Think of Sai Baba Always

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Think of Sai Baba Always

By Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji

 

A PRAYER

It is my joy in life to find

At every turning of the road

The strong

arm of a comrade kind to

help me onward with my load.

And since I have no gold to give,

And love alone must make amends,

My only prayer is, while I live -God

make me worthy of my friends.

- Frank Dempster Sherman

 

Sai Baba is nearer to those who

practice in their everyday life, what he wants to be done, than to those who

merely say 'Baba' 'Baba' without practicing.

What does Baba expect his devotees to do? Shraddha, Bhakti, constant

remembrance, an attitude of humble and total surrender and propagating his

message to all as His instrument. Lord Krishna says in the Gita that none is

dear to Him than he, who propagates his immortal teachings to others.

 

Man is a mixture of animal, human and

divine qualities. Namasmaran is a tapasya which is a process of eliminating the

grosser qualities from the mind till it becomes pure and divine. Human life

itself is a tapasya or life of tapasya from beginning to end. A person who has

not entered this region of tapasya is no better than a corpse. Sankaracharya

says, the undisciplined mind is like a naturally

restless monkey made worse by taking intoxicating liquor.

 

Life is short and uncertain. None can

say when the call will come. So it will be unwise to put off sadhana. God gives

us various opportunities for fulfilling His will. If we conduct ourselves in

such a way that when the time comes for us to shuffle off this mortal coil and

stand before Baba he can take us in his lap and pat us on the back and say:

‘well done children.’

 

Sai Baba is beckoning to each and

every one of us, to enter on the most absorbing and fascinating journey and

finding Him -the Supreme Lord of all, within our own Self. He is the most compassionate

and loving Lord, who is eagerly waiting, to take several steps towards those

who take a single step towards Him. He is like the most loving father and mother

who are eagerly waiting with delicious dishes for the return of their children

from their play.

 

Those who have turned their back on

the illusory world of 'Maya' and all their values it has to offer set their

face resolutely on the goal of finding Him; to see Him but with their eyes, to

hear Him just not with their ears; and to understand Him - but not with their

mind. Those who have found him have dissolved in His glory and none of them

survives to tell the tale, like the salt dolls trying to find the depth of the

ocean, getting dissolved in the process.

 

The easiest and direct way to reach

Him quickly is to surrender totally and unreservedly to His will and allow Him

to take us by the hand and lead us towards himself. If a child catches his

father's hand in a crowd there is likelihood of its being lost. But not, if the father holds

the hand of the child.

 

Real wisdom does not consist in

making Baba do what we desire or want but in praying to Him for strength, faith

and light to put ourselves in harmony with His will and according to what he

wants. We do not know what will secure us the real peace and lasting bliss. I

can only pray 'Baba - curb all my desires - do what is best for me'. The water

rises up from the seas as clouds, then falls as rain and runs back to the sea

in streams. Nothing can stop them from returning to their source. Likewise all

jeevas rising from Sai Baba cannot be kept from rejoining Sai Baba although

they may be caught up in many eddies on the way. So let us always remember

Sai Baba and that is the nearest way to Moksha.

 

 

(Source Shri Sai Padananda April 1998)