SAI SERVICE NEWSLETTER -19

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SAI SERVICE Newsletter – 19

Issue 15-08-2002

 

[shri Shirdi Sai Baba's Messages, Life events, Articles are available

in / and

updated/added on daily basis]

 

This Thursday's Message: (Baba said)

 

If one devotes his entire mind to me and rests in me, he need fear

nothing for body and soul. If one sees me and me alone and listens to

talk about me and is devoted to me alone, he will reach God

(Chaitanya). He who worships me as Nitya, Suddha and Buddha comes to

me.

 

a. Baba's Talk with Devotees

 

I am Krishna; Saibaba (seated in Dwaraka Mayi) to Uddhavesa Bua:

"Give me Rs.11 dakshina".

 

Uddhavesa Bua: I have given my ten Indriyas and mind.

 

Sai Baba: No. Who are you to give them? They are mine already. Read

Pothi i.e., do Parayana.

 

Uddhavesa Bua: Of what Purana?

 

Sai Baba: Of that in which I have spoken to you, and in which I still

speak to you?

 

Uddhavesa Bua: Is it Gita? Jnaneswari?

 

Sai Baba: Go and fetch what Bapu Saheb Jog is reading Uddhavesa

brought XI skanda of Srimad Bhagavatha from Jog.

 

Sai Baba: (slipped his finger into the book suddenly and said) Read

this. [it opened at Krishna Uddhava samvada] Daily read this, and

sit at my feet and meditate on it.

 

[N.B: That meditation is the gift of 11 Rs. eleventh (Skanda) to

Baba, Sai Krishna, seated in the heart.]

 

b. Divine Dews from our Sadguru

 

 He who loves others disinterestedly, is really enlightened. (SSS

Ch.XXXII)

 

 Our Karma is the cause of our happiness and sorrow, therefore, put=

 

up with whatever comes to you. (SSS Ch.XXXIV)

 

 The Lord is the Sole Doer and Inspirer, He is most Merciful(SSS

Ch.XXXIV)

 

 Wealth should be the means to work our dharma. If it is used for

personal enjoyment, it is wasted. (SSS Ch. XXXV)

 

 I would never be untrue to My words. (SSS Ch. XL)

 

 God had created this beautiful world, and it is our duty to

appreciate its beauty. (SSS Ch. XLIX)

 

c. Weekly Article:

 

THE MYSTIC BLISS OF BABA

 

Baba gave all things to his devotees and filled them with all sorts

of joys – enjoyment of worldly objects, comforts of domestic life

riches, honour, success in one's efforts, security from danger,

release from disease and troubles of various sorts. It is not to the

joys he gave them of overcoming defects and vices. The new life of

virtue and power, with the joyous sense of achievement not only

increased the quantum but also the tone and scale of their happiness;

lifting it from the animal level of selfish sense gratification to

the angelic level of selfless spiritual joy, the joy of life that is

grounded in love. But there are special grades of joy – including the

"Mystic Bliss" that Baba favoured some devotees with; and it is that

bliss that will be described.

 

First it is necessary to define the term used, "Mystic" is a very

elastic, very popular, and therefore much abused term – so much

abused in fact as to deter some from using it in serious works. Such

vagueness and resulting confusion and abuse can, however, be easily

avoided by starting with a definition and strictly adhered to it.

This writer uses the word Mysticism to denote the blissful direct

immediate contact by intuition, or attempt at such contact by any

person, with the Real or what stands to him as the ultimate that lies

beyond the universe of phenomena, subjective and objective.

 

This real or Ultimate is God to most persons; and in their case,

mystic bliss is the same as or a part of and preparation for perfect

Divine Bliss. But even among religious minded people, the Real that

the touch in such experience may not be distinctly identified with

God. For instance, Tennyson even as a boy began to dive into himself

by pronouncing his own Christian name and riddling it of its finite

association, with the result that he was lost in a trance, in which

the consciousness of his little ego perished or rather expanded

infinitely into an illimitable Light of Self, full of joy and life,

wherein death was an unimaginable or laughable absurdity. This was

clear mysticism of the self without distinct reference to a personal

or impersonal God, though few would hesitate to give that name to the

Illimitable Deathless state of enlightenment.

 

JOY ALONE LEFT:

 

This mystic bliss comes to Buddhists in attaining "Nirvana", in

"extinguishing" their little self; but as they do not recognize or

ascribe their joy to God, such bliss cannot be described as Divine

Bliss by them, though a student of religious psychology may have good

grounds for identifying the Buddhistic Joy of Nirvana with Vedantic

Bliss of the Atman, Brahmananda.

 

Sri Sai Baba was (and even now is) shedding or showering joy upon his

devotees, occasionally when they were away, but frequently when they

were in his presence. Anna Saheb Dabolkar in his monumental Marathi

biography of Baba, Sai Satcharita, has thus described it:

 

"When one gazes and gazes upon Baba's face, all hunger and thirst are

gone; what other joy can compare with this? One forgets all miseries

of earthly existence."

 

And again:

 

"Gazing into his eyes, loses one's sense of individuality; Bliss

gushes out from within and the mind sinks into an expanse of

sweetness"

 

CARE VANISH:

 

And he further adds that the Vedic description of Brahman is mere

bookish knowledge to most, while at Shirdi, it was the common and

daily experience of devotees. That Sri Dabolkar has not overstated

fact is borne out by reliable testimony. The Hon. Mr. G.S. Khaparde,

the Pepys of Shirdi, has noted the same in his daily dairy during his

seven months stay with Baba in 1910, 1911 and 1912 and in his preface

to a biography of Baba. In the latter, he says: "From the moment I

approached him, all the load of my worldly cares disappeared, though

only a few minutes before, it was felt to be exceedingly oppressive

and such as to excite disgust of life."

 

It is needless to quote from the numerous other devotees who have

spoken out their experience in similar terms; but we may first refer

to those of a Marathi lady Mrs. Manager, and of a Parsi, Mr. Jahangir

of Mumbai.

 

A PARADISE:

 

Mrs. manager says: "His (i.e., Baba's) loving care combined with

those powers made Shirdi a varitable paradise. Directly we went

there, we felt safe, that nothing could harm us. When I went there

and sat in his presence, I always forget my pain – nay the body

itself with all mundane concerns and anxieties. Hours would pass and

I would be in blissful unconsciousness of their passing. That was a

unique experience – shared I believe, by all his real devotees."

 

Says Mr. Jahangir, "My experience with Baba was very happy. Whenever

I went into his presence I forgot everything. I had no trouble, no

anxiety, no care, no fear. Everything was blotted out and I passed a

blissful time in his company. That was most wonderful. Even now, If

he comes in dream vision, that effect is reproduced."

 

We shall next proceed to consider the instances of mystic bliss he

granted through Sakshatkara or vision of divine forms.

 

A Brahmin doctor who was a devout Ramabhakta was persuaded to go to

see Sri Sai Baba despite his strong antipathy to bow at the feet of a

Muslim, as Baba was taken to be. But Baba's grace evidently in

consideration of his devotion to Rama was shown to him from the time

of his entry into the mosque compound. When he saw Baba there, he

hurried up and fell at his feet, and later explained his sudden

change of attitude to his friends. What he beheld in Baba's seat as

soon as he approached it, was not the human figure of Baba, but the

divine glory of Sri Rama. Having found God in flesh, he determined to

get the highest out of Him, - viz., Brahmananda. As Baba did not

grant it at once this petulant child started satyagraha. He resolved

to fast and not to visit Baba at the Mosque unless he should be given

the bliss he sought, or be sent for by Baba.

 

So he fasted three days. Baba, the kind mother that he was, knew of

course how the wind blew and steered his own course. On the fourth

day of the fast, an intimate friend of the doctor, not seen for many

long years turned up at Shirdi – accidentally one might say, if one

did not know Sri Sai Baba's vast powers of control. Overflowing with

the joy of the friend's arrival, the doctor forgot his fast and his

vow and accompanied him to the mosque. Baba asked him, "Doctor, did

any one sent for you?" The doctor saw that nothing was or could be

concealed from the powerful Sai, and he mentally pressed his quest.

That mid night, Baba's grace vouch-safed a response, and the doctor

was filled with a strange ecstasy for which there was no physical or

physiological explanation and clearly a glimpse of Paramananda or

Siva Ananda granted by Baba's will. But what he experienced was short

lived. In response to his prayer after he went home, he again

experienced this joy for a full fortnight. But after that, it ceased.

The doctor was not yet qualified to get the perpetual Ananda that

becomes part of one's nature or rather becomes one's self. i.e., the

Jivan Mukta state. Baba gave him just an appetiser to make him work

up to the goal.

 

A YOGIC DOCTOR:

 

We may close this article with an experience of greater permanence

than those above recited, Sri Sai Baba though invested with the

nature and powers of a Yogasiddha, was never known to practice

ashtanga Yoga and sometime warned his devotees against the snares of

the mystic powers for which parts of the yogic course are gone

through. If, however, any one who had difficulties or had come to

ruin in yogabhyasa sought relief at his feet, relief was afforded.

The best instance known to this writer of such help was that given to

Sri Upasani Maharaj. in the course of his hata yogic efforts at

suspension of breath, his respiration became fitful and evidently on

account of a paralytic attack on some of the respiratory organs,

respiration would now and then suddenly threaten to collapse, filling

him with the fear, thus, of sudden death. No doctor and no yogis

could help him. But Sri Sai Baba appeared to him at Rahuri 30 miles

of Shirdi and gave him a very simple hydropathic recipe, which almost

completely cured him.

 

STREAM OF SWEETNESS:

 

Sri Sai Baba further drew him to Shirdi and there taught him the

secret of the Yogic Ecstasy (as practiced by Sufis). Before he went

to Shirdi, Sri Upasani Baba easily attained the Samadhi state and

remained in it – even for days. But it was a Suskha Samadhi. It was

no doubt free from the cares and sorrows of the world but there was

no positive element of joy in it. Sri Sai Baba showed him how to turn

his dry Samadhi into a joyous experience. He was made to retain a

thin trace of his personality and with it draw in an inexhaustible

stream of sweetness from Iswara, the Ocean of Sweetness (Rasa).

 

And this was a permanent gift. Sri Upasani Maharaj has ever since

resorted to this form of ecstasy in preference to his former method.

But even this ecstasy is but a preparation for the highest goal, the

Jivan Mukta state in which one's personality merges for ever in Sat-

Chit-Ananda from which there is no return.

 

Publisher's Note:

 

THE SOLE PURPOSE of this newsletter is to present Sai messages and

other spiritual messages to the interested devotees on Thursdays.

Feel free to forward this newsletter to your interested associates.

 

In this newsletter, wherever the sources of the articles not

mentioned, please consider these items are taken from H H Pujyasri B

V Narasimha Swamiji's books.

 

Mailing Address: Vasuki Mahal Shri Shirdi Saibaba Trust, Vasuki Mahal

Compound, Gandhi Nagar, Edayar Palayam, Coimbatore 641025, India. e-

mail to: essgee.