Universal Love

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UNIVERSAL LOVE

Shri Sai Baba's love is so universal that it could easily

and automatically adjust itself to the level of the recipient. Everytime I have visited Shirdi, I have instances of

several grades of humanity coming in contact with Shri

Sai Baba. There is no instance perhaps of anybody coming to Shirdi and not

returning the better for the few days of that holy contact, irrespective of the

fact whether Sai Baba's Samadhi communed to him directly or even whether it

communed at all. Sai's very presence in His Samadhi

inspires all those who come near Him

It was in the last week of April 1981 that we

decided to go on a pilgrimage to Shirdi to perform the 'Chaula’

ceremony of our younger son, master Sai Prabhu Vijaykumar. This time we were a group of 10 persons

including my mother, in-laws etc, Excepting myself and

my wife Seetha, all the others were on their first

visit to Shirdi.

My brother-in-law, Shri

H V. Srinivasan, a planter by profession, is an ardent devotee of Shri Sai Baba. His devotion knew no bounds when we arrived

at Shirdi on the 28th April 1981. In two days, we stayed there, he spent

much of his time in Dwarkamai & Lendibaug. In fact he was in a trance immersed in devotion

of Sai.

Mr. Srinivasan was very particular that all of

us attend all the Arathis from morning till night. I

happened to be present along with him. Being ignorant of the Marathi language I

could not understand most of what was being sung at the time of arathi It was the same with Mr.

Srinivasan also. When I saw his brightened face after each Arathi,

I asked him whether he could understand the nature of the Arathi

song.

His reply is worth nothing “…I am

really surprised at what you say. We go there to enjoy the peace, the joy and

the resplendent glory of the Bhagawan's face. If

" we understand what is being said during the Arathi,

our attention will be drawn away by the words and the ideas conveyed by them

and necessarily our enojoyment of Sai's beaming face will be materially lessened. I am

grateful to my ignorance of Marathi which allows

me full scope to be looking at and enjoying Sai Baba's face without any

impediment, which could draw away my attention from there. "

I realised and bowed

to the bhakthi of Mr. Srinivasan who in his joy at gazing at the divine face of Lord Sainath would regard even the Aratbi

songs as a distraction from that supreme joy.

In short, Shri Sainath's love is universal and contagious. He has endeared

Him to us all, however much we may differ

in learning, in capacity, in temperament or otherwise. It may be stated without

tear of contradiction that His innate peace is

proof against the warring strife of the modern world. He is simplicity

itself in the midst of pomp and splendour. Though Sai

Baba lived in our midst, He was quite alone and quite apart from any of us. His

life offers a standing challenge to all of us, who doubt the possibility of

reaching self-realisation even in these days and puts

hope and courage in the hearts of all who aspire

for that goal.

May the grace of Sai Baba be ever with us to

guide us in every walk of life and take us before long to that goal! *

G. R. Vijayakumar

Karnataka

(Source Shri Sai Leela May

1983)