DIVINE DISCOURSE ON GURU POORNIMA DAY - 6-7-1963 and 7-7-1963

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DIVINE DISCOURSE ON GURU POORNIMA DAY - 6-7-1963 and 7-7-1963

SHIVA SHAKTHI

6-7-1963

(Baba was brought down the winding stairs into the Private Room on the ground

floor, because He insisted on giving Darshan to the thousands of devotees who

had come on that auspicious day. He had an attack of cerebral thrombosis (or

tubercular meningitis?) and was in bed for eight days from the morning of

Saturday, 29th June to the evening of 6th July. His left hand, leg and eye were

affected; His right hand had also slight palsy; the tongue was indistinct and

the face was twitching. He was placed on the Silver Chair in the Prayer Hall

and His hand and leg were adjusted in proper position. As soon as He was

seated, He communicated the following message, which was interpreted and

announced).

THIS is not Swami’s illness; this is an illness, which Swami has taken on, in

order to save some one. Swami has no illness, nor will He get ill at any time.

You must all be happy; that alone will make Swami happy. If you grieve, Swami

will not be happy. Your joy is Swami’s food. Then, Baba signed to Kasturi to

speak, and after his short speech was over, Baba wanted the mike to be held

before Him. He asked through it, "Vinipisthundhaa?" (Do you hear Me?) But,

though He asked again and again, the voice was so indistinct that no one could

make out what it meant. He then signed for water and when it was brought, He

sprinkled a little with His shaking right hand on the stricken left hand and on

His left leg. He stroked His left hand with the right. Immediately, He used

both hands to stroke His left leg; that touch was enough to cure it. He doffed

the disease in a thrice! He started to speak! It was the same musical voice.).

God is the refuge for those who have no refuge Dhikkulenivaariki dhevude

gathi---"For those who have no refuge, God is the refuge." That is exactly the

reason why I had to take on the disease that one helpless Bhakta was to get. He

had to suffer this dire illness, as well as the four heart attacks that

accompanied it; and he would not have survived it. So, according to My Dharma

of Bhakta samrakshana (protection of devotees), I had to rescue him. Of course,

this is not the first time that I have taken on the illness of persons whom I

wanted to save. Even in the previous sareeram at Shirdi, I had this

responsibility The suffering that you saw was too much for this particular

devotee and so, I had to save him, by Myself going through it.

This is My Leela: My nature. It is part of the task for which I have come:

Sishyarakshana (protection Of disciples).

Persons who were near Me during the last week were asking Me to give them the

name of the person whom I had saved. I told them that it will make them angry

against that person, for Swami they would say, "had to undergo so much of pain

in order to save that one person." Then, they replied, that they would honour

the person, because of the extraordinary Bhakti that persuaded Swami to run to

his rescue, on Saturday morning.

Baba's Identity, Mission and Advent revealed

Some people even asked Me whether it was this person or that, giving names of

those who had attacks of paralysis, especially on the left side! This is even

more ludicrous, because when I save a person, I save him completely. I do not

wait until he gets the disease and I do not leave in him a fraction of the

disease, so that he may be identified later. It all looks so funny to Me, the

guesses and surmises that you make.

Even in Shirdi, Dhadha Saheb, Nandharaam, Balawanth, all were saved by these

means. Balawanth was destined to get plague, but, the bubo was taken over and

the boy saved. This is perhaps the longest period when I kept the devotees

wondering and worried. That was because of the heart attacks, which had to come

later on the Bhakta, from which also he had to be saved. Then, there is another

reason too, why the 8-day period had to be observed. Well, I shall tell you

why. That means I must tell you about Myself, about something I have not

disclosed so far, something which I was keeping within Myself, for the last 37

years. The time has come to announce it. This is a sacred day, and I shall tell

you.

You know I declared on the very day when I decided to disclose My Identity, My

Mission and My Advent, that I belonged to the Aapasthamba Sutra (Code of

conduct) and the Bharadhwaja Gothra (lineage). This Bharadhwaja was a great

sage, who studied the Vedas for full one hundred years; but, finding that the

Vedas were anantha (endless) he did thapas for prolonging life, and from Indra

he got two extensions of a century each. Even then, the Vedas could not be

completed, so, he asked Indra again for another hundred years. Indra showed him

3 huge mountain ranges and said, "What you have learned in 3 centuries form only

3 handfuls from out of the 3 ranges, which the Vedas are. So, give up the

attempt to exhaust the Vedas.

Do a Yaga (ritual sacrifice), instead, which I shall teach you: that will give

you the fruit of Vedic study, full and complete."

The Yaga performed by sage Bharadhwaja

Bharadhwaja decided on performing the Yaga; Indra taught him how to do it; all

preparations were completed. The sage wanted that Shakthi must preside and

bless the Yaga. So he went to Kailash but, the time was not opportune for

presenting his petition. Shiva and Shakthi were engaged in a competitive dance,

trying to find out who could dance longer. Eight days passed thus, before

Shakthi noticed Bharadhwaja standing in the cold. She just cast a smile at him

and danced along as before! The sage mistook the smile as a cynical refusal to

notice him; so he turned his back on Kailash and started to descend. To his

dismay, he found his left leg, hand and eye put out of action by a stroke.

Shiva saw him fall; He came up to him and consoled him; Bharadhwaja was told

that Shakthi had indeed blessed him and his Yaga. Then, Shiva revived him and

cured him, sprinkling water from the Kamandalu. Both Shiva and Shakthi granted

the Rishi (sage) boons: They would both attend the Yaga, they said.

All past assurances accomplished by one incident

After the Yaga was over, They were so pleased that They conferred even more

boons on the sage. Shiva said that They would take human form and be born in

the Bharadhwaja Gothra (lineage) thrice: Shiva alone as Shirdi Sai Baba, Shiva

and Shakthi together at Puttaparthy as Sathya Sai Baba and Shakthi alone as

Prema Sai, later. Then Shiva remembered the illness that had suddenly come upon

Bharadhwaja at Kailash on the eighth day of the waiting in the cold on the ice.

He gave another assurance. "As expiation for the neglect which Shakthi showed

you at Kailash for 8 days, this Shakthi will suffer the stroke for 8 days, when

We both take birth as Sathya Sai and, on the 8th day, I shall relieve her from

all signs of the disease by sprinkling water, just as I did at

Kailash to cure your illness."

It was the working out of this assurance that you witnessed today, just now.

This had to happen, this stroke and the cure. The assurance given in the

Threthaa Yuga had to be honored. I may tell you now that the poor forlorn

bhakta who had to get the stroke, which I took over, was, a convenient excuse,

which was utilised. You see, a railway engine is not made available to haul

just one bogey; they wait until a number of bogeys are to be taken along and

then, they put the engine into action. So too, the disease had to be gone

through, the Bhakta had to be saved, the assurance to be carried out, the

mystery had to be cleared, the Divinity had to be more clearly announced by the

manifestation of this Grand Miracle. All these were accomplished by this one

incident.

Let Me tell you one more thing: Nothing can impede or halt the work of this

Avatar. When I was upstairs all these days, some people foolishly went about

saying. "It is all over with Sai Baba" and they turned back many who were

coming to Puttaparthy! Some said I was in Samadhi, as if I am a Sadhaka! Some

feared I was the victim of black magic, as if anything can affect Me! The

splendor of this Avatar will go increasing, day-by-day. Formerly when the

little boy raised aloft the Govardhanagiri, the Gopis and Gopalas realised that

Krishna was the Lord. Now, it is not one Govardhanagiri, a whole range will be

lifted, you will see! Have patience, have faith. Tomorrow morning, I shall give

every one of you the Namaskaaram blessing

that you missed today.

Guru Poornima Day, 6-7-1963

To discover one's reality and to dwell in that Divine peace, one need not give

up the world and take to asceticism. - Sathya Sai Baba

PROTECTION OF THE DEVOTEES

7-7-1963

YESTERDAY, when I came into the Hall, I could see the agony you all felt. That

was because you identified Me with this body, that was having the illness. If

you had known My truth, you would not have been sad; in fact, if you had known

your Truth, that would be enough. The illness came and went; I was its master,

throughout. One day, when it reached its climax, I was watching its behavior

and directing it to finish its Dharma. For I had taken it on Myself and so, I

must allow it to do its Dharma! All kinds of silly stories were circulated when

I was ill! Some people feared that when I went to the South recently, some black

magic was inflicted upon Me and that the stroke was the consequence. Let Me tell

you that nothing evil can affect Me. Nothing can harm Me.

I am the Master, the Shakthi (Power) that overpowers everything else. I knew

that short explanation: some people were saying that I was in Mounam or Samadhi

(silence or a state of concentration in Yoga). Now why should I keep the vow of

silence? If I am silent, how can I carry out My Task of reforming you and

making you all realise the aim of life? And, why should I seek Samadhi, I who

am the Ananda Swaruupam, the Prema Swaruupam (Embodiment of Bliss and of Love)

Myself. It is the wavering doubter, the ignorance dabbler, who will lend his

ear to such talk. The true bhakta will discard all such news. For the bhaktas

here, the 8 days were days of intense thapas; they had no other thought than of

Swami.

To think low or mean is also egoism

Once, Krishna too pretended to be suffering from headache, intense, unbearable

headache! He acted that role quite as realistically, as I did last week. He

wound warm clothes around His head, rolled restlessly in bed. His eyes were red

and He was in evident distress. The face too appeared swollen and pale. Rukmini,

Sathyabhama and the other queens rushed about with all kinds of remedies and

palliatives. But they were ineffective. At last, they consulted Naradha and he

went into the sick room to consult Krishna Himself and find out which drug

would cure Him. Krishna directed him to bring---What do you think the drug

was?---the dust of the feet of a true Bhakta! In a trice, Naradha manifested

himself in the presence of some celebrated bhaktas of the Lord; but,

they were too humble to offer the dust of their feet to be used by their Lord as a drug!

That Is also a kind of egoism. "I am low, mean, small, useless, poor, sinful,

inferior"---such feelings also are egoistic; when the ego goes, you do not feel

either superior or inferior. No one would give the dust wanted by the Lord; they

were too worthless, they declared. Naradha came back disappointed to the

sickbed. Then, Krishna asked him, "Did you try Brindavan where the Gopis live?"

The Queens laughed at the suggestion and even Naradha asked in dismay, "What do

they know of Bhakti (devotion)?" Still, the sage had to hurry thither.

Do karma, which is approved by higher wisdom

When the Gopis heard Krishna was ill and that the dust of their feet might cure

Him, without a second thought they shook the dust off their feet and filled his

hands with the same. By the time Naradha reached Dwaraka, the headache had gone.

It was just a five-day drama, to teach that self-condemnation is also egoism and

all Bhaktas must obey that the Lord’s command without demur.

When I said that I had taken on the illness that was destined for some one who

could not have suffered it or survived it, many of you felt, "Why should Swami,

for the sake of a single person, plunge so many of us in grief?." Well! Did not

Rama proceed to the forest though all Ayodhya wept? My Dharma of

Bhaktharakshana (protection of devotees) must be carried out; the Dharma of the

disease must also be worked out. Krishna could have stopped the rains, however

powerful Indra was; but, Indra had to do his Dharma and by lifting

Govardhanagiri to protect the cows and cowherds, Krishna manifested His

Divinity!

In this case also, it is the same Leela (Divine sportive act). Using the chance

to demonstrate to a doubting world the Divinity inherent in this Human Form. I

told you yesterday that even this lucky bhakta was just an instrument to work

out the promise made in the past to the Sage Bharadhwaja; it served to announce

My real Nature to you all. You are indeed fortunate that you could witness on

the sacred Guru Poornima Day this magnificent proof of My Divinity.

Karma of a higher order leads to jnaana

There is no Sathyam (Truth), without Shivam (Goodness); there is no Shivam,

without Sundaram (Beauty). Truth alone can confer Mangalam (Auspiciousness) and

Mangalam alone is the real beauty. Truth is beauty; Joy is beauty; falsehood and

grief are ugly, because they are unnatural. Buddhi, chittham and hrudhayam

(intellect, sub-conscious mind and heart)---these are the three centers in the

individual where reside jnaana, karma and Bhakti). The effulgence of Sathyam

will reveal Shivam; do karma (action), which is approved by the higher wisdom,

not karma, which is born of ignorance. Then, all karma will be Shivam

(auspicious, beneficial, blessed). The experience of that

Shivam is what is called Sundaram; for it confers real Ananda. That is my

Reality. That is why My Life is named "Sathyam Shivam Sundaram." Do karma based

on jnaana, the jnaana that all is One. Let the karma be suffused with Bhakti;

that is to say, humility, Prema, karuna and ahimsa (love, compassion,

non-violence). Let Bhakti be filled with jnaana; otherwise, it will be as light

as a balloon, which drifts along any current of air, or gust of wind. Mere

jnaana will make the heart dry; Bhakti makes it soft with sympathy and karma

gives the hands something to do, something, which will sanctify every one of

the minutes that have fallen to your lot to live here.

This is why Bhakti is referred to as upaasana, dwelling near, feeling the

Presence, sharing the sweetness of Divinity. The yearning for upaasana prompts

you to go on pilgrimages, to construct and renovate temples, to consecrate

images. The sixteen items of Upachaara (honoring) with which the Lord is

worshipped satisfy the mind, which craves for personal contact with the

Supreme. All this is karma of a high order; they lead to jnaanam. First, you

start with the idea, "I am in the Light;" then the feeling "the light is in me"

becomes established. This leads to the conviction, "I am the Light." That is the

supreme wisdom.

See yourself in all; love all as yourself. A dog caught in a room whose walls

are mirrors sees in all the myriad reflections, not itself but rivals,

competitors, other dogs, which must be barked at. So, it tires itself out by

jumping on this reflection and that, and when the images also jump, it becomes

mad with fury. The wise man, however, sees himself everywhere and is at peace:

he is happy that there are so many reflections of himself all around him. That

is the attitude you must learn to possess, that will save you from needles

bother.

Prashanthi Nilayam, 7-7-.1963

With Sai love from Sai brothers – ‘’

Source and Courtesy: http://www.sssbpt.info/ssspeaks/volume03/sss03

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