Category: Meditation

Baba’s approach to inner stillness, contemplation, and meditative practice — drawn from His teachings and the experiences of devotees who found peace through sitting in His presence.

  • Now, How to visualize Baba

    Now, How to visualize Baba

    • Let us remember and visualize Shri Sai, now.
    • Let us go to Shirdi, and see carefully the programmes, after the noon-Arati. After the Arati ceremony was over, Sai used to
      • come out of the Masjid, and
      • standing on its edge,
      • distribute udi to the devotees with
      • very kind and loving looks.
    • The Bhaktas also got up with equal fervour,
      • clasped His Feet, and
      • standing and staring at Him,
      • enjoyed the shower of Udi.
    • Baba
      • passed handfuls of Udi into the palms of the devotees and
      • marked their foreheads with Udi with His fingers.
    • The love He bore for them in His heart was boundless. Then He addressed the Bhaktas as follows:-
      • “Oh Bhau, go to take your lunch;
      • you Anna, go to your lodgings;
      • you Bapu, enjoy your dishes”.
    • In this way He accosted each and every devotee and sent them home.
    • Even now, you can enjoy these sights if you bring into play your imagination. You can visualize and enjoy them.
    • Now bringing Sai before our mental vision, let us meditate on Him, from His Feet upwards to His face, and prostrating before Him humbly, lovingly and respectfully

    Baba in SSSC-Ch20

  • Make me the sole object of your thoughts and aims, you will attain Paramartha

    Make me the sole object of your thoughts and aims, you will attain Paramartha

    “Look here, my Guru was a great saint and highly merciful.

    I fatigued myself in trying to serve him and yet he did not utter any mantra in my ear. Instead he first shaved me clean and then begged of me two pice (money).

    What he wanted was not metallic coin—he did not care even for gold,but only Nishta and Saburi, i.e. faith and courageous patience. I gave these to him and at once, he was pleased.

    Mother, Saburi is courage, do not discard it. It ferries you across to goal. It gives i) overcomes all fears, ii) manliness to men, iii) eradicates sin and dejection and

    For 12 years I waited on my Guru, who is peerless and loving.

    • How can I describe his love to me?
      • When he was Dhyanasta (in love trance),
      • I sat and gazed at him; and
      • we were both filled with Bliss.
      • I cared not to turn my eye upon anything else.
      • Night and day, I pored upon his face with an ardour of love that banished hunger and thirst.
      • The Guru’s absence, even for a second, made me restless.
      • I meditated upon nothing but the Guru and had no goal or object other than the Guru.
      • Unceasingly fixed upon him was my mind.
      • Wonderful indeed the art of my Guru!
      • I wanted nothing but the Guru and
      • he wanted nothing but my love.
      • Apparently action less,
        • he never neglected me,
        • but always protected me by his glance.

    That Guru—I tell the truth, sitting as I do in this Masjid— never blew any mantra into my ear; nor do I blow any into yours.

    • Go thou and do likewise.
      • If you make me, the sole object of your thoughts and aims,
      • you will attain Paramartha, the supreme goal.
      • Look at me with undivided attention;
      • so will I look at you.
    • This is the only truth my Guru taught me. The four sadhanas and the six sastras are not necessary.
    • With entire confidence, trust your Guru. That is enough.”
    • The lady bowed, accepted the advice and gave up her satyagraha.

    Baba to a Lady, who started Fasting to get mantra from Him, about His Guru.

  • I know, what you do beyond the seven seas.

    I know, what you do beyond the seven seas.

    “If you spread your palm with devotion before Me, I am immediately with you, day and night. Though, I am here physically, still I know what you do beyond the seven seas.

    Go wherever you wish, over the wide world, I am with you. My abode is in your heart, and I am within you.

    Always worship me, who is seated in your heart as well as in the hearts of all beings. Blessed and fortunate indeed is he, who knows, Me thus.”

    Sai Baba in SSSC-Chapter 15

  • Quote of the day

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  • Siva, Vishnu and Brahma-Role Play

    Siva, Vishnu and Brahma-Role Play

    The entire world of manifestation is the play of Brahma, Vishnu and Easwara/Siva.

    Brahma creates, Vishnu sustains and Easwara dissolves or merges.

    Brahma determines your next birth according to your previous karmas,

    Whereas Vishnu sustains the creation of Brahma. A plant cannot grow of its own accord. It has to be looked after, watered and fenced. Only then it will become a big tree.

    In the same manner, it is not enough for the guru to merely suggest to you to recite the name of the Lord and carry on with your meditation. Vishnu also has to look after your practice and progress. He gives you the necessary support and strength.

    The work of Easwara/Siva is to make things merge with infinity. Laya or dissolution means merging the soul with Paramatma. Easwara dissolves the individual into the Universal.

    Thus, the entire process consists of creation, sustenance and merger. The trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara does not represent the three gurus. It relates to the same being functioning in three different directions at three different times.

    – Divine Discourse by Puttaparti Satya Sai Baba, Jun 20, 1973

  • Man should seek God alone

    Man should seek God alone

    Once God’s grace is secured, all else will be got with ease. For this, man must get rid of attachment, fear and hatred.

    He must perform all actions as an offering to God, who is omnipresent.

    The vigil and fasting observed on Shivaratri night have become a farce. True vigil and fasting consist of concentrating one’s thoughts on God during the whole night.

    God’s grace is a direct sequel to one’s actions. Each one must examine and see in what spirit one is performing one’s worship. The Divine can be realised only through Shraddha and Vishvasa (steadfastness and faith).

    The Divine is within everyone. Once man recognises this fact, he will give no room for bad qualities. Embodiments of Divine Love! Dedicate yourselves to the performance of your duties.

    Do not waste your time or that of others in idle talk. Starting with the duties of the individual, man should aim at achieving oneness with the Divine as the ultimate goal.

    Shivaratri is an auspicious occasion for concentrating the mind on God. Devote at least this one night entirely to the contemplation of God, to the exclusion of all other thoughts and worries.

    – Divine Discourse, by Puttaparti Satya Sai Baba, Feb 19, 1993

  • Surrender, How simplified?

    Surrender, How simplified?

    Just Repeat Soham (I am He), with every breath.

    ‘So’ when you take in, and ‘ham’ when you exhale. ‘So’ means ‘He’: and ‘ham’ means ‘I’ ;and when you complete the inhalation and exhalations;

    Feel that ‘So’ namely the Lord, and ‘ham’ namely, ‘I (you)’ are One! Later, after long practice, the idea of He and I as two separate entities will disappear and there will be no more So and ham.

    Those sounds will be reduced to O and M, it will be Om or Pranava. Repeat that sound afterwards with every breath and that will save you from bondage to birth and death, for it is the Pranavopasana (contemplation on Pranava) recommended in Vedas.

    This Soham recitation is a good means of restraining the mind from running away. Let the mind be ever attached to the Lord; then, it will not flee towards all directions.

    That is the meaning of Krishna’s exhortation: Sarva dharman parityajya mam ekam sharanam vraja – Giving up all other activities, surrender fully to Me.

  • Step by step to Self realisation

    Step by step to Self realisation

    No one, whether he be father, mother, brother or any other relation, comes to our aid in attaining the goal of life (self-realization).

    We have to chalk out and traverse the path of self-realization ourselves.

    1. We have to discriminate between the Unreal and the Real, renounce the things and enjoyments of this world and the next, control our senses and mind, and aspire for liberation only.

    2. Instead of depending upon others, we should have full faith in ourselves.

    3. When we begin to practice discrimination, we come to know, that the world is transient and unreal and

    4. our passion for worldly things becomes less and less, and ultimately we get dispassion or non-attachment for them.

    5. Then we know that the Brahma which is no other than our Guru is the sole reality and

    6. as It transcends and besets the seeming universe, we begin to worship It in all creatures. This is the unitive Bhajan or worship.

    7. When we thus worship the Brahma or Guru whole-heartedly, we become one with Him and attain self-realization.

    8. In short, a) always chanting the name of the Guru, and b) meditating on Him enables us to c) see Him in all beings, and 4) confers eternal bliss on us.

  • Take you over the seven seas

    Take you over the seven seas

    “Those, who are fortunate and whose demerits have vanished, take to My worship.

    If you always say ‘Sai, Sai’, I shall take you over the seven seas; believe in these words. And you will be certainly benefited.

    I do not need any paraphernalia of worship – either eight-fold or sixteen-fold. I rest there, where there is full devotion“.

    Baba in SSSC-Ch 13

  • Earlier Years at Shirdi III- Age of 50+

    In his earliest days, even up to 1890, Baba had a youthful love of art and music; and at night he often went to the Takia, the resting place for visiting Muslims.

    There he would, with his very sweet and appealing voice, sing songs mostly of Kabir or songs in Persian or Arabic, which the local people could not understand.

    He seldom performed the five Namazes, never bending on the knees and rising, as most Muslims do. He was an adept in concentration and he had reached the perfection of Manolaya on the Atman, the merger of the self in the Self. That is why he could say as he did. “Maim Allah Hum ie. I am God.“

    His worship never took him away from his social contacts with his neighbours, in relation to whom the key-note of all his thought and activity was service, absolutely selfless service.