Serious Sadhana for Sai Devotees

[Guest guest]

Serious Sadhana for Sai Devotees

By

H. H. Narasimha Swamiji

" Do not be idle. Work.

Utter God's name. Read Scriptures. "

" Life is lived in vain, if no Yoga, Yaga, Tapas and Jnana be achieved. "

" Will you sit idle (merely) eating

your food? Have Saburi (patience and courage). "

" Our end will get so bitter or

wretched. Once or twice I will warn. The end will be hard indeed if one does

not heed the advice given. Even the child in the womb we will cut to pieces and

throw away if it falls athwart. "

- SAI BABA

 

A religious journal or any other

literature devoted to religion generally presupposes that the readers are

serious minded. In some cases no doubt there may not be sufficient seriousness

at the beginning. But seriousness is developed as days pass on and the literature

is therefore rendered more useful and effective. As those without such

seriousness form the majority of the reading public and several of them wish to

become and might well be expected to become serious minded, we might briefly

advert to the process by which people are involuntarily or voluntarily made

serious.

 

As stated in the Gita Ch. VII, 16, four

classes of persons develop seriousness enough to run up to God that is to

become really religious. The first class is the arta,

i.e., the sufferers. When one has a serious loss of health, wealth, progeny,

kinsmen, necessaries, comforts, etc. life suddenly presents a doleful

appearance and the sufferer not knowing any other way to obtain relief runs to

the Almighty for relief. This is humorously referred to in the Canarese aphorism Sankata Bandare Venkataramana which means

when a man is in trouble he turns to God. Another category of seekers after God

or religion is jijnasu that is one with a

metaphysical turn of mind anxious to know the why of all things. God being the

ultimate cause of every thing naturally attracts such a person. The third

category consists of arta aartis

that is those who are very ambitious —wanting to get lots of wealth and

other desired objects, etc. and who do not find it easy to achieve their

ambition except by divine aid. The last category is the Jnani

- the person with fullest realization of divinity in the self—which is of

course very rare (one perhaps in a million may have such realization). Hence

what makes a man serious minded and religious is either, (1) present or

impending trouble, or (2) an excessive craving for the world's good or (3) a

highly metaphysical and introverted turn of mind. It is not our desire that any

body should be subjected to serious trouble or should entertain inordinate

hankering for the world's goods. As far a metaphysical and introverted turn of

mind, that comes to very few indeed naturally and cannot be easily cultivated.

Yet we might give some answer to the question of a devotee with budding

earnestness how to develop such earnestness and seriousness.

 

• The great panacea for all defects,

shortcomings and ills is Satsang, that is,

association with holy ones, pure minded persons — of course in the flesh,

if available, or in easily approachable spirit form as in the case of Sai Baba

or failing these, through reading of holy and inspiring literature, such as

scriptures, saintly biography, etc. When a person is very anxious to get

serious, he has already started the development of seriousness.

 

In any case a constant repetition of

prayer — that is an attempt to form a habit of prayer - whether for

temporal or spiritual benefits is an excellent means for developing seriousness

as a strong and permanent trait in one's character. More things are done in heaven

and earth by prayer than the scientist will readily allow.

 

Everything grows by exercise. One

desiring to develop love in himself towards God or any other being, must watch

and observe how persons filled with love behaves and then must do likewise. So

also a person desirous of becoming serious must in the beginning artificially

put on seriousness, observe what serious minded people that command his

approval and admiration do, and then he must go and do likewise. One of the

things that may be confidentially recommended to any Sai Bhakta

who wishes to attain more seriousness is to make a daily program himself to

maintain a diary and to note therein, his programmes,

resolves, Sadhanas attempted and the degree or number

of successes or failures in respect of each Sadhana.

Let him pick up and peruse the diary both at the starting and the close of the

day to note the above facts. A daily repetition of some slokas

from Sainath Manana or the Ashtottara Namavali or the

reading of not less than five to ten pages of Sai literature such as

" Charters & Sayings " may all be prescribed or recommended.

 

The oral or written japa

of Sai Ram will form an excellent coping stone to all the above edifice of

instruction.

 

It is to be hoped that some of those who

read this article will take our advice seriously, begin the habit of

seriousness from this very moment and make a resolve to adopt all or as many as

possible of the measures above, recommended for their development.

 

Important Achievement

On Arturo Toscanini's eightieth birthday,

someone asked his son, Walter, what his father ranked as his most important

achievement.

 

The son replied, ‘For him there can

be no such thing. Whatever he happens to be doing at the moment is the biggest

in his life — whether it is conducting a symphony or peeling an orange.’

(Source Shri Sai Padananda April 1994)