Sathya Sai Baba - A clear view: Part 6

[Ashok]

A Taste of His Teachings

Baba’s teachings cover many viewpoints, and seem to primarily be a resounding, world-emboldening ‘Yes!’ to all legitimate spiritual paths and the basic truths of all religions.  Most of Baba’s teachings focus on love - love for God and for all beings - as the essential core of spirituality:  “Start the day with Love.  Spend the day with Love.  Fill the day with Love.  End the day with Love.  This is the way to God!”  And this Love is to be given to everyone, always, without exception: “Love all, serve all!  Help ever, hurt never!”

Yet as I explored His teachings more deeply, I found that He is also a Master of advaithic philosophy, and a strong exponent of the jnana path (the path of Atmic wisdom).  “The main aim of human life is to acquire the knowledge of the Atman.  This is the true Purushartha [goal of life].  Human life will find fulfillment only if this goal is attained.”25  The various approaches are beautifully balanced in His discourses, with devotion and Atmic abidance given equal importance.

Baba also stresses the practice of what He calls the five primary human values, namely, Love, Truth, Peace, Righteousness, and Non-violence.  In many of His discourses He asks us to dedicate all our actions to God and live in tireless selfless service to humanity.  He also lays importance on the practice of kindness, and the use of sweet speech under all circumstances, saying, “You cannot always oblige; but you can always speak obligingly.”  Baba advocates daily meditation for all, as well as repetition of God’s Names with love, devotional singing, and the practice of seeing and serving God within everyone, laying particular emphasis on continual remembrance of the Divine Reality.  “Spirituality means constant integrated awareness.”

Interestingly, He does not encourage His non-Hindu devotees to become Hindus, but rather, to use His teachings to become the best Christians, Jews, Muslims or Buddhists they can be.  Many of the devotional songs sung at Baba’s ashrams contain the names of Allah, Jesus, Zaroaster, Mahavir, Moses, Guru Nanak and the Buddha, in addition to the Hindu Avatars.  It seems to be a clear a way of saying, ‘Hear, O world!  The Lord is One!’

“There is only one Religion, the Religion of Love.

There is only one caste, the caste of Humanity. 

There is only one language, the language of the Heart. 

There is only one God, and He is omnipresent.”

 

As an aid to the realization of His primary teaching - that we are God - He often recommends use of the mantra ‘So Ham’ (meaning “I am He”, or “I am God”).  He has also offered His devotees the following maha-affirmation:

I am God!  I am God!  I am not different from God!

I am the eternal undifferentiated Absolute!

Grief and anxiety cannot effect me.

I am always content.  Fear cannot enter me.

I am Satchidananda!  I am pure Existence, Knowledge and Bliss.

I am Omnipotent!  I am all-powerful; nothing is impossible for me!

I am Omniscient! I am all-knowing;

there is nothing which is not known to me.

I am Omnipresent!  I am present everywhere.  I pervade this universe!

I am Krishna!  I am Christ!  I am Buddha!

I am Sai!  I am Sai!  I am Sai!

I am God!  I am God!  I am God!

 
(Try saying that ten times a day, and see how fast your life changes...!)


Baba Is Also a Perfect Jnani

I’ve noticed that many seekers on the jnana path tend to misunderstand Sai Baba, and look down on Him because of His miracles, believing they mean He is merely an un-Self-Realized 'showman' capturing immature hearts with yogic tricks.  I would like to give a brief answer.  If the testimony of Anandamoyi Ma and the other Saints quoted above can be trusted, Sai Baba is a full incarnation of God, the likes of which the world hasn’t seen for thousands of years.  Jesus and Sri Krishna also worked miracles frequently, didn’t they?  Does anyone imagine that means they weren’t Self-Realized?  Simply put, working miracles is one of the fundamental aspects of the Avatar's job.  When God takes birth on Earth, He always comes with a huge mission to accomplish; Baba’s mission seems to be to lift the Earth from an age of materialism and nuclear madness into one of divine understanding and peace - and to do this, He must establish faith in God in the hearts of millions of non-believers.  Miracles are simply the most efficient way to accomplish this.  (It is surely as true in today’s world as in the days of Jesus: unless we see signs and wonders, we will not believe!)  If someone miraculously materialized a necklace before your eyes, lovingly put it around your neck, and then told you the innermost secret of your heart - would it ever again be possible for you to doubt the existence of a higher Reality?  Wouldn’t those small miracles have gone a long way to proving God’s love for you?

The advent of a Divine Incarnation such as Sai Baba might be a bit like when Alfred Hitchcock played a role in his own movies. Although Hitchcock wrote and directed the whole movie, his character on screen might be only an ice-cream salesman in the background, visible for a minute or so, and many in the audience wouldn’t even notice the character.  But those who recognized Hitchcock would say, ‘That’s not just a bit part - he’s the author and director of the whole movie!’  Similarly, there are those who look at Sai Baba and see only a ‘miracle showman.’  Look closer, my friends.  He’s written this movie, and cast you in your role! (But don’t worry - your performance is getting rave reviews:  ‘Exquisite!  As if God Himself were playing the part!’)     

In addition to His role as Incarnation of God, the Avatar is also a Self-Realized Master; in fact, this is the Avatar’s primary qualification.  He is the Paramatman, the infinite expanse of pure Awareness in which the whole realm of time and space floats like a tiny bubble - and the Avatar will always be fully aware of His identity as the Paramatman; otherwise He could not be called an Avatar!  I humbly submit that Sathya Sai Baba, miracles and all, is a perfect Jnani, and fully capable of leading a seeker on the jnana path (or any other path, for that matter) all the way to Self-Realization.


Baba and Ramana Maharshi

And speaking of Jnanis, at the moment of the death of Ramana Maharshi (one of the greatest Self-Realized Masters of the last century), and extraordinary event occurred in Baba's ashram, giving us a clue both to Baba's identity and His relationship with Ramana. A Sai devotee named Varadu reported what happened:


"...the night when Ramana Maharshi passed away in Tiruvannamalai [14th April, 1950], I was with Swamiji [Sai Baba].  Krishna [another young devotee] and myself were both there.  That evening, around 9:00, we continued whatever it was we were doing (I think we were doing a puja) when suddenly Swamiji looked up at us.  There was a peculiar way of looking He has which means that He wants to go to His room.  The moment Krishna and I went through the door into the room and closed it, Swami fell down.  I was ready for it.  Krishna and I both held hands, and Swami was lying across them.  Then [He] rose up into the air, from our arms.  He was as stiff as a board.  He started murmuring - something about 'Maharshi has reached my lotus feet.'  And then the sole of His right foot split open, and nearly two kilograms of beautiful, well-scented vibhuti poured out from the sole of His foot.  I collected the vibhuti while [He] was still levitating in the air.

Then [He] came down and returned to [His] senses and asked what [He] had said.  I said, "Swamiji, this is what You said: 'Ramana Maharshi has passed away.'  And this is what came out of Your feet."  He said: "Put it into packets and give it out as prasadam."

A day or two after this incident, we learned from the newspapers that [Ramana] Maharshi had died.  It had been at the time that Swami said Maharshi had reached [His] feet."26

 
So, at the time of his death, Ramana Maharshi merged in Baba's feet!  Is it not therefore clear that Sai Baba is a full embodiment of the Divine Self, the supreme Atmic Reality that Ramana had realized at the age of 17?

Baba’s Self-Realized Devotees

Baba is said to have many Self-Realized devotees quietly doing His work in various locations around the globe.  So far I’ve personally met four of them – and to my mind, nothing proves Baba’s perfection more clearly than His divinized devotees.  (As Jesus said, “By their fruits you shall know them."  These are very sweet mangoes!)

Gopalakrishna Baba

The first is a man named Gopala Krishna Baba, who lives in a small Sai Baba temple in Bangalore.  His parents were ardent Sai devotees, but from his early childhood Gopalakrishna was intensely drawn to the local Sri Ramakrishna Temple, where he would spend all his time absorbed in devotion and meditation, cherishing the dream of becoming a monk in the Sri Ramakrishna order.  He became so immersed in God that he almost never felt the need to sleep, and would remain awake throughout the night repeating the Divine Name.  In his mid-teens, when Gopalakrishna was alone in the house one day, vibhuti began miraculously manifesting on Sai Baba’s photos in his parents’ puja room, leaving a strong impression on the young man.  Soon afterwards He visited Baba’s ashram, and, as he tells it, “My heart instantly recognized in Sai Baba the same Divine Being who had lived as Sri Ramakrishna.”  His devotion for Baba soon became the overwhelming force in his life, and in the coming years he often visited Baba’s ashrams, and received many blessings from Him.  However, in 1990, when Gopalakrishna went to Baba’s ashram for the Birthday celebrations, due to the massive crowds he was unable to see Baba the way he wished, and therefore told Baba internally, “Next year I will celebrate Your Birthday in my own home, so please come there to receive my worship!”  Clearly the Lord was listening, for the next year on Baba’s birthday, while Gopalakrishna was performing a puja in his home, Baba suddenly appeared before him in a living form, manifested a beautiful Lingam, and gave it to Gopalakrishna, an event witnessed by others.  In those precious divine moments Baba told him, “Every Monday, perform worship to this Lingam.  I am with you always.”

And so it is.  Gopalakrishna is now established in changeless Peace, knows the thoughts of all around him, and possesses many miraculous powers.  His foremost Western disciple, a beautiful man from Holland, told me an interesting miracle story.  It seems that on one of his first trips to India, he had come down with dysentery, and when he reported to Gopalakrishna that the medicine prescribed by a doctor could not be found in the local shops, Gopalakrishna simply waved his hand and instantly manifested a strip of the required tablets.  Some people have reported that by drinking the water used in Gopalakrishna’s worship of the Lingam they have been healed of long-standing diseases; others say they have had their personal problems solved, while others say that his grace has enabled them to find the most precious gem of all, peace of mind.  It seems that Gopalakrishna Baba is a genuine wish-fulfilling tree.