Shiva
Shakthi
Gurupournima Day, 6 July 1963, 6:30PM.
(Sathya Sai Baba,
Sathya Sai Speaks III 5, 19.)
[Editor's note. This discourse was exciting for two important
reasons. First,
Swami illustrated his powers by curing himself, in a few
seconds and before thousands of people, of a severe stroke that he had
had for eight days and explaining why this event had to take
place. Second, for the first time, Swami mentioned Prema Sai Baba, his next incarnation. Swami said that he would come back in a
third incarnation as Prema Sai eight years after he leaves this
body.]
Prema Sai Baba
Also, download New
Prema Sai Wallpaper
This is not Swami's illness; this is an illness that Swami has taken
on in order to save some one. Swami has no illnesses, nor will he get
ill at any time. You must all be happy; that alone will make Swami
happy. If you grieve, Swami will not be happy. Your joy is Swami's food.
(Then, Baba signaled to Kasturi to speak. After his short speech was
over, Baba wanted the mike to be held before him. He asked through it "Vinapisthundaa!".
But, though he asked again and again, the voice was so indistinct that
no could make out what it meant.
He then signed for water. When it was brought, he sprinkled a little
with his shaking right hand on the stricken left hand, on his left leg.
He stroked his left hand with the right. Immediately, he used both
hands to stroke his left leg, and that touch was enough to cure it. He
doffed the disease in a trice! He started to speak! It was the same
musical voice.)
For those who have no refuge, God is the refuge (Dikku lenivaniki
devude gathi). That is exactly the reason I had to take on the
disease that one helpless devotee was to get. He had to suffer this dire
illness, as well as the four heart attacks that accompanied it, and he
would not have survived it. So, according to my duty (dharma)
to protect devotees (bakthasamrakshana), I had to rescue him. Of
course, this is not the first time that I have taken on the illness of
persons whom I wanted to save. Even in the previous Sariram at
Shirdi, I had this responsibility. The suffering that you saw was too
much for this particular devotee, so I had to save him by going through
it myself. This is my play (leela),
my nature. It is part of the task for which I have come,
sishyarakshana.
People who were near me during the last week were asking me to give
them the name of the person whom I had saved. I told them that it would
make them angry against that person, for Swami, they would say, "had to
undergo much pain in order to save that one person." Then, they replied
that they would honor the person because of the extraordinary devotion
that persuaded Swami to run to his rescue that Saturday morning.
Some people even asked me whether it was this person or that, giving
names of those who had attacks of paralysis, especially on the left
side! This is even more ludicrous, because when I save a person I save
him completely. I do not wait until he gets the disease, and I do not
leave him a fraction of a disease so that he may be identified later. It
all looks funny to me, the guesses and surmises that you make.
Even in Shirdi, Dada Saheb, Nadaram, Balawanth, all were saved by
these means. Balawanth was destined to get plague, but the bubo was
taken over and the boy saved.
This is perhaps the longest period when I kept the devotees wondering
and worried. That was because of the heart attacks, which had to come
later on the devotee, from which also he had to be saved. Then, there is
another reason why the 8-day period had to be observed. I shall tell you
why. This means I must tell you about myself, about something I haven't
disclosed so far, something that I was keeping within myself for the
last 37 years. The time has come to announce it. This is a sacred day,
and I shall tell you.
You know I declared on the very day when I decided to disclose my
Identity, my mission, and my Advent that I belonged to the Apasthamba
Suthra and the Bharadwaja lineage (gothra).
This Bharadwaja was a great sage, who studied the
Vedas
for a full one hundred years; but, finding that the Vedas were
endless (anantha),
he did penance (thapas)
for prolonging life, and from
Indra
he got two extensions of a century each. Even then, the Vedas
could not be completed, so he asked Indra again for another hundred
years. Indra showed him 3 huge mountain ranges and said, "What, you have
learned in 3 centuries form only 3 handfuls from out of the 3 ranges
that make up the Vedas. So give up the attempt to exhaust the
Vedas. Perform a ritual (yaga)
instead, which I shall teach you; that will give you the fruit of
Vedic study, full and complete."
Bharadwaja decided to perform the ritual; Indra taught him how to do
it; all preparations were completed. The sage wanted
Shakthi
to preside over and bless the ritual. So he went to Kailasa, but the
time was not opportune for presenting his petition.
Shiva
and Shakthi were engaged in a competitive dance, trying to find out who
could dance longer. Eight days passed thus, before Shakthi noticed
Bharadwaja standing in the cold. She just cast a smile at him and danced
along as before! The sage mistook the smile as a cynical refusal to
notice him, so he turned his back on Kailasa and started to descend. To
his dismay, he found his left leg, hand, and eye put out of action by a
stroke. Shiva saw him fall, came up to him, and consoled him. Bharadwaja
was told that Shakthi had indeed blessed him and his ritual. Then, Shiva
revived him and cured him, sprinkling water from the Kamandalu. Both
Shiva and Shakthi granted him the boons of a sage (rishi); they
would both attend the ritual, they said.
After the ritual was over, they were so pleased that they conferred
even more boons on the sage. Shiva said that they would take human form
and be born in the Bharadwaja lineage, thrice: Shiva alone as
Shirdi Sai Baba, Shiva and Shakthi together at Puttaparthy as Sathya
Sai Baba, and Shakthi alone as
Prema
Sai, later. Then, Shiva remembered the illness that had suddenly
come upon Bharadwaja at Kailasa on the eighth day of waiting in the cold
on the ice. He gave another assurance. "As expiation for the neglect
that Shakthi showed you at Kailasa for 8 days, this Shakthi will suffer
the stroke for 8 days when we both take birth as Sathya Sai and, on the
eighth day, I shall relieve her from all signs of the disease by
sprinkling water, just as I did at Kailasa to cure your illness."
It was the working out of this assurance that you witnessed today,
just now. This had to happen, this stroke and the cure. The assurance
given in the
Thretha era had to be honored. I may tell you now that the poor,
forlorn devotee who had to suffer the stroke that I took over was a
convenient excuse, which was utilized. You see, a railway engine is not
made available to haul just one car; when a number of cars are ready,
then the engine is put into action. So too, the disease had to be gone
through, the devotee had to be saved, the assurance had to be carried
out, the mystery had to be cleared, the Divinity had to be more clearly
announced by the manifestation of this Grand Miracle. All these were
accomplished by this one incident.
Let me tell you one more thing: Nothing can impede or halt the work
of the
Avathaara. When I was upstairs all these days, some people were
foolishly saying, "It is all over with Sai Baba," and they turned back
many who were coming to Puttaparthy! Some said I was in
samadhi,
as if I were a spiritual aspirant (sadhaka)!
Some feared I was the victim of black magic, as if anything can affect
me! The splendor of this
Avathar
will go on increasing, day by day. Formerly, when the Govardhanagiri (a
mountain) was raised aloft by the little boy
Krishna,
the cowherd maids and boys (gopees
and gopalas) realized that Krishna was the Lord. Now, not one
Govardhanagiri but a whole range will be lifted, you will see! Have
patience, have faith. Tomorrow morning, I shall give every one of you
the Namaskaram Blessing that you missed today.
Give Love and Receive Love.