Who is Sathya Sai Baba?

[Guest guest]

Q. Who is Sathya Sai Baba? Is He sage, saint, or a social reformer?

Is He a man or God? If God, what level of God is He?

 

A. So many people have written extensively on this topic. And this in fact is

the topic that interests me the least. But quite frequently, I find people

asking me about Him. And these are the answers I give them.

Q. Why are you not interested about this topic?

A. Because it does not really concern me, who Sai is. My relation with Him is of

Love. And that is it.

Q. But still, who is Sathya Sai Baba?

A. He is my Love. He is my conscience.

Q. How is Sai different from other Gurus and Swamis we see in the world?

A. I understand that He is different from any other living person or creature on

earth, primarily in one way. While all others are actors, He is the actor- cum-

director. Also He is the author of the story called 'Life'. He is the Absolute

Sole Lord of Life and Death. In Swami's words, He is the human form in which

every Divine entity, every Divine Principle, that is to say, all the Names and

Forms ascribed by man to God, are manifest. He is the sarvadhaivathwa swaruupam

(the embodiment of all forms of Divinity).

He can wrap up the whole drama, the coming moment, if only He wishes, and there

would not be me to speak to you and there would not be you to listen to me. We

will be merged in Him.

Q. How do you believe Sai Baba is God? Do you have any proofs to say He is the

Master of this Universe?

A. Does a new born baby know the name, birth place, and qualifications of its

mother? How can it believe in a female who appears to be carrying her and doze

blissfully in her arms? How can a baby take it for granted that the mother will

take care of her at all times? Whatever reason the baby has, for the same

reason, I believe in Him.

I do not want to boast that my faith was formed 100% instantaneously. I did

study the phenomenon called 'Sathya Sai', before I took to Him. But, what

convinced me that He is my God and goal is not a statement by some scientist or

professor. It is not any scientific, philosophical or logical proof. On the face

of it, it would be foolish to try interpreting an infinite thing in terms of

finite things. It is my conscience that provided me the proof.

Some people question me again and again on this topic and try to analyze His

nature. When I find such an argument cropping up, this is what I tell them:

Sai is not a thing that can be argued about. He is an experience. Speaking and

analyzing about His nature would be as foolish as keeping a Rasgulla before you

and lecturing about its taste without tasting it. The taste of a material is

known only by tasting it and by no other means. Say you do not know what

sweetness is. How many ages, will it suffice to explain to you in words, what

'sweetness' is? Instead, if I put a sweet on your tongue, you will know it

instantly. Same way, Sai can be known only by experience. And how to experience

Him? Swami says, one can understand Him only through Love.

If you are really interested to know Him, it is for you to go to Prasanthi as

many times as possible, study His teachings, implement them and see the result.

Only that will give you the required conviction. 'Yevari kadupuku vaalle

thinaali'. One has to eat for one's own stomach. Your hunger will not be

satisfied if I eat on your behalf. You have to eat and meet your hunger. You

have to experience and know Swami.

(The sages and seers who had firm desire to witness truth, who had struggled for

ages constantly, they themselves, were not able to catch a glimpse of His

reality. When such is the case, how can the people with no sincere and serious

intentions, who lead a wayward life with no control on senses, who have no

other purpose than trying to obtain an inferior satisfaction of winning an

argument gauge His reality? It is absolutely and totally useless; to try to

explain or convince someone of Sai's worth)

Imagine the following situation.

You are trapped along with another person in a fatal prison. You need to escape

from it within the next five seconds or else you will be buried forever in the

prison. Then you see a key lying in a corner. You know that it is the key that

can help you get out of the prison. You go ahead to pick that up.

You are already tensed and worried whether you would be able to unlock the door

and get out within the narrow period of 5 seconds. When such is the situation,

if your co- prisoner, lying lazily on the prison's floor, asks you, "My

friend.... are you sure it is the right key? How do you know? Tell me the proof

and convince me and then I will get up and come with you...."

What will you do? There would be none more foolish than you, if you proceed to

convince him. The one and only way to know if it is the right key or not is to

use it to unlock the door. If one wants to know, whether Sai is the solution,

the only way is to live Sai and not speak Sai.

The condition we are now in, in this life, is far worse than the one I described

above. The constraint I framed in the above situation assures you at least a

time of five seconds. In real life, are you sure of being alive till next

moment?

Whatever little we time we are left with after spending it for meeting the

physical and mental needs, it is better to use it to improve our Sadhana and

faith. One cannot explain Sai to others.

It is not wrong to try telling people about Swami if they are genuinely

interested. But, we have got to make sure he has the eyes of Love. What is the

use of describing the brilliance of a diamond placed before a blind person? If

he has eyes, he can see it for himself. You don't have to explain anything.

Just point out in the direction where it is kept, and he can see and enjoy its

twinkle. To a blind man, you explain its beauty for eternity and he would not

be able to grasp it.

Q. I saw one Sai devotee. He was behaving so unkindly to an old woman standing

beside him. ... Or I saw a girl who dresses skimpily, she is an old student of

Sai School.... Or I found so much of unnaturality or showiness in that Sai

Bhajan.... Is this the 'Sai' way?

A. No. Sai always sets the best ideal. He is not an iota less than perfection.

These devotees or the organizations named after Him, are only looking up to the

ideal set by their Master and struggling to reach somewhere near to it. The

errors that they commit are because of their own incapability in comprehending

His guidelines or their own personal failures.

(I find one big mistake that most people commit while trying to estimate His

magnificence. That is, they see Sai devotees, they see Sathya Sai organization,

its projects, schools and hospitals and thus try to understand and estimate Him.

If the devotees or the Sai organizations commit any mistake, they see it as a

mistake in the 'Sai' principle. This is totally a false deduction.

For that matter, He is not just the Chancellor for Sri Sathya Sai educational

institutions, but for the entire UNIVERSE. If at all it is correct to attribute

the errors in these organizations to Sai, then, it should be correct to

attribute any single small mistake committed by any living organism in the

entire cosmos to Sri Sathya Sai Baba).

Q. If Sai Baba is an Avtar, why do people in the world still suffer? Why is He

not stopping the wars and draughts?

A. People suffer as a consequence of their own Karma. God does not interfere in

the natural law of action and reaction. However, if one prays to Him sincerely,

He can grant His Grace which will lessen the Karmic effect to a great extent,

and sometimes even remove it totally. But the problem is that the people do not

pray. They do not have such an unshaken faith in Him.

Q. Considering the present conditions, the violence and atheism prevailing in

the world today, are you confident that there will be total restorance of peace

and order in the world, by the end of Swami's earthly career in the Avtar?

A. Hundred percent. As far as I know, there had been no single person on earth

till today in the world history or in any epics or mythologies, from whom the

world has benefited so much as from Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. The benefit

that I talk of is not measured in terms of economic or financial or scientific

improvements. The true benefit is spiritual benefit. That is the true and only

everlasting benefit.

A man can be happy forever only when he knows his reality. There will be a

permanent end to his sorrow only when he realizes the ultimate truth that He is

none other than God. The improvements in financial or any other physical

circumstances, even health, will only confer temporary happiness. All that is

composed of the five elements is bound to perish some or the other day.

Sai is the teacher of teachers. He has come to teach no low ideal. He confers

permanent liberation from the sorrow and not temporary boons. Still, He does

confer health, monetary aids and other things pertaining to worldly prosperity.

There were innumerable instances where He cancelled the cancer by His word or

made the lame walk, which no medical science could explain. But His true gift

is Love.

Swami says: "On previous occasions when God incarnated on earth, the bliss of

recognizing Him in the incarnation was vouchsafed only after the physical

embodiment had left the world, in spite of plenty of patent evidences of His

Grace. And the loyalty and devotion they commanded from men arose through fear

and awe, at their superhuman powers and skills, or at their imperial and penal

authority. But ponder a moment on this Sathya Sai Manifestation; in this age of

rampant materialism, aggressive disbelief and irreverence, what is it that

brings to It the adoration of millions from all over the world? You will be

convinced that the basic reason for this is the fact that this is the Supra-

worldly Divinity in Human form."

Coming to the question of violence prevalent in the world today, I am more

worried about the violence in me, than in rest of the world. I see the anger,

fear, greed, lust, ego and hatred present in me as the problems needing my

immediate attention than the war that goes in Iraq or the bombings in

Afghanistan.

Without trying to get rid of the bad qualities in me, I believe it is SHEER

CONCEIT and HYPOCRISY to say that I would like to work for the prosperity of

the world. How can I teach someone something which I myself do not follow? How

can I bring happiness to someone else in the world when I myself am not happy?

How can I restore order in the country and there by in the world, without

having an order in my own life? When I do not have a proper vision for my life,

how silly it is to think of the vision for INDIA?

It is true that we need to sacrifice money, food and all other physical entities

for others though we do not have for ourselves, because they are limited in

quantity. But, in order to work for the happiness of others, one MUST be happy

oneself first.

Individual reformation leads to social reformation and never the other way

round. It is impossible to rectify the world, without bringing transformation

in the character of people. And that is what Sai achieved till today and will

achieve in enormous amounts in future.

I am totally confident that the day I am perfect, the entire world will be

perfect. And now your question takes a new form:

Will I become perfect, by the end of Sai's career?

The reply for this, I have already given in the first two words of this answer.

SAIRAM

[Guest guest]

om sai ram

"But the problem is that the people do not pray. They

do not have such an unshaken faith in Him.He is

an experience.one can understand Him only through

Love."perfect sai sandesh.

sai ram