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Words
with Wings (continued c)
(in 3 parts: (a)
continued
b,
continued
c
)
Letter
to Me
Let me take
the liberty of allowing you to read one of the
letters that Baba wrote to me (N.
Kasturi) twenty-two years ago. It
illustrates His omnipresence and His
omniscience, as well as His boundless love -
attributes that He has decided to demonstrate in
this Avataric form in order to draw into the
crucible of transformation the peoples of the
world. I had returned to Bangalore after a long
and arduous pilgrimage to the holy shrines on
the Ganges, to Bodhgaya, Dakshineswar,
Kamarpukur and Puri. I was urged to take my
mother and wife on this pilgrimage by Baba
Himself. He had blessed us the day we had set
out, and assured us that we would have Him with
us during our journey. He had said,
"On
three railway tickets, four shall
travel."
Baba, we knew, is the stowaway in every ark
which breasts the deluge of delusion; He is the
companion of all who progress on the road of
pilgrimage.
When I had
finished the assignment He had given me, I wrote
to Him at Kodaikanal hill where He was staying
at that time, expressing our gratitude and
informing Him that all three of us had clear and
tangible visions of Him at Rishikesh, Varanasi
and Gaya. In the reply that I received, Baba
wrote,
"Your
letter reached Me at Kodaikanal in time, but
since we came down to Madras that very day, I
could not send you a reply. I reached Madras
on the 25th, around midnight. (The letter is
dated 26th.) I am happy that you have
returned full of joy after visiting the holy
places with your Mathru Devi (venerable
mother). How can delay, disappointment or
danger cross your path when Swami is ever
with you? My name is not distinct from My
form. The name recalls the form as soon as it
is pronounced or heard. When the form is
seen, the name comes into awareness that very
moment. So, since the name is ever dancing on
your tongue, the form, too, has to be before
you and beside you. What need is there to
mention this in your letter as a gift from
Me? I have to manifest the form, whenever and
wherever My name is remembered with faith or
sung with devotion.
"You
might say that those visions were boons of
grace from Swami. No, I always say,
'Sadhana
first,
Sankalpa
later'. That is the correct order. My
Sankalpa or Will confers bliss only after
assessing the depth of yearning in the
devotee. Sadhana is the essential
prerequisite. You were a professor and so you
can understand this easily. You must have
evaluated the written answers of your
students. You evaluate and assign them marks
only after careful scrutiny of what they have
written, don't you? I, too, measure and weigh
the sincerity and steadiness of the Sadhana
you have imposed upon yourself and I frame My
Sankalpa accordingly. Of course, many are not
aware that the misery in which they find
themselves can be negated by
Sadhana.
"At
Kodaikanal, thousands had gathered for the
evening Bhajans. They were having darsan for
the first time in their lives. It was their
'right' to get darsan that had brought Me to
this hill station. For, as you know, I had
not planned to come here. It all happened so
suddenly.
'Your
daughter was very upset the other night over
her husband's health. His illness had taken a
turn for the worse. I was there when your
daughter wrote Me a letter about his
condition. She posted it next morning to the
Puttaparthi address. It has not reached Me
yet, but I knew its contents even while it
was being written. When Swami's grace is
available in plenty, why
fear?"
Dear
Child!
Now I wish to
quote from a letter written to a devotee who,
due to desperate financial straits, had desired
to flee the country and proceed to Malaysia, but
later planned to commit suicide when his steamer
ticket and travel documents were stolen by
pickpockets inside the harbor area at Madras.
This letter was written when Baba was
twenty-three years of age:
"Pattabhi,
dear devotee. Swami is writing to you; see,
He is blessing you. Dear child, but what
madness is this? What a letter you have
written and left at home! It is foolish to be
hasty. Think over your affairs calmly. Slow
deliberation always reveals the true and the
beneficial. Think of the crores of people the
world over who are in conditions far worse
than yours. Remember always, you have Me to
guard you and guide you. How many of them
have this fortune? Consider that. Are you the
only victim of poverty and indebtedness? The
step you are contemplating cannot give you
rest or peace. It is not right. It is not
manly to run away from responsibility. Listen
to Me! Go back to your place, be bold and
face the world with courage, for courage will
set you free. It will conquer all obstacles.
Give up your foolish plan to
escape."
And Pattabhi
went back, recovered self-confidence and made a
success of himself.
While with
these individuals Baba is so gracious, He does
not pardon or pass over indiscipline or
ill-behavior among those He wants should lead
exemplary lives. He wrote to a state president
of the Sri Sathya Sai Seva
Samithi:
"There
is no use My writing about the Samithis. I
have been saying that the next world should
be gained by man's triumph over the
fascinations and fancies of this world; but
the members of the Organisation have given up
all thought of future lives and the other
world. They behave as if this life, this
world, is the only one. To them, this seems
the only measure, the only goal. For such
persons, illumination can be only as faint as
the glow-worm in the night. Though the stars
twinkle in the sky and appear as tiny specks
when compared in brightness to the moon, they
are really much more brilliant. Each of them
is a hundred suns rolled into one. But for
the limited vision of ignorant onlookers, the
star is a spark and the moon a huge source of
light. Such men think of the future, because
of its 'distance', as quite trivial, and of
the present, due to its immediate
'proximity', as very important. They pay no
attention to the stars but continue to be
overawed by the moon. Civilisation today is
concerned with the atom, but it ignores the
Atman."
Read
this Aloud
When He is
away from Prasanthi Nilayam for long, Baba often
writes letters to be read aloud to the
residents. Usually, they are sharp reminders of
the need to respect the rules and regulation He
has laid down for them.
"Blessings
to all at the Mandir!" He writes. "Tell them
all to fulfil their assigned duties and
responsibilities. The daily schedule of puja,
dhyana, bhajan, sankirtan and study should be
followed punctually and with faithful
devotion. People should move among one
another with love and reverence. Of what
benefit is sadhana if it is done without
controlling jealousy, envy, pride, anger and
malice? However long you may live in the
ashram, these vices will undermine any merit
you acquire. As the proof of the rain is in
the dampness of the ground, so the proof of
sadhana is in the subjugation of the senses.
Give up all irrelevant and impertinent talk
and activity. Cultivate self-examination and
self-discovery and develop, through
discipline, the inner eye. Make the best of
this chance acquired as a result of your good
actions in many previous lives. Of course,
Swami's grace and love are always with you,
but to earn them more and more, sadhana has
to be done everyday, with greater and greater
enthusiasm. The residents of Puttaparthi and
Prasanthi Nilayam have to pave the way for
mankind, so, they have to lead pious, humble
and disciplined lives."
Dear
Boys
Now for some
letters Bhagavân has written to be read
out to the students of Sri Sathya Sai colleges.
Since they have had the opportunity of a closer
association with Baba, and more chances of
listening to intimate expositions from Him on
the unity at the base of this illusory
multiplicity, these letters reveal the crux of
Baba's teachings regarding the individual and
the universal, the Atman and the
Paramatman.
On Janmashtami
(celebration of the birth of Lord Krishna)
in 1974, He sent this letter to the college
students at Brindavan. (It may be news to some,
but it will not surprise His devotees to know
that these letters are written by Baba Himself
in English).
"Come,
one and all," He writes, "and see in Me,
yourself, for I see Myself in you all. You
are My life, My breath, My soul. You are My
forms, all. When I love you, I love Myself;
when you love yourselves, you love Me. I have
separated Myself from Myself, so that I may
love Myself. My beloved ones, you are My Own
Self."
This is only
further evidence supporting Baba's declaration
that He created the universe of Himself, with
one word, to become all this diversity (ekoham,
bahusyaam).
Let me quote
from another letter where Baba indicates that He
is the inner motivator: "My boys," He
writes,
"the
bird with you, the wings with Me; the foot
with you, the path with Me; the eye with you,
the form with Me; the thing with you, the
dream with Me; the world with you, the heaven
with Me - so are we bound, so are we free, so
we begin and so we end, I in you and you in
Me."
Viewed
superficially, it may appear epigrammatic
effusion, but below the surface lies the
treasure of truth: "I am in the Father and the
Father is in Me" (John 14:11). Essentially man
is but a fraction, a fragment, a fiction in
search of a fact. God, alone, adds value to the
zero by standing as an integer by its
side.
Gustaf
Stromberg from Mount Wilson writes, "The
development of a living organism is in many ways
like the building of a machine designed to
perform a definite function in the future. A
plan must first be made and this can only be
made by an intelligent being, with his attention
focussed not only on his past experience but
also on the purpose for which the machine is
constructed. Nature, apparently, has foresight
and intelligence, and it is capable of highly
organised activity. Since an impersonal nature
cannot have such characteristics, we are led to
the idea of a personal God." The letter of Baba
mentioned above, is reminiscent of such a
One.
The
self and the Self
Now the letter
unravelling the truth of each of us, addressed
to the students on Janmashtami, Lord Krishna's
birthday:
Dear
boys,
In
the world of today, so full of people who are
selfish, unloving and unloved, the brand of
atheism known as 'self-love' has spread to
the extent of almost becoming a universal
religion.
What
is the Self? It is the Self that says 'not
I', for if it says 'I', then it is the unreal
self. The real Self is selfless, and has no
thought either of or for itself. It is the
Self that has now forgotten itself, because
somehow, it can visualise itself only in
others. It is the Self that loves selflessly,
because pure love is but selfless affection.
It is the Self that seeks the truth with
selfless determination, because truth is
selfless wisdom. It is the Self that is
quiet, because in silence lies cessation from
all worldliness. It is the Self in wordless
meditation, because wordless meditation is
the conquest of the mind through union with
the Divine. It is the Self that does not
judge, but evaluates. It does not compare,
seek security, or even see itself. It is the
Self that has completely absorbed itself and
yet, in a strange and mystical fashion, it is
more itself, more complete and more real than
it has ever been. This is the real
Self.
God
is love, and love is selflessness.
Selflessness is the abolition of all sense of
the ego and separativeness, of all spurious
identification with the isolationist life of
that counterfeit thing called 'self'; self is
separativeness, and separativeness is the
denial of wholeness, holiness,
God.
The
denial of God is known as atheism. As can now
be understood, atheism is not the denial of
this or that religion or of this or that
concept of God. It is rather the denial of a
life of love, which is the nature of God, and
the assertion of the life of the egoistic
self. In short, real atheism is the denial of
love and the assertion of
selfishness.
The
Godward process called 'self-sacrifice' is,
in its essence, love. For God is love, and
love alone can lead to Him. As the most godly
act is one of love, the most godless act is
one of hate.
But
hate, which is separativeness, can arise only
when there is selfishness. Thus it comes to
pass, that the most godless, loveless,
atheistic act, is the act of
selfishness.
Love
must be totally selfless to be Godward, to be
Divine. Its criterion must be, 'the Beloved,
first'; its technique must be 'your happiness
before mine'. The way to happiness is to
forget oneself and to remember God, Sai
Krishna.
With
Blessings and Love, Sri Sathya Sai
His
Two Eyes
There is a
mysterious episode concerning an Indian couple
who live in America. The husband, Dr. Y.S.
Thathachari, is a dedicated biophysicist who has
worked for some years at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and after that at
Stanford University and the University of
California. As early as 1960 he suffered, as the
doctors suspected, from rheumatoid arthritis.
But the experts who examined him at Stanford -
after dozens of X-rays, brain scans with
radioactive mercury, a surgical excision,
chemical tests and a biopsy of the scalp lesions
(he had developed several bumps on the scalp) -
declared that he had "aggressively malignant and
metastasising tumors in the skull, the neck, the
ribs and the hips, the cancer having the
features of both ewings and retiaulum cell
sarcoma." It was a death sentence enveloped in
medical abracadabra! In a letter to me on this
judgement, Thathachari wrote, "Thus after
delivering blow after blow, the surgeon told me,
'Sir, miracles do happen. We hope such a miracle
would happen to you.' " That was in 1962. The
couple returned home to Madras to be in the
midst of relatives, while trying out palliative
therapies.
In January
1964, doctors at Madras discovered widespread
destruction in the pelvic bones. Soon they
pronounced that the liver was affected by the
cancer. Let Thathachari complete the account of
what transpired:
"In 1965, I
felt like seeking the blessings of
Bhagavân S'rî Sathya Sai Baba,
following a chance reference by a friend. Baba
blessed me and my wife and directed us to go
back to Stanford, continuing the endoxan, if I
wished to do so. In 1970, when I approached Him
again, He asked me to discontinue all drugs and
dietary supplements. He gave me an assurance of
cure and dispelled that ever-present dread of
recurrence." Thathachari is now pursuing his
teaching assignment and research projects in
America with undiminished zeal, thanks to the
'miracle' that happened. When asked how he
brought about this most wondrous miracle that
defied all medical predictions, Baba replied,
"All
I did was to invest him with confidence and
willpower to cure himself. It is My abounding
love reciprocated by the intensity of the
devotee's own faith, that finally produced the
desired result."
About three
years ago Baba wrote to them,
"My
dears! I know that though your bodies are
far, far away, your thoughts are with Sai.
That awareness and attachment is sufficient
to keep Me near. Thoughts have no walls or
boundaries; they can reach Me across the
oceans. There is no one without Me; I am with
and within every one.
"When
only the body is near but the thoughts are
afar, the situation is like frogs leaping
around a lotus flower. But bees know of the
ambrosia that the lotus is ready to give;
they yearn to partake of its sweetness and
ever hasten towards it. Bangaroo! (a word
meaning 'gold', which is applied to a child
who is charming and well-behaved.) You have
Swami's grace in plenty. Where the Name is,
there is the Form.
"Busy
yourselves with the duties which are
entrusted to you, in good spirit and fine
health. Sai is ever by your side. He is the
charioteer of the vehicle of your life. The
ship of life, however heavily loaded with the
cargo of joys and sorrows, can certainly
arrive at the harbor of self-realisation, if
it is propelled by holy mental energy.
Repetition of the Name is the 'dug-dug-dug'
of the pistons; the steering wheel is love;
the anchor is faith. Continue the journey in
confidence. Sai is always guarding you from
harm and pain. You both are like His two
eyes. Swami is constantly showering His
compassion on you. He counsels you from
within and corrects you. On your part, be
immersed in the duties entrusted to you;
remember, that is Swami's work. When you
discharge your duties, convinced that the
work is Mine, health and happiness will be
added unto you."
When a
devotee, R. Lal, telegraphed from Bombay that he
had a severe heart attack, Baba wrote to him,
"It is not in any way connected with your heart.
Do not exaggerate the small malfunction.
Shiva-Shakthi is in your heart; that
Shiva-Shakthi will not permit any infirmity or
injury to affect it. Be happy. This day, Mother
Sai is conferring on you the boon of Her love.
That will grant you health, joy, peace, courage
and contentment."
This is how He
consoled a stricken Hindu wife:
"Mother,
the news that your husband attained merger
with the Divine came to you all of a sudden.
It is quite natural that you were shocked at
the accident which killed him, and feel
miserably lonely and deserted. The daughters
of Mother India do revere their husbands as
their all, and are ever concerned about their
health, honor and peace of mind. Yet one
should not forget that the body is composite
of diverse elements. It must disintegrate
into those elements, however much one might
guard it or lay claim over it. It is a feeble
contraption, prone easily to be put out of
action. A slip, a stumble, a hit, a sneeze, a
little carelessness or a moment of
recklessness, is enough to damage or destroy
it. No one can avoid death, even if one
manages to lengthen one's life by avoiding
all these. Even avatars take birth resolving
to die some day. When birth occurs, death has
to follow. To grieve over death, which is an
inevitable and inescapable consequence of
birth, is not a sign of wisdom."
About ten
years ago, He wrote a letter to a devotee in
Gujarat:
"Two
fundamental messages ringing through Indian
culture down the centuries are: 'Revere the
mother as Divine. Revere the father as
Divine.' These are sacred commands. When the
parents are by-passed and hurt by
disobedience, I am sure I, too, will soon be
by-passed and disobeyed. When your son treats
you a non-existent, how can he claim to
revere Me? That claim is patently
false.
"The
Lord does not demand external grandeur; He
examines only whether internal purity exists.
A life lived badly is like a body without
life. The body, in Sanskrit, is called Deha,
meaning 'that which has to be consigned to
flames'. A body belonging to a person who
does not strive for inner purity can live
only for that consummation, to justify that
appellation. It serves no other purpose, and
it cannot be blessed by the grace of the
Lord."
"The
value of education has to be measured in
terms of the virtue it implants, because
virtue, alone, ensures peace and joy. Without
it a man is as good as dead, or even worse.
Education must endow man with a sharp,
discriminative capacity. But for your son, it
is an ugly and vulgar acquisition. (sathya,
dharma, santhi and prema are the cardinal
virtues.) Sathya is what I teach; Dharma is
the way I live; Santhi is the mark of My
personality; Prema is My very
nature."
The
Will and the Way
Here are two
more messages sent to the Hostel
boys:
- 'Where
there is a will there is a way' is absolutely
true. At first the will is your own. It has
to be strengthened by the assent of God; but
until you convert it into the almighty will
of God, you seem to be playing a particular
game which you do not desire to give up. You
can always change the game, if you so wish.
You are not weak and helpless. All strength
and power is within you. God-vision is yours
the instant you will it with concentration.
But you simply don't choose to do so.
"Sai
is not mocking, He is perfectly earnest. He
is giving expression to the truths gathered
from the depths of experience. 'trust in, and
submission to the supreme will in all
circumstances', means 'the vision of truth'
or 'realisation of the eternal principle of
all creation'. 'If God Wills' means, 'if you
assert your own all-powerful will'. The real
solution, therefore, is to awaken the
inherent power and splendor of your soul. Do
it, boys! You are verily the immortal truth,
the great changeless reality. May victory
ever be yours. With blessings,
Baba."
- "Boys,
through the awareness of the divine, alone,
can we bring true peace to the world. There
is no doubt that considerable effort is being
made by great leaders of the world to bring
about peace and harmony on the material
plane. But Sai does not see any sign of their
success.
"The
only way left for us is to turn our minds
within ourselves and to find out that the
true and everlasting basis, that supreme
source from which, alone, we can bring true
happiness and peace to the world. That basis
is God, who is, in fact, dwelling in the
hearts of every one of us. He is the
universal spirit.
"Every
one of you is an embodiment of the divinity.
You are Sath-Chith-Ananda,
but have forgotten this truth. Realise it
now. Meditate on the reality until your mind
dissolves and you stand revealed as truth
itself, and enjoy, as Sai has been enjoying,
that eternal bliss. With blessings,
Baba."
He
Teaches through Letters
Pundit
Veerabhadra Sarma is a renowned Vedic scholar.
He can expound the sacred scriptures and hold
vast gatherings spellbound for hours by the
clarity, simplicity and sincerity of his Telugu
oratory. He is also a leading minstrel of the
popular Burrakatha musical recitals, and has
composed a Sanskrit
'Sai
Geetha'
and 'Puja
Vidhana'
on classical lines. He was chosen to be a member
of the party that undertook the pilgrimage to
Badrinath when Bhagavân decided to bless
that holy Himalayan shrine.
In spite of
these unique distinctions, his material poverty
was so acute that one day he blamed Baba for
'neglecting him and heaping upon him misery
after misery.' His wife, who could not bear this
sacrilege, offered to write to Baba about the
situation. She was certain that His blessings
would clear the sky. But Sarma was adamant. 'No
prayer should proceed from either of us to Baba,
who has mercilessly betrayed our trust," he
insisted. This was on 20th January 1962, at
Kakinada, eight hundred miles from Prasanthi
Nilayam. Bhagavân, of course, sensed his
pique and was aware of his obstinacy. So he
wrote Sarma a letter Himself, which reached him
on 23rd January 1962. Sarma revealed to me its
contents. The letter is a miniature
Gîtâ
which reveals the love that Baba showers
upon those who are misguided and move away from
His fold, the courage He instils by revealing to
the desperate their own inner treasure of
strength and the course He lays down for their
liberation from the entanglement of
ignorance.
It reads
thus:
"Dear
child Veerabhadram! You are Bhadram (secure,
happy, full of confidence and joy), aren't
you? You might ask, 'What kind of Bhadram is
this? Of course, that question is natural.
When life flows clear and smooth with no
hurdles to cross, to feel that it is so
because of oneself and to forget God, and
when that flow encounters obstacles and
obstructions at every turn, to lament and
lose heart - are these not signs of the
intellectual frailty inherent in man? You,
too, are human, dear Bhadram, therefore it is
no wonder that you are overcome by depression
and despair when troubles bother and obstruct
you at every step.
"Though
the life of man is basically a manifestation
of immortality and an unbroken stream of
ananda, he strays away from the awareness of
the atman, the spring of that ananda,
slavishly yielding to the vagaries of the
mind, the intellect and the ego. Sinking and
floating, rising and falling on the turbid
waves of the sea of delusion, he is tossed
between anxiety and calm, grief and joy, pain
and pleasure. He is afflicted with the
evanescence of the world and the unreality of
his desires.
"Why
are you confounded and confused by this false
panorama? Remember, you are thereby despising
and denying your own atmic identity. You have
stored in your brain the Vedas,
the Sastras,
the Purânas,
the
Ithihasas
and the Upanishads,
but you behave like a dull boor. You bewail
your lot and weep at your plight as if you
had no resources to fall back upon. This
attitude is not worthy of the learning you
have accumulated. You have to draw strength
and courage therefrom and further the
blossoming of holy, heartening
thoughts.
'He indeed was a part of a plenary
portion
of the Supreme Lord Vishnu
known by the name of Dhanvantari
who,
standing for the full knowledge of medical
science,
was there to demand his share of the
sacrifices.'
"Should
this one single trouble - want of money -
make you stoop in weakness and fear? You have
with you the name which is the Dhanavanthri
(Divine Physician (see
also: SB,
8:8))
for all the ills and anxieties of man.
Instead of letting that Name dance joyously
on your tongue, why are you paying so much
attention to what you call loss, grief and
worry?"
"You
are the repository of so many branches of
scriptural scholarship, but you have neither
realised their value nor attempted to
experience the joy they can give you. This
must be your prime goal. Instead, you are
spending your days in the mere satisfaction
of having acquired this knowledge, as if
fluent oratory were the best purpose to which
you could devote your learning. The result is
that you are led into the baseless belief of
being attacked by anxieties and
adversities."
"Really
speaking, these are all objective phenomena,
passing clouds that are but a feature of the
external nature. The ananda that the atman
can confer on you cannot be lessened or
hindered in the least. Have firm faith in
this truth. Don't you know, bangaroo, the
freedom, the delight and the tranquillity you
can derive by contemplation of the ananda
that the unbroken awareness of the atman can
endow you with? Knowing this, even if you are
confronted by the seemingly most
insurmountable problem, how can you get
entangled with or be affected by
circumstances and phenomena in the objective
world?"
"To
preach to others is quite easy, but to put
even a fraction of what is preached into
actual practice and experience the felicity
promised, is extremely difficult. You have
been announcing in ringing tones that 'Swami
knows everything; Swami is the unitive
embodiment of all the names and forms by
which man has adored God down the ages. But
when problems overwhelm you, you forget to
establish these truths in your own
life."
"Don't
I know? The other day, when you had been
reduced to plead with your father for help
and when you were about to proceed to where
he resides, your wife suggested, 'we shall
write to Swami about our troubles and
losses', let Me ask why you told her, 'I
won't allow this; you should not write'? I
shall even tell you the reason. You thought
she might inform Me about various other
details. Don't I know? Can I know this only
if she writes to Me? Foolish
bangaroo!"
"Don't
I know that you went to Ramachandrapuram to
give a series of talks on the
Gîtâ and returned with a minus
balance? The Gîtâ discourses did
not receive the response you expected because
your talk was pervaded and polluted by the
Burrakatha style that has long struck root in
you. It cannot be easily overcome. Bear with
it patiently and, with steady effort, be rid
of it. If you desire that your
Gîtâ lectures be appreciated,
some improvements are called for. Without
effecting them, why do you moan, be gloomy
and dejected, blaming your scholarship and
your experience as mere useless
loads.
"Well,
for Me, who is fostering all these worlds,
fostering you and your family is no burden. I
am giving you these series of troubles in
order to teach you some lessons. Study is not
all important. Practising what you have
learnt is very necessary. My purpose is to
bring to your notice this facet of the
process of learning."
"Let
Me tell you this. He who plants a sapling
cannot but water it; if he had no will to
water it, he would not have planted it at
all. This is the identifying principle of the
jiva and the atman, the individual and the
universal, man and god. You had written and
published that the name of Swami is dancing
and the form of Swami is being adored in home
after home. And by this little vision, you
were filled with ananda. But know now, that
the name of Sai will arouse ecstatic delight
filling the entire world, nay, every inch of
it. People now sing 'All is Sai-full, this
world is Baba-full.' This fullness will be
realised, without doubt. Be bold; be in
bliss; take up the burden of the duties
assigned to you. Seek realisation through the
four stages leading man to God -
Dharma,
Artha,
Kama
and Moksha."
"When
you resolve to progress on these lines, the
Lord of Parthi will Himself be available to
you to lift you and liberate you. Therefore,
bangaroo, seek and gain your own motivating
principle. I will never give you up. I will
not forget you, no, never."
"You
have been maligning the rich; give up this
erroneous habit. Not only the rich but you
should not dishonor any one in any way. If
they are bloated in their ego, they will
suffer. How can it affect you? Remember, Sai
resides in all; so maligning another means
maligning Sai Himself."
"Convey
my blessings to your wife and children. I
have written this long letter out of the
compassion and love that I bear towards you.
Be ever in joy; be ever intent on practice
and experience. The Resident of your heart,
Sai."
Telegraphic
Words
Bhagavân
conveys a world of meaning, an ocean of grace or
a Gîtâ of wisdom, even through a
short telegram. When Walter Cowan, whom He had
revived from death, passed away at last,
nineteen months after his 'coming back', Baba's
telegram to his wife, Elsie, from
Prasanthi Nilayam
declared,
"Walter arrived here in good
shape"!
Dwell on that sentence for a while. Walter had
uttered, "Baba! Baba!" just before he passed
away, for he was filled with years of grateful
devotion. And soon after, Baba announced that
Walter's soul had arrived. Similarly, when
Narayana Bhat of Alike was killed in a motor
accident, Baba had sent a message to his mother
which read, "Narayana
Bhat has merged in
Me."
Sai Baba
autographs books, pictures and photographs,
while walking between the rows of seated
devotees and visitors. Very often He simply
writes His name as we know it; at other times,
He may write 'Blessings'
or 'Blessings
with Love'.
Once, when someone reached out with a photograph
of His having a dark background to be
autographed, He borrowed a pen and wrote with it
in a white script, the blue-black ink in the pen
obligingly turning white. Thus, the method,
style and content of His message - all are
uniquely elevating.
Words
Do His Will
Baba's words
are known to cure not only every type of disease
or ailment, but also to effect a miraculous
change of attitude towards truth in the most
incorrigible persons.
Sri M.K.
Mishra, a mining engineer from Morena district
in Madhya Pradesh, writes,
"Some of
the northern districts of this state - Bhind,
Morena, Gwalior, Shivpuri and Datia - and some
adjoining districts of Rajasthan and Uttar
Pradesh, were infested with dacoits since the
dawn of India's independence. The governments of
Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan
tried their utmost to decimate them, but in
vain. The dacoits were virtually in control of
these districts. In 1960, Acharya Vinobha Bhave
toured this region in order to persuade the
dacoits to give up their life of crime. He was
able to persuade a few of them to surrender. In
October 1971, Madho Singh, who was the leader of
the most prominent gang, approached Sri Jaya
Prakash Narain to persuade him to take up the
unfinished work of Acharya Vinobha Bhave. With
the help of the Sarvodaya workers, J.P.
contacted various gangs of dacoits. Ultimately
his efforts bore fruit and about four hundred
dacoits agreed to surrender.
"One problem
that was agitating the minds of the dacoits as
well as the sarvodays leaders, was whether the
dacoits should make an open confession of their
crimes. Some sarvodaya leaders advised the
dacoits to contest the criminal cases started
against them in court. The dacoits were also of
the same view."
"On 23rd
August 1972, Srimati Prabhavati asked Sri Hem
Dev Sharma, secretary of the shanti mission in
Gwalior, to bring a copy of the Hindi
translation of Part II of
'Sathyam
Sivam Sundaram',
written by professor Kasturi. Sri Hem Dev
Sharma's neighbor was a devotee of Baba, so he
was able to procure the book from her. On that
day, J.P. addressed the dacoits and read out the
story of Kalpagiri as narrated in chapter six
['with
wounded wings']
of this book. Bhagavân's advice to
Kalpagiri, who had committed heinous murders and
who was roaming about disguised as a sannyasi,
to go to the police to make a clean-breast
confession and undergo cheerfully the punishment
he may be awarded, was listened to by the
hard-boiled dacoits. It touched their hearts
deeply, and convinced them that their real
salvation lay not in refuting their misdeeds or
trying to secure acquittals from law courts but
in confessing them humbly in a spirit of
repentance."
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Bhajans
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Written by
N. Kasturi M.A.,
B.L.
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