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Promise of Shirdi Sai Baba

Last Updated 19 November 2012, 18:19 IST

Sai Baba of Shirdi was an extraordinary saint.

He was a Paramaguru or a Samartha Sadguru who was capable of guiding masses of people together.

Our scriptures distinguish between many kinds of Gurus from those who provide secular knowledge to those who guide us on the spiritual path.

But it is only a Sadguru who takes ownership and responsibility for both the secular and the spiritual challenges of the aspirant and makes him or her reach the goal.

Shirdi Sai Baba was an example of such a mighty Guru. He was a fakir who came from nowhere.

Very little about his early years were known until Sri Satya Sai Baba cleared the air many decades later. While he was justly known for several memorable quotations, two of them deserve special mention.

He once said: “Stay with me and I will do the rest,” and on another occasion: “My leela is inscrutable.”

He once declared: “If a man utters my name with love, I shall fulfill all his wishes, increase his devotion. And if he sings earnestly my life and deeds, I will be in front of him and back and on all sides.”

“ Those devotees who are attached to me heart and soul will naturally feel happiness when they hear these stories. Believe me, if anybody sings my leelas, I will give infinite joy and everlasting contentment. It is my special characteristic to free any person who surrenders to me completely, who worships me faithfully and who remembers me and
meditates upon me constantly.”

“I shall draw out my devotees from the jaws of death. If my leelas are listened to all diseases will be got rid of, so hear my leelas with respect and think and meditate on them, assimilate them. This is the way of happiness and contentment.”

“The pride and egoism of my devotees will vanish, the minds of the hearers will be set at rest and it has wholehearted and complete faith, it will at one with supreme consciousness. The simple remembrance of my name as Sai will do away with sins of speech.”

As G S Kharpade, one of his biographers wrote, it remains a puzzle that “a person so universally admired and worshipped, not even a single human being knew his real name.”
“He dropped into Shirdi from the blue, helped a person find his lost horse and took up residence there for a whole lifetime helping everybody that came along without any distinction, securing the love and reverence of all without exception. He appeared to know the innermost thoughts of all, relieved their wants and carried comfort to all. He fulfilled my idea of God on earth.”

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(Published 19 November 2012, 18:19 IST)

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