Sai Baba's Method

[Guest guest]

In Sai's system, (as Sri Narasimha Swamiji puts it), the Guru undertakes

every responsibility for the devotee that surrenders himself. The

devotee is there styled 'the Ankita', i.e., the stamped child of the

Guru. Everything concerning that pupil is looked after by the Guru, with

his wonderful superhuman powers. For a time, the circle of his

worshippers and admirers was extremely limited and in the close

proximity of Shirdi. But as the mass puts it, you cannot conceal the Sun

by covering it with the back of your hand. Murder will be out, truth

will be out, and greatness of Saints will be out also. Baba's powers of

achieving objects by mere blessings were so well known to many now,

without any education or training, he dared to give medicines for highly

advanced cases of tuberculosis, Leprosy, rotting eyes, bone rot etc.,

and effected most remarkable cures. The devotees discovered that Baba

knew everything, their present condition, and the innermost thoughts

that lay hidden in their hearts, their entire past history, their

previous births also, that Baba could definitely state what the future

was going to be for each person that came to him.

 

Those wonderful powers were employed by Baba not for purposes of show or

for getting wealth or plaudits but merely to promote the best interests

of people who confined themselves entirely to his care. Naturally the

advantages of having such a guru to worship were highly esteemed and the

worship of Baba went on from neighborhood of Shirdi to distant outlying

areas and reached practically the confines of Maharashtra by the time of

his Maha Samadhi in 1918. And now it has spread all over our country and

abroad.

 

We shall remember now one of Baba's eleven sayings, " I am ever living to

help all who come to me, who surrender to me and who seek refuge in me. "

 

Thus Baba is living and helping us (his devotees) in every respect,

temporal and spiritual, not for one moment but for the entire life of

the devotees that he takes charge of.

 

Baba's methods are unconventional. He insisted upon the essence of all

religions viz., love, intense, unselfish love evidenced by devotion and

service to all mankind and all creatures. This love begins with the Guru

but grows and covers up every creature. Hatred is inconsistent with

Baba's faith and the more this doctrine of love, gathering momentum

under the Sai Baba Movement, spreads, the more chances there will be for

people's love to grow and for this unfortunate tendency of mutual

jealousy and hatred which now threatens world peace, to get absorbed.

 

That hatred ceases not by hatred but by love, is demonstrated in

individual lives and will also be demonstrated more and more in the

history of groups of nations and of the world.

 

What we Reveal to Others

 

I was abroad a large airliner sometime ago which ran into an extremely

severe wind and rainstorm. Despite the size of the plane and the

tremendous power of its four wasp motors, the ship was being tossed

violently. A little nine-year-old fellow was my seat companion. It was

his first experience in the air, and he was desperately afraid.

 

Suddenly he looked up at me and said " Are you afraid? " I smiled and

replied, " No this is real fun. " An immediate change came over the little

chap - fear and tension left him. He, too, had fun.

 

This taught me a real lesson in living. What he detected in my voice,

what he discerned in my face, helped him over that rough spot in life.

How many people during times of trial watch my face for what it may

reveal, I do not know. This I do know-my face and my life must reveal to

those who observe me or need me, my faith in God.

 

(source Shri Saipadananda Special Magazine)