Sai Baba the Master

[Guest guest]

The most succinct of Baba’s recipes for spiritual perfection is, “People think

they are all different from one another. But in this they are wrong. (For

example) I am inside you and you are inside me. You should continue to think

in this way. Then you will realize it.” Baba embodies this outlook and the

ultimate state of this realization. And he prescribes the same to us. That was

how he could say, “Feeding the hungry bitch is feeding Me.” Or “I am also in

the mire-besmeared pig.” He said, “This body is but my house. My murshad

(guru) has long ago taken me away from this.”

Still, nearly sixty years after Baba’s mahasamadhi, people try to trace Baba’s

parentage, name, religion and caste as though they are inescapable, hard,

objective realities! They try to investigate the place of birth, guru and

other details of one who is not his body and who never was in one place. If

Baba appeared as a sadhu in one place and a bhil (a tribesman) in another then,

is Sai to be regarded as a bhil or a sadhu? However, the name that people tagged

to him seems to have been specially ordained for him by god and no other word

can so aptly sum up his name, quality, creed, parentage and caste. He is ‘Sai

Baba’. Just that! He was in all and He is All. A more complete embodiment of

Christ’s injunction, “Love thy neighbour as thyself” cannot be found than he.

For ‘neighbour’ to Baba meant the whole of existence with all its creatures;

and he loved them as himself, as his own Self, and not as anyone would love

himself. If this be the basis of Baba’s infinite, love for all creatures, what

fuller fulfillment of the Buddha’s doctrine of compassion for all creatures and

ahimsa can be found than in this ‘Saint-father’?

Inspite of their recurring errors, how the devotees of Sai were constantly made

aware of Sai Baba’s perfection can best be seen in Mrs. Manager’s account :

“One’s first impression of Sai Baba was derived from his eyes. There was such

power and penetration in his glance that none could continue to look at his

eyes. One felt that Sai Baba was reading him, or her, through and through. Soon

one lowered one’s eyes and bowed down. One felt that he (Sai) was not only in

one’s heart, but in every atom of one’s body. A few words, a gesture, would

reveal to one that Sai Baba knew all about the past, present and even future

and about everything else. There was nothing else to do for one except to

submit trustfully and to surrender oneself to him. And there he was to look

after every minute detail, and guide one safe through every turn and

vicissitude of life. He was the Antaryamin, call him God or Satpurusha (One

who is in the Absolute state of Being) in sahaja sthiti (the original state) or

what you like. But the overpowering personality was there, and in his presence

no fears, no questionings had any place and one resigned oneself and that was

the only course, the safest and the best course…”

Source: http://www.saibharadwaja.org