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English translation
Sai Devotees and Members attending the meeting,
Accept My Blessings.
On this 17th anniversary occasion, I am witnessing the happiness being felt by
the Sai Devotees, though not present physically with you. Direct physical
experience and indirect experience are the same. Attributes could be many but
they are imaginary. Paddy and rice are different for name sake but the
difference is only in the husk. If you remove the husk, it is rice only. As long
as the rice is covered with husk, it has to germinate. When there is moisture
paddy has to germinate and sprout into a plant. If you remove the husk, it can
only be used as food and so loses the potential for rebirth.
Worship of the All-Pervasive Sai Rama is to experience the physical body outside
and the astral body inside. Bodily illusion belongs to man (Nara) and atmic
illusion belongs to God (Narayana). So if you continue to be enveloped by bodily
illusions and earthly attachments of this world, when do you experience atmic
illusion and see the cosmic form of God? Search for truth should become a daily
ritual for Sai Devotees. Love is the quality that endears you to Parthivasa.
Inferior qualities should be discarded as superior human qualities confer
divinity. So first devotees should develop a clean and clear conscience and shed
external pomp and show. You should remain unattached to everything, because this
is the truth. Devote all your time and actions to God. Realize time as the
vehicle of Sai and do not count the amount of time you spent in prayers as the
quality of devotion is more important.
Instead of expressing your devotion towards Sai in words and songs, express them
through your deeds. That is the truth. If you say something and do something
else or sing one thing while meaning something else, this show becomes a no-show
and harms Sai’s fame. So Sai Devotees should exercise restraint in their
behaviour. Your heart should melt like butter, looks should shower cool
moonlight and the words should be sweet like honey – that pleases Sai.
Selfless devoted love and passion-free balanced love are the two eyes of Sai.
Sai likes practice and not publicity. Sai can be captured with love but not
treasures. Only when Sai devotees treat these principles of truth as a command
will the whole world become Saimayam (permeated by Sai) and Brahmamayam
(permeated by Brahman). When our vision is turned towards divine knowledge, the
world becomes an abode of God (Brahma). If you want to see the world in a
particular colour, you have to wear glasses of that colour first. So all of you
start experiencing Sai in your own way and reform yourselves with acceptable
behaviour. That is my wish.
- Baba
How this letter was
discovered -
"Dear Brothers,
I am thrilled to share a letter written by Swami which, to the best of my
knowledge, has never been published but contains a profound message, a wish from
Swami, as to what His expectations are from His devotees.
Just before the 1984 Dussera celebrations, Swami called some of us senior
students upstairs to clean the store rooms situated on the left side of the
Prasanthi mandir. It was one of those thrilling chances to be close to Swami for
several hours while He supervised the project. While cleaning the rooms I came
across several interesting items reminiscing the old days of the Paatha mandir
and the events that took place then.
One such item was the pot held up by Prof.N.Kasturi while Swami performed the
vibhuti abhishekam to the silver Shirdi Sai statue in Poornachandra Auditorium.
Though I have never witnessed the abhishekam in my life it was thrilling to
touch the pot. I also came across a packet which contained several old
letterheads that Swami used over the years to write letters to devotees. It also
contained Swami’s old passport that He used to travel to East Africa. When I
approached Swami with the packet, He kept the passport aside and then instructed
me to cut off the top part of all the letterheads and distribute the blank paper
to the research scholars for their use. Later in the hostel, I carefully went
through the pages of each pad before cutting the sheets and was delighted to
find two invaluable documents: One, a letter written by Swami in His own
handwriting which was perhaps for an article written for the Sanathan Sarathi.
The second, a poem written by Swami about Himself entitled “Udayamu”. Swami
permitted me to keep these documents and a few copies of each of the letterheads
as souvenirs.
The message contained in it is profound. Swami actually expresses His wish as to
how He wants devotees to conduct themselves. I am excited to share the original
letter and the English translation with my alumni brothers.
I hold this letter dearly to my heart as a family heirloom but felt impelled to
share both the original as well as the translation with you all. So far only a
handful of people have seen this letter. I am sure each of us will take away a
unique message from this letter as if Swami wrote it just for us. Please share
freely with one and all.
shared by MM -
24.11.2011 |
