human embodiment

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When Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi was in His human embodiment at Shirdi,

thousands of people of different regions, religions, languages and

categories used to visit Him. The young and the old, married and

unmarried, worldly people and spiritual seekers and many others

representing the cross-section of society used to approach the

Master, to get his help and blessings to satisfy their material

needs and spiritual aspirations. In Shri Sai Satcharitra, one finds

mention about these characters although there were many more about

whom there is no record.

 

Sadgurus like Shri Shirdi Sai Baba, operate simultaneously at two

levels of consciousness. Some of their activities are manifested and

some are non-manifested in nature. Some examples of the manifested

activities are: feeding the poor and the devotees, curing their

physical and mental diseases, rendering temporal assistance in all

their material needs and religious pursuits etc. The manner in which

He gave relief was sometimes miraculous. Hundreds of families of

Shirdi and outside used to depend on Him for relief and sustenance

in their worldly existence. Sai Baba never refused to help any one

who came to Him. He laboured day in and day out to solve the complex

problems of His devotees. Once He told a devotee that He (Baba)

could not sleep during the previous night thinking about that

devotee. " What would happen to my people, if I constantly do not

keep an eye on them " He used to say. This was the role of a Provider

and Protector.

 

However, the other role of Shri Sai was subtle and secret in nature,

which created a permanent value in the lives of the people that

approached Him. Shri Shirdi Sai Baba was a Perfect Master or a

Sadguru. Being a Sadguru His divine charter of duties was to train

the devotees with a view to evolve their mental and emotional

qualities and ultimately to lead them towards emancipation. Such a

process of evolution, when left to the disciple himself, is very

slow and may take a number of lives to achieve. As ordained by the

law of nature, every human being evolves during each life cycle

while on the earth plane by experiencing an un-calculable number of

events generating pleasure or pain. Without, the help of a Master or

Sadguru who has traveled along and experienced the path of spiritual

evolution, the seeker goes through a process of trials and errors

and in the process his evolution slows down. However, if one accepts

a Sadguru as his mentor, and strictly abides by His advice, his

evolution becomes easier and faster. The Sadguru with His divine

powers and qualities has immense capabilities to hasten the process

of evolution of all beings that come in contact with Him. Therefore,

He is called a Samarth (capable of giving God realisation) Sadguru.

However, notwithstanding the ceaseless effort of the Masters all

devotees do not progress spiritually at an equal pace. The pace of

evolution of a devotee depends on a few Prime factors, like,

acceptance of the Master-both intellectually and emotionally, as the

sole guide and Protector in spiritual journey, complete faith in and

adherence to the advice and commands of the Master and finally a lot

of perseverance under all trying circumstances and over long periods

of time to follow the Master's prescriptions in its true spirit.

 

Usually Masters like Baba do not force disciples to follow their

advice. They suggest the prescriptions directly (through words,

actions and direct experiences etc.) and/or indirectly (through

dreams, anecdotes, hints and mediums etc.) to each disciple or some

times to a group of disciples. Baba at times used to speak cryptic

or broken sentences or utter a certain un-intelligible language. The

devotees could understand its meaning only after a protracted mental

deliberation over the issue. Baba could have given a direct solution

but His method was to lead the devotee through a self-finding mental

process. Many a times He would enquire from some devotees as to what

they were talking about when they were together. He would then

advise them on how to handle the compulsive negative thoughts of

mind and to inculcate a habit of generating positive thoughts. The

omniscient Sadguru used to keep a watch on the negative and positive

thoughts of His disciples and there are hundreds of such examples.

Baba used to create thought waves in the minds of devotees by His

subtle powers thereby leading them to find a solution to their own

problems. To many, He used to give direction in dreams as well. He

used to render such help with a view to create a clearer and purer

state of mind in the devotees, which is essentially required to

tread along the path of spiritual evolution as per His (the Masters)

scheme. The Sadgurus do not wish to keep Their disciples dependent

on Them for all times to come with a view to get their service. What

they desire is to evolve the disciples to the state of perfect human

beings (Satpurush), with perfect noble qualities so that they can

further carry on certain subtle and difficult tasks on this earth or

elsewhere in accordance with the Divine Plan. The Sadgurus not only

give emancipation to the human-souls under Their care but also

create a few spiritual workers from among the evolved devotees to

assist Them in Their universal and subtle activities. The basic

principle They follow is to light a number of candles from a single

candle and They expect the process to continue for all times to come.

If we analyse the different methods that Shri Sai adopted while

dealing with different devotees, one of his prescriptions stands out

prominently i.e. the qualitative evolution of mind. In whatever He

did towards the training of His devotees, the moot idea of Baba was

to evolve not only the mental qualities but also the thought process

itself. For example, when Nana Saheb Chandorkar sitting near Baba at

Dwarakamayee Masjid was attracted by the beauty of a woman, Baba

never advised him not to look at women. What He advised was that

while looking at any beautiful woman or beautiful object, one should

think of 'beauty' as an aspect of God's creation. He further

emphasized on the internal beauty of the soul and not on the

external beauty of the body. The lesson that Baba gave was that when

the mind is attracted to anything, it is better to attach a higher

value to the thought itself rather than to struggle with mind to

avoid the object of attraction. No one can struggle with his own

mind, as it is the most powerful force in human beings as ordained

by nature. The moment one tries to struggle with mind in order to

erase an evil thought or enforce a good thought sheerly by one's

will, it is bound to create certain reactions and such reactions

lead to further problems. This is the most difficult task for any

human being to perform, living as he does in a complex world.

Therefore, Baba used to keep a constant watch on the thoughts

arising in the minds of His devotees and guide them promptly.

 

For example He asked Kaka Saheb Dixit to stay quietly (Uge-muge) in

Dixit-Wada at Shirdi and not to mix with others. He told Dixit that

he should be wary of thieves in the Wada lest they would take away

everything, meaning thereby loss of his positive quality of mind and

peace. Similarly Upasani Baba was asked to stay at Khandoba temple

and not to meet any one. He was not even allowed to meet Baba

sitting a few hundred yards away for a long time. By separating the

genuine seekers from the rest of the world, Baba wanted them to

maintain a purer and positive state of mind and not to get

contaminated by the negative thoughts of others as usually happens

in social interactions. Baba used to render advice in the same or

similar line to different devotees e. g. to keep one's promise

always, to make adequate payment for the services received from any

person, to tolerate and not to quarrel even if provoked, to avoid

speaking ill of others, to avoid differentiating among human beings

on the grounds of material or social differentiation etc. and

finally to visualise the presence of God in every object, every

thought and every feeling.

 

All religious rituals including Poojas, Aartis and Parayanas, etc.

are methods of human evolution at the first stage. Evolution of the

thought process of mind in itself is the inter-mediary stage and

emancipation of the soul through realization of God is the third and

final stage in the spiritual journey of the soul. Since the

omniscient Baba could easily read through the thoughts of all His

devotees, He could prescribe the methods of thought control and

spiritual evolution to each devotee, specific to him.

 

History shows that it is the positive forces of human minds that had

created mighty civilizations and it is the negative forces of human

minds that had brought about the total destruction of their own

civilization as had happened in Rome, Egypt, Peru etc. We see the

world as our mind visualises it and our visualisation is limited and

often distorted. We see the world with a fixed Kaleidoscope from a

certain angle. If the Kaleidoscope is rotated, then different forms

and patterns of life would appear. Since each individual sees life

from a certain fixed angle, each experiences a specific pattern, the

pattern of life experienced by him seems to be the only truth. Let

alone the people with a predominantly evil nature, even people with

the best of qualities suffer from this limitation of mental fixity.

It is seen that at times the best qualities of an individual, become

the greatest block in his evolution in certain situations. For

example, there was a kind person who used to help every one. He had

the expectation, as is usually the case with human beings that

others would be equally kind to him and reciprocate, in his bad

times. But when he was in distress every one did not render the

required help in the manner and to the extent he had rendered to

them. As a result, he started questioning the very plinth of

kindness and decided not to help others as he used to do earlier.

Now his proactive kindness turned to reactive narrow-mindedness. His

evolved quality of natural benevolence was blocked and the evolution

process of mind slowed down. No doubt as a worldly-wise person he

went a step forward but in his spiritual evolution he had gone a

step backward. If he had the flexibility of mind to accept the

imperfection in others without passing value judgement over the

imperfect conduct of others, he would have been happier and more

evolved. The lesson to learn is that howsoever perfect one claims to

be, the universal nature (containing both so called perfect and

imperfect aspects), does not give a license to any one condemn

others, howsoever, imperfect. Therefore, the wise ones have

proclaimed that one may hate sin but not the sinner. Baba

unequivocally declared that when any one condemned any one else, his

feelings were hurt.

 

Some psycho-analysts hold the view that inflexible perfectionists

suffer psychological stress the most as they find it difficult to

adjust with the imperfect traits in the character of others with

whom they interact. Such persons are sometimes, highly creative

because of their sense of perfection but nevertheless they suffer

the most due to social maladjustment. This problem of human beings

is not limited to this category alone. It is more or less with every

one to some extent. The fundamental problem with the magnificent

human being is that each person considers himself to be the centre

of the Universe – the little Universe he has created for himself.

Therefore, he desires that every thing around him should fall in

line with the requirements of that little Universe. They are not

prepared to visualise themselves as an infinitesimally small

particle in the vast Universe with millions and millions of ever

changing patterns. These millions of little Universes juxtaposed in

the social fabric of our complex world try to clash with each other

and to pull each other apart by the gravitational force of their

atomic individualism or ego. The Sadgurus have always tried to give

simple solutions to this complex problem.

 

If we follow the prescriptions of Baba, as contained in Shri Sai

Satcharitra our thought process can go through a qualitative change

and we can have a clearer picture of the world around us. It will

not only do good to us but also to others around us. Therefore, when

reading Shri Sai Satcharitra or other literature on Baba, our

thought should always be focused on this aspect of conscious mental

evolution that Baba repeatedly taught and exemplified through his

own conduct.

 

Baba Said

 

" We get human body as a result of merits in past births, and it is

worth-while, that with its aid, we should attain devotion and

liberation in this life so we should never be lazy, but always be on

the alert to gain our end and aim of life " .

 

Baba is every where just feel him and keep on saying ‘Om Sai Ram’ to whom so

ever you meet.

 

OM SAI SRI SAI JAI JAI SAI!!! Let us pray at the lotus feet of Bhagwan Baba who

is the incarnation of all gods and protector of all, to show mercy on us, and

increase our devotion towards him

 

Jai Sai Ram

Swamy Mahadevan

Bow to Shri Sai-Peace be to all

Baba Bless you ever!!!