Offering Food to Dogs and Cats (animals)

Annadan - the greatest dan considered among the various dan. Every living being has hunger and every living being tries to work or get the food to subside their hunger. Somebody may ask and somebody may not ask. But everyone desires to have food to subside their hunger. There are many instances in the life of baba, where he clearly demonstrated the importance of offering food to a hungry one whether he is a human, bird, animal etc. For example, daily he used to go round for various houses in shirdi seeking alms and whatever food he had got put them in one bowl and kept it there and when cats, dogs, birds or even the maids used to take some food he never objected and happily enjoyed their act. When one of the ladies offered a roti to a hungry dog during her stay at a hotel and when she later visits baba at dwarakamayi, baba said "mother, you have sumptuosuly offered me food, I am satisfied with it, always do like this, it will benefit you". The surprised lady asked baba, "I am dependent on other people for my food, how can I offer food to you baba", then baba said "mother, the roti which you gave to the hungry dog in the afternoon is one with me, always be kind to the hungry and feed them, this will benefit you".

During festivals also, baba used to encourage to conduct annadan for all whoever are coming to shirdi to participate. Also during the nama saptah done, annadan was arranged. To show the importance, baba himself used to cook and serve to everyone. Such is the importance of annadan. Once when nana chandorkar said that he is waiting for a guest to offer lunch, baba said that guest doesnt mean only a human being, it can be any living being which is having hunger and coming to you. Baba, then suggested a simple techinque where we need to just put handful of rice/food outside/near the house and let any living being hungry have it, no need to invite anyone or no need to send away anyone. This bhoota yagna or athidhi yagna itself is equivalent to serving thousands of people.

We need to always follow this simple and powerful commandment of baba and by the grace of baba, whoever is reading this article understand this.

om sai sri sai jaya jaya sai

loka samastha sukhinobavanthu

sarve jana sukhinobavanthu

om santi santi santi

Baba's Blessings - Our Awareness

A question arised in the mind, are we really aware of the blessings showered by Baba on us? What is that which makes us have the awareness that baba has showered his grace and blessings on us.

No doubt that he is having the atrributes of omniscience (infinite knowledge), omnipotence (unlimited power), omnipresence (present everywhere), omnibenevolence (perfect goodness), divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence, still are we able to have the awareness of his atrributes. 

So probably there might be various categories of people, firstly who are really aware about his attributes and enjoying the grace and blessings with awareness and the second category who might not be aware but still have some blind faith that he is going to protect them and they just need to surrender to him, thirdly they had some initial experience with baba when they have sincerely prayed but they dont have the awareness or the belief on baba absolutely and expect some sort of proof or evidence or some sort of miracle to believe the godly attributes of baba. So there is no question discussing about the people who are having the awareness, these are like the intelligents and distinction students in a class, nothing to worry about them, they can definetly pass with flying colours. The second category of people also some how manage to pass because they are blindly believing but believeing 100%. so, nothing to worry about this segment also. The problem is only with the last category of people who neither have awareness nor have belief. The discussion is also about this category of people only.

When we do not have the necessary awareness, then how can we believe that he will save us from our present difficulties. When I pray baba for something, how should I know that he had blessed  me and had granted me something which is good for me. Because we (most of the people not everyone) are leading our lives basing on our mind. And mind always seeks proof or evidence. Whenever something happens which mind cant digest or accept as normal we consider it to be a miracle. Because the present world is accepting things basing on the science. Every action we look from the dimension of science. Thats the reason the present day well educated people  are still having vacuum withinside and have broken relationships with their families,neighbours,colleagues,friends etc. Man thinks that he had landed onto moon, found out so many things. But actually speaking he is like a frog in the well which thinks that that is the only world which is existing. Our state is also similar, we are under the assumption that this much is only the world. And we are trying to fit Baba within our limited perspective and our limited knowledge. Thats the main reason why we are unaware and why we dont have belief. When someone says that the world is much bigger than the well in which we are living, we are expecting a proof saying that it is impossible, there cant be any bigger world than this.We dont know, and when someone is saying we are not ready and willing to know. We have come to a conclusion that this is only the world. So what is making us to come to conclusions rather than being open for learning and expanding our knowledge. When Baba himself is saying that he is ready to give the knowledge and his treasure box is always open and any eligible child of  his can take this treasure, why are we not able to believe that his treasure box is full, there is something beyond this world which we are thinking that this is only the world. Baba himself said that he couldnt find any single one whom he can consider his disciple, everyone who is coming to him is asking only for worldly pleasures, but no one is able to understand what he is willing to give. Basing on the words of baba, out of the lakhs of people visiting him, probably there is no eligible person to whom he can give the key of his treasure house. Then the question arises, how to become eligible for what baba wants to give. Again the answer is given by baba in various forms.


In very simple two words, he told Shraddha and Saburi. If one can understand these two words, probably he can will get the answer. Then he had given the 11 assurances, which if one understand can get the answer. Then for those who cannot understand the two words or the eleven assurances, he had given Sai Satcharitra as a reference for any question which arises in our mind. It all depends on at what level we are and what is the perspective we are looking at the situation. Because when we have awareness and when we change our perspective, the same situation might appear differently. This is 100% true with Sai Satcharitra, when we read the same chapters, we understand it in a different way and we get different answers basing on our question and situation in which we are asking the question. And the most important thing is travelling on the path shown by Baba is the final and most important thing to have the awareness and belief in baba. Because mere reading may not help us as much as we follow the words of Baba. Because baba himself had told that out of lakhs of people visiting him only few are getting to the final stage just like a mango tree with lot of flowers may not yield the entire flowers to fruits, most of them fall due to wind etc, some may fall at the next stage only few actually become the fruits. Similar is the case with Baba, even though he is ready to bless us, because of our ignorance or ego or any other reason, we are not sticking to him and leave him in the middle, which is causing us to drop in the middle. 

If we had the awareness of his attributes or his power, we would never leave baba under any circumstances, or atleast we have blind faith in him that he will take care of us under all circumstances and what ever he is doing for our good only then also no problem, but all the problem lies when we dont have neither awareness nor belief and leave in the middle. We are only the losers if we leave Baba in the middle.  Because it always takes time for certain events to happen and they cannot be done faster than that for example if we want the milk to be converted to curd, we just put a drop of curd in the milk and keep aside for a certain amount of time and automatically the milk becomes curd and we cant expect the moment we put curd into milk to become the curd. Similarly the moment we come into contact with baba, we cant expect to reach to the fruit stage or the final stage. Depending on our stage we need to evolve to next higher stages and it needs to be done in a gradual and phasic manner, just like from flower to raw fruit and then to ripe fruit.

In conclusion we can say that under all circumstances we should be associated with Baba either having awareness or with 100% blind faith, and never judge the actions of Baba with our limited knowledge and perspective.

Learn to Look Beyond

Let us try to analyze the words of Baba. Pages will not be enough to write about the analysis. Even then it is not sure that we clearly understood what baba wanted to say. If one says that he  had clearly understood what baba said and implement it in his life. That is the real understanding for the words of baba.

With the limited knowledge we have and with the enormous grace of  Baba on us, let us try to understand the words and then implement it in our life. Once again let us realise and remember that these are  not simple words, but rather the shakti of baba which is blessed upon who reads them, understands them and implements them in their life. For those who dont know about all these, who are not aware and who are not eligible, these are mere simple words like any other simple words from any novel or story book. But for them, who are eligble, who are willing, these are not simple words, but the shakti being transferred from Baba to them. It is like this, the words show their magic on them who are open, who are eligible, who are willing and the same words appear like mere words for them who are close, who are not eligible and who are not willing. That is the greatness of words by Baba.

Once a person comes into the fold of baba, if he can stick to Baba without getting himself deviated from the path shown by baba, then definetly over a period of time, he will become eligible and reach to the stage where he can be blessed with the shakti of baba.

So, Lets begin our analysis and try to understand what Baba is saying. These are not mere words, but like the mantras or the commandments given by Baba. If properly understood and implemented will make us reach our goal.

First Commandment: Be wherever you like, do whatever you choose, remember this well that all what you do is known to Me.

Baba is clearly telling that wherever we may be, whatever we may do, that he knows everything  whatever we are doing. Sometimes we may think that no one is watching us and do mistakes, if we have the awareness that we are never alone and Baba is always watching us, we will never and cant make any mistakes. This assurance of Baba if properly understood helps us in two ways 1) That we are never alone. Baba is always with us watching us. 2) Because Baba is always with us watching us, we can't do any mistakes in our life, because of which we can reach our goal having the awareness that Baba is always with us.  We can get strength to handle all the circumstances in our life, with the courage of Baba being with us. If we have the awareness and believe then Baba will guide us not only in our spiritual pursuits but also in our day to day activities.

 Second Commandment: I am the Inner Ruler of all and seated in their hearts.

One can get a doubt that how can Baba guide us in our day to day activities and circumstances. In this world, everybody is facing some sort of problems. Somebody financial problems, somebody health problems, somebody relationship problems etc. for this only, Baba is giving this commandment. He is saying that he is the inner ruler of all and seated in their hearts. So if we are sincere in our approach to Baba, just as he is seated in our heart and listening to our problem, similarly he is seated in the other person heart also and can guide the other person or transform the other person. But for this to happen, we need to have the belief in commandment1 of Baba that he knows everything whatever we do. So a few things we need to take care. First we should be sincere and honest to Baba in submitting at his lotus feet whatever we do.Second we should be aware and believe that being the inner ruler of all, he knows better about all and what is good for us. Third, because he knows better about us and what is good for us, we should be able to accept his verdict and not let our ego in dictating the results to Baba and force him to listen to our plea and request. At this stage always remember that a child suffering with fever may ask for an ice-cream, but the loving mother will never grant the request of the child, rather give him the medicine which can cure him. Similar is the case with us, we ask for something, which we will feel as a problem, but Baba knows better which is good for us, and he will grant us only that is good for us. At this stage if we judge the actions of baba with our limited knowledge and leave baba, we are only the losers. so intelligent thing is to accept the decision of baba.

Third Commandment: I envelope all the creatures, the movable and immovable world.

In this commandment, Baba is saying that he is wrapping up the entire movable and immovable world. In other words, the entire movable and immovable world is part of him. This means that not even a leaf can be moved without his permission. This is again the supporting for the above two commandments that he is the ruler and knows everything. Because he is the ruler, every atom is a part of him, whether it is having life, or lifeless, whether it is movable or immovable, he can control any part of it. But when will Baba interfere and protect someone. When the person totally surrenders to Baba, and remember Baba then  Baba will definetly interefere and bail out the person from his present situation. We have various instances in Sai Satcharitra as a proof of this. 

Fourth Commandment:  I am the Controller - the wire-puller of the show of this Universe. I am the mother - origin of all beings - the Harmony of three Gunas, the propeller of all senses, the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer.

Baba is saying, I am the controller, the wire-puler of the show of this Universe. That means the entire show is being run by Baba only. With our ignorance and ego we are thinking that we are the doers when actually it is Baba who is the doer and we are just a witness to this show. To actually speak,our part on this stage called as universe, is only to perform exactly what is told by the director (Baba). We are like the puppets in a puppet show where it appears that the puppets are actually doing all the acts, but in reality it is the wire-puller from behind the screen who is actually making these puppets play. Then if we are only puppets, what is making us think that we are the doers and why are we feeling pleasure,pain,trouble,happiness etc. That is only Maya, out of which we are being ignorant. To realise the truth is only getting knowledge and awareness. Because this divine knowledge has to be bestowed by Baba only, we need to seek refuge at his lotus feet, and then he can bless us with the truth. Baba is saying that he is the mother of this universer, the origin of all. He is the creator, he is the preserver, he is the destroyer. Everything comes from him and everything goes into him. He is the beginning, he is the end, he is everything. When everything is Baba only, what we need to do and what is our role. In the next commandment, baba gives an answer for this saying our role is to turn our attention towards Baba.

Fifth Commandment: Nothing will harm him, who turns his attention towards Me, but Maya will lash or whip him who forgets Me.

Baba is showing an easy path to lead a smooth life. Such a simple thing we just need to turn our attention towards Baba. Means what, we need to make Baba as a part of our life. We need to communicate with him. Because he is the ruler and he is sitting inside our heart, we need to tell him all. We need to take his guidance, follow his words, travel in the path shown by him, listen to his stories, chant his name, particiapte in nama saptah, read satcharitra, attend aarti, associate baba in every action of ours. Leave our ego by realising the truth that Baba is the doer. Show gratitude and be thankful to Baba for whatever he is granting us. Having the awareness that he knows better about us and what is good for us. Having trust in the decisions of baba for every question we ask him. Baba is saying that one who turns their attention towards Baba, Maya will never trouble them and it is easy for them to cross this Ocean of life filled with all the things like ego,diesease,trouble,strained relationship etc. For those who forget Baba, they have to fall trap to any one or all of them . The best thing is if we turn our attention to Baba, and he knows ahead of time what is going to happen, at every juncture he will take care in guiding us properly. Then our life journey becomes smooth.

Sixth Commandment: All the insects, ants, the visible, movable and immovable world, is My Body or Form

Somebody might get a doubt that all this is confusing and contradictory. If baba is the wire-puller and the doer. Will I get my bread and butter in front of me without doing any work (or action). Why I am feeling pain and troubled for my actions. Then how Baba is helping me or guiding me. The answer for this is in reality Baba is only the doer, we are just witness. If we are able to have this awareness and realise this truth. Then nothing can trouble us. And yes, Baba will provide us everything. All our troubles,pain etc which we are facing in our life are because of our ego and our ignorance only. And our journey is towards realising the truth and getting the awareness that Baba is only the truth and he is only the doer. so in the last commandment, Baba is saying that all the immovable and movable world is his form only. so what should we do to realise this truth. Every object in this world will have a name and a form. If we practice to look beyond the name and form, then we can identify that there is some thing which is making that object exist. That thing which is making the object exist and do all the actions associated with that object is nothing but Baba. If we can practice to look beyond the name and form, we can see the real truth that is Baba and his form as this universe.

This article is just an attempt to understand what baba said, try to analyse and implement it in our life. If the reader has come to this page, it is not by coincidence, rather he(she) had asked baba some query and baba had redirected them to this page to answer their query. It is not enough to read, understand it but we need to implement it in our life. Then only we can say that we had turned our attention towards baba, else it is all only show off only and we are not sincere in our approach towards baba. We need to self analyze ourseleves. To whom we are making showoff, the one who is the ruler of our inner heart and the ruler of all the hearts in this entire universe. To whom we are telling? The one who knows everything and who is the doer.

Hope by the blessings and grace of Baba, the reader understand this and transform his life by turning his attention towards baba. The first step in this direction is to practice looking beyond the name and form of an object to see Baba.

Know the rules of game before you play

Know the rules of game before you play, Otherwise you cannot play the game. It is important to know the rules of any game before we play that game, else we cannot play or win the game. Sometimes we will be losing time to learn the rules and win the game. Winning or losing is the result which depends on how best we understood the game and play efficiently. Life is also a game, and we need to undestand the rules of life to play this life game efficiently. The one who dont understand the rules of game quickly had to spend lot of time in trial and error to understand the rules. Life teaches everyone through experience, the rules of life game. If we are not smart enough to learn easily, it will be taught through various circumstances to make us realise those rules. Quality of our life depends on how we play the life game. At a very higher level there is only one aspect in a life to have a smooth life. But at a lower level we have the spiritual life and worldly life. The worldly life consists of all desires,relationships,earnings,expenditure etc. The spiritual life will be dealing with removing all the vices, gaining all the good and proceeding towards knowing thyself. Baba had already taught us how to have a balance between those two. As earlier said, only at the lower level, there seems to be spiritual life and worldly life as separate entities. But for the one who understood, there are no two but worldly life is a part of spiritual life leading towards knowing thyself.

Baba had taught us all his life about how to balance these entities till we realise that they are not two but only one. In a single  sentence he had said "Allah malik hai or sab ka malik ek". For those who understood this, it is enough to understand everything which is the summary of all vedas,upanishads,bible,quran,geeta etc. For those  who couldnt understand the single sentence, he had given two words "sharaddha" and "Saburi". Even if we understand these two words properly, it is enough for us to lead our life in a smooth way and reach our goal. Then for those who cannot understand these two words also, he had given 11 assurances as the 11 commandments. We can lead a smooth life, even if we understood these assurances. Then for those who couldnt even understand these commandments, he had given his satcharitra, which is an ocean of rules to practice in day to day life. Whenever we are facing any difficulty we can refer to this for a solution.

Anyone can question, what if we dont know all these. Are there not people who are leading their lives without knowing all these. Definetly, everyone will be leading their life. We have taken this birth to play the game of life. No one can escape this game. The game begins the moment we have fallen on to this earth, started taking the first breath, and the game stops only when we have stopped taking our last breath. In between, whether one is knowingly playing or unknowingly playing, but he is playing the game of life. If we know the rules and play the game, it becomes easier in reaching the goal of life.It is like a small journey which we need to travel to some place. If we know the destination, what are the various means of transportation to reach there etc. It becomes easy for us to reach the destination in an easy way else we will lose time in distracting ourselves and may land at a different place. We need to come back again onto the right path to reach our destination.

If people are not ready to learn the rules of life game and implement it in their life, they are bound to lost in the track of time and until unless someone who can guide them back they cant win their game.It is like the coach who coaches and guides the players. Similarly baba coaches and guides us all the rules of our life. If we are not willing to listen to the coach, learn the rules of game and implement it, we are only the losers.

Question or Answer Which is important

A question arised in mind Which is important Question or Answer.

Some thoughts which went in mind regarding this. Question is only important. Because Answer is a secondary state. Answer comes into picture only after a question being arised. So to get effective answers we need to learn the art of effective questioning. We need to ask the right question to get the right answer. If somebody is not giving the right answer means we have not asked the right question. Say we ask baba something expecting something. Then the answer from baba will be accordingly basing on what we asked for. Then the question arises do we really know what we want? do we really know what we are asking for?

Because we are expecting a solution or an answer from baba regarding our question. Then if we are expecting a good answer, then we should be confident enough to say that we asked the question correctly.

If we are expecting something and didnt get the expected answer, and simply blame it on baba, then we are only at fault. For example, if I want to watch STAR Sports, then I need to tune the channel to that frequency to view the channel. If I am not tuning to that frequency and simply complain that I am not able to watch STAR Sports. Whose fault is it. There is a second option, where we let the device auto tune so as to let us switch to that particular channel. Similaryly, If I know what to ask,I can directly ask and baba will answer to my call. The second option is let baba decide what is good for us. We just need to follow his words, have patience till he blesses us with what he feels is good for us. In a way, actually baba always blesses us what is good for us, though we are aware of it or not. Sometimes, we also will be able to know it. But sometimes it is beyond our knowledge, imagination and perception. At such times, intelligent thing is to just have faith in baba and be patient to let baba take care of things, instead of forcing baba to act according to our limited knowledge, perception and imagination.

The question is important because, only when a question arises, the answers will come. The perceptions will be known. The dimensions for that particular question will come into picture. The discussions can happen on that particular question.Evaluations begin from that point only. There will be action or activity from the point a question arises. Say for example, if some patient is having pain. Anybody can give the answer (solution or remedy ) to remove his pain. But that is possible only after having the questions Why the pain occured.. What are the reasons for pain. How the pain can be cured . Where is the pain occuring. When onwards the pain is occuring etc.

As we can identify that it is a foolish thing to say that I am not able to listen to radio station without tuning it to that frequency, similarly it is a foolish thing to say that baba is not answering my call (or question) without tuning to him. There will be a transmitter transmitting the programs always. Only we need to tune to that frequency to listen that radio station. The transmitter is one, but the radios are many. Similarly for all the people, baba is one. Sai Satcharitra is one. But the questions are many, the answers depends on their circumstances,perceptions and perspectives. It is like in a class, teacher is one, but students are many. Some may become Collectors, some may become managers, some may become clerks etc.  The end results may differ basing on the individual capabalities, perceptions and circumstances. There is no fault from the side of the teacher. The teacher taught the same lesson to all the students. Then why all the students didnt become collectors. The indidivual student has his own personal goal, his own journey, his own circumstances, his own perception, his own capabilities, his own dimension. Similarly Baba is like a teacher in this universe, and we are all like the students in a class. Baba always answers our questions. Only we are not able to understand what he is answering, because we have not tuned to his frequency and complaining that we are not receiving any answer.

If the radio station is not being played on the radio, whose fault is it? should we repair the radio? or should we learn to tune to the required frequency or blame the radio station. In a similar fashion , if we are asking baba a question and we felt that we didnt receive any answer, whose fault is it? should we correct ourselves? or should we learn to understand the frequency of baba ( that is his ways/ his teachings/ his actions from satcharitra etc) or should we blame baba that he is not answering us. Where is the fault and whose fault it is?

Intelligent thing is to realise that we dont know something and we are asking a question. The one who is asking is at a low level, and the one who is answering is at a high level. There is passing down of something from the giver(answer) to asker(question). We dont have it, thats why we are asking it, then whatever the one who is giving it should be accepted with faith on the giver, rather than dictate terms or keep conditions on the giver. It is like a child asking for an ice-cream, when he is having fever. The loving mother will never answer to the request of the child, rather give him a medicine which will cure his fever. Baba is like the loving mother, who always answers us by giving what is good for us, rather than giving what is being asked for.

Hope by the grace of baba, whoever is reading this is able to understand and implement in their life.

Praying at the lotus feet of sainath for the well being of all.

Loka samastha sukhinobavanthu, sarve jana sukhinobavanthu.

om santhi santhi santhi

Lighting Diya (Deep) in temple

Lighting Diya or Deep in a temple is a very good aspect. Light helps us to see things in darkness. Darkness is actually not a different thing, rather a state where there is no presence of light. So if light is brought then darkness vanishes. Similar is the case with us, we  are in a state of ignorance, which means it is a state of having no wisdom (knowledge). Once if we can bring(attain) knowledge then automatically ignorance vanishes.

To show this significance, baba had lighted Dwarakamayi with diyas in his early days stay at it. It is an act which we need to follow. It is better to light diyas in the presence of baba in baba temple or if it is not possible, to light diyas in any nearby temple. Lighting diyas in presence of baba, is a way of praying baba to bless us with wisdom (knowledge- the knowledge of self). There are so many other dimensions to this act of lighting deep. Normally a person will have a front and a back, but a diya looks similar from any direction. There is no front or back to the light of a deep or diya. It appears same. A diya can be used to light another diya.

There are different types of diyas which can be lighted. To remove some kind of doshas, people light diyas in the lemon. Still some one light diyas made up of  flour, someone will light diyas made up of metal alloys, someone will use earthen diyas. What ever may be the material, it is the devotion and the purity of thought through which we light the diyas in the presence of baba that is important. Someone uses oil and someone uses ghee, whatever might be the material, let us make the practice of lighting the diyas in the presence of baba. Baba had shown us the path by begging for oil in early days to light up the diyas in the dwarakamayi. But he never missed lighting those diyas, even when the shop keepers told lies and had not given him oil. He didnt abused them or rather questioned them or speak harshly to them. He simply blessed them saying "Allah malik". He simply returned to dwarakamayi and used water to light the diyas that evening.

Different people may see this act of baba in different dimensions. It is like this, in a class of 50 students, the teacher will be one and only teaching the same lesson, but the students are 50 and they understand the same lesson according to their perspective, circumstances, capabilities etc. The result also might be different, someone may pass in distinction, someone may pass in first class, some one may fail. Even when asked to explain what they understood, they might express the same topic in different ways.

So , is the case with baba. Baba may perform some act. But the same act may be seen by his various devotees according to their perspectives, circumstances etc. They will get a different message from the same act. It is the greatness of sadguru, where he answers so many people by performing a single act. Act is one, action is one, seekers are many, answers are many. Baba had all his life answered his devotess by his practical actions only, he spoke very less. Being the followers of baba, we need to understand his actions. 

Thats the reason, it is being asked to read sai satcharitra always. Depending upon our level of thought, every time, the same satcharita, the same stories, the same actions of baba, but will give us different solutions. so it is an ocean of solutions for the present day problems. 

The same thing can be co-related where we light diyas during aarti performed to baba. For whatever reason and problem we have in our personal life, if we light diyas in presence of baba and pray sincerely to him. By the blessings of baba, our problems will get solved. Not only in our personal life, professional life etc, but also in our spiritual endevaours we can get solutions.

One need not doubt about all this and they can practise this to check for themselves. But the only thing need is a pure heart to see the immediate results, but for others it will take time till their impurities are burnt out.

Whoever is reading this article by the grace of baba understand this and get benefitted in their lives.

Loka Samastha Sukhinobavanthu, Sarve jana sukhinobavanthu

om santhi santhi santhi

Thoughts About Chapter 3- Shri Sai Satcharitra

Sai Satcharitra - Chapter III

Sai Baba’s Sanction and Promise - Assignment of Work to Devotees - Baba’s Stories as Beacon - Light - His Motherly Love - Rohilla’s Story - His sweet and Nectar - like Words.

Sai Baba’s Sanction and Promise

As described in the previous chapter, Sai Baba gave His complete assent to the writing of the Sat-Charita and said, "I fully agree with you regarding the writing of Sat Charita. You do your duty, don’t be afraid in the least, steady your mind and have faith in My words. If My Leelas are written, the Avidya (nescience) will vanish and if they are attentively, and devoutly listened to, the consciousness of the worldly existence will abate, and strong waves of devotion, and love will rise up and if one dives deep into My Leelas, he would get precious jewels of knowledge."

Hearing this, author was much pleased, and he at once became fearless and confident, and thought that work was bound to be a success. Then turning to Shama (Madhavrao Deshpande) Sai Baba said.

"If a man utters My name with love, I shall fulfill all his wishes, increase his devotion. And if he sings earnestly My life and My deeds, him I shall beset in front and back and on all sides. Those devotees, who are attached to Me, heart and soul, will naturally feel happiness, when they hear these stories. Believe Me that if anybody sings My Leelas, I will give him infinite joy and everlasting contentment. It is My special characteristic to free any person, who surrenders completely to Me, and who does worship Me faithfully, and who remembers Me, and meditates on Me constantly. How can they be conscious of worldly objects and sensations, who utter My name, who worship Me, who think of My stories and My life and who thus always remember Me? I shall draw out My devotees from the jaws of Death. If My stories are listened to, all the diseases will be got rid of. So, hear My stories with respect; and think and meditate on them, assimilate them. This is the way of happiness and contentment. The pride and egoism of My devotees will vanish, the mind of the hearers will be set at rest; and if it has wholehearted and complete faith, it will be one with Supreme Consciousness. The simple remembrance of My name as ‘Sai, Sai’ will do away with sins of speech and hearing".

Different Works Assigned to Devotees

The Lord entrusts different works to different devotees. Some are given the work of building temples and maths, or ghats (flight of steps) on rivers; some are made to sing the glories of God; some are sent on pilgrimages; but to me was allotted the work of writing the Sat Charita. Being a jack-of-all-trades but master of none, I was quite unqualified for this job. Then why should I undertake such a difficult job? Who can describe the true life of Sai Baba? Sai Baba’s grace alone can enable one to accomplish this difficult work. So, when I took up the pen in my hand, Sai Baba took away my egoism and wrote Himself His stories. The credit of relating these stories, therefore, goes to Him and not to me. Though Brahmin by birth, I lacked the two eyes. (i.e. the sight or vision) of Shruti and Smriti and therefore was not at all capable of writing the Sat-Charita, but the grace of the Lord makes a dumb man talk, enables a lame man to cross a mountain. He alone knows the knack of getting things done, as He likes. Neither the flute, nor the harmonium knows how the sounds are produced. This is the concern of the Player. The oozing of Chandrakant jewel and the surging of the sea are not due to the jewel and the sea but to the rise of the moon.

Baba’s Stories as Beacon- Light

Light houses are constructed at various places in the sea, to enable the boatmen to avoid rocks and dangers, and make them sail safely. Sai Baba’s stories serve a similar purpose in the ocean of worldly existence. They surpass nectar in sweetness, and make our worldly path smooth and easy to traverse. Blessed are the stories of the saints. When they enter our hearts through the ears, the body - consciousness or egoism and the sense of duality vanish; and when they are stored in the heart, doubts fly out to all sides, pride of the body will fall, and wisdom will be stored in abundance. The description of Baba’s pure fame, and the hearing of the same, with love, will destroy the sins of the devotee and, therefore, this is the simple Sadhana for attaining salvation. The Sadhana for Krita Age was Shamadama (tranquillity of mind and body), for Treta Age, sacrifice, for Dwapara, worship, and for Kali (present) Age, it is singing of the name and glory of the Lord. This last Sadhana is open to all the people of the four varnas (Brahmins, Kshatriyas,Vysyas,Sudras).

The other Sadhanas, viz. Yoga, Yagya (sacrifice), Dhyana (meditation) and Dharana (concentration) are very difficult to practice, but singing and hearing the stories and the glory of the Lord (Sai Baba) is very easy. We have only to turn our attention towards them. The listening and singing of the stories will remove the attachment to the senses and their objects, and will make the devotees dispassionate, and will ultimately lead them to self-realization. With this end in view, Sai Baba made me or helped me to write His stories, Sat-Charitamrita. The devotees may now easily read and hear these stories of Sai Baba and while doing so, meditate on Him, His form and thus attain devotion to Guru and God (Sai Baba), get detachment and self-realization. In the preparation and writing of this work, Sat-Charitamrita, it is Sai Baba’s grace which has accomplished everything, making use of Me as a mere instrument.

Motherly Love of Sai Baba

Everybody knows how a cow loves her infant calf. Her udder is always full and when the calf wants milk and dashes at the udder, out comes the milk in an unceasing flow. Similarly a human mother knows the wants of her child and feeds it, at her breast in time. In case of dressing and adorning the child, the mother takes particular care to see that this is well done. The child knows or cares nothing about this, but the mother’s joy knows no bounds, when she sees her child beautifully dressed and adorned. The love of mother is peculiar, extraordinary and disinterested, and has no parallel. Sadgurus feel this motherly love towards their disciples. Sai Baba had this same love towards me, and I give an instance of it below: -

In 1916 A.D. I retired from Government Service. The pension that was settled in my case was not sufficient to maintain my family decently. On Guru-Pournima (15th of Ashadha) day of that year, I went to Shirdi with other devotees. There, Mr. Anna Chinchanikar, of his own accord, prayed to Baba for me as follows: - "Please look kindly on him, the pension he gets is quite insufficient, his family is growing. Give him some other appointment, remove his anxiety and make him happy." Baba replied - " He will get some other job, but now he should serve Me and be happy. His dishes will be ever full and never empty. He should turn all his attention towards Me and avoid the company of atheists, irreligious and wicked people. He should be meek and humble towards all and worship Me heart and soul. If he does this, he will get eternal happiness".

The question Who is this HE, Whose worship is advocated, is already answered in a note on "Who is Sai Baba" in the prologue, at the beginning of this work.

Rohilla’s Story

The story of the Rohilla illustrates Sai Baba’s all embracing love. One Rohilla, tall and well built, strong as a bull, came to Shirdi, wearing a long Kafni (robe) and was enamoured of Sai who stayed there. Day and night he used to recite in a loud and harsh tone Kalma (verses from Holy Koran) and shout "ALLAH HO AKBAR" (God is Great). Most people of Shirdi were working in their fields by day and when they returned to their homes at night, they were welcomed with the Rohilla’s harsh cries and shouts. They could get no sleep and felt much trouble and inconvenience. They suffered in silence this nuisance for some days, and when they could stand it no longer, they approached Baba, and requested Him to check Rohilla and stop the nuisance. Baba did not attend to their complaint. On the contrary, Baba took the villagers to task, and asked them to mind their own business, and not Rohilla. He said to them that Rohilla had got a very bad wife, a Zantippi, who tried to come in and trouble Rohilla and Himself; but hearing Rohilla’s prayers, she dare not enter and they were at peace and happy. In fact, Rohilla had no wife and by his wife Baba meant DURBUDDHI, i.e. bad thoughts. As Baba liked prayers and cries to God better than anything else, He took the side of the Rohilla, and asked the villagers to wait and suffer the nuisance, which would abate in due course.

Baba’s Sweet and Nectar-like Words

One day at noon after the Aarti, devotees were returning to their lodgings, when Baba gave the following beautiful advice:-

"Be wherever you like, do whatever you choose, remember this well that all what you do is known to Me. I am the Inner Ruler of all and seated in their hearts. I envelope all the creatures, the movable and immovable world. I am the Controller - the wirepuller of the show of this Universe. I am the mother - origin of all beings - the Harmony of three Gunas, the propeller of all senses, the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer. Nothing will harm him, who turns his attention towards Me, but Maya will lash or whip him who forgets Me. All the insects, ants, the visible, movable and immovable world, is My Body or Form".

Hearing these beautiful and precious words, I at once decided in my mind to serve no man henceforward, but my Guru only; but the reply of Baba to Anna Chinchanikar’s query (which was really mine) that I would get some job began to revolve in my mind, and I began to think whether it would come to happen. As future events showed, Baba’s words came true and I got a Government job, but that was of short duration. Then I became free and solely devoted my self to the service of my Guru-Sai Baba.

Before concluding this Chapter, I request the readers to leave out the various hindrances viz. indolence, sleep, wandering of mind, attachments to senses, etc. and turn their whole and undivided attention to these stories of Sai Baba. Let their love be natural, let them know the secret of devotion; let them not exhaust themselves by other Sadhanas, let them stick to this one simple remedy, i.e. listening to Sai Baba’s stories. This will destroy their ignorance and will secure for them salvation. A miser may stay at various places; but he always thinks of his buried treasure. So let Sai Baba be enthroned in the hearts of all.

In the next chapter, I shall speak of Sai Baba’s advent in Shirdi.

Bow to Shri Sai - Peace be to all

Thoughts about Chapter 3

Sai Baba’s Sanction and Promise :

The chapter begins with the assurance of  baba given to Hemadpant in Chapter2. If baba had given an assurance which hemadpant had already described about it in chapter2, why he is repeating the same thing as the beginning of chapter3. It clearly shows that what kind of courage he got from the words of Baba to go forth in writing the Sai Satcharitra. If we observe carefully the words of baba in that assurance, they are not just mere words, but we can consider it as a mantra and if we slowly repeat it and understood it, we can also get that kind of courage to perform any kind of herculean task which normally would have not been possible. Let us once again see those words and repeat those words to have the blessings of baba in the form of courage to perform any kind of challenge in our life. "I fully agree with you regarding the writing of Sat Charita. You do your duty, don’t be afraid in the least, steady your mind and have faith in My words. If My Leelas are written, the Avidya (nescience) will vanish and if they are attentively, and devoutly listened to, the consciousness of the worldly existence will abate, and strong waves of devotion, and love will rise up and if one dives deep into My Leelas, he would get precious jewels of knowledge". 

Though the words look very simple, but they have very inner and deep meaning inside them. Baba is gracing us with the purpose of our life in a very simple and easy manner. 

First mantra: You do your duty, dont be afraid in the least.

Second Mantra: Steady your mind and have faith in my words.

Third Mantra: If my leelas are written, the avidya will vanish.

Fourth Mantra: If my leelas are attentively and devoutly listened to, the consiousness of the worldly existence will abate, and strong waves of devotion and love will rise up

Fifth Mantra: If one dives deep into My Leelas, he would get preciouse jewels of knowledge.

Assignment of Work to Devotees 

Baba’s Stories as Beacon - Light 

His Motherly Love - Rohilla’s Story 

His sweet and Nectar - like Words.