Sai Baba's Method By Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji

[Guest guest]

In Sai's system, (as

Sri Narasimha Swamiji puts it), the Guru undertakes

every responsibility for the devotee that surrenders himself. The devotee is

there styled 'the Ankita', i.e., the stamped child of

the Guru. Everything concerning that pupil is looked after by the Guru, with

his wonderful superhuman powers. For a time, the circle of his worshippers and admirers

was extremely limited and in the close proximity of Shirdi.

But as the mass puts it, you cannot conceal the Sun by covering it with the

back of your hand. Murder will be out, truth will be out, and greatness of

Saints will be out also. Baba's powers of achieving objects by mere blessings

were so well known to many now, without any education or training, he dared to

give medicines for highly advanced cases of tuberculosis, Leprosy, rotting

eyes, bone rot etc., and effected most remarkable cures. The devotees

discovered that Baba knew everything, their present condition, and the

innermost thoughts that lay hidden in their hearts, their entire past history,

their previous births also, that Baba could definitely state what the future

was going to be for each person that came to him.

 

Those wonderful powers were employed by Baba not for purposes of

show or for getting wealth or plaudits but merely to promote the best interests

of people who confined themselves entirely to his care. Naturally the advantages

of having such a guru to worship were highly esteemed and the worship of Baba

went on from neighborhood of Shirdi to distant

outlying areas and reached practically the confines of Maharashtra by the time of his Maha

Samadhi in 1918. And now it has spread all over our country and abroad.

 

We shall remember now one of Baba's eleven sayings, " I am

ever living to help all who come to me, who surrender to me and who seek refuge

in me. "

 

Thus Baba is living and helping us (his devotees) in every

respect, temporal and spiritual, not for one moment but for the entire life of

the devotees that he takes charge of.

 

Baba's methods are unconventional. He insisted upon the essence of

all religions viz., love, intense, unselfish love evidenced by devotion and

service to all mankind and all creatures. This love begins with the Guru but

grows and covers up every creature. Hatred is inconsistent with Baba's faith

and the more this doctrine of love, gathering momentum under the Sai Baba Movement, spreads, the more chances there will be

for people's love to grow and for this unfortunate tendency of mutual jealousy

and hatred which now threatens world peace, to get absorbed.

 

That hatred ceases not by hatred but by love, is demonstrated in

individual lives and will also be demonstrated more and more in the history of

groups of nations and of the world.

 

What we Reveal to Others

 

I was abroad a large airliner sometime ago which ran into an

extremely severe wind and rainstorm. Despite the size of the plane and the

tremendous power of its four wasp motors, the ship was being tossed violently.

A little nine-year-old fellow was my seat companion. It was his first

experience in the air, and he was desperately afraid.

 

Suddenly he looked up at me and said " Are you afraid? " I

smiled and replied, " No this is real fun. " An immediate change came

over the little chap - fear and tension left him. He, too, had fun.

 

This taught me a real lesson in living. What he

detected in my voice, what he discerned in my face, helped him over that rough

spot in life. How many people during times of trial watch my face for what it

may reveal, I do not know. This I do know-my face and my life must reveal to

those who observe me or need me, my faith in God.

(source Shri Saipadananda Special

Magazine)