Baba's method of Teaching

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Baba's method of Teaching

 

As for Baba's declaration about his Guru, Professor Narke heard Baba say, " Maja

Guru Brahman ahe " , that is, My Guru is a Brahmin. Having said so much about his

Guru, professor Narke carefully noted that Baba did not say that he had any

sishya to continue his line. On the other hand, Sai Baba said, 'I would tremble

to come into the presence of my Guru.' There was no one prepared to serve Sai

Baba in that way at Shirdi.

 

Once Sai Baba asked, it seems, 'Who dares to call himself my disciple? Who can

serve me adequately and satisfactorily?' But apart from a disciple to continue

the line, Baba helped in various ways and in various degrees. He encouraged

them, protected them, and gave them instructions occasionally.

 

Narke was studying Baba's methods of teaching and improving devotees. Baba gave

our moral tales and a few occasional directions. But these were exceptional. But

the traditional method of Baba was not oral. His traditional method was first

the negative portion; that is, the Guru did not give to his chosen disciple any

Guru mantra. Usually a Guru whispers a mantra into the ear of the sishya, and he

seems to be almost biting the ear when he is whispering. So, Baba said, 'Me

Kanala Dasnara Guru Navhe.' That is, 'I am not the Guru that bites the ear. He

did not regard japa and meditation as sufficient for the sishya. These produce

in the sadhaka Abhimana or Ahamkara. Unless and until Ahamkara is completely

wiped out the Guru is unable to pour all his influence into the sishya.

 

In Baba's school, the Guru does not teach. He radiates or pours influence. That

influence is poured in and absorbed in full by the soul which has completely

surrendered itself and blotted out the self, but is obstructed by the exercise

of intelligence by reliance on self-exertion and by every species of

self-consciousness and self-assertion.

 

Baba, therefore, would tell some devotees, 'Be by me and keep quiet and I will

do the rest,' that is, 'secretly or invisibly. One who was merely seeing him and

staying by him for a while got faith. Baba gave experiences to each devotee, of

his vast powers of looking into his heart, into the distance regions of space

and time, past or future and this infused faith. One need not swallow a thing on

trust. The solid benefit, temporal or spiritual reaped by the devotee and his

feeling that he is under the eye and power of Baba always, wherever he may be

and whatever he may do, gave him an ineradicable basis for his further temporal

and spiritual guidance.

 

Baba's is the power that controls this world's goods and our fate here and now,

as well as our experience and fate in the future, in this world and many unseen

worlds. The professor concludes that the duty of a devotee under Baba is only to

keep himself fit for the Guru's grace. That is, he should be chaste, pure,

simple and virtuous and he should look trustfully and sincerely to the beloved

master to operate on him secretly, and to raise him to various experiences,

higher and higher in range, until he is taken at last to the distance goal. 'But

one step is enough for me', is the proper attitude now, He need not take the

trouble to decide complicated metaphysical and philosophical problems about the

ultimate destiny. He is ill-prepared to solve them now. The guru will lift him

and endow him with higher powers, vaster knowledge and increasing realization of

truth. And the end is safe in the Guru's hands.

 

These above conclusions, as the professor says, are not from any single lecture

or address by Baba, but are gathered from the various hints, his dealings with

many people and his occasional words.

 

(Contributed by Courtesy: Pujyasri B. V. Narasimha Swami)

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