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 DUSSEHRA MESSAGE OF SHRI C.B. SATPATHY
When Shri Sai Baba of
Shirdi was in His human embodiment at Shirdi, thousands of
people of different regions, religions, languages and categories
used to visit Him. The young and the old, married and unmarried,
worldly people and spiritual seekers and many others representing
the cross-section of society used to approach the Master,
to get his help and blessings to satisfy their material needs
and spiritual aspirations. In Shri Sai Satcharitra, one finds
mention about these characters although there were many more
about whom there is no record.
Sadgurus like Shri Shirdi
Sai Baba, operate simultaneously at two levels of consciousness.
Some of their activities are manifested and some are non-manifested
in nature. Some examples of the manifested activities are:
feeding the poor and the devotees, curing their physical and
mental diseases, rendering temporal assistance in all their
material needs and religious pursuits etc. The manner in which
He gave relief was sometimes miraculous. Hundreds of families
of Shirdi and outside used to depend on Him for relief and
sustenance in their worldly existence. Sai Baba never refused
to help any one who came to Him. He laboured day in and day
out to solve the complex problems of His devotees. Once He
told a devotee that He (Baba) could not sleep during the previous
night thinking about that devotee. “What would happen to my
people, if I constantly do not keep an eye on them” He used
to say. This was the role of a Provider and Protector.
However, the other role
of Shri Sai was subtle and secret in nature, which created
a permanent value in the lives of the people that approached
Him. Shri Shirdi Sai Baba was a Perfect Master or a Sadguru.
Being a Sadguru His divine charter of duties was to train
the devotees with a view to evolve their mental and emotional
qualities and ultimately to lead them towards emancipation.
Such a process of evolution, when left to the disciple himself,
is very slow and may take a number of lives to achieve. As
ordained by the law of nature, every human being evolves during
each life cycle while on the earth plane by experiencing an
un-calculable number of events generating pleasure or pain.
Without, the help of a Master or Sadguru who has traveled
along and experienced the path of spiritual evolution, the
seeker goes through a process of trials and errors and in
the process his evolution slows down. However, if one accepts
a Sadguru as his mentor, and strictly abides by His advice,
his evolution becomes easier and faster. The Sadguru with
His divine powers and qualities has immense capabilities to
hasten the process of evolution of all beings that come in
contact with Him. Therefore, He is called a Samarth (capable
of giving God realisation) Sadguru. However, notwithstanding
the ceaseless effort of the Masters all devotees do not progress
spiritually at an equal pace. The pace of evolution of a devotee
depends on a few Prime factors, like, acceptance of the Master-both
intellectually and emotionally, as the sole guide and Protector
in spiritual journey, complete faith in and adherence to the
advice and commands of the Master and finally a lot of perseverance
under all trying circumstances and over long periods of time
to follow the Master's prescriptions in its true spirit.
Usually Masters like
Baba do not force disciples to follow their advice. They suggest
the prescriptions directly (through words, actions and direct
experiences etc.) and/or indirectly (through dreams, anecdotes,
hints and mediums etc.) to each disciple or some times to
a group of disciples. Baba at times used to speak cryptic
or broken sentences or utter a certain un-intelligible language.
The devotees could understand its meaning only after a protracted
mental deliberation over the issue. Baba could have given
a direct solution but His method was to lead the devotee through
a self-finding mental process. Many a times He would enquire
from some devotees as to what they were talking about when
they were together. He would then advise them on how to handle
the compulsive negative thoughts of mind and to inculcate
a habit of generating positive thoughts. The omniscient Sadguru
used to keep a watch on the negative and positive thoughts
of His disciples and there are hundreds of such examples.
Baba used to create thought waves in the minds of devotees
by His subtle powers thereby leading them to find a solution
to their own problems. To many, He used to give direction
in dreams as well. He used to render such help with a view
to create a clearer and purer state of mind in the devotees,
which is essentially required to tread along the path of spiritual
evolution as per His (the Masters) scheme. The Sadgurus do
not wish to keep Their disciples dependent on Them for all
times to come with a view to get their service. What they
desire is to evolve the disciples to the state of perfect
human beings (Satpurush), with perfect noble qualities so
that they can further carry on certain subtle and difficult
tasks on this earth or elsewhere in accordance with the Divine
Plan. The Sadgurus not only give emancipation to the human-souls
under Their care but also create a few spiritual workers from
among the evolved devotees to assist Them in Their universal
and subtle activities. The basic principle They follow is
to light a number of candles from a single candle and They
expect the process to continue for all times to come.
If we analyse the different methods that Shri Sai adopted
while dealing with different devotees, one of his prescriptions
stands out prominently i.e. the qualitative evolution of mind.
In whatever He did towards the training of His devotees, the
moot idea of Baba was to evolve not only the mental qualities
but also the thought process itself. For example, when Nana
Saheb Chandorkar sitting near Baba at Dwarakamayee Masjid
was attracted by the beauty of a woman, Baba never advised
him not to look at women. What He advised was that while looking
at any beautiful woman or beautiful object, one should think
of 'beauty' as an aspect of God’s creation. He further emphasized
on the internal beauty of the soul and not on the external
beauty of the body. The lesson that Baba gave was that when
the mind is attracted to anything, it is better to attach
a higher value to the thought itself rather than to struggle
with mind to avoid the object of attraction. No one can struggle
with his own mind, as it is the most powerful force in human
beings as ordained by nature. The moment one tries to struggle
with mind in order to erase an evil thought or enforce a good
thought sheerly by one's will, it is bound to create certain
reactions and such reactions lead to further problems. This
is the most difficult task for any human being to perform,
living as he does in a complex world. Therefore, Baba used
to keep a constant watch on the thoughts arising in the minds
of His devotees and guide them promptly.
For example He asked
Kaka Saheb Dixit to stay quietly (Uge-muge) in Dixit-Wada
at Shirdi and not to mix with others. He told Dixit that he
should be wary of thieves in the Wada lest they would take
away everything, meaning thereby loss of his positive quality
of mind and peace. Similarly Upasani Baba was asked to stay
at Khandoba temple and not to meet any one. He was not even
allowed to meet Baba sitting a few hundred yards away for
a long time. By separating the genuine seekers from the rest
of the world, Baba wanted them to maintain a purer and positive
state of mind and not to get contaminated by the negative
thoughts of others as usually happens in social interactions.
Baba used to render advice in the same or similar line to
different devotees e. g. to keep one’s promise always, to
make adequate payment for the services received from any person,
to tolerate and not to quarrel even if provoked, to avoid
speaking ill of others, to avoid differentiating among human
beings on the grounds of material or social differentiation
etc. and finally to visualise the presence of God in every
object, every thought and every feeling.
All religious rituals
including Poojas, Aartis and Parayanas, etc. are methods of
human evolution at the first stage. Evolution of the thought
process of mind in itself is the inter-mediary stage and emancipation
of the soul through realization of God is the third and final
stage in the spiritual journey of the soul. Since the omniscient
Baba could easily read through the thoughts of all His devotees,
He could prescribe the methods of thought control and spiritual
evolution to each devotee, specific to him.
History shows that it
is the positive forces of human minds that had created mighty
civilizations and it is the negative forces of human minds
that had brought about the total destruction of their own
civilization as had happened in Rome, Egypt, Peru etc. We
see the world as our mind visualises it and our visualisation
is limited and often distorted. We see the world with a fixed
Kaleidoscope from a certain angle. If the Kaleidoscope is
rotated, then different forms and patterns of life would appear.
Since each individual sees life from a certain fixed angle,
each experiences a specific pattern, the pattern of life experienced
by him seems to be the only truth. Let alone the people with
a predominantly evil nature, even people with the best of
qualities suffer from this limitation of mental fixity. It
is seen that at times the best qualities of an individual,
become the greatest block in his evolution in certain situations.
For example, there was a kind person who used to help every
one. He had the expectation, as is usually the case with human
beings that others would be equally kind to him and reciprocate,
in his bad times. But when he was in distress every one did
not render the required help in the manner and to the extent
he had rendered to them. As a result, he started questioning
the very plinth of kindness and decided not to help others
as he used to do earlier. Now his proactive kindness turned
to reactive narrow-mindedness. His evolved quality of natural
benevolence was blocked and the evolution process of mind
slowed down. No doubt as a worldly-wise person he went a step
forward but in his spiritual evolution he had gone a step
backward. If he had the flexibility of mind to accept the
imperfection in others without passing value judgement over
the imperfect conduct of others, he would have been happier
and more evolved. The lesson to learn is that howsoever perfect
one claims to be, the universal nature (containing both so
called perfect and imperfect aspects), does not give a license
to any one condemn others, howsoever, imperfect. Therefore,
the wise ones have proclaimed that one may hate sin but not
the sinner. Baba unequivocally declared that when any one
condemned any one else, his feelings were hurt.
Some psycho-analysts
hold the view that inflexible perfectionists suffer psychological
stress the most as they find it difficult to adjust with the
imperfect traits in the character of others with whom they
interact. Such persons are sometimes, highly creative because
of their sense of perfection but nevertheless they suffer
the most due to social maladjustment. This problem of human
beings is not limited to this category alone. It is more or
less with every one to some extent. The fundamental problem
with the magnificent human being is that each person considers
himself to be the centre of the Universe – the little Universe
he has created for himself. Therefore, he desires that every
thing around him should fall in line with the requirements
of that little Universe. They are not prepared to visualise
themselves as an infinitesimally small particle in the vast
Universe with millions and millions of ever changing patterns.
These millions of little Universes juxtaposed in the social
fabric of our complex world try to clash with each other and
to pull each other apart by the gravitational force of their
atomic individualism or ego. The Sadgurus have always tried
to give simple solutions to this complex problem.
If we follow the prescriptions
of Baba, as contained in Shri Sai Satcharitra our thought
process can go through a qualitative change and we can have
a clearer picture of the world around us. It will not only
do good to us but also to others around us. Therefore, when
reading Shri Sai Satcharitra or other literature on Baba,
our thought should always be focused on this aspect of conscious
mental evolution that Baba repeatedly taught and exemplified
through his own conduct.
( CB Satpathy )
New Delhi (India)
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