Shri Sai Satcharitra - Chapter 8 - IV

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Sai Ram. Hemadpant rightly writes: If we condemn the human body and don't take care of it, it falls into decay and we don't reach the goal. And if we fondle it (because of the sense of beauty and the desire for enjoying that beauty) we go to hell, i.e. we go deeper in to the spiritual darkness of selfishness, self here meaning the individual ego. And the lower, baser nature, which is pleasure seeking, without the higher faculty of discrimination, without the sense of right or wrong.

Between these two errors, the first error is less severe. Sooner or later, we realize that we need the body to live and so will be forced to take adequate care of it. The second error is more dangerous and more difficult to overcome. Especially the desire for enjoyment of beauty in others. Kama. Desire for possessions. This is the ultimate bondage and can only be overcome by Guru Kripa. In a later Chapter, one of Sai's close intimate devotee, Shri Bapusaheb Jog asks Him, when he will get liberated. Sai's reply to Bapusaheb Jog is truly applicable to all of us. Sai Ram.

It is said that though God created various sorts of creatures he was not satisfied, for none of them was able to know and appreciate His work. So he had to create a special being - Man, and endow him with a special faculty, viz. Knowledge and when He saw that man was able to appreciate His Leela - marvelous work and intelligence. He was highly pleased and satisfied. (Vide, Bhagawat 11-9-28). So really it is good luck to get a human body, better luck to get birth in a Brahmin family, and best one, to get an opportunity of having recourse to Sai Baba's Feet and surrendering to Him.

Sai Ram. This is an echo of what was written in Viveka Chudamani, which is attributed to Sri Adi Shankara. By the way Viveka, means discrimination. And Viveka Chudamani means the Crest Jewel of Discrimination; discrimination of what is Real and what is Unreal. The Reality is that there is only One Supreme Self. The physical bodies, the variety of objects in this world, which appear to be real, are but images projected on a screen by the Self.

When the author (Shri Hemadpant) wrote that it is better luck to get birth in a Brahmin family, he had a deeper meaning to convey. He was not referring to the caste by birth, but to the way a person conducts himself. He who has interest in Brahma Jnan is a Brahmin. That is who is interested in spiritual knowledge, that helps one get rid of this birth-death cycle. The same result is assured in the Phala Shruti of Sri Vishnu Sahasranama Stotra.

Surrendering to Sai Baba's feet that is dissolving the ego into the supreme Self is the best means of realizing Brahma, which is one's true Self. Just as water drop realizes its identity with the ocean when it falls into it and just as a salt doll realizes its oneness with the salt of the ocean when it merges with the ocean. Sai Ram.