XXXIX. How Do Masters Redeem Devotees? (contd...)

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XXXIX. HOW DO MASTERS REDEEM DEVOTEES ?

STEADY UPLIFT ENDING IN FREEDOM FROM CYCLE OF BIRTHS

 

The Initial Help :

First the Jiva is under a heavy load of past Karmas which weighs him down

and pins him to Samsara. He has to reap the pains and pleasures he has sown.

If he tries to remove one item of load he does two more acts and thereby

increases the load. This is because of his weakness, and want of clear

vision, and of ability to know and direct himself alright. He requires,

therefore, the help of one who knows the situation exactly and what will

meet it in the individuals special circumstances. Such a guide and director

is the Sadguru. So the Jiva has to go to a Sadguru. But unfortunately even

the desire to approach a Sadguru and the idea of how to approach him

properly are foreign to the Karma-bound Jiva. So taking advantage of a

little punya (merit) acquired by the Jiva by means of previous contact

(however remote) with the Sadguru or any other holy person, the Sadguru

mercifully makes the approach easier for the Jiva. By his vast powers, the

Sadguru helps the poor. Jiva, even temporally—in a way under such marvellous

circumstances that the Jiva is pulled out of his vicious circle, and roused

to a sense of admiration, gratitude and reverence to the Samartha, noting

especially how divine the Sadguru is contrasted with the earthly Jiva.

Later Development :

Thus the Jiva gets prepared to and does attach himself by love to the

Samartha Sadguru and the latter increases his faith by showing him more and

more of his vast knowledge, vast power, vast kindness and love—all exercised

on behalf of the devotees out of pure mercy. As part of this same mercy, the

Guru directs the devotee to do some acts which will increase the punya or

good Karma and reduce the papa or bad Karma of the devotee. The more good

Karma is done, the more is the doer reducing his heavy load of past bad

Karma, without committing fresh bad Karma. Results of previous Karmas are

even advanced and regulated by the Samartha's omniscience and omnipotence to

lielp his dependent reap his harvest more quickly.

But in this process the Jiva is apt to get attached to the doing of punya

or meritorious work. Though they enable him to get over Rajas and Tamas,

they still bind him through Satva, as they will carry him to repeated births

in nice worlds i.e., of the Gods, Even this Satvic bondage must be rent as

under.

So the Guru next weans the devotee even from good works. For the purpose,

the devotee must have an attachment higher and stronger than good works.

That is the attachment to, and love for ihe Guru, ending in surrender to the

Guru. Attachment to the Guru is useful no doubt. But its early stages leave

in the mind of the devotee the idea that he is still the person directing

his affection to the Guru, and doing the appropriate service therefor and

that he is doing something worthy and meritorious. It nearly approaches

detachment by reason of absence of personal motive but is still tainted with

Egoism, i.e., with the sense of the devotee being an agent, a voluntary

performer of action. This sense also must be knocked on the head or

banished. Its absence is surrender to or identification with the Guru.

Identification and surrender are almost the same, with a slight difference.

In surrender, the process is marked by humility and a desire to end the

self, which need not be distinctly present in identification with the Guru.

Identification may be the result of surrender but is seldom its cause. The

fruit of identification is the destruction of the primal Maya or nescience

under which the Jiva started its separate existence. Surrender restores the

balance (or harmony) of gunas that was upset when the separate existence of

the Jiva commenced.

Towards Surrender :

This surrender is brought about when the feeling of the devotee towards his

Guru gets intensified. Such intensification is comparable to a huge

world-wide dynamo attracting an electrified atom. The devotee, the atom, may

however still be feeling or fancying that it is moving of its own accord to

the huge dynamo, the Guru and then the devotee may even raist the question

how this surrender is to be effected and accelerated.

In this connection, we may consider another line on which the devotee Jiva's

progress is proceeding, The devotee starts with devotion to his Guru or God,

who is felt to be entirely outside him, i.e., outside the devotee's body.

The devotee is then under the influence of Rajas and Tamas and identifies

himself almost entirely with the body. But increasing contact with the

Sad-Guru and increasing faith in him, with good works, especially selfless,

meritorious works, reduce the Rajasic and Tamasic elements of the devotee

and wear off his Dehatmabuddi, i.e., the idea that he is the body.

His ideas of God get broader and finer; and more emphasis is laid on God's

and Guru's spiritual nature which bursts the sbackless of finite space

limits. The Guru God is not confined to the small human body but extends fat

beyod—covering the entire universe on one side, and, on the other, is very

subtle and therefore enters as Sarva Antaryami into all hearts. The devotee

begins to feel that the Guru-God is his own Antaryami, i.e., he sees him

within himself. TheSamartha's vast powers enable the devotee to obtain the

finer sight actually to see the Guru within his own heart. The inner

presence of God-Guru can never be inactive. His real living presence within

asserts itself more and more and swallows up the Jivahood of the Jiva. This

is self-surrender of the Jiva when viewed from the latter's stand-point.

With this swallowing up or surrender, all old Karmas, good and bad, are

swallowed up.

The Final Snap :

The Vasana s or tendencies to do fresh Karma have also to be destroyed in

the Jiva's progress. Vasanas are desires or desire tendencies directed to

lower objects (whether earthly or otherworldly objects). These have to be

swallowed up only by a stronger and purer desire or affection, by something

more exacting than earthly love. As stated already, such stronger paision is

the devotee's love for the Guru, and it is that love that blossoms into

complete self-surrender. This surrender alone totally extinguishes Vasanas.

Once Vasanas are destroyed, there is no more ego, no more of vicious circle

of Samsara, and the Evolution of the Jiva into the Supreme is complete. Then

the Jiva sees that the Samartha Sadguru has all along been with him, inside

and outside, and that the Jivt the Sadguru and the Supreme Being are and

always have been one and the same Real.

SRI SHIRDI SAI BABA'S NECTOR WORDS

1. The secret of happiness lies in serving God almighty with joy and

abandon.

2. Contentment is the barbinger of mental peace and happiness.

3. Speak with love to everyone, and take great care not to hurt the feelings

of others.

4. The true essence of God is bliss. Therefore, by surrendering at His Lotus

Feet you too can partake of this supreme anand.

5. True bhakti means intense and self-abnegating love for the divine.

6. A dedication of all your actions to God or Guru is the true essence of

devotion.

7. Gnan (Knowledge) which is not tinged with bhakti (Devotion) is bleak and

uninspiring.

8. Inflicting pain on others by body, mind and speech is sin; the reverse is

merit, good.

9. Welcome whoever comes to your house, give water to the thirsty, cloth to

the naked, keep in your house the helpless; this will satisfy Sri Hari

(God).

 

 

(This is from the book"The Wonderous Saint Sai Baba" written by Pujyasri

V.Narasimaswami,founder President of All India Sai Samaj,

Chennai...........This book can be read from www.saileelas.org)

 

(concluded)