Shirdi Sai Baba Stories,Leelas and Teachings.: Inner Voyage To Explore Sai-Guru Bhakti-Sai Marg(Part 1).

Dear all,
Happy Baba's day .Today I am uploading the first part of 9th chapter from the book "Inner Voyage To Explore Sai ".Devotees are requested to follow the link given at the end of this post if they miss on any part/chapter of the book .Jai Sai Ram

Chapter IX
GURU BHAKTI – SAI MARGA

Baba’s Bhakti marga is mainly based on Guru bhakti, Nishta, Saburi and Uge Muge. Nishta is faith, saburi is courageous patience and uge muge is power of silence or “sit quiet and do nothing”.

Adi Sankara, in his Guru vandana, says: “I salute the gurus, who by applying the collyrium of wisdom to the eyes of one suffering from myopia of spiritual blindness opens his eyes to light and truth”.
There is no difference between Guru and God. He, who sees the difference, sees God nowhere. So, we must regard our Guru and God as one and if we serve the guru in a humble way, God will be pleased and purifying our mind, will show us the path of self- realisation. We should not enjoy any object with our senses without remembering our Guru. When the mind is trained in this way, we will be always reminded of our Guru- God, Sadguru Sai Baba, and our meditation on Baba will grow apace. Baba’s image will be ever before our eyes and then devotion, non-attachment will be ours.

Guru’s grace removes our fear of the mundane existence, opens the door of salvation and turns misery into happiness. If we ever remember the holy feet of Sadguru, our troubles will come to an end, death loses its sting and miseries are obliterated.Another truth which Baba conveyed indirectly is that one must surrender himself i.e., speech, body and mind to the guru from whom he expects illumination and help in marching to the highest.The objects of our life such as Dharma, Artha, Kama are attainable with our effort but the fourth object, moksha (liberation) can only be had with the help of the Guru. A true guru helps you in your journey to Godward path.

One’s life should be guru-oriented one. “Unknown, I will walk by your side and guard you invisible”, is the promise of our Sai to every devotee. He is a proper guru to whom your mind is attuned. A guru should be endowed with tranquility, patience and forgiveness and other virtues. He should be capable of attracting others with his magnetic eyes. He should have equanimity to one and all and our Sai was the personification of all these qualities. One should calm his mind before approaching his Master (our Sai) with Prema, ananda and soundarya.

TWO MEANINGS

The word Guru has two meanings 1. gu signifies Gunathitha (one who transcended the three gunas) and ru denotes the formless aspect (one who grasped that). He is both a formal teacher and a spiritual preceptor and storehouse of spiritual energy which he can transmit to others. He helps one’s inner self till it realizes the light within. Gita says:Be harmless, have no pretension, be upright foreboring, serve your guru in true obedience. Keeping the body and mind in cleanliness, tranquil, steadfast, master of the ego standing apart from the things of senses free from self, aware of the weakness of the moral nature.

The best guru dakshina is to adhere to his teachings and strictly follow them understanding the inner meanings. A guru is not in his body, not even in the mind. The real guru is his teaching. The guru never dies because he lives in the disciple for which the disciple must make vibrant study of his guru’s teachings. Mere physical prostration before a guru is not enough. The disciple must surrender himself so totally to the guru that he should feel that he exists only to serve the guru.
A real guru plays the role of a sole helmsman and ferries his disciples across the ocean of worldly samsara. Sai Baba was such a guru though His methods of teaching were unique often unorthodox. By His own example, Sai Baba had taught His devotees what constitue proper conduct towards one’s Guru.

INTENSE LOVE FOR GURU

Baba said that when He was a boy of tender age (about five years old) He sat by His guru’s side and being filled with intense love for His guru, gazed and gazed upon Him from morning till night for about 12 years. The guru loved Him with equal intense love and the result of this mental love was the transfer of entire panoply of powers and nature from the guru to the pupil. By guru kripa, the Pupil attained all that had to be attained, that is oneness with the Guru-God, and His manifestation in the universe involving the possession of all siddhis i.e, superhuman powers and love for the entire universe.

Describing His guru, Baba said “He brought Me up. There was no dearth of food and clothing. He was full of love, He was love incarnate. He loved Me most. Rare was a guru like Him. He was my sole refugee, my mind was always fixed on Him.

IDENTITY WITH ALL GURUS

Sai Baba always identified Himself with other gurus of His devotees. A guru worship mainly depends on the devotee’s meditation on his Master fully. Guru is Truth personified and imparts the knowledge of the highest truth.

The ultimate good of Guru –sishya relationship is to make the latter scale to self awareness. A guru who can awaken this god-consciousness in a devotee, is worthy of veneration. And as such, saints like Tukaram, Kabir, Jnaneshwar and Eknath had completely surrendered themselves to their holy feet of their gurus and this points out that the relationship between the guru and the disciple is considered to be ‘most sublime’. Absolute surrender of one’s ego to God is a precondition for spiritual transformation. Guru helps the disciple to realize the divinity already existing within him and also keeps a constant watch over the disciple’s progress.

Finally, it is not the guru who chooses his disciples. It is the disciple who selects the Guru, whoever he maybe and cling to him 100 per cent and always worship him with full faith. The guru in his physical form may not be ever present before you but you have to imprison his image ever in your heart and contemplate on him with sincere prayer. The life of Ekalavya in the Mahabharata is an illustrious example of Guru bhakti. When Dronacharya refused to teach him the skill in archery, Ekalavya firmly adopted him as his guru and made a clay model of Dronacharya. With intense devotion ever contemplating on the moorthy, (form of his guru). Ekalavya started worshipping his guru and started practicing archery. Ultimately, Dronacharya found him that Ekalavya could be even better than Arjuna.

The disciple placing his head on the guru’s feet is a gross or outward vision really and internally they are both one and the same. Those who see any difference between them are yet unripe and not perfect.

When God assumes a human form, He establishes as the guru. Guru is the manifestation of God. The Guru expects total surrender, absolute obedience and the most important is supreme effort. Effort is a courtesy which all sadhakas owe to the Divine and persevering effort alone can bring down dynamism of God’s help and grace. The Guru’s grace is bread and milk to the pupil and guru is treated as the only sadhana for the sishya. These are not the mere words of Baba but also found in the Guru-Gita in the Skanda Purana.

Our Sadguru Sai Baba has said that one did not require any study of Puranas, but being thoroughly absorbed in his guru would give him all knowledge, wisdom and realization. Baba knew many languages and could interpret the thoughts of devotees and even of a lizard. He had all achievements, intellectual, moral, mental, etc., and could interpret any part of scriptures. Baba got all that knowledge by Guru seva and Guru bhakti alone.
To quote Baba’s words, He has said “No sadhanas, proficiency in six shastras are necessary. Have faith in your Guru. Believe fully that Guru is the actor and doer. Blessed is he who knows the greatness of his guru and thinks Him to be Hari, Hara and Brahma Incarnate.”

A devotee needs no intermediary to approach Baba but if you seek Sai’s grace through your Atma Guru or personal Guru, it will be something of an excellent experience. He can see both of them in His vision.

Sadguru Sai is Vyasa roopa and Dakshinamoorthy of this Kaliyuga.

Sadguru Sai has further said “Devotion to Guru is the main point by which one can realize the truth and reach God. The unseen can be seen only by the spirit of every individual. A good conscience lies in pure heart. A good conscience is the praise and price of life that we have to lead for the external. What does a pure mind teach us? Certainly, that which has created love and all else, which lasts externally and never ages to climb or decline”. Baba once exclaimed “nothing in the three worlds can claim even to be a simili to the Guru, who is a giver of gift of knowledge, the highest of all gifts.”

Sai Chaitanya H.H.Narasimha Swamiji has pointed out “guru Deva is a friend of all, everyone’s kinsman and relation and a true servant of all. He is Truth incarnate; an ocean of patience, an abode of forgiveness, a mass of splendor, fearlessness personified and a storehouse of love. Influenced by his pure and ideal behavior, the hearts of all creatures turn towards God – a blessed guide and benefactor in disguise. Blessed is he who follows the path shown by his guru Deva as his goal in life.”
“In this category, Sai Guru is the fathomless ocean of mercy and kindness and Himself Divine in form and whose words are for the ignorant mass inertia, the rays of the sun of Divine knowledge” Sri Narasimha Swamiji pointed out.

He has also clarified “A Guru is a great force that takes you along correct lines. A guru is a anugraha sakthi and therefore, that particular sakthi may have different forms and without forms and the worship of forms not coming into conflict with each other. The Guru is the medium of means to realize your own self. He gives you a push and then you have to exert yourself to go higher.

“Gurus are like mothers. They take hold of the hands of the aspirants and take them step by step till they are established in the super conscious state. The entire operation of molding, remolding, raising and reaching the top of the spiritual experience is the work of the Guru and Guru ‘alone’”, Swamiji explained.

H.H.Sripadananda Radhakrishna Swamiji, Prarthana sishya of Sri Narasimha Swamiji, has said “Take refuge in your Guru with love, faith and humility after abandoning self- importance. He will not desert you. His love will lift you to solace and strength. Only the knowledge imparted by Guru is powerful and beneficial. Otherwise, it becomes useless and fruitless. He, who attains knowledge by pleasing his Guru with every attention and adoration, really attains success therein’!

The Swaimji further said, “When the sishya surrenders everything to his Guru and loves him with full faith, the grace pf the Guru descends on him. The grace of the Guru alone can help the sishya to get self-realization and neither the chanting of the Vedas, nor the keenness of intellect nor the performance of rituals of sacrifices can help in this matter. H.H.Narasimha Swamiji has shown the Guru on whom we can cast our burden and live happily. Baba as our Guru – God takes the entire responsibility of attending to all our secular and spiritual needs.”

“Baba is a living Guru from His Samadhi and none need have any fears whether worshipping Sri Sai Baba would in any way affect him by worshipping his Kula Devata”, - Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji stressed.

WRITING ON GURU – HIS GRACE
Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji has said: Divine services, devotional practices such as worship, visits to temples and places of pilgrimage, prayers and association with great souls all these are some of the methods for one’s purification. Then there are acts of charities and other kinds of benevolent works of a worldly nature. By all these, one can get over bad tendencies. In due course, the good samskaras or tendencies will grow in abundance and put down bad samskaras. These good samskaras are also obstructions in the spiritual path, although they give material happiness in return. These are also to be annihilated. Here meditation starts.

Meditation alone is the true method for annihilating the roots of tendencies (seeds) in an aspirant or the sadhak on the spiritual path. But the manifested state of tendencies of a good kind is to be eradicated by unattached services to the Lord, in the form of service started by our great Swamiji Narasimha Swamiji. That kind of services will make the doer pure in heart. ‘Those that are pure in heart shall see God’ says Lord Christ and our scriptures. Before beginning to do deeper kinds of intuitive research or sadhana, one has to purify oneself by the above methods of divine and human services including Guruseva.

A man may go to any number of temples of importance, but he will be the same man unless there is a longing for divinity within himself. If there is that longing within, he will certainly get the needed divinity from there, it is certainly good to go and worship in temples if one is really inclined to do so. That inclination will bring up some kind of divine attitude in the mind. But that is not generally the case with many. They go to temples mostly to see the festivities or to show that they are devoted to God. This is not what ought to be the case with a devotee.

To be continued as part 2.

Coming up in Next post :

GURU BHAKTI – SAI MARGA (PART-2)

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