Baba’s sayings about HIS own Gurus and other Gurus
Para Number in the Book ‘BCS”, About Teachers
(Sai Baba’s Former Guru’s Mahima)
175. Baba himself described how he met his guru.
“Once myself and three others were studying our Pothi, Puran and other works and discussed how we were to get realisation.
One said we should depend on ourselves (and not on a guru) for Gita says raise your self.
A second said the main thing is to make the mind selfcontrolled, free from thoughts and doubts. It is we who are in everything, everywhere.
A Third.: The form (i.e. in phenomena) is ever changing. The formless is unchanging. So we must always be making Vichara i.e., distinguishing between Nitya and Anitya.
The fourth (Sai Baba) disliked bookish knowledge, “Let is do our prescribed duty,” HE said, “and surrender our body, speech and life to a guru, who is all pervading. Faith in him is the thing needful.”
As we rambled through the forest, we met a Vanajari (a caste that carried salt, grain etc.) who asked us “where are you going in this heat into the forest?” We gave no direct reply. He kindly warned us from getting into the trackless woods—and that needlessly. He bade us share his food.
We disdained his advice and marched on.
But in that vast and dense wood, we lost our way
That man met us again and said that by relying on our own cleverness, we had got into a wrong way and that a guiding finger is needed to show the way. “Do not despise offers of food. Such offers are auspicious signs of success in one’s endeavour,” he said; and he again invited us to take food with him. Again we declined it and went away. I soon felt hungry and I went and accepted a bit of bread and ate it and drank some water.
Then A Guru came then and said, “What was your dispute?” and I told him all our talk. The others left him and did not care for him. But I reverently bowed to him. Then he took me to a well tied up my legs with a rope, and suspended me, head downwards, from a tree by a side of the well. My head was about three feet off the water, which I could not reach.
And my guru left me there and went away-God knows where. He returned after 4 or 5 hours and asked me how I fared. “In great bliss was my time passed”-I answered. The Guru, mightily pleased with me, drew me near him, passed his palm over my head and body and spoke to me tender words dripping with love, and he put me into his school -where I entirely forgot my father and mother and all attachments and desires.
I loved to gaze at him. If he were not there to see, I would not like to have eyes at all. I did not wish to go back. I forgot all other things but the Guru. My life was concentrated in my sight and my sight in him. That was the object of my meditation. In silence, I bowed.
Meaning i.e., Realisation flashed upon me, of itself without effort or study, purely by his grace.
Guru’s grace is our only sadhana. JNANA comes as experience (or in its wake).
Guru needed
176. A devotee- ‘Baba, where is one to go?
Baba.: Above this.
D.: What is the way?
Baba.: There are plenty of ways proceeding from each place. For you, here is this way, leading hence. But the way is rugged. There are tigers and bears on the route.
H.S.Dixit: But Baba, if one has a guide with him, then?
Baba.- If one has a guide with him, then there is no difficulty. Then, the tigers and bears move aside. If there is no guide, there is a deep yawning pit on the way, and there is the danger of falling into it.
(Here “Guide” = “Guru,” and ‘Pit= “Hell”)
177- Baba-“Stick to your own Guru with unabated faith, whatever the merits of other Gurus and however little the merits of your own.”
Pant, we must not give up attachment to our own Guru but be ever firmly resting in him and in him alone.
BABA ON “VENKUSA” The Guru of this birth
178. “For 12 years I waited on my Guru who is peerless and loving. How can I describe his love to Me? When he was DYANASTHA, (i.e., in love-trance) I sat and gazed at him. 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 for a second made me restless. I meditated on 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 this intense love from me. Apparently inactive, he never neglected me, but always protected me by his glance. That Guru never blew any mantra into my ear. By his grace, I attained to my present state. Making the Guru the sole object of one’s thoughts and aims one attains Paramartha, the Supreme Goal. This is the only truth the Guru taught me. The four Sadhanas and Six Sastras are not necessary. Trusting in the Guru fully is enough.
That is the only Sadhana
My fakir’s wife left me with ‘Venkusa’ at Selu, stayed with him 12 years, and left Selu.
178. This Brick (which Baba always lovingly used to support his arm or head) is my Guru’s gift, my life companion. It is not the brick that is broken now-but my Karma (prarabdha) is that has snapped. I cannot survive the breaking of the brick.
(Baba said this early in October 1918, when Madhav Fasle lifted the brick and carelessly allowed it to fall, whereby it broke into two. Baba seeing the broken pieces expressed his grief and spoke as above.)
- Baba: “Nana, I am not angry with you. You, my children can be angry with me. If Venkusa were alive, I could be angry with him.”
- “One should not stay in any place, where saints are (or one’s Guru is) ill spoken of.”
FORMER GURU KABIR UPASANA
Margosa Foot tomb is Kabirs i.e., Body of Kabir became flowers
181. Kabir was my guru (cf.477)
I put up at that tree foot (Gode Neem), for that reason.
God will bless those who burn incense here on Thursdays and Fridays (sc 164)
182. GURU IS GOT, BY ADOPTION BY THE DEVOTEE
A rich lady carried a plateful of rupees and stood before Baba for 4 days. But Baba did not ask her for any Dakshina.
Lady (on the fourth day): “Baba, I have come here for a Guru. Take my dakshina now. Make yoursef my guru and give me upadesa.”
Baba: It is not the guru that makes himself your guru. It is you who must regard him as Guru, i.e., place faith in him. Take a Postherd and regard it as your Guru and see if your goal or aim is reached or not. (cf Ekalavya)
Nature of Jnana or Brahman and how to get it through Gurus
183. N.C.G., a graduate well versed in Sanskrit and a good student of Sankara Bhashya on Gita, was once massaging Baba’s feet at the Mosque.
Baba- ” Nana, what are your muttering?”
N.G.C.: A Sanskrit verse.
B.: What is the verse?
N.G.C.: A verse from the Gita.
B.: Recite it audibly.
Then N.G.C. recited Gita, Chapter 4, verse 34.
B.: Nana, do you understand this?
N.G.C.: I do.
B.: Then give the meaning.
Then N.G.C. gave the meaning.
B.: I do not want the general purport. Give the meaning word for word, with strict reference to case, mood, tense and other parts of grammar.
Nana gave such an explanation, wondering whether Baba could know anything of Sanskrit grammar. But Baba began cross examining him severely with reference to grammar.
B.: In Thatvidhi what does That refer to?
B.: Which Jnana or Jnana of what?
N.G.C.: The Jnana referred to in the previous stanzas.
B. What does Pranipatha mean?
N.G.C.: Prostration.
B.: What does (Patha) mean?
N.G.C.: The same.
B.: If Pranipatha and Patha meant the same, would Vyasa have added two needless syllables’?
N.G.C.: I do not know the difference between the two.
B.: What does prasna mean’.’
N.G.C.: It means putting questions.
B.: What does pariprasna mean?
N.G.C.: The same.
B.: If both the phrases meant the same, was Vyasa off his head to use the longer phrase?
N.G.C.: I do not see however any difference.
B.: What does Seva mean?
N.G.C.: Service, such as massaging.
B. : Nothing more?
N.G.C.: I cannot see what more it will mean.
B.: Let that go. In the last two parts. Krishna asks Arjuna to get Jnana from Tatwadarsi Jnanis. Was not Krishna a jnani?
N.G.C.: Yes.
B.: Then why does he not give jnana himself but refer Arjuna to others?
N.G.C.: I cannot say.
B.. Is not Arjuna a jiva, a piece of Chaitanya?
N.G.C.: Yes.
B. : How can jnana be given to the jiva, which is already a piece of Chaitanya or Jnana?
N.G.C.: I cannot say.
B. : Let that alone. In the second half of the stanza can you read an extra syllable into it?
N.G.C.: Yes.
B.. How?
N.G.C.; By adding an Avagraha, i.e., elision mark before Jnana.
B.How will it read then ?
N.G.C. Updateikshanthi Tejanam. But Baba, this reading is not found in Sankara’s commentary.
B. : What if? If it makes a better sense, what is the harm?
N.G.C.: I cannot see how it can make a better sense.
B.: You will.
Then Nana wanted Baba to answer the questions which he Himself had raised and explain the stanza in his own way.
B.: The Stanza refers to how a sishya should approach his guru to obtain realisation of the Real. The disciple must approach the Guru, completely surrendering body, mind, soul and possessions, to the Guru. The prostration must be one accompanied by that attitude.
As for Pariprasna, it must be repeated and must not be mere idle questions or merely out of curiosity or with any improper motive, or attitude, e.g., to trap the Guru into a mistake and catch him. The object must be pure desire to attain progress and liberation and the questions must be humbly repeated till full light is gained.
As for Seva, mere service e.g., massage etc., is not enough. To be effective, there must be no lingering idea that one is free to yield the service or refuse it. One must feel that one is not the master of the body-which has become the Guru’s and exists merely to render him service.
As for the Guru giving Ajnana to the sishya, we will see,
B.. Is not Brahman, Jnana or pure Sadvastu?
N.G.C.: Yes.
B.: Have not the sastras declared that Brahman is not reached by speech or mind? (Ayathovacho)
N.G.C.: Yes.
B.. Then that speech (of the Guru) is not Brahman or Jnana?
N.G.C.: No. It is not.
B.: Then what the Guru speaks is not Jnana but Ajnana? Is it not so?
NG.C.: It seems so.
B: “The Guru’s instruction is ‘a piece of ignorance Ajnana, removing the disciple’s Ajnana’, just as a thorn removes a thorn. Is that not so? “
N.G.C; Yes.
B.: The pupil is a jiva, whose essential nature is jnana. Is it not so?
N.G.C.: Yes.
B.: Then there is no necessity to give him jnana, but only to remove the curtain of ignorance that hides that jnana. Is it not so?
N.G.C: Yes.
B. That, of course, is not done at one stroke, as the disciple’s jiva is immersed deep in age-long ignorance and requires to be instructed repeatedly, birth after birth it may be.
B.: What is the nature of this instruction through speech, about that, which is beyond speech? It is just like removing a cover. Ajnana is covering jnana, just like moss covering the water. Then remove the moss and you have the clear water. You have not got to create the water. Water is there. During an eclipse the Sun or Moon is there, but Rahu or Kethu hides the view from us and when Rahu or Kethu passes away; the light of the Sun or Moon which is continuing right through is seen bv us.
Take another example. We are seeing things with the eyes. Then a cataract forms over them and the eyes cannot see. Pull off the cataract, then the eyes see. Ajnana is the. cataract.
The Universe is the efflorescence of the indescribable Maya, which is ignorance. Yet it is the Ajnana that illuminates the Ajnana.
B.: Jnana is to be realised and is not a matter of direct Upadesa.
Salutation, Questioning and Service are Sadhanas for obtaining the Guru’s grace.
The impression that Phenomena are real is a delusion. This is the screen of darkness that hides Jnana. Tear off that screen. Then Prajnana Brahma will shine forth.
Ajnana is the seed of Samsara. If the Guru kripa paint is put on the eye. Maya screen lifts and Jnana survives. Jnana is not an effect. It is ever self-existent. On the other hand, Ajnana has a cause and an end. “God is one. The Devotee is another”. This is the root of ignorance. Remove it. Jnana remains.
Ignorance finds a snake in the rope. Remove the ignorance, then the rope is known as it is.
As to why Krishna refers Arjuna to other gurus without imparting Jnana himself, consider this. Did Krishna view Jnanis as different from Himself? Did he not say that Jnanis are identical with Himself? Thus their teaching is His teaching. Is it not so?
- G. C.: Yes, Baba. Pray teach me the whole of the Gita.
B.: Daily read one chapter and come and sit before me.
N.G.C.: Yes.
Thereafter Nana went each day having read up one chapter and when he sat at the feet of Baba, he got the gist of it.
"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 