Tag: Kindness

  • Outwardly, Baba longed for public welfare.

    Though Sai Baba looked like a man, three cubits and a half in length, still He dwelt in the hearts of all.

    Inwardly, he was unattached and indifferent, but outwardly, He longed for public welfare.

    Inwardly most disinterested, He looked outwardly full of desires, for the sake of His devotees.

    Inwardly an abode of peace, he looked outwardly restless.

    Inwardly He had the state of Brahman, outwardly He acted like a devil.

    Inwardly He had the state of Brahman, outwardly he acted like a devil.

    Inwardly He loved Adwaita (union or monism), outwardly He got entangled with the world.

    He always abided and was engrossed in the Self and was well-disposed towards His Bhaktas. He always sat on one Asan and never travelled.

    His ‘band’ was a small stick, which He always carried in His hand.

    He was calm, being thought-free.

    He never cared for wealth and fame and lived on begging. Such a life He led.

    He always uttered ‘Allah Malik’ (God the real owner). Entire and unbroken was His love for the Bhaktas.

    He was the mine or store-house for self-knowledge and full of Divine Bliss. Such was the Divine Form of Sai Baba, boundless, endless and undifferentiated.

    One principle which envelopes the whole universe, (from a stone pillar to Brahma) incarnated in Sai Baba.

    The really meritorious and fortunate people got this treasure-trove in their hands,

    SSSC Ch-10

  • Bayajabai’s Brilliant Service

    Tatya Kote’s mother, Bayajabai, used to go to the woods every noon with a basket on her head containing bread and vegetables. She roamed in the jungles koos (about 3 miles) after koss, trampling over bushes and shrubs in search of the mad Fakir, and after hunting Him out, fell at His feet.

    The Fakir sat calm and motionless in meditation, while she placed a leaf before Him, spread the eatables, bread, vegetables etc. thereon and fed Him forcibly. Wonderful was her faith and service. Every day she roamed at noon in the jungles and forced Baba to the partake of lunch.

    Her service, Upasana or Penance, by whatever name we call it, was never forgotten by Baba till his Maha Samadhi.

    Remembering fully what service she rendered, Baba benefited her son magnificently. Both the son and the mother had great faith in the Fakir, Who was their God.

    Baba often said to them that “Fakir (Mendicacy) was the real Lordship as it was everlasting, and the so called Lordship (riches) was transient”.

    After some years, Baba left off going into the woods, began to live in the village and take His food in the Masjid. From that time Bayajabai’s troubles of roaming in the jungles ended.

  • BY BABA’S MERE DARSHAN

    Bow to the Kind Sai, Who is the Abode of Mercy and Who is affectionate towards His devotees. By His mere darshan, He does away with their fear of this ‘bhava’ (samsar) and destroys their calamities.

    • He was first Nirgun (formless),
    • but on account of the devotion of His Bhaktas, He was obliged to take a form.
    • To give liberation ie. self-realisation to the Bhaktas is the mission of the saints, and
    • for Sai – the Chief of them, that mission is inevitable.

    Those who take refuge in His Feet have all their sins destroyed and their progress is certain.

    Remembering His Feet, Brahmins from holy places come to Him and read scriptures and chant the Gayatri mantra in His presence.

    We, who are weak and without any merits, do not know what Bhakti is, but we know this much, that though all others may leave us, Sai won’t forsake us. Those whom He favours get enormous strength, discrimination between the Unreal and the Real and knowledge.

    Sai knows fully the desire of His devotees and fulfills the same. Hence they get what they want and are grateful. So we invoke Him and prostrate ourselves before Him.

    Forgetting all our faults let Him free us from all anxieties. He who being overcome with calamities remembers and prays Sai thus, will get his mind calmed and pacified through His grace.

    SSSC-Ch 30

  • Wise, avoid anxiety!

    Wise, avoid anxiety!

    “Stay, cast off anxiety. the wise avoid anxiety.

    Your sufferings for your past karma have come to an end, as soon as you put your feet on Shirdi. Persons in great trouble, sunk in their misery, rise to joy and happiness as soon as they climb the steps of this mosque (Dwarakamai)

    That Fakir (God) is very kind and will eradicate your disease. He will show his love. He is kind to all. “Baba

  • What is the effect of Love

    What is the effect of Love upon the various thoughts, feelings, desires, aversions, capacities, incapacities, and the tendencies or impulses found to be the main features of various personalities?

    Self-love and self-assertion, resisting and overcoming the efforts of other selves adversely disposed are basic urges for ensuring the safe maintenance and progress of the physico-psychical organism in the ordinary individual.

    But altruism or care for others, even (for) adverse individuals, to the detriment of one’s own material interests but in promotion of one’s higher or nobler side is also found.

    It may be weak in many but in the saint it gets quickly developed and overshadows or overpowers the earlier self-love and self-assertion of the brute or lower level. This altruism and active care for others form the important facets of Love.

    Love grows stronger by exercise, by Abhyasa and Vairagya. By constant altruism one becomes Sarva bhuta hite ratah BG 5(25), ie. interested in the welfare of all creatures; all creatures get to be identified with oneself.

    Thus Love unifies, synthesises and strengthens one’s self or moral nature, especially by the perception of unity of one’s self with other selves.

    LoSB:P125

  • Baba’s Methods of Teaching

    Baba’s Methods of Teaching

    Rao Bahadur bought a good Chirdi (small Sari) and presented it to the mind-servant of Kaka (Kakasaheb Dixit)

    Like a starving person getting luckily good dishes to eat, her joy knew to bounds. Next day she wore the new Sari, and out of great joy and merriment, whirled, danced round and played `Fugadi’ with other girls and excelled them all.

    The Day following, she kept the new Sari in her box at home and came with the old and torn rags, but she looked as merry as she did the previous day.

    On seeing this, Das Ganu’s pity was transferred into admiration. He thought that the girl being poor had to wear a torn rag, but now she had a new Sari which she kept in reserve and putting on the old rag, strutted herself, showing no trace of sorrow or dejection.

    Thus he realized that all our feelings of pain and pleasure depend upon the attitude of our mind.

    On thinking deeply over this incident, he realized that a man ought to enjoy whatever God has bestowed on him in the firm conviction that He besets every thing, from behind and before, and on all sides and that whatever is bestowed on him by God must be for his good.

    In this particular case, the impoverished condition of the poor girl, her torn rag and the new Sari, the donor, the dance and the acceptance were all parts of the Lord and pervaded by HIM

    Hence, Das Ganu got a practical demonstration of the lesson of the Upanishad – the lesson of contentment with one’s own lot in the belief that whatever happens, is ordained by God, and is ultimately good for us.


    Unique Method of Teaching

    In this particular case, He sent Das Ganu to Vile Parle, where he got his problem solved,through the maid-servant. To those, who say that it was not necessary to sent Das Ganu outside and that Baba could have personally taught him, we say that Baba followed the right or best course, or how else could Das Ganu would have learnt a great lesson, that the poor maid-servant and her Sari were pervaded by the Lord.

    SSSC ch-20

  • Baba’s EARLIEST life

    Baba’s EARLIEST life

    Sai Baba’s earliest period was with his original parents who had deserted him. They had given him away. His stay with them was far too short, for any noticeable development or change of personality.

    The next stage of life reached by Baba, was when he stayed with the fakir who received him. This period lasted for at least four or five years. It spanned almost from the first to the sixth year, which was the most impressionable period of Baba’s whole life.

    This fakir appears to have been a very advanced Sufi. He and his wife seem to have loved Sai Baba tenderly. They brought him up with all attention and care.

    In the case of Sai Baba, the father and mother are the earliest Gods. The fakir and his wife must have given him the idea of God. They must have responded to his love and his need for protection.

    After the fakir died, his wife took Baba to the Selu zamindar. The zamindar was Gopal Rao Deshmukh, a perfect lover of God Tirupati Venkatesa.

    Here again Baba’s destiny was that his previous line of thinking, feeling and being should be continued and not disturbed. The love which began under the fakir became still more powerful, under the care of Gopal Rao Deshmukh or Venkatesa.

    He was perpetually attending upon Venkatesa Gopal Rao Deshmukh. This was in a way which the Guru Gita aptly described. Baba was like a peon. He was ever ready at hand to carry out the Chieftain’s orders.

    There was no distraction of games or playmates or rivalry or any examination to trouble Baba. His whole heart ran on to the Master. Baba himself gives a description in BCS 175 which applies here also:

    ‘I loved to gaze at him all the while, and even for a few seconds 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 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‘. These words referred to a Guru of a former life probably.

    But the description of the contact with the latest Guru in BCS 178 as given below is on the same lines and as follows:

    ‘For 12 years I waited on my Guru who is peerless and loving. How can I describe his love to Me?. When he was in Dyanastha ie. 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.“

    The positive and the negative go together in this early period. This means thorough detachment from the world and thorough attachment to God or the Guru representing God. However, it might be of great importance in making up Baba’s life.

    The life of Baba was to be a life of perfection. After Mahasamadhi, this should be fully recognised as the Divine operating without limitations of time or place. It is for the benefit, not of one individual or one country but for all.

  • BABA and JESUS

    BABA and JESUS

    One common feature of both Sai’s and Jesus’ lives is the reliance on miracles. People needed miracles to be convinced of their divine nature.

    They could only demonstrate their divinity by performing these miracles. Miracles are a concession that divinity allows for human blindness.

    *When Jesus said to Nilko … ‘I saw you under the fig tree before Thomas talked to you there.’; The addressee immediately concluded, ‘Surely, thou art the Son of God.’

    Jesus said that he would see more wonderful things indicative of divine power . Again when and unable to rise from his bed, saying ‘ Arise , take up thy bed and walk ‘; and the man with palsy rose up and walked. The conclusion was drawn that the miracle was a token of Jesus’s divinity as also

    *when Jesus cured a man of leprosy

    Some reader might desire to know whether similar incidents happened in Sai’s history .

    *First about palsy , a Marwadi had a young daughter of eight years or so with paralyzed legs . She could not walk to Baba, and therefore had to be carried in a chair, palki or stretcher.

    She remained with Baba for three days. Suddenly her legs, which she could not bend at all till then, were stretched out and the second day she could stand. Thereafter, before she left Shirdi on the third day, she could walk back.

    No application, medical or surgical, was made to her. This cure was purely by Baba’s power with his blessings, offered with udhi applied to her.

    *There was once a patient. He had been suffering for years from inflammation of an ulcer in his stomach or bowels. Because of this, he could not eat any food. He was brought to Baba.

    Baba ordered sweetmeats to be purchased; and brought and placed before the patient. Strange to say, the man was able to eat them. This cure also was purely by Baba’s power blessings.

  • The way of happiness and contentment

    • “If a man utters My name with love, I shall fulfill all his wishes, increase his devotion.
    • And if he sings earnestly My life and My deeds, him I shall beset in front and back and on all sides.
    • Those devotees, who are attached to Me, heart and soul, will naturally feel happiness, when they hear these stories. Believe Me that if anybody sings My Leelas, I will give him infinite joy and everlasting contentment.
    • It is My special characteristic to free any person, who surrenders completely to Me, and who does worship Me faithfully, and who remembers Me, and meditates on Me constantly. How can they be conscious of worldly objects and sensations, who utter My name, who worship Me, who think of My stories and My life and who thus always remember Me?
    • I shall draw out My devotees from the jaws of Death. If My stories are listened to, all the diseases will be got rid of. 
    • So, hear My stories with respect; and think and meditate on them, assimilate them. This is the way of happiness and contentment.
    • The pride and egoism of My devotees will vanish, the mind of the hearers will be set at rest; and if it has wholehearted and complete faith, it will be one with Supreme Consciousness”

    SSSC Ch-III

  • Baba’s kindness and power

    Santaram’s father attended Das Ganu’s kirtan wherein Das Ganu gave a full account of Sai Baba, and described him as Datta Avatara, having wonderful powers and wonderful kindness.

    He brought also a picture of Sai Baba home, and with it Baba puja began in the house. In 1912, Santaram first visited Shirdi.

    Then he had appeared for a departmental examination (revenue test), and went to Shirdi with two friends. At the Kopergaon railway station, the Station Master heard of their proposed visit to Baba and began to abuse Baba saying that undue honour was given to a mere hypnotist, who was gulling people like so many wandering jugglers and thaumaturgists. This made the impressionable Santaram very unhappy. He was beginning to have his doubts about Baba

    He reached Shirdi anyhow. The first sight that he caught of Sai Baba was when Baba was walking from the Lendi to the Mosque. On the way Santaram and his friends met Baba. Baba looked straight at Santaram, and said, “What? Have you come away without taking leave from the Mamlatdar?” The reply was Yes.

    Baba said, “Don’t do so hereafter“. At once, the object of these remarks was evident. Baba revealed his Antarjnana (of Santaram, being a Mamlatdar’s clerk and his coming without permission) and motherly kindness towards his devotee who was wavering. The Antarjnana and the kindness showed the worthlessness of the Station Master’s remarks

    It was for that purpose evidently that Baba addressed those words. This was only the beginning of a series of similar experiences during his three days of stay at Shirdi.

    Each instance showed Baba’s kindness and powers more and more cleariy and forcefully. At the end of three days, Santaram was perfectly assured and confident that Baba was Datta God.