This is that, that is not this.....................

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Devotees are often heard to be saying that Shri Sainath Maharaj or Baba is

either angry with them or is not taking care of them as before for reasons which

they fail to understand. Such an attitude indicates a highly personalized

approach. It is a unique feature of the Sai faith that the devotees get highly

emotionally attached to Him even though he has no more physical presence.

Psychologically they depend a lot on Shri Shirdi Sai for solace, guidance and

more importantly for getting a solution to their day to day mundane problems.

For most of the devotees He is a part of their lives. They worship Him, they

read about Him, they meditate on Him, they do Naamjaap, they talk about Him a

lot without getting tired and the hold Lungers and even donate alms to beggars

in his name. Some of the ardent devotees even before taking any food or drink

offer it to Baba mentally. Like children they collect all sorts of photographs,

trinkets and other articles related   to Baba. Such activities are a pointer to

the fact that they are ever in search of Baba in their mind and soul and wish to

establish an intense relationship with Him.

 

It has been observed that a devotee when he first enters into the fold of Shri

Sai Babas divine and magnanimous personality gets attracted to him in a very

short time which ordinary human reasoning can not explain. When Baba was there

in Shirdi many of the devotees used to go into a spiritual trance or sort of

emotional hype at the very look at Baba. Such examples find a depiction in Shri

Sai Satcharitra and many other books like Khapardes diary etc. Such was the

attraction of the master that when a non believer like Balasaheb Bhate met Baba

for the first time he just decided to stay back and settle down in Shirdi

forever and later resigned from the government service only to serve Baba for

the rest of his life.

 

Most of the devotees hold Babas relation with them as their most prized

possession. Baba before departing from his physical embodiment had assured his

devotees that he would continue to protect them from his invisible abode. He had

even said that whenever His devotees would call him earnestly he would make his

presence felt in some way or the other and also render help to remove their

difficulties. Incidents happening in the lives of most of the devotees after

Baba had taken Samadhi show that Baba continues to keep his promise.

 

Thus Shri Sainath Maharaj continues to render love, assurance, protection and

faith to all his devotees. At times being busy tackling their earthly

problems,the devotees are not in a position to remember Baba as much as they

used to do earlier. In such a situation, they feel an emotional vacuum in them.

Lets just understand this sense of void in the devotee when the feeling towards

the Sadguru reduces in its intensity through the example of the sun and the

sunlight. The light rays continuously emanate from the sun and the sunlight

falls on earth. When the sky is clouded the Suns rays cannot be seen. Similarly,

Babas love and protection towards devotees flows continuously but some of the

devotees do not experience it when their life is engulfed by worldly clouds.

 

Sai Nath maharaj often used to tell devotees at Shirdi in no uncertain terms

that whosoever prays to him intensely and intimately would certainly receive His

grace, help and experience. Once the teacher - pupil emotional rapport is

established, the pupil is bound to go through a series of alternative emotional

experiences. Sometimes he will feel flooded with loving emotions towards his

master and sometimes he will feel a sense of emotional void. This bipolar

emotional situation is not due to the change in the mood of the master as

perceived by devotees because a perfect master is a perfect soul. The reason for

such a feeling in the devotee lies in the devotee himself. Hence, whenever such

a situation comes the devotee should not get bogged down under his own emotional

pressures and feel frustrated. Instead he should pray Baba to stabilize his

emotions towards Him. Every devotee should try to understand that a perfect

master has a thousand things to do   for benefit of innumerable number of

devotees at the same time. Therefore to expect that the emotional impulses of

each devotee would be immediately reciprocated by the master is not the correct

approach. Such an unstable mental state of the devotee indicates a lack of faith

in the master. If the devotee is convinced that the Sadguru is always busy in

helping a large number of His devotees, at the same time, he (the devotee)

should take care to see that he does not disturb the master for frivolous

issues. The master is best left to carry on His magnificent and universal work.

This understanding on the part of

the devotee will make the master comfortable.