Category: Duty of devotee

  • Don’t entertain the sense of doership

    Don’t entertain the sense of doership

    Once Shri Vasudevanand Saraswati, known as Shri Tembye Swami, camped at Rajamahendri (Andhra State) by the river Godavari. He was a devoted Jnani and Yogi Bhakta of God Dattatreya.

    Mr. Pundalikrao, a pleader from Nanded, visited him with friends, during which they mentioned Shirdi and Sai Baba.

    The Swami bowed when Baba’s name was spoken. He gave Pundalikrao a coconut. The Swami asked him, to offer it to Baba, with his regards. He also wanted Pundalikrao, to remind Baba to remember him.

    The Swami noted that he usually does not bow to others, but made an exception here. Pundalikrao agreed to take the fruit and message to Baba.

    A month later, Pundalikrao and his friends traveled to Shirdi with the coconut. They stopped at a rivulet for water. Feeling hungry, they broke the coconut. They mixed it with their Chivda, making it tastier. Unfortunately, this was the coconut, meant for Baba.

    When Pundalikrao reached Shirdi, he remembered the coconut and felt guilty. He saw Baba, Who already knew about the coconut and asked Pundalikrao, to give the items from his brother -swami.

    Pundalikrao confessed his negligence. He sought forgiveness and offered to replace the coconut.

    Baba declined his offer, saying its value was far greater than an ordinary one.

    Baba also added- “

    • Now you need not worry yourself any more about the matter.
    • It was on account of my wish that the coconut was entrusted to you.
    • Ultimately it was broken on the way.
    • Why should you take the responsibility of the actions on you?
    • Do not entertain the sense of doership in doing good, as well as for bad deeds; be entirely prideless and egoless in all things and
    • thus your spiritual progress will be rapid
  • Mastering Dispassion: A Guide to Spiritual Liberation with Baba

    Mastering Dispassion: A Guide to Spiritual Liberation with Baba

    Baba’s physical or finite form has undoubtedly vanished from our sight; however, the infinite or spiritual essence (Spirit of Baba) endures eternally.

    Baba’s plays continue:

    • The divine Leelas (play) that transpired during His earthly existence have been extensively discussed till now.
    • Since His departure, new Leelas (play) have emerged and continue to unfold even now.
    • This clearly illustrates that Baba remains ever-living and extends His assistance to His devotees as before.

    About Those contacted physically Baba:

    • Those who were blessed to have contact with Baba during His lifetime were indeed fortunate;
    • nevertheless, if any of them failed to cultivate dispassion for worldly possessions and pleasures, or did not turn their minds toward the Lord,
    • it is purely a matter of their misfortune.

    Now what is necessary:

    • What was necessary then, as it is Now, is a wholehearted devotion to Baba.
      • All our
        • senses,
        • organs-faculties, and
        • minds should collaborate in worshiping and serving Baba:
      • to engage only certain faculties in worship, while neglecting others is of no use.
      • Should one partake in worship or meditation, it ought to be undertaken with one’s full mind and soul.

    Can anyone assist us in achieving?

    • The love that a devoted wife holds for her husband is frequently, likened to the devotion a disciple offers to his master (Guru).
    • Yet, the latter is unparalleled and far surpasses the former.
    • No individual, be it a father, mother, brother, or any other relative, can assist us in achieving the ultimate purpose of life (self-realization).
    • We must delineate and navigate the path of self-realization independently.
    • We are tasked with
      • discerning the Unreal from the Real,
      • renouncing the desires and pleasures of this world and
      • the next, mastering our senses and minds, and
      • aspiring solely for liberation.
    • Rather than depending on others, we ought to place total faith in ourselves.

    Practice What? and How?

    • As we begin to practice discernment,
    • we come to realize the transitory and illusory nature of the world, and
    • our passions for worldly matters gradually diminish,
    • ultimately leading to dispassion or non-attachment.
    • We then acknowledge that the Brahma,
      • which is none other than our Guru, is the sole reality;
      • as it transcends and pervades the apparent universe,
      • we begin to worship it in all beings.
    • By wholeheartedly worshiping the Brahma or Guru, we become one with Him and attain self-realization.
    • In summary:
      • consistently chanting the name of the Guru and
      • meditating on Him, enables us to
      • perceive Him in all beings.
      • It bestows upon us eternal bliss.
  • Baba is a Scientist in Teaching Education

    Baba is a Scientist in Teaching Education

    Pedagogics is the art and science of teaching and education. It involves not only conveying information, but also understanding how people learn. It requires creating environments, that foster growth and development.

    Sai Baba is also not only delivering information, but create environment for learning and growing of His devotees. viz:

    • One,
      • totally devoid of any book study, but
      • possessed of
        • perfect self-surrender,
        • humility,
        • trust, and
        • love towards the Guru Baba,
        • was and is the person who could derive
        • the fullest benefits from Baba.
    • The idea that
      • one has understood all about Jiva and Paramatma and
      • the methods by which Paramatma could be reached by a Jiva,
      • forms the greatest obstacle to one’s progress.
    • It is
      • not the intellect, the keenness of intellect, that is
      • wanted from a person approaching Baba.
    • It is
      • humility,
      • receptivity, and
      • a readiness to receive all that Baba gives, that counts.
    • As Baba pointed out to the Valambi Station Master,
      • persons (evidently with much conceit of learning etc.) came to him
      • like vessels the mouth of which was kept inverted; and were therefore
      • incapable of receiving any benefits from him.
    • In the case of Nana (Devotee),
      • his very high learning and
      • great ability in official and other matters were naturally accompanied
      • by a high degree to self-assertion and egotism;
      • which make for success in
        • literary study,
        • official matters, and to a certain extent even in
        • spiritual matters.
      • But for the highest results in spiritual matters, it is just the opposite, namely,
        • utter reduction of egotism,
        • the power to relax the Ego and
        • keep it relaxed for long periods, that is essential.
    • This is why
      • the consumption of water, that was used to washing of the feet of the Guru, and
      • the acceptance of his Uchchishta tirtha (the remnants of food that have been contaminated by the Guru’s saliva) are emphasized in the
      • “Guru Gita” for a pupil’s advancement,
      • as these practices foster a profound annihilation of Ahamkara, or Ego,
      • through deep reverence for the Guru, culminating in Love.
    • In Baba’s system,
      • the Guru-Teacher imparts virtue after virtue to the sishya-Student.
      • HE trains him step by step to secure these virtues and the knowledge, he wishes to equip the pupil with.
      • This process is just as the cat carries its kittens to safe and good places.
    • The first essential preparatory step in Baba’s course is thus,
        • not book learning, but the
        • development of
          • humility and
          • receptivity.
        • These would result from
          • perfect faith, absolute faith,
          • unlimited and powerful faith in the Guru.
        • The Guru must be everything to the sishya,
          • the giver of bread,
          • the giver of life and light and
          • the giver of all that life is worth living for, and
          • at one stroke.
          • He must not regard anything else. This alone is the tyaga of Tan, Man, Dhan – body, mind and possessions.

      LoSB-Vol II’ Ch 2

      • Baba’s company was the highest education one could get. As a Mahratta saying goes, ‘Let us stay with saints. If they do not give us Upadesa, let us note what they do and say. That is the best Upadesa‘.
    • Summary of Soul Science

      Summary of Soul Science

      • The heart, full of purity and poise (Satwa) is the Ocean of milk.
      • Steady contemplation of the Divine, either as i) your own reality or ii) as ideal to be reached, is Mandara mountain,
      • placed in it as a churning rod Vasuki, the serpent wound round the churning rod as a rope,
        • is the group of senses,
        • emitting poisonous fumes
        • during the process of churning and
        • nearly frightening the asuras (demons) who held the head.
      • The rope is
        • held by good and bad impulses and
        • both struggle with the churning process,
        • eager for the results, which each has set the heart on!
      • Grace of God is the
        • Tortoise incarnation,
        • for the Lord Himself comes to the rescue
      • once
        • HE knows that you are earnestly seeking the secret of Immortality!
        • He comes,
          • silently and
          • unobserved,
          • as the tortoise did,
          • holding the reflection (manana) process
          • unimpaired and
          • serving as the steady base of all spiritual practices!
      • Many things emerge from the mind, when churned,
        • but the wise wait patiently
        • for the appearance of the guarantor of immortality, and
        • seize upon it with avidity!
      • That is the lesson of the legend. It is a summary of Atma-vidya!

      – Puttaparti Satya Sai Baba in the Divine Discourse on Jan 13, 1965

    • Quotation 212

      Quotation 212

      • “I always think of him who remembers Me.
      • I require no conveyance, carriage, cart, nor train nor aeroplane.
      • I run and manifest myself to him who lovingly calls me.

      Baba in SSSC-Ch 40

    • You are God, you are mighty and opulent

      You are God, you are mighty and opulent

      Shishya (disciple) like the Sad-guru is really embodiment of Jnana.

      The difference between the two lies in the attitude, high realization, marvellous super-human Sattva (beingness) and unrivalled capacity and Aishwarya Yoga (divine powers).

      The Sad-guru is Nirguna, Sat-Chit-Ananda. He has indeed taken human form to elevate mankind and raise the world. But his real Nirguna nature is not destroyed thereby, even a bit. His beingness (or reality), divine power and widsom remain undiminished.

      The disciple also is in fact of the same swarupa. But, it is overlaid by the effect of the samaskaras of innumerable births in the shape of ignorance, which hides from his view that he is Shuddha Chaitanya (see B.G. Ch. V-15). As stated therein, he gets the impressions – “Iam Jiva, a creature, humble and poor.”

      The Guru has to root out these offshoots of ignorance and has to give upadesh or instruction.

      To the disciple, held spell- bound for endless generations by the ideas of his being a creature, humble and poor, the Guru imparts in hundreds of births the teaching – “You are God, you are mighty and opulent.” Then, he realizes a bit that he is God really.

      The perpetual delusion under which the disciple is labouring, that he is the body, that he is a creature (jiva) or ego, that God (Paramatma) and the world are different from him, is an error inherited from innumerable past births. From actions based on it, he has derived his joy, sorrows and mixtures of both.

      To remove this delusion, this error, this root ignorance, he must start the inquiry.

      How did the ignorance arise? Where is it? And to show him this, is called the Guru’s upadesh.

      SSSC-Ch 29

    • How Baba prepared food and distributed

      How Baba prepared food and distributed

      Let us see how Baba prepared food and distributed it.

      Baba required very little food for Himself and what little He wanted, was obtained by begging from a few houses.

      But when He took it into His mind  to distribute food to all, He made all preparations from beginning to end, Himself.

      He depended on nobody and troubled none in this matter. First He went to the bazar and  bought all the things, corn, flour, spices etc., for cash. He did also the grinding.

      In the  open courtyard of the Masjid, He arranged a big hearth and after lighting a fire underneath kept a Handi over it with a proper measure of water…

      Sometimes He cooked ‘Mitthe Chaval’ (sweet rice), and at other times ‘pulava’ with  meat. At times in the boiling varan (soup), He let in small balls of thick or flat breads of  wheat flour. He pounded the spices on a stone-slab, and put the thin pulverized spices  into the cooking-pot. He took all the pains to make the dishes very palatable.

      He prepared  ‘Ambil’ by boiling jawari-flour in water and mixing it with butter-milk. With the food He  distributed this Ambil to all alike.

      To see whether the food was properly cooked or not,  Baba rolled up the sleeve of His Kafni. He put His bare arm in the boiling cauldron without the least fear. He churned (moved) the whole mass from side to side and up and  down. There was no mark of burn on His arm, nor fear on His face.

      When the cooking  was over, Baba got the pots in the Majid, and had them duly consecrated by the moulvi.

        First He sent part of the food as prasad to Mhalasapati and Tatya Patil. Then, He served the remaining contents with His own hand to all the poor and helpless people. They ate to their hearts’ content.

      Really blessed and fortunate must be those people who got food prepared  by Baba and served by Him.

    • Give one and receive tenfold

      Give one and receive tenfold

      “If I take one rupee as Dakshina from anybody I have to return it tenfold to him.

      I never take anything gratis. I never ask any one indiscriminately.

      I only ask and take from him whom the Fakir (My Guru) points out. If any one is indebted formerly to the Fakir money is received from him.

      The donor gives, i.e. sows his seeds, only to reap a rich harvest in future.

      Wealth should be the means to work out Dharma. If it is used for personal enjoyment, it is wasted.

      Unless you have given it before, you do not get it now. So the best way to get is to give.

      The giving of Dakshina advances Vairagya (Non-attachment) and thereby Bhakti and Jnana. Give one and get tenfold”.

      Sai Baba in SSS- Ch31

    • Last thought, man has at death-hour, determines his future

      Last thought, man has at death-hour, determines his future

      The last wish or thought that a man has at the hour of death, determines his future course.

      Shri Krishna has said in Gita (VIII-5-6) that “he who remembers Me in his last moments, comes verily to Me, and he who meditates otherwise at that time, goes to what he looks for.”

      We cannot be certain that we can entertain a particular good thought at our last moment, for, more often than not, we are more likely to be frightened and terrif ied by death.

      Hence constant practice is necessary, for enabling us to fix our mind on any desired good thought at any moment.

      All Saints, therefore, recommend us to always remember God and chant His name always, so that we may not be puzzled when the time for departure comes.

      The devotees on their part surrender themselves completely to the Saints, fully believing that the all-knowing Saints (Sai Baba) would guide and help them in their last moments.

    • Oh Sai, create in us reverence for Your stories

      • When a man takes a plunge into the sea, he gets the merit of bathing in all the Tirthas and sacred rivers.
      • Similarly when a man takes refuge at the feet of the Sad-guru, he gets the merit of bowing to the Trinity, i.e. Brahma, Vishnu and Siva and also Para-Brahma.
      • Victory be unto Shri Sai, the wish-fulfilling tree and the ocean of knowledge, who gives us self-realization.
      • Oh Sai, create in us reverence for Your stories.
      • Let the readers and audience devour them with the same relish; the chatak bird drinks the water from the clouds and becomes happy.
      • While listening to Your stories, let them and their families get all the true and pious emotions, viz.
        1. let their bodies perspire,
        2. let their eyes be full of tears,
        3. let their breath be steady,
        4. let their minds be composed,
        5. let their hair stand on end,
        6. let them cry, sob and quiver,
        7. let their hostilities vanish.
      • When these things happen, that is a sign of the grace of the Guru dawning upon them.
      • When these emotions develop in you, the Guru is most pleased.
      • The Guru will definitely guide you to the goal of self-realization.
      • The best way, therefore,
        • to get free from the shackles of Maya,
        • is our complete and whole-hearted surrender to Baba.
      • The Vedas cannot take you across the ocean of Maya. It is only the Sadguru, who can do so, and make you see the Lord in all creatures