Sai message for the day

[Guest guest]

Swami! What should we do to receive God's grace?

 

Sai Baba: There is no way other than devotion. Your wealth,

scholarship, authority and physical personality cannot please God. It

is only your devotion that He looks into.

 

Don't you know Guha in the Ramayana? What scholarship had he to

please Rama? Nothing. He was not even educated. You also must have

heard of Sabari, an ardent devotee of Lord Rama. How rich was she to

be close to Rama? Nothing. She was in rags at that time, the poorest

of the poor. What made that bird, Jatayu receive the special

blessings of Rama so as to deserve performance of the last rites at

the divine hands of Rama? Even Rama's father, Dasaratha, was not as

fortunate as this bird Jatayu, because he died when Rama was in the

forest, far away from Ayodhya. How about Hanuman, a monkey? By

implicit faith in and total surrender to Rama he could be successful

not only in the task assigned to him, but also came to be worshipped

by the devotees of the Lord and his worship has been continuing since

the days of the Ramavatara.

 

The Mahabharata clearly portrays Draupadi, the queen of the Pandavas

as Lord Krishna's devotee of the highest order, always, in times of

success or failure, pleasure or pain, calm or turmoil, anywhere,

either on the throne in Hastinapura or in the forest. The Pandavas

are known for their deep devotion and abounding love for Krishna.

They are the best examples of equanimity and total surrender to God

such that Krishna identified Himself completely with them by saying

that Dharmaja was His head, Arjuna His heart, Bhima His shoulders,

and the two youngest brothers Nakula and Sahadeva equal to His two

feet. This is true devotion. This is the ideal stature of a devotee.

 

In the Bhagavata you come across the Gopis (the cowherd girls who

were rustic, innocent, and unlettered) whose madhurabhakti, total

attachment to God, was backed by unconditional love and surrender.

Their devotion was noble, pure, nectarine, and exemplary. They saw

Krishna in bushes, thorns, leaves, branches, and flowers. Is theirs

not tadatmyabhava, total identification? Isn't theirs the

advaitabhava, non-dualistic state? They could not bear the pangs of

separation from Krishna even for a split second. This is the level of

their devotion.

 

Have you not heard about Tyagaraja, the South Indian saint-singer and

composer, who had put the question: 'nidhi cala sukhama ramuni

sannidhi seva sukhama '. Is it wealth that gives you happiness or

proximity to God? Ramadas, Surdas, Kabir, Tulasidas, Jayadev,

Tukaram, Mira, and others were the very personifications of devotion.

They are remembered to this day. By reading about them, you will not

only be the recipient of God's grace but even have a claim on God's

grace. You know, the moment you marry, your wife will have a claim on

your property. This is due to the mangalasutra, the sacred knot tied

at the time of the wedding. Similarly, devotion is bhaktisutra - the

knot of devotion, which empowers the devotee to claim from God His

grace. Therefore, for everything, devotion is most important. For

most people, it is the proper and noble approach to Divinity.