Importance of Sri Sai Babas Mahasmadhi - B.V.Narasasimha Swami -V

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Great is Baba's Grace towards this humble servant of His, inasmuch as he has

given him one more chance of addressing fellow-devotees on the occasion of

His Mahasamadhi. The Mahasamadhi is an event of unique importance. While it

took away the physical body so well known and dear to the thousands that had

flocked to His Feet, it was the means of refining and sublimating their love

to Him, and at the same time starting a new era in Sai Bhakthi and providing

a special ethereal entity or Body that the entire people of India is not all

i he world would be drawn to. When He was in the flesh, some were repelled

by the limitations and peculiarities of His physical body and surroundings.

But now happily, there is no physical body. Its place being taken by an

ethereal body or better still, a perfect spiritual phenomenon that may be

treated as a body or not a body according to the ideology, convenience and

pleasure of the devotee, it has furnished a basis for a highly refined

religious or spiritual group to gather and work under His Name.

The body, however much the impersonal or Nirguna Sadhakas may ignore or

depreciate it, has a very high value for the vast majority, to whom Saguna

Aradhana is the only possibility. Sai Baba is, and is not, Sai Baba's body.

When we refer to Sri Sai Baba, we refer only to his body and new comers to

His fold must necessarily think of His body, before they can think of Him at

all. As was said of Sri Krishna, it may also be said of Sri Sai Baba, that

after living a considerable time in the physical body, and performing Leelas

through it, He found that the time had come for the physical body to be

shaken off and that the memory of His work and teaching should suffice to

continue and develop to perfection the spiritual movement that He had

started for the benefit of the world thereby proving that He (Baba or

Krishna) was not the perishable body but that imperishable life—principle of

thought and action, that is, the set of forces that brought about the Leelas

and Teachings and would continue to do so up to the end of time, Krishna,

though he left the body 125 years after his birth is not dead; and he cannot

die—He lives, hears our calls and moves with us and in us in a mysterious

way. Sai also after he cast off his body (age may be 75 or 125 years) yet

lives and works His wonders, and helps all and will help all that care to

approach Him. This need hardly be stated, much less proved to you, children

of Sai, who have ample experience of His living, moving and having His being

in and through you, as through so many vehicles and channels.

To you what I should say on this special occasion is that, having started

the life of Sai devotion, it is for you to develop ii more and more. You

know that devotion to Him is a force for good—for your good, good in every

direction and for every purpose. What is there that Sai cannot achieve for

his beloved children? As He is identified by us with God, we fully believe

that nothing is impossible for Him and that any shortage of gifts from him

to us must be due to the working out of law which divine providence has

established and the working of which is for our real and enduring benefit.

We place our fullest trust in His Love, foresight and providence for us and

for all and will gladly accept even apparent evils that befall us as first

steps for ultimate benefit; in fact we are applying the religious doctrine

about the possibility of evil in a world made by an Almighty God of goodness

that evil is but apparent, and that evil ultimately loses inself in good.

Faith in Baba and his teachings increases and should increase with the evils

we endure; As Kunti put it "The mere abundance of good makes us forget

God—and it is the occurrence of troubles that makes us think of Him at least

mentally." At each suffering, let us therefore, pray not merely for relief

but also for increased power of recognizing His real kindness that draws us

more and more to Him and thus improves us step after step in His own

indescribable way. Let us ask for increased power to endure evil and good

and increased approach to that highest faculty praised so often in the Gita

and practiced by Sri Sai - "SAMATVA" leading to "ASANGA". For those who

cannot think in such high terms of life, we have got another piece of

advice. You go on praying for whatever you need and working therefore with

the fullest faith; and His maternal kindness will shower increased fruition

on your endeavors. As the circle of Sai Bhaktas is growing larger and

larger, we may find more and more sympathetic souls that will help us not

merely with their spiritual sympathy, but oftentimes also with temporal

help, rendered lovingly and fraternally as between brothers and sisters.

Indeed it is high time that their fellowship at the feet of Sai Baba should

get a concrete embodiment in the formation of a Sai Baba Brotherhood working

at and for Sai Baba mutts and mission all over the country through Sai

Brahmacharis and Sai Swamis. The entire set of Sai devotees with these

central springs or engines would constitute Our Visible Church.

The question is often raised whether it is proper or advisable to pray at

all for anything, as God Sai whom we pray to is all-knowing (that is,

knowing everything including our needs) and all powerful, (that is able to

give everything including what we need. It is a sufficient answer at this

stage to such a question to say that so long as the impulse is given to us

at the time of our dire need, to pray to our powerful friend and protector

to help us out of our helplessness, it is but right to obey the impulse

which is presumably an impulse sent by Him as a veritable aid to our

approaching Him and at least an apparent means of securing good. This poor

frail being called the undeveloped man need not be and should not be

overwhelmed by consideration of Logic, Theology and Metaphysics, There is

much in our inner working which we do not understand, at any rate at the

beginning, and in respect of which, the impulses of trust and prayer are

imbedded in us. Let us start with even crutches and totter on picking

ourselves up every time we tumble down and proceed strenuously to reach His

feet—achieving all worldly object en route. There is abundance of time and

no period of limitation fixed for the achievement of our goal. I say goals

purposely because our goals change with our march and the ultimate goal that

sacred works and great souls preach to us cannot be sighted at the outset of

our journeys. As we climb up taking "Excelsior" for our motto, "Alps on Alps

(will) arise, and the highest peak will be reached at the distant future.

"I trust that good will fall At last, far off at last to all And every

winter change to Spring"

For those who eagle like ("Sampaty-like") glance across great distances of

time and space, a word of cheer is due from me. The higher regions you are

to traverse are not charted cut in any map or book. They can be hardly

described in advance with full reference to the peculiar aspects of each

individual case. But the absence of any such written map or guide book is

never felt by the fervent devotee because he has the all-seeing eye with the

powerful hand of the loving and beloved "Ishta" with Him at every place and

at every time and that will light up the path, reveal the dangers that are

to be avoided and pointing the way to the goal, infuse the needed strength

and enthusiasm, the discernment and illumination that take one to the goal.

For those who are not privileged to soar go high to their spiritual journey,

the kind mother Sai provides numerous ways, means and outlets of energy that

will all conduce to ensure their progress here and hereafter. As these are

innumerable, I shall content myself with specifying one and close this

message. Let us all strive to taste the superior joy of assisting others

selflessly while securing a fair minimum of necessaries and comforts for

ourselves and families. Sai has done this for thousands, and is still doing

this for more. What he has done to so many He will do for you—for each one

of you. Make it a point, therefore to think of Him morning, noon and night,

to read about Him and bring Him into your life, whatever you are

doing—eating, earning, attending to your health or praying. A regular study

of Baba's Devotees' Experiences and Baba's Charters and Sayings or other

books on Baba is the surest means to keep you steady in this course and

secure for you success in your various aims and generally in life.

Once again, in the name of Sri Sai, I send you blessings for joy and

success in all your endeavors.by B.V>Narasimha Swamy