Sai Spiritual Showers - Issue 4/20

Once it happened that Krishna, Balarama and Satyaki who were quite little boys at that time, scarce four or five years old, strayed into a thick jungle, all alone. Darkness fell, and there was no way of reaching Gokulam! Of course, as you must have guessed already, it was a stratagem of Krishna. Even at that age, He would do nothing without a deep purpose behind it and the purpose would invariably be teaching someone some good lesson. They decided to spend the night, just where they were. Krishna put fright into them with His descriptions of ghosts, ghouls, and demons roaming in search of human prey. He proposed that two of them sleep for three hours at a stretch while the other one keeps watch. It was Krishna’s duty to keep awake and be on the look out from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. Satyaki was to be vigilant from 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Balarama was to start his part of the duty at 1:00 a.m. and keep on till 4:00 a.m. Satyaki sat up at ten and Balarama and Krishna laid themselves on beds of dried leaves and slept soundly. Meanwhile a demon did actually present himself before the little Satyaki. He fell upon the boy, who resisted heroically, dealing and receiving hammer strokes with fists with a good deal of clawing and biting in between. The demon had to retreat at last, leaving Satyaki badly mauled, but happy. The two brothers were sound asleep. They had not been disturbed in the least by noise of the encounter. Satyaki had met blow with blow, and dealt injury for injury. At 1:00, he awakened Balarama and stretched his body on the heap of leaves, as if nothing had happened. The demon invited Balarama, too, for combat and had to retreat humiliated, because Balarama too was as fierce as he, and his blows were even more terrible than Satyaki’s. Balarama too curled himself into the bed at 4:00 a.m. after awakening Krishna Who was to keep watch in Brahmamuhurta, the auspicious hour when Gods are to be propitiated, that is, until dawn. The demon came roaring like a wounded tiger, and advanced furiously at the little Divine Boy. Krishna turned His sweet charming face at him, and rewarded him with a lovely smile. That smile disarmed the demon. The longer he came under its influence, the weaker became his vengeance and venom. At last, the demon became as docile as a lamb. When the other two awoke, they were surprised at the victory that Krishna had won by the weapon of Love. You cannot destroy anger by anger, cruelty by cruelty, hatred by hatred. Anger can be subdued only by forbearance. Cruelty can be overcome only by non-violence. Hatred yields only to charity and compassion.

Sai Spiritual Showers - Issue 4/19

That evening Baba presented Himself much earlier than usual, at a quarter to four. No sooner had He finished His stroll among the two or three thousand people gathered and started back toward the temple than a heavy rain began to fall. People began scurrying for cover, and Elsie Cowan was knocked to the ground. "I feared being trampled," she said later. "Then in the blurred confusion of that moment I looked up and saw a flash of orange and there was Baba smiling peacefully and being all protective. He helped me up and brought me to shelter and I was thrilled with this sense of protection.”

Baba invited Helen Vreeland—a devotee from Santa Barbara, California—along with Elsie and I in for an interview. There was one other person present, an English speaking woman in her late forties who appeared to be from the Middle East. Obviously in quite a bit of distress, she told Baba that she had two children and pleaded with Him for help. She felt unloved and unhappy and worried about the care of the children because of a serious physical illness she had. "I know, I know," Baba said sympathetically. "Feeling unloved is not unusual, it's general now in this world—one must be strong.”

He spoke about the importance of character, perseverance and faith. "Emotions come and go: pain is the place between two pleasures, pleasure is the place between two pains—transient, always changing. These come and go like waves in the ocean, like a breeze, and one shouldn't pay much attention to them. Remember, you are the Unchanging, Infinite, Immortal." Everybody is saying, "I want peace"; He continued… Peace is like a letter in an envelope. The 'I' of 'I want peace' is the front part of the envelope and the `want' is the back. The `peace' itself is the letter inside. Throw away the envelope of 'I' and `want' and keep the precious letter of Peace.” He mentioned a number of familiar saying which took on new and deeper meaning. Gesturing expansively from His heart He seemed too full of the bliss He naturally and spontaneously radiated to us. "Most routes to God are circuitous," He sai d; "like Japa (recitation of the name of God with the aid of a Japamala, similar to use of the rosary) meditation and bhajans. But the direct path is Love. "Start the day With Love, spend the day With Love, end the day With Love: That's the way to God, that is the quickest path.” As He said this, He gestured to the suffering woman and to all of us as if He were in the heavens soaring in space.

"But, Baba, I am ill. I hurt." was her response.

He nodded softly and gently. "I know: your left side, it cramps; there are glands there."

She was surprised. "Yes, Baba, glands. Yes, it is cramping hard.”

"I know, I know,” He repeated in His soothing voice. "You don't sleep well at night, worrying this way and that. Your insides are in turmoil; sometimes you pass blood."

"That is right. Baba, that is right.” She began to calm and soften with this experience of Baba's omnipresence and omniscience.

"Yes, these eyes are x rays," He said, smiling. He continued to describe her condition, mentioning specific symptoms which she acknowledged. She kept pleading asking anxiously whether she would recover. "Surely, you will be all right." He answered emphatically. "Don't worry about the body. You are the I that is behind the body, you are Eternal."

"But my children, Baba, my health," she persisted. He produced the curative Vibhuti for her and told her to take a little in water at bedtime for three or four nights and she would sleep soundly; her side would start getting better and she would be well again.

It was during this interview that I began to see Baba less in the role of controlling great forces and being able to change history from afar, but more simply, as a manifestation of Pure Love. One might speculate that Baba's purpose in America is to usher in a spiritual awakening in the West, or to help the chaotic political, social, or economic conditions, or perhaps to do something about the tinder box in the Middle East, or as part of some great design; but when we ask Baba, He smiles sweetly and says, "I am only proposing to do this for Elsie and Walter and to bring happiness."

Baba produced some more Vibhuti for us, and Helen looked filled to the brim with love for Him. "You have given me everything, Baba," She said. Hesitantly she asked Baba if she could lay her head on His Feet. He consented and stood up. Helen knelt, her face filled with a soft radiant glow, a mist of loving tears in her eyes and slowly and gently pressed her cheek to Baba's Feet. She rested there a moment… her eyes closed, floating in a state of peace from this contact with the Divine. Baba stood quietly, smiling, recognizing the genuineness of Helen's feeling and pleased to grant this heart felt request. The moment was touching, full of devotion and love.

Elsie gave Baba letters from American devotees and showed Him enlarged photographs of the Christ on the cross which He had manifested for Jack Hislop. Talking business, she asked Baba if she could sell the picture and how much she should charge. He smiled. "No, no, I Am not interested in the money; don't talk about money with Me. Do your duty—it is your business...money comes and goes, morality comes and grows." Again, such sayings take on a deeper meaning in Baba's presence. It is apparent that He really means it when He says that He is not interested in money and does not want to talk about it, that it is a source of a great deal of conflict from which He intends to stay entirely free. At the same time, He understands and accepts its significance in the lives of His devotees. Suddenly He referred to the late Walter Cowan, who is ever with Him, as He has declared.

"Walter and I paid you a visit this morning," he said to Elsie.

"Yes, yes, at six o'clock. I felt so filled."

"No...five minutes to six," He corrected her, smiling lovingly, looking again as if He were floating in heaven. Here is an older woman weakened physically, having difficulty seeing and moving about, yet driven with devotion and love—always moving towards Baba. And, she had a vision of Walter and Baba at 6 in the morning. No wonder. She also urged us on, further and faster towards God come as Sai Baba.

Baba helped her up. I recalled a friend telling me before I had met Baba: "He is capable of filling your cup until you simply cannot hold more, and He still continues to give.”

The woman with the illness rose to thank Baba. He smiled lovingly at her and began to stir the air with that marvellously acquisitive hand of His. Soon, there it was: a magnificent ring. This was the final touch. She fell into a swoon at Baba's feet, crying "Thank You, thank You." Her change from the agonizing fear at the beginning of the interview to this intense radiance of devotion and love was so overwhelming that my own heart seemed a reservoir of vicarious and personal joy, and I struggled to keep its gates from bursting. Never had I felt this exquisite experience so deeply. Baba showed me in an instant what years of psychiatry could not: the means for igniting this love. Such deep love is born out of the devotional yearning for the journey to The Divine.

Sai Spiritual Showers - Issue 4/18

I must confess that, with the logic I know and the training I have, I cannot accept that Baba is like you and me and that, He can transcend the laws of physics and chemistry. I have therefore to declare that He is a Phenomenon that, He is Transcendental, that He is Divine. This is the only way I can get out of the dilemma. One evening, in a remote village, some one came to me at a public meeting which Baba was addressing, and asked me to speak a few words about Him. I was bewildered; I had seen many wonders and I was still asking questions and searching for answer! Still, I did go on the stage. I remember saying what Baba reminded me of the Bhagavatha incident, when the mother of Krishna (who knew very well that He was an Incarnation of God and had experienced many leelas and mahimas) asked herself, "Is all this a dream or the deluding strategy of God, or is this the very nature of Divinity?" I quoted the relevant verse from the Bhagavatha of Pothana (in Telugu). I continued, "If the great Mother who gave birth to Lord Krishna is in such desperation, you judge the confusion I am floundering in!" Today, I have resolved that confusion. I do not ask silly questions. I do not try to find out what law He is breaking and how. When a scientist finds that something happens which cannot be explained or grasped by the laws known already, he just accepts that something that is a not yet known phenomenon. This is how science has grown. So, since what I have seen (and what I am seeing and what shall see hereafter) do not come under any of the known laws of science, I simply enunciate the law that Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba transcends the laws of science and that becomes a law of science. The scientists put up a lot of show when they are in their laboratories; they talk only reason, they declare they have discovered this new fact, this new law etc. But, every time we have added a little to what we know already, we have also become alive to many other facts which we do not know anything about! While man is adding to his knowledge, he is also adding to his ignorance. The rate at which man is adding to his knowledge is slower than the rate at which he is adding to his ignorance. What is the net result? As time goes on and on, what we know is becoming a smaller and smaller fraction of what exists around and inside us. But, acquiring knowledge is not an end in itself. It is only a pathway to wisdom. And, wisdom - the experience of reality - can be ours, if we sit at the Feet of Baba. I am one of those who believe that whatever we can borrow from the rest of the world, the advanced nations, we should borrow. You can borrow money, you can borrow food, you can borrow technological know-how, you can borrow experts - but, you cannot borrow character. We cannot borrow what is proclaimed in our scriptures and traditions as the very core of character, belief in the Supreme Being that guides us and guards us from within us. In fact, as Bhagawan has told us, every one of us is God Himself. We can realise in ourselves the highest realisation, the realisation of Reality. This is what gives meaning to life for every one of us.

Ganesh Chaturthi 2013

 Our centre conducted a blissful evening bhajan for Ganesh Chaturthi on 9 September 2013, at 8.00pm.  We began with Ganapathi Atharvashirsham, followed by Ganesh bhajans, and Ganesh Gayatri, Gayatri Mantra and Sai Gayatri Mantra.