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| Chapter No. | Part No. | Content of the Chapter |
|---|---|---|
| NA | NA | Introduction (Preface, Foreword, A Devotee Speaks and A Thought) |
| Chapter 1 | Part 1 | In Moments of Ecstasy |
| Chapter 1 | Part 2 | In Moments of Ecstasy |
| Chapter 1 | Part 3 | In Moments of Ecstasy |
| Chapter 1 | Part 4 | In Moments of Ecstasy |
| Chapter 2 | Part 1 | The Heart Overflows |
| Chapter 2 | Part 2 | The Heart Overflows |
| Chapter 2 | Part 3 | The Heart Overflows |
| Chapter 2 | Part 4 | The Heart Overflows |
| Chapter 2 | Part 5 | The Heart Overflows |
| Chapter 2 | Part 6 | The Heart Overflows |
| Chapter 3 | Part 1 | Listen O’ Fellow Travellers |
| Chapter 3 | Part 2 | Listen O’ Fellow Travellers |
| Chapter 3 | Part 3 | Listen O’ Fellow Travellers |
| Chapter 3 | Part 4 | Listen O’ Fellow Travellers |
| Chapter 3 | Part 5 | Listen O’ Fellow Travellers |
1
Nowhere from, have I come into this world and nowhere to, shall I go. That was a pure illusion and so shall it be. The soul within me is eternal – Purity Incarnate!
2
The wealth of the poor is God ‘निर्धन के धन राम’ (Nirdhan Ke Dhan Ram), so go the strains of a song heard by me in my childhood. Herein also the name of Ram has been ascribed to the poor as if the God of the rich is someone different. The wealth, the poor possesses in forms other than riches, remains unsung, howsoever precious it may be. Isn’t it again a fallacy? Baba showed all his life lived on earth that there was no difference in his Darbar between the rich and poor. To Him the rich and the poor were all alike and the manifestation of the same God.
Related: Scribblings of A Shirdi Sai Devotee
3
How can the language of ‘words’ measure the depth of the language of ‘silence’. Silence has the potential to convey, which no words can ever express.
4
When the soul (प्राण) leaves the body, what is left is nothing but dust; a meaningless nothing. Let us ponder within us and seek an answer: what is it that has added value to our life – merely our actions, performed selflessly, which may speak of us till eternity. The body is a mere mirage (मारीचका) in the desert which we have taken to be ‘I’. The zero of its own has no value, but when added to other numerals, it acquires tremendous potentiality.
5
Bhakti is not an attribute to be proclaimed and exhibited. It is to be imbibed, nurtured cultivated, absorbed and assimilated within. When Bhakti matures, it becomes an essential part of Bhakta’s existence. It shall need no words to express its depth. The whole existence of the Bhakta shall emit the rays of Bhakti which shall envelop the entire atmosphere around him and its fragrance shall spread far and wide. As its growth continues, a day shall come when the Bhakta and his Bhagwan shall become one.
6
A Thought
Ram, Krishna, Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha were all ‘Purn-Brahm Parmeshwar’ (God Incarnate) and descended on earth as the Saviour of mankind according to the needs of the time, place, circumstances and similar other factors. In that very chain, Shri Sai Samarth appeared in Shirdi, grew up there, showed his leelas and left the world leaving behind his mark which has acquired eternity and which has become the need of the man of today. Sai established no new religion, no creed or a new school of thought. From looks he appeared a Muslim but claimed himself to be a pure ‘Brahman’ (a high class Hindu). If we attribute any particular religion to Baba, we shall be straying from the path shown by him. If we create a new creed in his name, we shall be striking at the very roots of his teachings. Every word and every thought uttered by Baba during his life lived on earth, is a living example of it. Baba was the embodiment of the God whose image we have been carrying in our heart and mind and yet different from it.
Today, there seems to be a conscious effort on the part of Sai devotees, to trap Baba in the limitations of our age old beliefs. By doing so we shall be doing injustice to him. To stop the worsening of this situation, the thinkers and researchers will have to go deep into the life and leelas of Baba and bring out his true philosophy and thinking. Today it is feared that we may change the peculiar recognition which Sai possessed. As we ourselves hail from the Hindu community, we seem to have bound Baba in the age old ceremonial practices, thoughts and beliefs of our community and made it our firm conviction that Baba’s real ‘Swaroop’ is that which is established in our minds. We are also not tired in repeating that Baba keeps on changing the Swaroop according to the desires of his bhaktas. For the sake of maintaining the real image of Baba and taking into account the needs of the time, we shall have to raise ourselves above these age old ways of thinking and change our outlook on Baba, otherwise we shall bring down our Baba from the high pedestal he is occupying and merely add his name to the list of already existing Gods, Apostles and Yug Purushas. The devotees of Baba are a witness to the fact that even the bones of Baba are ever worried for their welfare, which is a great boon to them.
Today, we have encompassed Baba in the circle of “You shall get what you desire”. Did we ever give it a thought that the above mentioned words of Baba reflect his concern for his devotees? Whatever words Baba uttered were mainly in the form of educative stories and if we take them away from the background in which they were said and project them according to our own interpretation, we might be doing injustice to Baba. Today it is absolutely necessary that a team of scholars should go deep into every word and thought attributed to Baba and bring out its correct meaning and interpretation otherwise the danger is that we might distort the real image of Baba and defeat the very purpose for achieving which he came into the world.
Experience shows that many words attributed to Baba today have been coined by devotees like I and you according to our own understanding and we are constantly engaged in the drill of coining more such words. The basis of every word attributed to Baba is either the ‘Shri Sai Satcharitra’ or the books written by a few devotees who lived with Baba in his life time which are all available only in Marathi language, with which the growing number of devotees are not conversant. Every word uttered by Baba in my view, today needs to be given deep thinking, so as to bring out the real purport and depth of his words. Some authority some day shall have to take the initiative of starting this work which is the need of the day and which would reveal the greatness of this Saint as also maintain his uniqueness.
7
A bhakta radiates serenity, sublimity and solemnity. Baba’s silence speaks louder than words and his sublime looks pierce straight into the devotee’s heart.
8
Baba draws his devotee to himself by showing him some ‘leela’, big or small, which is often termed as a miracle and which becomes the instrument for him to take to Sai bhakti. In reality the path of bhakti shown by Baba in his lifetime was extremely simple and easy to adopt. But we, his devotees are constantly making it cumbersome by adding age old practices therein. By doing so, while we ourselves are losing the track, we are also laying incorrect traditions for others to follow. It is therefore, the primary duty of every Sai devotee that he should study ‘Shri Sai Satcharitra’ deeply and take to the path of Sai bhakti as detailed therein with utmost honesty. I am confident that by doing so, he shall be able to experience nearness to Baba.
9
Bhakti or devotion is not a commodity which could be displayed, measured or weighed. It is an ornament of the soul of an individual. Even to make an assessment of devotion in one’s bosom correctly many a time goes awry. Length of sustained devotion is also meaningless and many a time proves wrong. The face of a person particularly his eyes, his way of talking, his reaction to events and situations, in fact his whole bearing, the halo around him and the vibrations his presence emits, all combine together to make an impact of his bhakti. A devotee himself would also not be able to assess his own devotion which is an ever-growing phenomenon and which never provides satisfaction to the bhakta. Let us remember that devotion can only enter a heart which is guileless, pure, simple, straight forward and in person whose whole bearing becomes child-like. For such a devotee, it may no longer be necessary to visit Shirdi and/or Baba’s local temples; or count the number of times he says his beads and not even sitting for fixed number of hours in his puja. The only requirement is that Baba should become a part of his life and the life lived by Baba on earth should become a part of the way of his life and become ingrained within him. All this and even more shall then become his life style and such a devotee will neither know nor even talk or proclaim the depth of his bhakti. Compassion and pity shall become the ornament of his life and he shall share his food and amenities of life with others. The songs emerging from his heart shall reflect his longing for his ‘Aaradhya’. Meekness, not arrogance, shall become a part of his nature. His ‘Mansa-Vacha-Karma’ (मनसा, वाचा, कर्मा) shall then emit the rays of Shubhra, Shuddha, Satvik Bhakti and he shall then become the ‘Ankita’ bhakta of Sai of which Hemad Pant has talked of in Shri Sai Satcharitra. He shall also spread the fragrance of Sai bhakti all around him. The difference between him and his Sai will gradually diminish. He shall then cease to look for miracles around him. To him everyday of life lived shall be a miracle of Baba. Let us ourselves make an assessment of our own self and see for ourselves, how much progress have we been able to make after having taken to the path of Sai Bhakti. But let us have a firm faith that if we have surrendered heart and soul to our Baba, sooner or later, we are sure to achieve our goal.
According to ‘Narad Bhakti Sutra’, there are nine kinds of bhakti. My purpose is not to produce a treatise on bhakti. What I write is pure and simple bhakti of a devotee for his Lord – The Great Sai Nath of Shirdi.
10
Pleasure spoke to Pain: “How meaningless is your existence? You are not wanted by anybody. Don’t you feel disgusted with your self? Fie be on you! You never allow anybody to live happily”. Pain replied: “O’ you fool! What do you think of yourself? Tell me, isn’t it true that being engaged in quest of you, people turn against each other. And all that they then do, behoves them not. And why don’t you understand that I am the cause of motivation of all activities in the world. If it wasn’t the desire of everyone to maintain a distance from me, then who would have bothered for you? O’ you fool, try to understand that we are both brother and sister. Without any one of us, the world would not have been what it is. We are supplementary to each other. Try to understand that your value is because of me. And if you ask me honestly, the desire of man should be beyond both of us – where there should be neither the feeling of pleasure nor of pain. In fact it is this condition for attaining which the Saints and Sages, thinkers and philosophers are engaged in since times immemorial. After all they were not all fools”. Listening to the words of Pain, Pleasure became dumb founded. Today it was face to face with truth.
© Author – Late Shri. Suresh Chandra Gupta – Explicit Rights To Publish To Shirdi Sai Baba Books.com (Member of SaiYugNetwork.com)
