PRAY WHAT?
All the things that we see in the universe are nothing but a play of Maya (cosmic illusion)- the creative power of the Lord. These things do not really exist. What really exists is the Real Absolute. Just as we mistake a rope of a garland or a stick for a serpent on account of darkness, we always see the phenomena, i.e. things as they outwardly appear, and not the Noumenon (Thing-in-itself ) which underlies all the visible things. Only the Sad-guru opens the eyes of our understanding. He enables us to see things in their true light and not as they appear. Let us, therefore, worship the Sad-guru and pray to him to give us the true vision, which is nothing but God-vision.
Novel Form of Worship
Hemadpant has given us a novel form of worship.
- Let us, he says, use hot water in the form of tears of joy to wash the Sad-guru’s feet.
- Let us besmear, His body with sandalwood-paste of pure love.
- Let us cover His body with the cloth of true faith.
- Let us offer eight lotuses as our eight Sattwik emotions.
- Let us present fruit as our concentrated mind.
- Let us apply to His head bukka (black-powder) in the form of devotion. Let us tie the waistband of Bhakti and place our head on his toes.
After decorating the Sad-guru with all jewelry in this way,
- let us offer everything to Him.
- We wave the chamar of devotion to ward off heat.
- After such blissful worship, let us pray thus:- “Introvert our mind.
- Turn it inward.
- Give us discrimination between the Unreal and the Real.
- Grant us non-attachment for all worldly things.
- Thus enable us to get Self-realisation.
- We surrender ourselves, body and soul (body-consciousness and ego).
- Make our eyes Yours, so that we should never feel pleasure and pain.
- Control our body and mind as You will and wish.
- Let our mind get rest in Your Feet”.
SSSC Ch-26
"I draw to Me, My man from far off or even across the seven Seas to Shirdi, like a sparrow with a string fastened to its feet"-Shirdi Sai Baba, Indian Spiritual Guru-God 