Sai Baba: Sai Baba's Words of Mercy, Action, Love  

By Nilanjan Bose  

Sai Baba: Sai Baba's Words of Mercy, Action, Love  

Shraddha and saburi form the crux of Shirdi Sai Baba's message. By shraddha , he meant absolute faith in the guru, to look upon the teacher as God, an avatar of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Baba said: ''Do not try to get mantras or discourses from anybody. My guru never taught me any mantra. But having faith and confidence in your guru is everything. Look at me wholeheartedly and I in turn look at you similarly.''

By saburi , Baba meant patient perseverance. He said: '' Saburi is a mine of virtues and good thoughts. Saburi removes all sins and afflictions, gets rid of calamities, casts aside all fears and ultimately gives you success.'' Although well-versed in scriptures, he discouraged dry discussions. Instead, he would prompt men, women and children to participate in the process of life, doing one's prescribed duty as student, householder or sadhaka while surrendering heart and soul to the guru.

Often Baba transmitted his teachings silently, through a merciful look or touch. To resolve material problems, what mattered to Baba's devotees was the power of his word and good sankalpa or will. Baba would invariably respond like a merciful mother does to her children, concerned as much with relieving their immediate worldly anxieties as with their spiritual growth.

Baba acted purely out of love, no strings attached. Sai Baba urged people to overcome laziness and earnestly strive for self-realisation. Baba gave varied temporal and spiritual instructions. Some people would be asked to study holy books, others to feed the hungry, or meditate or chant or work detachedly. However, surrender to the guru was always the foundation of all that he said.

About meditation, Sai Baba said: ''With desirelessness, you should meditate on the Lord who is in all creatures. If you cannot do this, meditate upon my form as you see here, day and night. As you go on doing this, your thoughts will get concentrated at one point and the distinction between the meditator, the act of meditation and the object being meditated upon will be lost.''

Baba uttered Allah's name, sometimes lovingly sang of Rama, and sometimes of other gods. The masjid he stayed in he called his ' Dwarakamai' . On one side of Dwarakamai was a tulsi vrindavan and on the other was a holy fire whose ashes or udhi Baba distributed with his blessings.

Devotees would surround Baba, seeking his intervention and holy company, offering Baba arati. He said: ''If anyone utters my name with love, I shall fulfil all his wishes and increase his devotion.'' No one knew what Sai Baba's religion was, who his guru or parents were, or from where he had come as a teenager to Shirdi, a remote Maharashtra village, some time in mid-19th century.

In Shri Sai Satcharita, it is said that before his Mahasamadhi on the Vijayadashami of 1918, Baba told his devotees that he will reincarnate. But he added cryptically: ''Believe me, although I pass away, not only myself but my bones in my tomb will communicate, giving hope and confidence to those who surrender themselves wholeheartedly to me.''

This was only in keeping with what he would often say during his lifetime: ''You need not go anywhere in search of me. Barring your name and form, there exists in you, as well as in all beings, a sense of Being or Consciousness of existence. That is Myself.'' He also said: ''I have no form. I always live everywhere. I carry on, as a wirepuller, all the actions of the man who trusts me and merges in me. Do not entertain the sense of doership in doing good as well as bad deeds. Be entirely prideless and egoless in all things and thus your spiritual progress will be rapid.''Shirdi Sai Baba's life continues to be his teaching. Unrestricted by man-made barriers, like an active ocean of mercy and love.

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See also: Sai Baba, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)