Celebrating The Birthday Of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba

Celebrating The Birthday Of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba

In a Most Wonderful Divine Discourse on September 28th, 1991, Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba says about Shirdi Sai Baba:

Sathya Sai Baba: In the former Nizam’s dominions, there was a remote village called Pathri. In that village there were a couple named Gangabhavadya and Devagiriamma. They were grieving over the lack of children. In answer to their prayers a son was born on September 28, 1835.

Today is the anniversary of that day. The child was Sai Baba.

His Samadhi (death) occurred on Vijayadasami day in 1918. September 28, 1835 was his date of birth. On Vijayadasami day, he gave up his body. Although this year Vijayadasami falls on September 29th, in the year of Baba’s Samadhi the date was different.

“The first advent of Sai was in Maharashtra. The second advent will be in Madras,” Shirdi Baba said. It should be noted that when this form (Sathya Sai) made its advent, Andhra Pradesh was part of Madras Presidency. When he was asked, in what form the next advent would take place, Shirdi Baba told Abdul Baba alone: “I will give darsan in the name of Sathya for upholding Truth.” That is the present advent.

The two bodies are different, but the Divinity is one. The first advent was revealing Divinity. The second advent is to awaken the Divinity (in human beings). The next advent is for propagating Divinity. The three Sai’s are: Shirdi Sai, Sathya Sai and Prema Sai.

So let us celebrate Sri Shirdi Sai’s 174th Birthday on September 28th.

Om Sai Ram

Kumar Mahadevan

New Age – The Dawn Of The Golden Era

Sathya Sai Baba And The Golden Age

New Age – The Dawn Of The Golden Era

A few weeks ago in this space we had an article, “The Cup of life” from a current student of Sathya Sai Baba’s Institute. Many readers wrote to us expressing their desire to have more articles from the students. So here we are with another student’s article. This is actually the transcription of a small talk given by Sri Chandrasekhar of I MBA during the Morning Prayer sessions in the Institute.

There’s no end to the incarnations that God indulges in. He comes down for various purposes. Sometimes He comes with a part of His glory, sometimes with a fuller equipment of His splendor, sometimes for fulfilling a particular task, while at times, He comes to transform an entire era of time, an entire gamut of space.

‘For the protection of the good, for the destruction of evil forces and for the firm establishment of Dharma, I am born from age to age.’

This Divine assurance made by the Lord as Krishna is being fulfilled and we are all blessed to be contemporaries of Bhagawan, witnessing Him as He mends the very fabric of humanity and ushers in the ‘Golden Era’.

I would like to draw your attention to three of Satya Sai Baba’s profound declarations. Bhagawan Sri Sathya SaiBaba said, “My mission is to raise the consciousness of man to a level, at which, he neither rejoices nor mourns over anything.”

Secondly, in a revelation given to Charles Penn, Satya SaiBaba exhorts to us, “Your mission has begun. These are My words to you, My devotees. Each one of you has a unique and valuable part to play in this lifetime… You are My instruments from whom My love will pour forth. Only those whom I’ve called can serve Me. I have prepared you for this work through many incarnations…”

Finally, Bhagawan Baba in His own commanding yet simple way, said, “My mission is already accomplished. I’m only letting it unfold before your eyes.”

Now bearing these imposing declarations of Sai Baba in mind, let us look at the world around us. We still find negativity manifesting as hatred, violence, disharmony and the like, in swollen proportions. So much so that even Mother Earth is retorting to man’s actions in the form of earth quakes, volcanoes and detrimental geographical changes. Nevertheless, Bhagawan’s resolve to bring in the ‘Suvarna Yuga’, the Golden age, is His ‘Vajra Sankalpa’ (Diamond-like resolve) and at His command, the stars have to fall in place. Why this incongruity then? Or, is there an incongruity at all? Is there something happening behind the scenes which we do not readily see?

Swami says, “Mano moolam Idam Jagat”. The world, as we see it, is but a reflection of the mind. If we find so much negativity around us, it just goes to suggest the state of man’s mind. With the mind and Ego being the focus of our lives, we hurt and inflict pain on each other. Life’s reins are to a large extent held by the ego and every ego says, ‘I’m right’. This manifests even as a nation, as the collective human ego. Every country is selfish and claims to be right in doing so.

This unchecked striving for more and more, for endless growth, is a dysfunction and a disease. This dysfunction is actually accelerating and intensifying. It’s the same dysfunction which the cancer cells exhibit, whose only intention is to grow, unaware of the destruction that it is bringing about to itself. The same is the fate of the ego. In its endeavor to intensify it is unconsciously burning itself. Like the forest fire which destroys the forest itself, the fury fire of ego in the form of negativity, is destroying the ego itself. Now, as the egos are drowned, the individual consciousness evolves. In science, we know of parameters like ‘Critical Mass’, and ‘Critical Pressure’, which indicate the point at which the balance shifts from one side to the other. In the same way, as the consciousness evolves at the individual level, it is raising the collective human consciousness. Once the critical point is reached, there will be a quantum jump in the collective consciousness. This is what we tend to miss, because Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba is presently raising the individual consciousness of man. Nevertheless, it is quickly heading towards the critical point and thus towards an imperative collective evolution of humanity.

‘It is darkest before dawn,
A new age shall be born’

All the sufferings that humanity undergoes at large, the geographic and planetary changes, are the labor pains which Mother Earth is experiencing in the birth of a new consciousness.

Sathya Sai Baba indicated this in one of His Dassera discourses in 2005. He said, “Within a few years, rivalry, hatred, and misunderstanding between people will become a thing of the past in Bharat and in the world at large.” Describing the grandeur of the Golden Age, He said, “The time is soon approaching when all humanity will live in harmony. It is beyond all comprehension. Its beauty is beyond all dreams.” Then He went on to say, “Before it arrives be prepared to reveal to every living thing, the true purpose of existence.”

Now what is it that Bhagawan wants us to be prepared for? Do we know the true purpose? What are our roles? The answers to these questions are very subjective, for Bhagawan Himself asserts that the role which each one of us will play is going to be unique and valuable.

However, broadly speaking, to be a part of the solution, we must be aware of problem and be sensitive towards its implications. The problem here is the mind, a wonderful tool, but a deadly master. It is the nature of the mind to dwell on the disappointments of the past and the anxieties of the future, completely neglecting the present moment. While the truth remains that life is always in the present. So by saying ‘Yes’ to the mind and its chatter about the past and the future, we are saying ‘No’ to the present, that is to say, ‘No’ to life itself. What could be more insane than this!

All the problems we see in the external world are a projection of the turmoil of the mind. No solution which arises from the mind will solve this problem, for the mind itself is intrinsically a part of it. The problem is not so much the inability to think, but it is the inability to stop thinking. Bhagawan in His adeptness puts it in two words, ‘Die-mind’.

It is from this mind identified state that Bhagawan ventures to raise us to His level of consciousness. He explains, “Man has to be unmade and remade with his ego destroyed and replaced with a transcendental consciousness.” How do we play our roles in this event which takes place once in an entire Yuga?

We have guideposts which will safely take us to the destination. The first of those is the simplest and yet the most potent. It is prayer addressed to our Beloved Lord. Swami Sai Baba Himself describes the story of the elephant Gajendra. He says:

“In the thick forest of life, a wild elephant, the mind of man, will be roaming. This mind which is roaming becomes thirsty for sensuous pleasures. To quench the thirst, it begins to drink from the lake of worldly activities. The moment it does, the crocodile of attachment catches hold of its leg. In its efforts to extricate itself, the elephant (mind) finds that the grip of the crocodile (attachment) on its leg strengthens. Unable to free itself, in exasperation and exhaustion, the elephant beseeches to the Lord. In that moment, when the elephant’s vision turned towards the Lord, God’s vision also turned towards the elephant and saves it from Samsara (worldly life).

The second guidepost is ‘Namasmarana’. The human mind unconsciously seeks something lasting but unfortunately seeks it in things which are by themselves ephemeral. Only the Lord and His name last forever. Swami says, “For a bird in the mid-ocean flying over the dark blue waters, the only resting place is the mast of a sailing ship. It has the picture of the mast steady in its mind; its form fixed in its eye. Similarly, the Lord is the only refuge for the man who’s swept by storms over a restless sea. The name of the Lord is the mast for you; remember it ever.”

Thirdly and most importantly, we should never get attached to the work we are doing, to the roles which He’s instructed us to don. We should remember that even without any of us, the Lord will still achieve His mission. Recalling what Arjuna said on having the Vishwaroopa Darshan, “Oh Krishna, I can see the entire Kaurava army plunging into your fiery mouth and meeting their destruction.” Krishna replied, “I have willed both the battle and the result. What remains is the completion of formalities which shall be done with or without you.”…. “Therefore, surrendering all actions to Me, thy thoughts concentrated on Me, the absolute and supreme Self of all, free from selfishness and without any anticipation of reward, with mind perfectly calm, begin thou to fight.” These are the words that should ring in our ears as we carry out Bhagawan’s work.

As Chardin said,

“The day will come when,
After harnessing the space and the winds,
The tides and the gravitation,
We shall harness for God the energies of Love.
And on that day, for the second time
In the history of the world,
We shall have discovered fire.”

Let’s hope that day dawns soon!

With Love and Regards,
“Heart2Heart” Team

Concerning The Avatar

Sathya Sai Baba

Concerning The Avatar

Loving Sai Ram and greetings from Prashanti Nilayam.

This Sunday, we thought we would put together many of the things Swami has said at various times about Avatars in general and about the Sri Sathya Sai Avatar also.

Krishna has no doubt explained in a few crisp Slokas in the Gita why God comes down to earth as an Avatar. Krishna says that God comes down as man to give humans an important lesson and adds that since man forgets that lesson, God has to incarnate repeatedly. But Sathya Sai Baba has added many crucial footnotes such as this one:

To elevate man to the level of Consciousness, God has to incarnate as man. He has to speak to them in their own styles and languages. He has to teach them the methods that they can adopt and practice. Birds and beasts need no Divine incarnation to guide them for they have no inclination to stray away from Dharma. Man alone ignores the goal of life.

And Sathya Sai Baba goes on to explain what precisely the word Avatar means:

The word Avatar means descent. It is not coming down from the peak of a mountain or the top story of a building. It is a descent from the state of the Atma to the state of the body. The descent of the Avatar means the Divine coming down to the level of the human. No blemish attaches to the Divine as a result of the descent. There is no diminution in His puissance. Here is the example of a child playing on the ground. If the mother feels it is beneath her dignity to bend and calls upon the child to leap in her arms, the child cannot do so. But out of love for her child, the mother stoops to pick up the baby. Likewise, the Avatar descends to the level of the human to bless and rescue those who cannot rise to the level of the Divine. It is an act of benediction.

Humans are used to thinking of God as being supremely powerful, who can do all sorts of things. And yet, when they see God in human form, many doubts assail them such as, “Is the Avatar really as powerful as the unseen God?” Sathya Sai Baba gives the answer:

The attributes and the powers of the Divine remain unaltered in their pristine amplitude. The Divine manifests His powers according to the needs, the circumstances and the conditions prevailing at a particular time or place. Take, for example, the case of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He has the power to protect and to punish. These powers can be exercised when he sits in the judicial chair. The same Chief Justice, when he is at home, confers joy on his grandson by letting him ride on his back. By allowing the grandchild to play in this manner, does he forfeit his powers as a Chief Justice? Similarly, the Avatar does not forego any of His supreme powers merely because He lives and moves among human beings as a man. An Avatar is capable of all things at all times. Yet the Avatar will not undertake to demonstrate His powers at all times. An Avatar will undertake to such powers when exceptional circumstances demand it and will shed His Grace on deserving persons only.

It is common for humans to accept that God knows everything; however, when it comes to the Avatar, there are all sorts of doubts. For example, we frequently find devotees wondering whether Swami would be aware of the good deeds they have done, etc. Such doubts are a reflection of the duality inherent in Creation. While at their core, all humans ARE Divine, yet their perception is mostly dictated by their senses. In other words, humans function mainly through “human Consciousness” whereas the Avatar exhibits both the Divine as well as human Consciousness as the Divine Drama dictates. This is how Sathya Sai Baba comments on this:

Because the Lord takes the human form, we find that He exhibits human consciousness along with Divine Consciousness. Ordinary people cannot grasp the Divine aspects of an Avatar. God appears to be an ordinary human being to the limited intelligence of lay people because of the co-existence of the Divine and human consciousness in the Avatar. Human comprehension is restricted by the limits of human consciousness. But the sages who were divine human beings were able to comprehend Divinity. They recognised the Formless God in the visible form, because they had imbued themselves with Divine Consciousness. Thus, according to their levels, different people regard the Avatar as a mere human being or Cosmic Reality.

Turning now to Krishna’s declaration about the decline of Dharma, the appearance of the Lord in human form, etc., Sathya Sai Baba has this to say:

Avatars never come to re-establish Dharma. Dharma was never destroyed but the practice of Dharma periodically goes into decline. It is to rekindle the practice of Dharma that God appears on earth as man.

A common doubt: Rama fought with many demons and annihilated them. Krishna in His own way, helped to eliminate many of the bad guys. Right now, the world is full of these bad guys who would make the earlier ones look like saints. Why on earth then, is the Avatar not slaying them? Why has He come without any weapon? A popular question and here is the answer:

In this Kali Age, the wicked have to be reformed and reconstructed through Love and Compassion. That is why this Avatar has come unarmed. It has come with the Message of Love.

Coming to think of it, it is a bit surprising that when humans who are talking about eliminating weapons of mass destruction, want the Avatar slay the wicked, without realising that if the Avatar were to do so, there would be a HUGE blood bath! Then there is the question, favourite with overseas devotees: “Why does God have to incarnate only in the sub-continent? What about Europe, America, Japan, New Zealand, etc? Are they not good enough for Him?” This is what Sathya Sai Baba told Dr. Hislop:

Where gold is found, there gather the geologists, engineers and miners. The gold is mined there and then it is taken all over the world.

Satya Sai Baba constantly emphasises the human aspect of the Avatar, as the following quotes illustrate. In this context, we strongly urge devotees to read carefully the book Summer Roses on the Blue Mountain, which contain the discourses Swami delivered during the Summer Course conducted in 1976.

The essential quality of an Avatar is to teach you to make good and proper use of your thought, word and deed. Depending on the conditions in the country and the environment, the Avatar comes to teach you and show you the right use of all your organs.

This is the reason why Krishna came in human form, created a bodily relationship with Arjuna and others, and pretended as if He was the brother-in-law of Arjuna…. Krishna wanted to deal with Arjuna in a manner in which a human being will deal with another human being.

If we regard Krishna as God, we will never be able to understand the inner significance of the Mahabharatha. It is only when we pay attention to the human aspect of Krishna and look at the whole story from the angle of Krishna in the human form, that we will be able to understand His greatness.

Every Avatar has His detractors and this Avatar is no exception; in fact, this is a part of the Divine Drama! What does Swami have to say about that? Just read this.

In an Avatar, there will never be a situation in which you can find fault with Him. The individual who accuses an Avatar will be hurting himself in his eyes with his own fingers.

People think that just because the Avatar has come, He will “fix it all”. No way! He has come to “fix our minds” because that is where the problems all start – the human mind! So, it is OUR business to use the opportunity to get transformed and then go about fixing the problems we humans have created in such abundance. This is what Sathya Sai Baba has to say on this matter:

The best that a guidepost can do is to tell you that if you travel that way, you will reach such and such a destination and if you travel another path, you will reach another destination. But the actual ups and downs along a particular path will be understood only by people who undertake the journey.

Decade after decade, Sathya Sai Baba has been tirelessly teaching us, but most of us seem more preoccupied with wanting to see miracles or getting fixes for our own particular problems. And when sometimes there is disappointment , then doubts also set in. All this is because of a lack of understanding of the nature of the Avatar and the purpose of incarnation.

With regard to Sai, some people draw conclusions based only on external appearances. They are not making any effort to recognise the basic truth, the unchanging qualities such as Sathya, Dharma and Prema that are in Sai. All powers are in the control of Sai….

There is no limitation to My power. Infinite powers and infinite Grace are present in My hands. To state these things with regard to Myself becomes necessary at times.

Because I am like an ordinary individual when I am talking with you and playing with you, many people do not understand My true nature. Even people with great strength of mind cannot recognise the difference between the external appearance and the internal aspect.

Sai knows everything. That people are in doubt is due to the Maya of the Avatar.

Since you see Me in close proximity, you are not able to assess Me properly. Familiarity has deceived you to the point of delusion. Swami’s Form is BIG, VAST, ………. INFINITE!

Commenting on the uniqueness of the Sai Avatar, Swami says:

During the lifetime of Shirdi Baba, not much attention was paid to Him. Recognition of Him as an Avatar, and interest in His life developed only after His “death”.

This Sai Avatar is the only such where His Divinity is known to people of all religions. Never has there been that before. With Krishna, only the Gopis were aware of Him as God; but they were Rishis reborn.

Sri Krishna Avatar

This Avatar is obviously different, with people being aware of His Divinity in real time, all across the globe, as Sathya Sai Baba pointed out to Dr. Hislop. Is Swami partial? He may appear so to some but He really is not.

The name Sai Baba means Divine Mother and Father. Like mother, I will be tender and soft and like father I will punish you. If an individual who has good qualities comes close to Me, I am sweet to him. On the other hand, I am harsh to one who has bad qualities and I do not let him come close to Me. It is not that I like one more than the other but I give medicine to cure bad qualities when they are present.

So what do we do when the Avatar is around? Any work for us? Sure!

There is considerable change in human outlook that I have to bring about. No one can stop Me or deter Me from fulfilling the task for which I have come, namely the establishment of the one unchanging Truth. In this task, you have a part to play…

Once again, an Avatar is an Avatar – God in human form. No merit in trying to argue which one is “better”.

Rama, Krishna and Sai Baba appear different because of the dress each has donned, but it is the self same Entity, believe Me!

If there is one word that describes Sathya Sai Baba fully, that is LOVE!

Divine Love is associated with Immortality. It is to teach mankind the truth about this Divine Love that Love itself incarnates on earth in human form.

With Love and Regards,
“Heart2Heart” Team