Shri Sai Satcharitra - Chapter 10 - Part I

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Sai Baba's Mode of Life - His Sleeping - board - His Stay in Shirdi - His Teachings - His Humility - The Easiest Path.

Remember Him (Sai Baba) always with love, for He was engrossed in doing good to all, and always abided in His Self. To remember Him only is to solve the riddle of life and death. This is the best and easiest of Sadhanas, as it involves no expenditure. A little exertion here brings great rewards. So as long as our senses are sound, we should, minute my minute, practice this Sadhana.

Sai Ram. Though it is described as the easiest of Sadhanas even that is beyond the reach of a person on whom the Divine Grace has not descended. To remember Him is in a way to join His Durbar. And, one cannot enter His Durbar either in body or mind without His will. Sai Ram.

All other Gods are illusory; Guru is the only God. If we believe in Sad-guru's holy feet, he can change our fortune for the better. If we serve Him nicely, we get rid of our Samsar. We need not study any philosophy like the Nyaya and the Mimansa. If we make Him our Helmsman, we can easily cross over the sea of all our pains and sorrows. As we trust the helmsman in crossing rivers and seas, so we have to trust our Sadguru in getting over the ocean of worldly existence. The Sadguru looks to the intense feeling and devotion of his devotees, endows them with knowledge and eternal bliss.

Sai Ram. The first line of the above paragraph may be a little difficult to digest at first reading. In fact, I was quite pained the first few times I read that statement. Then by His grace, the real meaning of what Shri Hemadpant wanted to convey.

Sai Ram. All other Gods are illusory - what a bold and apparently irreverent statement? Especially when Sai Himself did not allow any one to show disrespect to Gods? So what does Hemadpant mean? That all other Gods or rather, their forms are perceived by our senses, in this case our eyes. If Krishna plays divine music over His flute or Saraswati plays Veena we hear with our ears. If a divine fragrance is emanated when God makes appearance, we perceive with our sense of smell. And if God's prasad tastes wonderful, we again sense that with our tongue. And when God touches us with His divine hand, we sense the love and the affection with our sense of touch. But all these senses are illusory in the sense that they are part of the body-mind complex, which is impermanent. That this is impermanent and our true nature is that of the Atman, Satchindananda as taught by the Guru. So the Guru is real. And since God as Parabrahman is real, Guru is the only God. That is why the sloka goes as, "Gurur Brahma... Guru Sakshat Para Brahman, tasmait Sri Gurave Namah."

Nyaya, Mimansa etc. are adjuncts of Vedas. And even in Vedas, the Karma Kanda parts are considered unimportant from the consideration of a spiritual seeker. To cross the Samsara Sagar, we need a boat and we need a helmsman to steer the boat clear of all our dangers. Our body-mind can be thought of as the boat and the Guru who guides our intellect etc., as helmsman. True surrender is important in getting rid of our ego and once ego is destroyed, bliss results. Sai ram.