Devotee readers who have missed earlier chapters can read from the links below. Devotee readers who have missed earlier chapters can read from the links below.
Beads from the necklace of Sai Bhakti
13. A devotee should never succumb to the temptation of holding an office in His diety’s name. The paths of devotion and office are poles apart and should never be mixed up. If a devotee wishes to render service to his deity, it should be selfless and devoid of any office. He should consistantly strive to get out of all his involvements rather than get into more.
14. Devotion does not mean non action. A devotee has merely to perform the action without any attachment. He should never shun his responsibilities.
15. Devotion has a language of itself, not of words but of ‘Bhav’. As one proceeds on the path of devotion, his whole physical frame, his eyes, his face assume a glow making him behave child-like in words, deeds, and thoughts. His whole being exhudes vibrations of peace and tranquility.
16. A devotee’s heart has of necessity to overflow with love and compassion, not only towards all living beings around him but even in all situations around him. His whole being-should exhude rays of love and compassion which would touch the heart of every person coming into contact with him and create ripples of joy in them. The ego in him would turn godward and gradually and gradually dissolve itself in nothingness.
17. Any action, howsoever, good and noble it may seem, performed in the service of the Lord cannot be called ‘Satvik’ if it is smeared with even the slightest ego in the doer. Service should be rendered with humility, selflessly and with total dedication. Even the thought of getting something in return will pollute it and should be shunned.
18. All through our lives, it has been hammered into our minds that ‘love begets love’. Then why do we carry hatred for any one? Are we not polluting our own minds? Aren’t we acting against the dictates of our Master, Sai? We must put in our best endeavors to imbibe the feeling of love towards all beings, men and animals alike, even flora and fauna. Experience has shown that even trees and animals respond to the feeling of love towards them. If we find some people slipping down the ladder in our estimate we must not nurse hatred for them. Rather we should pity there for having been deprived of opportunities of doing the correct actions and thereby sharing the joys born out of them. Just as compassion is an integral part of a good human being, so is forgiveness.
19. The Gurus in our country, all through ages, haven been held in high veneration. Sages and saints have all through the ages sung songs of the glory of their Gurus. As per their diction, a bhakta cannot attain liberation without being under the loving care of a Guru who guides him on the path of spirituality, after himself having gone through the process and overcoming all pitfalls on the path. Blessed is the devotee who has found a Guru capable of leading the bhakta on the path of spirituality. Unfortunately in the present day world, gurudom seems to have become a profession. We have to learn to sift the chaff from the rice.
20. “Do good and throw it into the river,” is an ancient saying. But how many of us are able to follow this advice? Never m1nd. Do not bother if you have not been able to follow th1s golden rule of living. Continue to do good acts – the performance of which gives you inner joy, may be for a few seconds only. Gradually the support, the encouragement and the happiness it gives to your ‘Atma’ will provide the self in you an ecstatic pleasure, on experiencing which the earlier pleasures of life experienced by your ego, will fade into oblivion and you shall be lost in the ‘atmic anand’. At that time, you shall have a feeling of gratitude to the person who provided you the opportunity to serve him and lead you on to this realm of ‘atmic anand’, rather than ascribe the merit of doing so to your own self.
21. Let us endeavor to see the unseen hand behind every action of ours -good or bad, and analyse what was it in us which propelled us to do so, and who was it in us which guided us to do so, who made us to classify this act into good or bad, what was it in us which gave the feeling of the act being good or bad? We have been taught again and again to offer all our actions, good or bad, to Him.
22. Life is a beautiful phenomena, provided we learn to live it in a natural way, away from all ambiguities. Man is the highest evolved living being on earth. What a splendid treasure of good attributes, God has given to Man. The feeling of abounding love, compassion and noble thoughts that we carry in our bosom, the consciousness of time, space and all that which is around us, the capacity to think and act -who else has been bestowed these virtues? Think deep and live life like a child, guileless and absorbed in the ‘Sat-Chit-Anand’. Let us learn to stand aloof from the din and noise of life and watch this wonderful phenomena from afar, merely as on observer.
23. The name and fame of any individual are his own enemies, Our whole life is spent in seeking avenues to provide gratification to both these foes. And this never ending quest and hunger takes within. And thus our whole life is wasted without our goal being near about our reach. If and when by the grace of Baba and our own efforts, we give up this sense of hunger, we might find the God within our own selves.
24. Blessed is the devotee who’surrenders his heart and soul to his Lord. The atmic anand which his soul experiences is beyond words to describe. But unfortunate is the devotee who having tasted the fruit of unswerving bhakti, turns himself into a guru and starts donning the robe of gurudom for he then ceases to experience the joy and the freedom of a bhakta. The ego in him may then feel gratified but the burden of his new role should be enough to break his back and even annihilate his good ‘karmas’, earned earlier as a devotee. Our sages and saints were not fools who always discarded the garb of gurudom but devoted their lives in teaching the secrets of Truth to the seekers. History is full of examples of such sages and saints-Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, Ramana Maharishi, Sant Gyaneshwar, Eknath Maharaj and our own Sai who did not make any disciples but whose name and fame shines in the hearts of innumerable of their devotees.
Continued…Chapter 6 Part 3
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The Fragrance Of Devotion In Sai
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