Message by H. H. Narasimha Swamiji for Guru Poornima on 15th July 1954.

[Guest guest]

Ashada Pournima of Java Samvatsara comes on the 15th July 1954. This is

called Guru Pournima or Vasya Pournima, and is observed by Hindus every­where.

Those, who have got special attachment to their Gurus, go through full forms of

rituals intended to emphasize the Guru-sishya relation and lead the performer of

the ritual to full fruition of that relation. What is the relation of

Guru-sishya for? The Guru is the dispeller of darkness of the sishya. And what

is that darkness? The sishya fancies that he is a separate individual soul,

practically his physical body and nothing more. It cannot be easily conceived

by any­one that he is not the physical body or even a psycho-physical organism,

but really the Parabrahman, the Universal Soul in its individual aspect. The

Guru's work is to make the sishya realise this. This will be enabling him to

reach his goal of life. At the time when the Guru imparts this teaching, the

sishya needs it, and is thankful. When the Guru passes away, his Samadhi Day is

the special occasion for reviving Guru's memories. The teaching is that the

ardent sishya must dive into the Guru's personality and surrender himself even

during the living contact, that is, his contact with the Guru in the flesh

namely, when both he and the Guru or in the flesh. If, however, a person has

not achieved the full realisation during that time, then the sishya's duty is

to be perpetually concentrating his mind and soul on the Guru at all times. It

is the very process by which the goal is achieved. Concentration leads to laya,

that is, oneness with the Guru, who is viewed as the Universal Soul or

Parab­rahman. In practice, however, concentration at all times is not found

practicable or easy by many a sishya, thus to have frequent remembrance of the

Guru. Some find even frequent remembrance a difficulty in the midst of their

multifarious engagements. For such people, Guru Pournima is a God-send. On that

day they are to summon up the fullest possible earnestness and zeal and revive

all their feeling of love and con­centrate on the Guru. To help them in that

process, the Guru Pournima ritual is ordained. The process is very similar to

the Pitru Sraddha. On the Pitru Sraddha Day, that is, one day out of the 365

days in the year, the son recalls what he owes to his father and other

ancestors and performs various ceremonies intended to summon those ancestors,

to receive them with the fullest honours and pleasure, to give them clothes and

food and money and make them happy, and finally to receive a blessing from them

for his own progress. Similarly on the Guru Pournima Day, the Guru and his

predecessor the Paiama Guru, and his Guru, the Parameshti Guru, and above them

all, the Parameswara in all His forms as Kesava, Narayana, etc , are invited

and honoured and given everything which is considered good and pleasant- food,

worship, clothing, money, and respect. After worshipping them, the sishya

awaits their good pleasure. At parting, the Gurus give him their blessings for

the fullest fruition of his highest desires. This Guru Pournima ritual is fully

sketched out in Santiratnakara Poorva Bhaga. If it is difficult to make it out,

live services of a professional priest can be had for perfor­ming the same.

So far as to ritual; but for Sai bhaktas the ritual is not considered very

important. What is wanted is the essence. Baba's whole system is

unconventional, and insists upon our going into the root of the matter. The

Guru-sishya relation is one of intense love, mutual love, between the Guru and

the sishya, and Baba's description of his own Guru-sishya relation which you

will find in Baba's Charters & Sayings, is more important than Santiratnakara.

An intense study of paragraphs 137, 138, 139, 140 and 175 of Baba's Charters

and Sayings is likely to do far more good than anything else for an ardent

bhakta. These have to be read over again, and one must be fully merged in the

idea of one's Guru. The Guru lives in his Gospel, called Baba's Charters &

Sayings. By thoroughly soaking oneself in the idea of the Guru which one gets

by a study of the Gospel, one achieves one's object, namely, getting identified

with Sai Baba. The result of that identification is unity and bliss. After every

study-of the Gospel, one ought to concent­rate on the figure of Baba as in any

portrait or image one has, and allow one to lose oneself in that

contemp­lation. That alone is real puja which makes one lose oneself in the

puja. On Guru Pournima Day, groups of devotees can join together and perform

the ritual mentioned above at one time and listen to the study of books on Sai

Baba - any book on Sai Baba, preferably books like the Gospel or like dramas on

Baba or Sainath Mananam, etc.

My message, therefore, to all devotees is this. You should all get into dead

earnest on this Guru Pournima Day, and set apart the largest amount of your

time that you can spare, and devote every second of your time so set apart for

the intensest concentra­tion on what you read or on the picture that you are

meditating upon. Solitary contemplation is to crown all the rest. After doing

congregational puja, people are to take the opportunity to have silent and

solemn meditation on the Guru, and then they will get at their Guru. The Guru

and they will be one.

Guru Pournima comes only once a year. So, you ought to make it so full of

intensity and fullness that there will be plenty of force stored up in you by

what you do by way of reading, meditation, puja, etc. it will give you

momentum. Let not your zeal flag the second day or the third day after the Guru

Pournima. Keep up everyday contact with your Guru-Sai by reading something about

Him and meditating on what you read as also on the picture of Baba. You can find

this very easy by making it a habit to associate every­thing of what you do with

Baba. Suppose you want something very badly, at once think of Baba and his help,

and you will be constantly receiving his help. If you have accepted with all

your heart the truth of what he says, namely, that he looks after you and that

you have nothing to care for, you will have nothing to fear. (Baba said, "Tula

Kalji Kazli; Mala. Sara Kalji Abe", that is, "why are you anxious? All care is

mine." These were words uttered to H. S. Dixit, and which all his life Dixit

found to be true at every moment). So, for everything you do, call Baba to your

aid and feel that Baba is aiding you. All the moments of your life spent in

worldly quests also will be full of Sai thought and your entire life will be

blessed by Sai's care and provision. He will provide for all your wants,

temporal and spiritual, and also for your highest wart, to be absorbed in the

Bliss of Sai Satchidananda.I close my message with the prayer to Baba that all

my hearers of this message may be moved to the very depths of their hearts and

pulled by him on to himself so that they may get the greatest benefit possible

for any bhakta to receive.