What Is Baba's Mission

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What Is Baba's Mission

By H. H. Sri Saipadananda Radhakrishna Swamiji

Mysticism denotes that attitude of mind which involves a direct

Immediate, intuitive apprehension of God. It signifies the highest

attitude of which man is capable, namely, a beatific contemplation of

God 'and its dissemination in the society and the world.

- Gurudev Ranade

 

All roads lead to Rome. All paths margas lead to Sri Baba, Sri Krishna,

and Sri Rama are all divinely gifted or perfected souls and expressions

of divinity transforming every one who comes into contact with their

divine personality - especially those who are drawn through Rinanubandha

by their divinity and that are the purpose or mission of their lives.

So, Baba has not one mission, but a hundred missions. Protecting the

good (virtuous) punishing or reforming the wicked, establishing Dharma

(virtue) or its hold on the people, are the functions of divine

personalities and Baba was performing all these functions. A mission may

come in. as a part of these functions.

 

Saints expound all the margas and find which marga or combination of

which margas would suit each approaching devotee and give the same to

him. Thus Baba adopted every marga but in particular one may not that

predominance in his methods was neither for ritual nor for Vedic study,

but for living in consonance with the supreme manifestation of Divinity

in Him. His mission is to help every one; that means, of course, every

one capable of benefiting - not persons who come in an unreceptive mood.

Baba quoted occasionally his master's or Guru's behest that " as he has

received liberally from his master, he must similarly distribute

liberally amongst those that approached him. " Baba was distributing not

merely wealth, worldly relief and comforts but also spiritual blessings

to all and sundry those were capable of receiving those benefits.

 

To us Sai devotees, Baba is not only a teacher but a controller from

within the ever watching Guardian Angel. He regulated the lives of those

who wholly surrendered to him. While doing service incidentally the work

of conveying moral teachings was carried on by Baba and he gave

occasional talk about morality.

 

'Behave properly,' 'Behave with integrity and probity. Hurting others is

sinful was the advice given by Baba to Shama and Rao Sahib Galwanker

which will suit us too. Baba expected people to act us to this teaching.

 

When a great saint lending a perfectly pure life as a Samartha Sadguru

and helping thousands that came to him in the course of about half a

century on their way to God is to be described, his utterances are sure

of ethics and spirituality and it is neither possible nor desirable to

make anything like an attempt to give a fall account of his moral

teachings - Baba's influencing devotees was not and is not mainly by any

sort of express teaching. He was molding his children as he called his

devotees, from inside and he used not merely words but also his gaze,

his touch and even his aura or the will power to remove undesirable

tendencies and influences and replace them by useful and holy ones.

 

Even today it is his inner working that counts in the improvement and

building up of the devotee. His presence, his gaze, his touch had all

their effect. Each of these had its own peculiar effect as intended by

Baba. Baba in many ways sowed seeds of morals and spirituality in the

hearts of those approaching him, and some-times almost imperceptibly.

Whenever he rendered any worldly help, that help was accompanied by a

spiritual seed sowing and the beneficiary remembered Baba with faith,

love and admiration for his power, guidance and kindness. These thoughts

were the seeds from which a huge tree of faith would grow up later on

and Baba who sowed the seeds mostly, watered and manure his plant and in

many a case, beginning with worldly benefit, the devotee got on to

higher and higher spiritual levels.

 

(to be contd...)

(Source Shri Sai Padananda April 1993)