Pranams to the lotus feet of Swami !
Swami , is the very personification of the Divine , Faultless , Selfless , Pure and Perennial Love . Those who have realized their association with Bhagwan , understand whatever he does , whatever he says . When a devotee reaches this state , it means, he/she is in the innermost orbit of Swami's grace and they are surrounded on all sides by Swami's presence. To the rational mind, that is malformed with self taught observations from an undeveloped society full of spiritually immature human beings ,who should make a gargantuan effort to embrace God & Divinity , one may be tormented with questions, doubts and fears about Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. A true Sathya Sai devotee is one of these poor children , who face the innocent yet ignorant questions of the Non Sathya Sai devotees about the explicit use of magic ( divine leela ) by Swami over all these years .
It is a known fact , Swami manifested rings, chains , pictures , udi , lingams and many more things in full public eye . In fact, even after Swami's passing , his photos still exhibit Udi , sandal powder , amrit , on them on random occassions, some devotees have even shared experiences where they have had lingas ,idols and rings out of nowhere in front of Swami's photo presence. To the normal eye , this might look like some random sadhu , who is aware of some tricks of illusion , who uses it to attract people to him to mint money out of them . There I said it. This is the exact judgmental comments that the Non-Sathya Sai devotees have in their minds. Even as I write this , I seek swami's grace on me , to clarify this popular criticism on Swami , so , that it can be laid to rest once and for all .
Yes, there are people on the internet , who have demonstrated materializing things out of thin air, getting objects out of their mouth and trying to defame the Pure Love of Bhagwan . What do they gain out of this ? We must ask a practical question here - these so called magicians who can mimic few of Swami's leelas , how many crowds have they attracted to themselves ? How often have they had repeat audience for the same trick that they show ? Yes, I may have been attracted once, seeing a man pull off illusion and I may pay a ticket to see his show . But will I go to him again , to see the same trick ? What's there for me , seeing him do these tricks ? I can see magic videos on the internet, I can see talent shows which various countries are telecasting online , I can watch a million other things apart from his trick show . But is this case with Swami ? The only answer is a profound "NO" . Ever since Swami proclaimed his reincarnation of Shiridi Sai Baba, Swami has been demonstrating his Love in various means . These miracles are just one of these channels which he opted, out of sympathy & pity on our ignorant minds. Another practical question here , If someone claims they are an agent of God, will our so-called educated or uneducated minds allow us to believe them just on their word ? Won't we want proof ? Some miracle , some prediction coming true ,some healing of disease etc ? He did all of these and much more. Swami , who is the very embodiment of the Paramathma , the ultimate source of everything we are and we are not, demonstrated in a way we can understand, we can tangibly feel and experience . We are human beings , who are bound by the 5 senses, the panchabhutas , and we can only connect with someone or something through these 5 senses . It is our inbuilt architecture to live our life harnessing these sense attributes . Swami ,had to do these things, to convince our innocent minds and hearts , that he is not just a normal human being . In fact, sincere devotees of Bhagwan will know , that Swami scolded us if we told we are just "human beings" , since he attributes the birth as a human being as one of his best creations . It is in our capacity , as a human being of 5 senses , that we can realise deeper interpretations of Love, respect, fear , discipline and care beyond animalistic boundaries . Even animals experience love, fear, respect for the herd's king and so on , but it is only as humans we actually understand the various dimensions of each emotion , each sense and it is only through this understanding that we begin to enquire how we are born , what is our purpose, what happens after death etc .
Bhagwan , took birth as a human being, to be one among us, the species that have the best chance of realizing God, the supreme and merge with him , instead of aimlessly , recklessly serving sense objects leading us nowhere. People don't just stop their criticism there, they compare him with other God's , other enlightened avatars that took birth as human beings and try drawing parallels between the avatars. One must realize that each Avatar has a purpose and they exhibit characteristics as per their command. In reality , everytime God descended on earth , every single avatar could have done every single thing , take everyone and everything in control , but being the supreme incarnate, they disciplined themself to their own purposes and ensured that was achieved in a manner they deemed appropriate. Give some room , and these innocent non-believers and rational thinkers and logic maniacs will fill it with all baseless doubts, ignorant questions with the sole aim of not accepting Swami's divinehood. Faith requires Courage. If there is no Faith , then everything appears grey , no reasoning , no logic and no connection with our earthly signs of proven theories. If Swami did these things, it was out of pure selfless love and the people who repeatedly - I Repeat - repeatedly came for his discourses for his darshan were not just for getting objects out of thin air . Yes, that was an outward show of love, but the communication between the Lord and his devotees were through 1-1 channels . His leela is so magical that, you feel and experience that he is there only for you , just to attend to your needs , but he does it simultaneously with everyone in the crowd.
Swami's avatarhood had so many purposes, so many responsibilities . Swami came for reinforcing the faithful with more faith and love, swami came for converting morally lost people into a path of justice, ethics and discipline , to convert some non-believers into thinking on the existence of God , to reinforce their existing faiths in their respective religions further , to train simple people to think like saints , and so on. Swami's leelas are so infinite in number, that If I begin to explain one aspect of his feature, I have to do justice to another and it goes on a loop. People who came often to his live discourses, people who watch his discourses on youtube and other online avenues, again and again - were they merely attracted by his use of Siddhis ? Does anyone have any idea on what or how it feels to be the recipient of Swami's overflowing grace and love ? One will stumble for words , for, all we can think of , is conveying our thanks to swami for watching over us every second , every step and every breath of our life. He teaches us lessons through our varying degrees of punishments, he teaches us humility and gratitude through experiences - the trick is simple here . If one trains to see Swami's hand in everything , then the mind will not strain itself to grasp what he does, why he does . The heart, when it is full of love and faith , that alone gains complete authority to receive every single experience as Swami's sankalpa , Swami's will .
Every SAI devotee would have faced tough periods, a loss , a failure ,but none of them are perturbed. It is because , Swami , though he is beyond time and space , gives way to Karma , to allow it to impart its unbiased effect on the doers , the good reap the good, the bad reap the karma of their bad actions, thoughts etc. In exceptional cases, Swami intercedes and either absorbs the karma on himself or dilutes the effects on his devotee , but come what may , every single second , or millisecond ,he is working for us , working with us , and all we need to do is to maintain a constant unwavering faith , chanting God's names, like Rama Krishna Narayana , Allah , Jesus , constantly think of Swami , give him an opportunity to constantly keep in him engaged with our own remembrance and only then do we become an ideal devotee- a devotee who is completely immune to gain or loss , happiness or sorrow , pleasure or pain . If a person tunes into Sai frequency , then to maintain this spiritual mental equilibrium is an effortless task , and it is just a matter of time when Swami chooses to relieve us from this Bodily attachment, from this mortal ghostly body and releives the soul trapped in this body to be quickly sucked into Swami's enormous ocean of Sat Chit Anand , or Divine Cosmic Bliss.
I urge , the devotees, to continue to obey Swami's instructions as applicable , what he has told for all of us and what he has specifically suggested for you , with single pointed faith , firm devotion and not expecting fruits of this sadhana. For the non-believers , I just request one thing . It is totally understandable , If you have not been summoned by Swami , may be you are meant to be with some other shakthi , may be you are the next batch of people to be liberated, may be you are never to be saved , whatever it is , your current grade in this Karmic cycle of life and death , if you do not feel for swami , atleast don't pass comments like how you do on actors, politicians and sportsmen , even that is wrong ,then what to say of God himself . If someone asks you about Swami , just respond saying , I don't know about him, I am not informed enough to comment on him , but what I know is his , his devotees claim he is God incarnate. This way , not only are you protecting yourself from not committing the sin of defaming Swami but also you are sharing the Truth , you are sharing what needs to be told to everyone. Let the other person decide his/her equation with Swami .
I wish to write more and more , but , I don't want to dilute the core crux of this piece ,that is to imperatively drive home the message - that Swami is not just the Miracles he did , he is beyond that , he is absolutely everything and he is the very Consciousness itself, and one must not simply judge something by the cover .
May Good spirits guide you , your mind and give you the courage to practice the Art of Faith.
Samasthalokah Sukhino Bhavanthu
