his way and strays into the wilderness, believing that he is the body or Gunas [illusory cosmic qualities] or the object, then the Avatar comes to warn and guide. (SSS, I, 25; from talk given August 1, 1956)
1958
This Kali Yuga
The present situation in the world is like a typhoon, causing unrest and confusion. No one has mental quiet; fear and anxiety stalk everywhere; panic reigns even while the conquest of space and the creation of new planets is being hailed. (SSS, I, 39; from a talk given Feb. 2, 1958)
Today, the typhoon of hatred and falsehood is scattering the clouds of Dharma [Righteousness], Nyaya [Philosophy] and Sathya [Truth] to the far corners of the sky and people feel that Sanathana Dharma [Hinduism in particular; the Ancient Wisdom in general] itself is in danger of extinction. But that can happen only if the lord wills, and the Lord who has laid down the Dharma [the Law or Order] will not allow it to be destroyed. (SSS, I, 51; March 24, 1958)
The World today is suffering from Rajobuddhi [restlessness of mind] rather than Thamas [slothfulness]; people have violent likes and dislikes; they have become fanatical and factious, they are carried away by pomp and noise, show and propaganda; that is why discrimination has become necessary. To reach the goal, Sathwabuddhi [balance of mind] is essential; it will seek the Truth calmly and stick to it whatever the consequence. (SSS,I, 66; July 25, 1958)
Baba's Mission
Man ... has been forgetting the path prescribed in the Scriptures for the cultivation of his nature, and hence all this suffering: hence also My Advent. (SSS, I, 65; July 25, 1958)
Of course, I confer on you these boons of health and prosperity but only so that you might, with greater enthusiasm and with less interruption, proceed with spiritual Sadhana [practice]. (SSS, I, 66; July 25, 1958)
The Lord is Omnipotent
They feared that I may not be able to cross the floods and come south in time for this engagement. From the fact that I had permitted them to announce My arrival for this function, they could well have inferred that the floods would subside and that I would be in their midst, for once My Word goes forth, it must happen accordingly. Do not doubt it. (SSS, I, 94; Sept. 9, 1958)
Believe Me, nothing can hamper Me; My will must prevail. Those who spread stories that I was held up by the floods were ignorant of My Reality.
Nothing can hold Me up or agitate Me or cast a shadow on Me in this Human Form; be certain of that. Not even a hair can be touched by forces of calumny or distrust or ignorance. My Sankalpa [Will] must prevail; My task must be accomplished. My Mission will succeed. I have come to illuminate the human heart with the Light Divine and to rid man of the delusion that drags him away from the path of Shanthi [Peace], the perfect equanimity of Realisation. (SSS, I, 94-5; Sept. 9, 1958)
The Lord is Inscrutable
No one can understand my Mystery. The best you can do is to get immersed in it. It is no use your arguing about pros and cons; dive and know the depth; eat and know the taste. (SSS, I, 71; July 25, 1958)
I Give You What You Ask For
I am like a shopkeeper whose shop is stocked with all things man needs. But, like the man behind the counter, I give you only what you ask for; if the customer asks for a towel, how can I give him a dhoti [wearing cloth]? But these material things are not important at all. Ask for Bhakthi [Devotion]and for Jnana [Wisdom] and I shall be happy. Many do not crave for such things now; it is their misfortune. They are merely wasting their chance. (SSS, I, 54; March 24, 1958)
He Lord is the Kalpataru, the Divine Tree that gives whatever is asked. But you have to go near the tree and ask for what you want. (SSS, I, 59; March 25, 1958)
Earn the right to approach the Lord without fear and the right to ask for your heritage. (SSS, I, 59; March 25, 1958)
Love is the Wealth I have to give you
You can call me Premaswarupa [Embodiment of Divine Love]! You will not be wrong! Prema [divine love] is the wealth I have and which I scatter among the miserable and afflicted. (SSS, I, 63; July 22, 1958)
What is Essential
It is not even Bhakti that is essential. It is Love, Truth, Virtue, the eagerness to progress, to serve, to expand one's heart, to take in the whole of humanity in one's Love, to see all as Forms of the Divine Consciousness. (SSS, I, 55; March 24, 1958)
Today, I am really full of joy for I have before me people who are engaged in hardy toil and who sacrifice their personal comforts in order to make others happy. What the world needs is work done in that spirit. (SSS, I, 83; Sept. 2, 1958)
Attach Yourself to the Lord
Attachment to nature has limits, but the attachment to the Lord that you develop when the Inner Eye opens has no limits. (SSS, I, 43; Feb. 2, 1958)
Attach your mind to the Lord. Then you will be led on to the company of good men and your talents will be transmuted. (SSS, I, 67; July 25, 1958)
Begin Now
You owe your birth to God, you subsist on God and you merge in God. Every living thing has to reach that consummation; why, every non-living thing too. So, do it now; take the first step, purify the heart, sharpen the intellect or at least, begin the recital of the name of the Lord. That will give you all the rest in due time. (SSS, I, 79; Sept. 2, 1958)
1959
The Avatar's Mission
It is to clear the path of spiritual progress of Man that the Avatar has come. The Asanthi in which man is immersed has to be curbed. ... All Jivis must get Shanthi and Santosha [??]; that is the mission on which the Lord comes again and again on this Earth. He selects a place full of Pavithratha or holiness, and divyathwam or divinity and takes on the human form, so that you may meet Him and talk, understand and appreciate, listen and follow, experience and benefit.
The tragedy is that when Godhead is invisible, formless, you concretize it as you like and pray to it and get consolation and strength out of it; but when it is before you, concretized in human form, you doubt and discuss and deny! (SSS, I, 127; from talk given July 10, 1959)
The Lord had announced that he would come down for the restoration of Dharma and that He would assume human form so that He might gather round Him and feel the thrill of His Companionship and Conversation. And the Lord has Come, as announced. (SSS, I, 150; Jan. 22, 1960)
The Lord is Inscrutable
You need not waste time in trying to discover Me and My Nature. Understand what I teach, not 'who is the teacher' for I am beyond your intellect and your Shakti. You will understand Me only through My work. That is why sometimes in order to reveal who I am, I myself show you my 'Visiting Card', something you call a Miracle. Know the 'marma' or the mystery and carry out the karma or the duty I assign you. (SSS, I, 114; February 2, 1959)
How Best to Use the Avatar
You must dive deep into the sea to get the pearls. ... So also if you must realise the full fruit of this Avatar, dive deep and get immersed in Sai Baba. Half-heartedness, hesitation, doubt, cynicism, listening to tales, all are of no avail. Concentrated complete faith - that alone can bring victory. This is true of any worldly activity, is it not? How much more true it must be, therefore, in the spiritual field? (SSS, I, 128; July 10, 1959)
The Past and Future of India
The science of spiritual culture and of the control of the mind has been developed and practiced in this country for thousands of years; and that is why Indian civilization has stood the shock of ages and the fury of typhoons that swept whole peoples off their feet. India is still green and fresh, on the threshold of a new era, under the leadership of her on ancient ideals. (SSS, I, 135; July 11, 1959)
The Next Generation
In the next fifteen years, a number of young people now growing up will shine as devoted aspirants in the spiritual field; they know that each of them is Nithyam [Eternal] and Sathyam [Truthful] and Pavithram [Holy] and that they are Amrithaputhras or children of immortality. They are growing in Viveka [Discernment] and Vairagya [Renunciation] and they are purifying themselves by Namasmarana [repetition of the Name of God]. (SSS, I, 114; Feb. 7, 1959)
Let There be Consistency in Thought, Word and Deed
You who shared in this glorification of the Lord will tomorrow as enthusiastically join in some other gathering where falsehood and injustice are honored! There is no consistency in your behavior. What you feel as correct and what you do are poles apart. That is not the mark of a Bhakta [devotee]. (SSS, I, 124; April 12, 1959)
Karma [action] is the very foundation of Bhakti [devotion]. It is the basement on which devotion is built. Dharma is the attitude in which action is done, the Truth, Prema and Equanimity with which the mind is activated, when it seeks to do things. ... Those dominated by Sathwaguna [the quality of balance, goodness, or purity] will do Karma, regardless of the fruits thereof, leaving the result to the Lord, not worrying whether it leads to success or failure, conscious of their duties and never of their rights. (SSS, I, 125; April 12, 1959)
Give up the Pursuit of Wealth
The Jivi [individual soul] has come to this birth in order to reveal the splendor of the spark of Godhead which it is. The body is the wick of the lamp, yearning for God is the ghee which feeds the flame. But like the rat which, attracted by the strong smelling cheap stuff inside the trap, neglects all other articles of food in the granary and falls a prey to its foolishness, man too neglects his real sustenance and wastes his life in pursuit of mortal riches. (SSS, I, 125; April 12, 1959)
Liberation does not Come at a Single Jump
The sensory world is the cloud that hides the Atma [Self], ever shining in the firmament of your heart. ... Train the mind to disperse the clouds, not to gather them. Every aspirant has to do this by following a systematic discipline. You cannot reach the peak in one jump; it is a hard job to negate the evidence of the senses; one has to overcome the tendencies that have grown through hundreds of births. (SSS, I, 121; April 12, 1959)
1960
Baba's Mission
I have come to set the world right and so I have to collect all those who are ill and treat them in my 'Hospital' and restore them to sanity, strength and wisdom and send them back to their stations in life. I must intensify your Bhakti, reinforce your faith and rebuild the foundations of your moral nature, so that you can counter temptations with greater confidence. (SSS, I, 183; Sept. 28, 1960)
All these [spiritual treasures] are now fast declining and I have come to restore them to their pristine purity and strength. (SSS, I, 175; Sept. 27, 1960)
My Mission is to give you Ananda [Divine Bliss] and I am ever ready to do so. (SSS, I, 155; from talk given June 25, 1960)
Showering Ananda, that is My task. (SSS, I, 180; Sept. 28, 1960)
You are My treasure; even if you deny Me. I am your treasure, even if you say No. I shall be affectionate to you and attach Myself to you; I shall take all the trouble to keep My property safe in My custody! That is to say, in the custody of the Lord, by whichever name you may be calling upon Him. All the powers I have are for you; I am just the store-keeper, keeping them ready to be given to you, whenever you ask for them. My Prema [Divine Love] shall [I] give even if you do not ask, for it is your right to share in it. (SSS, I, 182; Sept. 28, 1960)
The Lord is Inscrutable
No one can unravel the Mystery of the Lord. (SSS, I, 175; Sept. 27, 1960)
You cannot understand Me and My Secret ... without first understanding yourselves. For, if you are too weak to grasp your own Reality, how can you hope to fathom the much grander Reality of My Advent? To grasp My Meaning, you have to tear into tatters the doubts and theories you now have and cultivate Prema; for the embodiment of Prema can be understood only through Prema. (SSS, I, Jan. 22, 1960)
I have no ... balance of karma to work out! I am unaffected by karma.... The Maha Shakti [Divine Energy] puts on the cloak of Maya Shakti [illusory energy and its forms] in order to fulfill the purpose of contacting and protecting mankind. I have no desire and so, no binding karma. It is only you who have the desire, aim and wish that drag you along various paths. For Me, your Ananda is My Food, your elation is the swing on which I sit. Your activity is My Playground. (SSS, I, 179; Sept. 28, 1960)
The Lord is Unchanging
The Lord will never undergo a fundamental change; only the external form may change, the essence will be the same. ... The Lord will be characterized by unbounded Prema and unsullied sweetness. (SSS, I, 180; Sept. 28, 1960)
My Will Must Succeed
[The superpower] will never engage Itself in any task without fruit. (SSS, I, 180; Sept. 28, 1960)
There is no one who can change My course or affect My conduct to the slightest extent. I am the Master over all. (SSS, I, 182; Sept. 28, 1960)
I will be in this mortal form for 59 years more and I shall certainly achieve the purpose of this Avatar, do not doubt it. I will take My own Time to carry out My Plan so far as you are concerned. I cannot hurry because you are hurrying.
I may sometimes wait until I can achieve ten things at one stroke.... But My Word will never fail; it must happen as I Will. (SSS, I, 189; Sept. 29, 1960)
The World is My Mansion
Suffering in one corner of the world is as much the concern of the Lord as suffering in any other. ... The world is a Temple; the temple of the Lord, His body where He resides. (SSS, I, 156; June 25, 1960)
I Speak with the Authority of Love
I am not commanding you today on the basis of my authority; I am telling you out of the fullness of Prema, on the basis of the right I have to chastise you and direct you along the path. (SSS, I, 152; Jan. 22, 1960)
I have not come for propaganda or publicity or gaining disciples or devotees. I am yours and you are Mine. Where then is the need for publicity? I give not lectures but mixtures for your mental health and moral re-invigoration. So take My words as medicine necessary for your health. (SSS, I, 159; June 25, 1960)
I Want no Praise
I do not want you to extol Me; I shall be satisfied if you rely on Me. (SSS, I, 180; Sept. 28, 1960)
Only He knows what is Ahead
The Lord alone is aware of the Plan, for His is the Plan. You see only a part of the play on the stage and so it is all very confused. When the entire story is unfolded, then you will appreciate His Plan, not until then. (SSS, I, 181; Sept. 28, 1960)
Our Role
If by acting your role well you develop Prema [Divine Love] towards fellow-actors, that is more important than getting Bhakti [Devotion] for God. If you acquire Shanthi [Peace], that is a more valuable success than acquiring Jnana [Wisdom]. For Bhakti is the seed of Prema and Jnana is the seed of Shanthi. At least, Bhaktas should behave as if they are all of one family. (SSS, I, 181; Sept. 28, 1960)
Let each one march at his own pace; only the direction and the road have to be God-wards. (SSS, I, 183; Sept. 28, 1960)
Don't Miss This Opportunity
I must tell you that you are luckier than men of previous generations. The accumulated merit of many previous births must have granted you this luck. You have got Me and it is your duty now to develop this relationship that you have achieved by sheer good fortune. In four or five years' time, you will see Yogis [those who are united with God] and Maharishis [great seers] and Munis [silent sages] crowding here and you may not have such chances of asking Me questions and getting the answers, of approaching Me and directly speaking to Me. (SSS, I, 174-5; Sept. 27, 1960)
I have now fallen into your grasp, the very Treasure that you have been searching for. (SSS, I, 186; Sept. 29, 1960)
The mysterious indescribable superpower has come within reach. ... I bring tears of joy into your eyes and wipe the tears of grief. ... I make [people] mad about God and about the Sadhana [spiritual practice] needed [to reach Him]. I cure the madness which makes people run frantically after fleeting pleasures and fall into fits of joy and grief.(SSS, I, 180;Sept. 28, 1960)
You must know how to use the chance that you have got in this life to come in contact with the Lord. ... How you use this chance depends upon your destiny and luck and the amount of Grace that you are able to win. Develop faith; strengthen devotion; and everything will follow. ... I command you: never hate others, or wish evil of them or talk ill of them. Then only can you attain the Santhaswarupam [??]. (SSS, I, 181; Sept. 28, 1960)
The Way is Long
To reach the [final] stage..., you have got to go a long way. But do not be down-hearted.... I am here ready to help you from the first lesson to the last. Do not be weighed down by sorrow that your Prarabdha karma is against your progress. The accumulation of the effects of your past karma is sanchitha and out of that store what you have selected for present consumption can be made sweet, palatable and health-giving. Moreover, God's Grace can destroy the effects of past karma or modify its rigor. Never doubt that. If the law of Karma is so unbreakable, then why recommend Sadhana, good living and cultivation of virtue? Prarabdha [karmic consequences that one is currently encountering] will melt like mist before the Sun if you win the Grace of the Lord! (SSS, I, 196; Sept. 30, 1960)
1966
Baba Refuses Audience to Advanced Sadhaks
[Swami Maheshwaranand:] Bhagawan Baba is not allowing the Rishis [divine seers] and Siddhas [those with yogic powers] to meet him. But the time is not far off when all [the] ill take human forms and ... go to Puttaparthi along with [the] Rishis and Munis to offer their prayerful salutations to the Lord and seek His blessings.
Twenty years ago [i.e., 1966] ... the Lord was having breakfast with some close devotees. They proposed to Bhagawan [i.e., the Lord], "Swami! Your Leelas and miracles are the talk of every home in almost all the major countries of the world. As such we want to organise a conference of all spiritual seekers at the international level and declare from that forum that God, the Creator of this Universe, has already come down to earth. By so doing the entire humanity will get the benefit of the Lord's presence."
Bhagawan Baba listened to them with a smile and spoke compassionately, "Your feelings for your fellow beings are commendable and I respect them. But that time is still far off. Prior to that I have to bring such persons near me, who, in their previous lives, have been incessantly and untiringly trying to get access to me through their severe Sadhana. A time will come when the world will know about the Avatar through public declaration. All the same impelled by a sense of duty if you wish to bring this truth to the knowledge of your fellow devotees and friends, you may do so on a personal level." (SSBNNGA, 1990, book written in 1986, 38)
1968
Kali Yuga
At the present time, strife and discord have robbed peace and unity from the family, the school, the society, the religions, the cities and the state. (Baba in 1968 in HMAP, 1975, 86)
Respect for spiritual institutions, temples, holy places, elders and sacred books are fast declining. Pride in material wealth and competition in acquiring it, are fast increasing. This is the tragedy of our times. (SSS, VI, 169; from talk given March 26, 1 968)
Man's mind is too full of the world; his stomach is demanding too much of his time and energy. His desires and wants are multiplying too fast for his capacity to satisfy them; his dreams are far too real for him; they lead him into false victories and absurd adventures. Engrossed in the analysis of the material world, he has lost all sense of sin, sweetness and sublimity; under this new dispensation, truth has become just a word in the dictionary. Compassion is reduced to a meaningless travesty. Humility, patience, reverence -- these are invalid as a flameless lamp in the far distance.
The only hold that man has in this dreadful darkness is the name of God. That is the raft which will take him across this stormy sea, darkened by hate and fear, churned by anxiety and terror. (SSS, VI, 163; Feb. 26, 1968)
Baba's Mission
God incarnates for the revival of Dharma (Righteousness) which includes morality, truth, virtue, love and a host of other qualities that uphold the communities of man as well as the individual. The other purposes usually give -- serving the devoted, destroying the wicked, re-establishing the sacred tradition -- these are all secondary. For, he who is righteous will be guarded from harm, by righteousness itself; he who is unrighteous will fall into disaster through the evil that he perpetrates. The one task includes all else.
I shall fulfill that task, whatever the comments that others may make. Comment is a natural corollary. I do not pay attention to it; nor should you. The higher the hill, the deeper the valley. Praise or blame will not affect me in the least. The unshakeable foundation on which my work is proceeding is Ananda. I cannot be moved from it, by any one, at any time. (SSS, VI, 167; from talk given Feb. 26, 1968)
For the protection of the virtuous, for the destruction of evil-doers and for establishing righteousness on a firm footing, I incarnate from age to age. Whenever asanthi, or disharmony, overwhelms the world, the Lord will incarnate in human form to establish the modes of earning Prashanthi, or peace, and to reeducate the human community in the paths of peace. (Baba in 1968 in HMAP, 1975, 86)
I have come to correct the Buddhi, the intelligence, by various means. I have to counsel, help, command, condemn and stand by as a friend and well-wisher to all, so that they may give up evil propensities and, recognizing the straight mark, tread it and reach the goal. (Baba in 1968 in HMAP, 1975, 87)
I have come to give you the key to the treasure of Ananda, or bliss, to teach you how to tap that spring, for you have forgotten the way to blessedness. If you waste this time of saving yourselves, it is just your fate. You have come to get from me tinsel and trash, the petty little cures and promotions, worldly joys and comforts. Very few of you desire to get from me the thing that I have come to give you: namely, liberation itself. Even among these few, those who stick to the path of Sadhana, or spiritual practice, and succeed are a handful. (Baba in 1968 in HMAP, 1975, 88)
Who can be called a Devotee?
You can lay claim to be a devotee only when you have placed yourself in my hands fully and completely with no trace of ego. (Baba in 1968 in HMAP, 1975, 86)
Baba's Promise
Cultivate nearness with me in the heart and it will be rewarded. Then you too will acquire a fraction of that supreme love (Baba in 1968 in HMAP, 1975, 91)
You can enjoy the bliss through the experience the Avatar confers. (Baba in 1968 in HMAP, 1975, 86)
The West Misleads Itself
In western countries now, God is denied, and man is relying on himself; he exaggerates his own intelligence and sense of adventure and prides himself on the advance he has made through science and technology. But, intelligence without equanimity is filling mental hospitals. Peace is fleeing from the hearts of men and women; social harmony is becoming a distant dream; international concord is a mirage, pursued by a few. Man travels to the moon, but does not explore his own inner levels of consciousness. (SSS, VII, March 16, 1968, 12.)
When Changes will Start
[Dr. John Hislop:] According to the astrology of ancient times, the change in world conditions to be brought about by Swami's influence will come in about 15 years [this conversation was in December, 1968]. This was predicted about 5,600 years ago in the Upanishads. The coming of Baba, the Sai Avatar, which includes the three incarnations, is all forecast quite clearly. People born in this generation may consider themselves quite fortunate. The 1985 change is the beginning of the "Great Awakening," mentioned below; the beginning of the Golden Age is said to occur around 1998-2000
Be Confident that You will All be Liberated
This is a great chance. Be confident that you will all be liberated. Know that you are saved. Many hesitate to believe that things will improve, that life will be happy for all and full of joy, and that the golden age will recur. Let me assure you that this Dharmaswarupa, that this divine body, has not come in vain. It will succeed in averting the crisis that has come upon humanity. (Baba in 1968 in HMAP, 1975, 91)
1970
Question of Priorities
A group of scholars who had come to me recently asked me, "Swami! You talk of the flames of anxiety and fear; but, surely, you appreciate the great step forward that man has taken by landing on the moon!" I told them, it was wrong to spend billions of dollars and roubles on such enterprises. ... It is a question of priorities; first things first. When so many nations upon the Earth are undernourished, undereducated, underhoused, it is sheer absence of discrimination to spend time, skill and money for this spectacular competitive adventure. Later, when the earth has been made the home of a happy family of peoples, such enterprises can be planned. (SSS, VIII, 7; from talk given March 6, 1970)
Live in the Community
The community in which you find yourself is the arena where you can win the victory, the gymnasium where you develop the skill to win. The spiritual journey lies through compassion, sympathy, mutual help, and service, and these are fostered by society and are to be used for society. (SSS, VIII, 5; from talk given March 6, 1970)
1971
Baba's Mission
Baba has announced many times that He has come to save the world and [that] He is the Lord Himself. My task is the spiritual regeneration of humanity through truth and love. I have come to show you how to live usefully and die profitably. I have come to guide and bless those who undergo the discipline and practice leading to Divine union. I came ... because the good men of the world, the saintly, the wise, the sage, and the seeker, the guides and the Godly longed for Me. Where there is a desire for mental tranquility, I hurry to grant it; where there is melancholy, I hasten to lift the drooping heart; where there is no mutual trust, I restore it; I am ever on the move to fulfill the mission for which I have come. Baba's campaign of spreading the message of love has only just begun, and all who have heard His message can clearly visualize the significance of the declaration He made on the opening page of Sanathana Sarathi [the name means "the ancient charioteer" and refers to Krishna in particular, who guided Arjuna's chariot in the battle of Kurukshetra, the backdrop of the Bhagavad-Gita, and God in general, who is the internal Guide], the monthly magazine He inaugurated on February 16, 1958, the thirty-second year of His earthly career. On that day, the Sanathana Sarathi, the charioteer, started out on the campaign against falsehood, injustice, wickedness and evil -- the minions of the spirit of egoism. The victory to be won is the welfare of the entire world. When the triumphant drums are beaten in the joy of success, humanity will have achieved happiness and peace, prosperity and bliss. The word "Sarathi" is an assurance from Baba that He will guide the seeker if only he takes the initial step of inviting Him to take over the reins of his life. The word "Sanathana" is a reminder that this has been the role of Baba since the dawn of creation. I have not started the work for which I have come for I am still in the stage of preliminary reconnaissance. When I start my campaign the whole world will know of it and benefit by it. Already the plans of the campaign are clear on the horizon. (LBSSSB, 1971)
Time not ready for Publicity
You know this [incident] now, because [someone] wrote about it. But remember, this is only a millionth part of My activity in showering Grace. (LBSSSB, 1971, 186)
Baba Reveals His Time of Death
[Kasturi:] Baba has assured us that He will remain in the human frame beyond the year 2020. (LBSSSB, 1971, 235)
Shirdi and Sathya Sai Baba
The mother is usually stern when the children enter the kitchen and disturb her while cooking; but while serving the food, she is all joy and patience. I am now serving you the dishes cooked then [when I was Shirdi Sai Baba]; wherever you may be, if you are hungry, and if you have a plate, I shall serve you the dishes and feed you to your heart's content. (LBSSSB, 1971, 170)
Baba's Behavior is All Meaningful
I never utter a word that does not have significance, or do a deed without beneficial consequence. (LBSSSB, 1971, 196)
Baba will help the Sincere Inquirer
If you ... act according to My words, and put them into daily practice, I will gladly tell you more and more, for that is the reason why I have come. (LBSSSB, 1971, 225)
His Devotees Rely on Him
Why fear when I am here? Put all your faith in Me. I shall guide and guard you. Ardent devotees of Sai Baba are content to leave the welfare of their physical frames to His Will. Nothing will harm him who turns his attention towards Me. (Shirdi Sai Baba in LBSSSB, 1971)
Our Good Fortune
You of this generation are indeed lucky that you have the fortune of contact with Me and the chance to receive the guidance I have come to give. (LBSSSB, 1971)
Grace Available to All
It is not mentioned anywhere that the Grace of God is available only for certain classes or races or grades of people. From the smallest to the biggest, throughout the world, all are entitled to it. (LBSSSB, 1971)
Religion is Being Challenged
[He said] religion and belief in God are being challenged now from all quarters. It is therefore the duty of all good men to meet this challenge by demonstrating to the critics how the realization of the constant presence of the Lord has made them more efficient, more earnest, and more courageous for the task of living. (LBSSSB, 1971)
The Character of New World Leaders
The world can achieve prosperity and peace only through ... persons whose hearts are pure and whose minds are free of prejudice and passion, lust and greed, anger and envy. (LBSSSB, 1971)
Service Undedicated to God is Unprofitable
Though the service of humanity is holy, unless it is merged in the higher ideal of the Lord, realizing the Lord immanent in all, adoring the Lord in the form of everyone, there is no profit at all. One should have full faith in the divinity of man and service should be offered in the uninterrupted contemplation of the Lord. Use the power, knowledge and attainments the Lord has endowed you with for the greater glory of the Lord, whatever be the field of activity or the region of duty where you are called upon to render service. (LBSSSB, 1971)
1974
Prepare to Shoulder Your Task
Prepare for shouldering the task assigned to you - to be instruments dedicated [to] the mission on which the Divine has come. (SSS, IX)
1975
The Kali Yuga
You are fully aware of the characteristics of this Kaliyuga [an age of evil and violence] we are passing through. You find around you injustice, irregularities, immorality and untruth with all their devilish attributes and atrocities. But we have to march ahead in spite of all this with a quiet, tolerant and benign attitude towards life. (BSSS, 1975)
The main reason for this disorder is that the human mind is haunted and dominated by two devilish blemishes, viz. selfishness and ambition. These forces are standing in the way of human beings realising the human values which go to make up humanity. It is not becoming of a man to exchange his valuable life -- as precious as a gem -- for worldly desires and ambitions which are as worthless as a coal-stone. Man becomes immortal neither by deeds, nor by procreation nor by wealth. We should therefore try to make our lives meaningful by sacrificing our personal comforts for the sake of society and our fellow beings. (BSSS, 1975)
Baba's Mission
It is my mission on earth to make every one happy. (BSSSB, 1975)
Baba's Promise
Today our country is witnessing a number of agitations and disturbances. People have a fear that any moment foreigners may step in and dominate our national life. ... But there is no scope for such fear of disaster. You need not be afraid of any such eventuality. You should develop a spirit of sacrifice and derive pleasure from within. You keep the weapon of love always sharp and shining. An atom bomb can destroy innumerable lives while the bomb of love unites several hearts and fills them with love. We should therefore develop this love for all mankind and accommodate them in our hearts. (BSSS, 1975)
Why Baba Avoids Publicity
[Miracles are] happening in millions of homes. The time has not come as yet to assess it publicly. I am waiting so that all the devotees who have yet to come to me may do so. (BSSSB, 1975)
Timetable of the Golden Age
[Dr. V.K. Gokak:] There is the possibility that there is going to be a world crisis around the 1980s, after which there will be a definite turn towards what we call the Golden Age. At this time, it will be clear to man that any more entering into world power games will end in disaster for the whole world; and this will not be done. Simultaneous with this realization, there will be a descent of Grace. This descent of Grace is what will really bring forward the "Hour of God". This "Hour of God" is different from the prediction regarding the collapse of California.
The "Hour of God" is the hour of the unexpected; there will be different patterns in things. We may find that all elections that take place will place good men into positions of power. It is the good men that will begin to lead the industries. It will be the good men that will serve the people. Then there will be a great change in the very atmosphere. This will be one of the signs of the coming of the Golden Age. (BSSSB, 1975)
Look to God
Prominent men of society and great political leaders ... are heroes on the platform, but zeros in practical life. There is no use depending on these leaders. The one that leads us is the Lord of the entire universe, who creates and sustains his whole creation. It is only He who can give us lasting happiness and peace. (BSSS, 1975)
Find God in Everything
We should develop a habit of visualizing unity in diversity and not diversity in the unity that is Divine. God is everywhere and in everyone. The whole universe is inhabited by Him. One should find God in every object. These are the ideals we find in our scriptures. (BSSS, 1975)
The West has Misled Itself
It is a strange [that] westerners ... during the past 200 years ... have done their best to get control over the powers of nature and to create fearful machines for that purpose. But ... today, although man has conquered the entire world, ... he is not able to conquer himself. To conquer and control one's mind is the primary duty of man. The path which enables us to control our mind is the spiritual path. (BSSS, 1975)
Serve Society
This material prosperity and our power and positions are purely temporary. What accompanies us to the other world is our good conduct. We should therefore try to do something good to society and spend whatever time we can afford on virtuous actions. This is the only way we can make our lives meaningful and become eligible for the sacred love of our Lord. Be kind to mankind. Take pity on the helpless to the extent you can. (BSSS, 1975)
Peace Lies Within
When we say there is no peace in the world, the world is never like that. The lack of peace is in your heart. To keep on shouting that there is no peace in this world is not right. Lack of peace is the problem of an individual. .. There is as much peace in this world as you want. (BSSS, 1975)
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