Living Sadguru

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When faith wavers, the mind goes after a tangible physical experience. It

becomes very necessary to long for His presence in our lives, His assurances

for our well-being. It is natural. It is important to rely on our patience at

such instances. “I shall speak from my tomb”, said Sadguru Sainath. There are

also certain type of followers who need a grander vision of the Lord. They

prefer to see Him in the most physical state. Having lost the patience to

realize that Sadguru is the embodiment of the spirit that can be realized

anywhere, anytime, they bring upon themselves unnecessary burdens. This is not

a good sign of spiritual progress. However, even great realized souls have gone

through this stage. But, just like any intense quest is answered, Guru leads

such souls to the answer in the most unseeming way. Let us see one such

experience narrated by Acharya Bharadwaja in his, “Sree Guru Charitha”:

Once I visited Sri Ma Anandamayi at Naimisharanya during Bhagavat Saptah. At one

of the daily expositions of the holy text, the revered speaker Sri Akhandananda

Saraswathi remarked that only a living Sadguru could lead his devotee to

self-realization and that a Sadguru who had cast off his body, however great he

might be, can only fulfil prayers for one’s material good. He spoke in Hindi

which I could only understand but cannot speak and so I could not discuss with

him. As Sai Baba was no longer available to me in flesh and blood, I wondered

what I should do, but had no chance to get the clarification.

After a few months, I visited Shirdi on a proposed stay of seven days. I wished

to obtain Sai Baba’s guidance and clarification in this matter. On the second

day, I was very strongly impelled to visit my old student who was working in

Pune. It was quite unusual as I never visited anyone of my friends or kinsfolk.

I had to yield to the impulse and I reached Pune. My friend was away at the

office. So I left my bag in his house and wet out, wishing to spend the time in

going round the city till my friend’s return. Quite accidentally, I enquired at

a wayside florist whether there was any great saint worth visiting in Pune. The

shop-keeper directed me to visit Sree Gulavani Maharaj, a direct disciple of

Sree Vasudevananda Saraswathi.

As soon as I entered the Muth (monastery), the aged saint greeted me saying,

“Oh! The child of Sai Baba has come!”. I at once realized that I could get a

reliable clarification for my problem from him. He heard my question and said,

“What that learned speaker said is true of only those who attained

enlightenment through their efforts. But Sai Baba of Shirdi is not such one. He

is the Avatar of Lord Dattatreya. He manifests himself to his worthy devotees

even today in his physical form and guides them. You are on the right track. Go

ahead”. At once I realized that Sai Baba had blessed me with the solution to my

question.

the name & deatils of the are author were not given extracted from saibaba.org

Arun Reddy Nukala

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