The
Rain Cloud
Those
who have had the good fortune of listening to a
discourse by Baba at a public gathering will
always cherish the thrill and the inspiration of
the experience. Nothing will ever diminish the
exhilaration of that occasion. Baba speaks
generally in Telugu, though He converses with
devotees in several languages including Tamil,
Kannada, Hindi, Sindhi, and English. His
omniscience finds expression in any medium. His
diction and style are simple and direct, full of
proverbs, parables and illustrations taken from
the actual experience of the people around Him.
His words become engraved in the hearts of the
listeners.
He refuses to
name His discourses "speeches", for they are
never prepared in advance or delivered over the
heads of the people or directed to the masses.
He prefers to describe them as "conversation".
His way of probing into personal problems and
answering individual doubts make that
appellation very apt. The effect of His
discourse is always as if He is speaking only to
an individual. Within a minute or two He has
one's attention to a point that he forgets he is
one among thousands and yields himself to Baba's
diagnosis and treatment. The face that enchants,
the voice that endears, the smile that
illumines, the gesture that clarifies, all
become one's personal possessions. His advice
and His appeal are so intimate and imbued with
love that one's entire self is surrendered to
Him by the time He finishes. He is not just an
orator, or evangelist, or a teacher. He is the
Rain Cloud come to nourish parched
lives.
Baba declared
when a boy that He would undertake His task of
teaching in His thirty-second year. Until that
age He discoursed only occasionally, either at
Prasanthi
Nilayam
or on the sands of the Chitravatri River when
devotees gathered around Him and sought His
Guidance. At times he spoke at the Sathya
Sai Baba District Board High School at
Bukkapatnam where He presided over functions
such as the "School Day". At the Nilayam or on
the sands, the discourse usually commenced with
a question posed by a devotee on a general
problem affecting social conduct or spiritual
endeavor. Baba would shed light not only on the
main question but also on all related topics. A
chance question on life after death once brought
forth from Baba a very illuminating discourse on
the journey of the disembodied soul, the inner
significance of the funeral rites of the
different communities, the existence of ghosts,
the chances of communicating with the dead, and
even the custom of naming the grandchild after
the grandfather. Such discussions arise
informally on almost every occasion. Baba is
ever willing to impart the courage born of
conviction. He is the superb
educator.
Once a few
devotees had the opportunity to be with Baba at
Horsley Hills for a week. Every morning and
evening Baba sat with the devotees and
introduced new problems of spiritual discipline.
He asked everyone to reveal to Him his spiritual
practice, ideals and ideas, the name and form of
the Godhead which appealed to him, the spiritual
text having the greatest influence in shaping
his life, the picture each had formed of the
Ultimate Reality, and the goal of each one's
spiritual discipline. He poured light on the
dark corners of each heart. This He has been
doing, even as a child. Was He not named the
"Little Master" by His grandfather, Kondama
Raju? The old man would swell with pride and joy
when he sat listening to a discourse given by
Baba a few days before his passing in
1950.
At school He
dissuaded His playmates from smoking cigarettes;
He evinced disgust at spiced, rich, and stale
food. He warned His friends to stay away from
cinemas. He encouraged them all to sing songs in
praise of God, to wear the Holy Ash and observe
habits of personal cleanliness.
At
Kamalapuram, as a schoolboy, He composed songs
warning against the evil of drink, the dangerous
consequences of illiteracy, on the abject
condition of the untouchables, and on the
degradation of village factions. He wrote a
social play named the "Changed Times", which
contained many folk tunes depicting the tricks
used to catch peoples' attention by seekers of
power. It further depicts the piteous plight of
a great poet and seer whose warnings go
unheeded. He is neglected by everyone, except a
poor peasant; his children become destitute. Men
of straw take vengeance upon the children for
the words of wisdom their father dared utter.
Times change. The children win power and
re-establish the Golden Age when the immortal
words of the poet are sung again and put into
practice.
Baba was
entreated by actors in village plays to write
dialogues for their roles. Whenever He acted a
role, He composed the songs and speeches for
Himself. Invariably these compositions breathed
a high moral note and stood out above the rest
of the drama, attracting attention by their
superior style, diction, and
appeal.
The role of
the teacher is fundamental to Sai Baba. "I never
utter a word that does not have significance, or
do a deed without beneficial consequence", He
once declared. Even the most casual remark is
filled with valuable advice. Addressing a lady
who was struggling to keep her child quiet, He
said, "See! Sitting astride your hip, the child
cries, 'Mother, Mother', not realizing that he
is being held in her clasp by Mother herself.
This is what everyone here is doing. They do not
know that the Lord is the Mother who clasps
them; they simply cry, 'Mother, Mother'
".
Once seeing
the item "Welcome Speech" in the program of a
meeting, Baba said, "I am in you and so you need
not welcome Me. I shall not come because you
call, or go because you deny". He is always and
everywhere the teacher, the friend, philosopher
and guide. He slowly and steadily moulds the
character and outlook of everyone who offers
himself for His guidance or of those He selects
for such training.
When, at
Prasanthi
Nilayam
or elsewhere, someone is reciting or explaining
a text such as the Gita, the Ramayana,
the Bhagavatha
or Upanishad,
He watches the audience for a while, and taking
His cue from a word or phrase, explains to the
delight of the learned and the unlearned alike,
the obscurity which worries them. In this way He
has unraveled many mysteries of the sacred
scriptures.
In the
discourses Baba gives at
Prasanthi
Nilayam,
He often expounds highly philosophical subjects.
He once cautioned, "You are all no longer
'young'; you must go from the lower class to the
next higher one". By means of stories and
parables, proverbs and metaphors, He simplifies
the most complex philosophical theory. One day
He spoke on the topic of the inspiring company
of the good and described how it can lead man on
to the disinclination to be in company, that is
to say, how the companionship of the good leads
one to the giving up of attachment itself. Baba
made these observations on a Festival Night of
Siva: "Mind is presided over by the moon, and
every month the moon is almost worn out on the
fourteenth night after the full moon. One's
ambition should be to destroy the mind's whims,
fancies and vagaries and to strive his utmost on
that night to increase his discipline to achieve
victory of the forces of goodness, of the pure
Self over the downward impulses. That night has
to be dedicated to God".
The summer
solstice begins the divine half-year when the
sun, which presides over illumined mind of man,
is proceeding on the northward divine path.
"Swim with the current", Baba says. "The sun
itself is journeying northward toward
Kailasa,
the lofty mountain peak of Self-realization, the
Paradise
of Siva.
This is the best time for spiritual initiation
and practice."
On the special
"Day for Honoring the Teacher," Baba reminds
devotees and aspirants to revere the teachers
and the wisdom they embody. He describes the
essential characteristics of teachers and
explains the criteria by which they can
distinguish the true from the false. Every
discourse of Baba has a novelty of its own, a
thrill, a joy which is its unique
mark!
Baba says that
in His discourses He serves "medicinal food",
not "festival food". Therefore He appeals to the
listeners not to miss a fragment of the meal or
carelessly throw away even a morsel of a word.
He is the "Great Physician" come to heal. No two
discourses are the same in tone or content. He
says, "Mine is not a lecture; it is a mixture!"
He has no one prescription for
all!
Speaking to
high school students at Chittoor, He gave
detailed instructions regarding preparation for
examinations and the systematic way in which
they have to be tackled in the hall. "Mark all
the questions which you feel you can
successfully answer; answer them; then tackle
the rest; you will then be in a better and a
more confident mood," He said. He discussed
problems of the classroom and the football field
with an intimacy that was very
remarkable.
Sai
at Chitravatri with kids
Presiding over
the Prize-giving Ceremony of the District Sports
at Penukonda, He spoke on the emphasis wrongly
placed on competition and on winning, pitting
school against school, boy against boy. He then
pointed out that the spirit in which victory or
defeat is taken is much more important than the
actual result of the event.
At Madakasira,
on a similar occasion, He punned upon the word
Bahumati, meaning both "prize" and
"many-mindedness," and declared, "I always
distribute single-mindedness, never Bahumati or
many-mindedness"! He then asked the winners to
thank the losers, for if the losers had put
forth a little more effort, they might have won
and deprived the others of carrying away the
prizes!
Inaugurating
the Girls' High School at Venkatagiri, He
expounded the good habits that students should
develop: "Be ever careful about your books, for
your parents have sacrificed much to get them
for you. Do not quarrel with your brothers and
sisters and thus make the home a nest of
discontent. Do not envy classmates who are
richer. Be content. Do not show off. Speak the
truth always, for falsehood is the result of
cowardice. Get up early in the morning at five,
and after bathing, sit alone quietly and
meditate on the Lord. Go to sleep at nine in the
evening, and before lying down, pray to the
Lord. Tell Him to accept all that you have done
during the day, because it has been done
truthfully and dutifully, and ask Him to give
you strength to serve Him and His children, your
brothers and sisters. In the morning thank Him
for the day dawning before you, and ask that it
may be given to you to spend usefully for
yourself and for others."
Addressing the
villagers of Mirthipadu, Baba spoke on topics
within their knowledge: "By the sweat of your
brow, you transform dirt and dust into
nourishing, relishing food for man and beast.
What a holy task you perform daily! I am very
happy to be in your midst today. You bear
innumerable troubles and toils and place firm
reliance on your own selves. You move about
these green fields, wafted by the cool breeze
beneath the blue sky. How nice it would be if,
when you walk along the edges of these fields,
you sing the glory of the Lord who is immanent
in all this beauty, all this plenty, and all
this grandeur! Do not contaminate the atmosphere
by words of anger against one another; purify it
by repeating the name of the
Lord".
So, too, at
Budili village, on the banks of the Chitravatri,
He spoke of the sweetness and purity of the
peasant's life and of the village being the
foundation of the culture of the country. He
also spoke of the need of gratitude for benefits
received, the dangers of faction, and the value
of traditional religious-like singing and temple
worship. He said He had noticed that someone had
dumped a broken cart on the temple porch, an act
demonstrating disregard for the sacred
precincts. He exhorted the young men of the
village to serve it with all their intelligence
and devotion.
If it is a
function connected with a hospital, Baba has
valuable advice for the organizers as well as
the gathering. At the Sathya Sai Hospital, He
once deplored that the doctors should, in their
report, write about the "progress" achieved when
actually the number of inpatients and
outpatients had increased. He said that He would
be happy only when there was full health for
everyone. This could be achieved - mostly by the
gaining of peace. "Worry, greed, needless
agitation, and anxiety - these cause even bodily
disease. Disease is want of ease; the contented
mind is the best drug. The body must be well
looked after, since it is the boat which helps
us to cross the sea of experiences. So it should
not be weakened either by habits which sap the
strength or by overdoing of disciplines such as
fasting. Learning Yogic
practices from books and practicing them with
the aid of leaflets and charts is also a fertile
source of illness, both physical and mental. Be
good, be joyful, be bold, be honest, be
temperate, be patient. These are all rules of
health. Good character is the most valuable
source of health." Such is His practical
advice.
In many places
the devotees conduct regular prayers on the
pattern of the prayers at Prasanthi
Nilayam.
Once a year on a selected day, they carry on the
sessions for twenty- four hours without
interruption. At the conclusion of one such
entire period of singing of holy songs at
Bangalore, Baba gave a discourse in which He
pointed out that one's life must itself become
an unbroken session of devotion to God. For
devotees of Sathya Sai Baba the practice of the
constant presence of the Lord is comparatively
easy, for by experience they know that Baba is
ever behind them, beside them, with them, and in
them. Baba accosts all of them with questions
concerning aspects of their behavior or
thinking, which they considered most secret and
known only to themselves. Once when a student
from Rajahmundry told Him that he had prepared
single-mindedly for the examination, giving up
all other activities, Baba turned to him,
asking, "What? Did you not go one night to a
dinner at the hostel and come home very late?
Did you not go another day with some relatives
who had come from your village to the bazaar to
purchase some clothes for
them?"
At a Bangalore
prayer session, Baba said that one should try to
discover why, in spite of the multiplicity of
societies organizing prayer gatherings and
religious discourses, there is no corresponding
increase in the moral standard of the people.
"Singing prayers has become a ritual, a routine,
a rigmarole. What is spoken by the tongue is not
put into practice," He
admonished.
By faith Baba
does not mean blind faith. He insists on inquiry
as an essential requisite for spiritual
progress. "Follow the discipline and test
yourself," He says. "Come and stay at
Prasanthi
Nilayam;
move with Me and experience My company and
conversation. Listen to Me and watch Me and then
form your conclusions; get in and know the
depth; eat and know the taste. Discipline and
spiritual practice are necessary to know God,
patient sincere discipline. If the spark of
faith must grow into a raging fire, build
carefully. Take refuge occasionally in the
depths of your own mind, in silence, and
loneliness." This is He
advices.
At Trivandrum
Baba posed a question: "How is it that, in spite
of advance in education and literacy in this
State, the enthusiasm shown by parents, teachers
and children in imparting and acquiring learning
gives people no peace of mind?" He then spoke of
the mind as having the double nature of wind,
the wind that gathers the rain clouds and also
scatters them. He explained the means and
methods of controlling vagaries of the mind. He
said, " I refuse to call anyone an atheist or an
unbeliever, for all are the creations of the
Lord and repositories of His Grace. In
everyone's heart there is a spring of love, a
rock of truth. That Love is God; that Truth is
God. Divinity is there in the depths of
everyone's Inner Being. By systematic and
continuous boring, the uninterrupted dig, dig,
dig, of Ram,
Ram, Ram
- God, God, God - the name repeated with every
breath - the spring can be touched and the
waters of Divinity can be made to gush forth to
the joy and satisfaction of
all."
At Nuzvid Baba
emphasized the religious factions and
partisanship rampant in India. He said that the
Lord is above and beyond all limits of caste and
color, wealth and poverty; that it is foolish to
believe that the Lord asks for gifts or is angry
when they are not offered. He warned His
listeners against religious leaders who go about
with lists of donors and subscribers, teachers
who have an eye on one's purse and money, who
keep the vow of silence by resorting to all
other means of communication except the easy,
natural and convenient way of talking! At
Arkonam village, when the Secretary of the
Divine Life Society read in his report that
those who paid an annual fee of four annas could
become members, Baba said that He would allow
anyone who had, not four annas, but four
virtues, to become members of the Society of
Divine Life!
At Madras,
while speaking to the members of the Young Men's
Indian Association, He pleaded with the elders
present to become for the young men of today,
better examples of integrity, efficiency, and
selfless service. "Prominent personages claiming
to be great, declaim about freely quoting the
similes and metaphors in the sacred scriptures.
But by their conduct, their conceit, and their
conflicts, they only diminish the luster of
those treasures. There is no coordination
between the speaker, the subject, and the
subsequent conduct," He said. At the Gokhale
Hall, He said that man must seek the answers to
four fundamental questions: "Who am I? Where
have I come from? Whither am I going? How long
will I stay?" He said that the ancient Indian
scriptural texts are devoted to the discovery of
the answers to these queries. He showed how the
answers can be realized through Science, but He
said that the Lord's Grace, if won through
constant contemplation and introspection, will
reveal the answers to the aspirant in an
instant.
Analyzing the
causes of the present crisis in the moral life
of the community, He pointed out that cynicism
and the urge to satirize are two main diseases
of the age, and these lead to irreverence and
the spread of disbelief. A life lived in the
constant presence of God is the most secure and
happy, for the shafts of social criticism will
not penetrate it and cause it pain. Religion and
belief in God are being challenged now from all
quarters. It is therefore the duty of all good
men to meet this challenge by demonstrating to
the critics how their lives have been made
sweeter by religion; how the realization of the
constant presence of the Lord has made them more
efficient, more earnest, and more courageous for
the task of living.
At the
All-India Sai Samaj, He declared, "You take up
the dictionary to find out the meaning of a
certain word, but as you turn the pages in order
to spot it, other words attract your attention
and you are drawn toward them and their
meanings. So, too, you might come to Me with an
immediate purpose, but while doing so, you come
to know that you can use Me to solve deeper
dilemmas, assuage more poignant pains, and
secure greater spiritual peace." Baba uses every
opportunity to bring home to His listeners that
their effort, their discrimination, their
sacrifice, their steadiness alone can give them
what they need, namely, poise.
At the Santi
Kuteeram, Royapuram, He spoke once on
Srî
Krishna
and another time on the Bhagavad
Gita.
He gave a number of incidents from the life of
Srî
Krishna
which are not found in the books and made His
discourse most instructive and illuminating. He
formed a pun on the word
Gita,
which, when the syllables are read from the
other end, becomes a Telugu word meaning
"drink!" He said that unless the nectar of the
Gita
is drunk and assimilated, one cannot get any
result. Mere panditry or pompous scholarship on
the Gita
and its thousand commentaries is all a waste of
precious time.
He once told
an audience at Puttaparthi, that there are two
paths; one relating to the physical world, the
social world and the community to which one
belongs, and the other relating to one's self
alone, the Soul, and the disciplines connected
with its fulfillment. Man must grasp God with
the right hand and the world with the left.
Gradually the left will lose its hold. "Do not
worry about this; it has to be so; that is why
it is called 'left!' But the right hand must not
be allowed to loosen its grip, for it is right
that it should grip tightly; that is why it is
called 'right' !" Statements of Baba such as
these remain in the memory, and listeners will
long ponder them, deriving sustenance and
joy.
At
Venkatagiri, inaugurating the spiritual seminar,
He declared that the bane of the Indian has been
the absence of cordiality and brotherliness. At
Nellore, addressing an audience of fifty
thousand, He enthralled the listeners for over
an hour. He spoke of discrimination and the need
for faith based on inquiry and reason. At Gudur,
speaking of the magic influence of love, He
declared, "You will not be wrong if you
characterize Me as the Personification of
Love."
At Peddapuram
He exhorted everyone to have muscles of iron and
nerves of steel to become heroes with no trace
of weakness, cowardice, or sense of inferiority.
"Do not call yourselves the children of sin;
there is no sin worse than that you are
inheritors of immortality, every one of you; you
have the Lord residing in your hearts. He is the
Inner Motivation of everything in creation. How
then can you be a child of sin?" He
asked.
Often during
His discourses, Baba illustrates His teachings
by stories of miracles of superhuman faculties.
He relates events and incidents not found in the
current books on sages and saints but which have
the hallmark of authenticity. He knows the
details of the lives of all the saints of India
and even of Western and Middle Eastern
countries, and illustrates incidents from the
lives of Christian, Muslim, and Parsi saints.
Hasan and Husain, Moses, Jerome, and Paul are
for Him as useful as the Indian saints Tyagaraja
or Pavharibaba to emphasize His points. Baba is,
has been, and will be; He is the Eternal
Witness.
Indeed He
reveals this aspect of His Reality very often in
His discourses in more or less direct
declaration. As flashes of lightning, they bring
to one's consciousness, suddenly and with a
thrill, the splendor of His personality. He
instructs, "Do not try to measure Me; you will
only fail; try rather to discover your own
measure. Then you will better succeed in
discovering My measure. I engage in no
asceticism; I do not meditate on anything at
all; I do not study; I am no aspirant, seeker,
student, or even sage. I have come to guide and
bless all spiritual disciples. I am neither man
nor woman, old nor young; I am all these. Do not
praise Me. I like you to approach Me without
fear, as a right; you do not extol your father,
do you? You ask for something from him as a
right, do you not? I did not come uninvited to
this world; good men of all creeds and climes
called out and entreated; so I have come. You
may be seeing Me today for the first time, but
you are all old acquaintances for Me; I know you
through and through. I have no characteristics;
I am not bound by the law of cause and effect.
How then can illusion affect Me? If I had come
down with Weapon, Wheel, Mace or Lotus, the
traditional symbols of a beneficent God, you
would have run away or put me into an
exhibition. If I were just like any one of you,
you would not have cared at all. That is why I
have to take up this human form and show you now
and then these miracles and superhuman
faculties. My task is the spiritual regeneration
of humanity through truth and love. I have come
to show you how to live usefully and die
profitably! If you approach one step nearer to
Me, I shall advance three steps toward you. I am
happiest when a person carrying a heavy load of
misery comes to Me, for he is most in need of
what I have. All are Mine, in the relationship.
So those who worship Me are not nearer to Me
than others who do not." These are some of the
illuminating flashes Baba has presented in His
discourses. "It is My Will that has brought
every single one of you to this place to listen
to Me," He once said. That is the measure of His
Grace and Might!
These
proclamations heighten the innate value and
appeal of the message Baba brings. He embraces
everyone in his overwhelming love, and when He
announces to a gathering - "I do not discard
anyone, I cannot; it is not My Nature to do so;
have no fear; I am yours, you are Mine"- an
other-worldly intimacy is immediately
established between Him and the seeker. As a
result, His words sink deep into the
consciousness, and striking root, slowly grow
into good conduct and uplifting character. He
addresses the gathering as one. His primary
purpose is to awaken man from the sleep of
ignorance and point out to him his real nature,
the imperishable, immortal Divine
Self.
He inspires
with: "You are the invincible, unaffected by the
ups and downs of life; the shadow which you cast
while trudging along the road falls on dirt and
dust, bush and briar, stone and sand, but you
are not worried at all, for you walk unscathed.
So, too, as the spiritual substance, you have no
reason to be worried over the fate of the
shadow, the body." Baba makes this point very
clear by many examples and thus infuses an
unshakable courage.
"My mission is
to grant you courage and joy, to drive away
weakness and fear." He has said on many
occasions. "Do not condemn yourselves as
sinners; sin is a misnomer for what are really
errors. I shall pardon all your errors, provided
you repent sincerely and resolve not to follow
evil again. Pray to the Lord to give you
strength to overcome the habits which had
enticed you when you were ignorant." Thus He
kindles the flame of hope and health in every
heart. By His sweetness, His overpowering mercy,
and His words of wisdom, He has corrected the
steps of hundreds and turned them toward the
path of serving and striving.
A very
touching incident happened the morning after a
discourse He gave at Nellore. A middle-aged man
rushed into His room and fell at His Feet,
rolling on the ground and sobbing as a child.
Baba knew the reason why. He turned to those in
His Presence, commenting, "Yesterday's story of
Ramu," and asked them to leave the room. The
previous evening Baba had related the story of a
little boy, Ramu, who begged for food from door
to door; his mother was very ill; he called out
in front of a house, enraging the master, who
rushed toward him and hit him on the head,
causing him to fall with the pot which contained
his earnings. The blow killed him, and he died
with the words, "Mother! Mother! Who will give
you food now ?" on his lips. That story and
Baba's advice, that everyone must be grateful
first to the father and the mother to whom he
owes his very existence, had struck remorse in
the heart of this man who, because of a small
matter, had quarreled with his mother and
remained apart. Now he craved Baba's pardon to
rehabilitate himself under His auspices and with
His blessing. Baba knew all of that without
being told. He patted him lovingly on the back.
The sobs continued. Baba said, "Repentence is
enough expiation in itself! Come, come. Stop
weeping. I shall be at your village; bring your
mother there and you shall get My blessings
together. Go and fetch her there before I
arrive."
Many dramatic
incidents of loans being repaid happen as a
result of the Grace-filled discourses of Baba.
An aged father was thus helped. Neglected wives
were welcomed again, and men of deep-rooted
habits of gambling or drinking gave them up
permanently. Baba's campaign of spreading the
message of love has only just begun, and all who
have heard His message can clearly visualize the
significance of the declaration He made on the
opening page of Sanathana
Sarathi,
the monthly magazine He inaugurated on February
16, 1958, the thirty-second year of His earthly
career. On that day, the
Sanathana
Sarathi,
the charioteer, started out on the campaign
against falsehood, injustice, wickedness and
evil - the minions of the spirit of egoism. The
victory to be won is the welfare of the entire
world. When the triumphant drums are beaten in
the joy of success, humanity will have achieved
happiness and peace, prosperity and
bliss.
Already the
outlines of the plan of campaign are clear on
the horizon. The clarion call for the great task
is Baba's fourfold program of "Be True, Be Just,
Be Quiet, Be Love." His Plan is for all
humanity, for He says, "It is not mentioned
anywhere that the Grace of God is available only
for certain classes or races or grades of
people. From the smallest to the biggest,
throughout the world, all are entitled to it.
The Lord is everywhere, everything. He can be
realized by steady practice of truth and love.
Truth is the highest justice and love is the
only path to peace."
Baba has also
taken up the task of educating seekers and
aspirants and correcting the teachers and guides
who are largely led astray by greed for name and
fame, for success in the competition for public
support, and for the evanescent glory of
international fame or newspaper
renown.
"Test everyone
on the touchstone of sincerity; see how far each
has renounced, not merely in words, but in
actual deed; then accept their advice and bring
it into your daily conduct and behavior. It is
the practice that matters, not the puffed pomp
of scholarship," He insists.
|
Previous
|
Next
|
Bhajans