They say that at the last moment on this earth the mind should be filled with the thought of God. That’s the success criteria of human life. The one and the only goal of human life is to merge with God. Everyone, whether man or woman or animal, is encouraged to merge with God. Of course humans stand better chance because of the unique characteristic they possess, which is intelligence. It is intelligence that helps man or woman to achieve the goal of merging with God.
How can we use intelligence to merge with God? With the help of intelligence one can direct mind to think about God. Mind as such does not have any direction. By nature mind follows desires. However saints, through experience, assert that it is possible to take control of mind and not only fulfill desires but also direct mind to the thoughts of God.
So, it’s all about practice. As the popular saying goes – practice makes man perfect. Nobody is perfect by birth. It is really the practice that makes one perfect. Having understood that at the last moment the mind should be filled thought of God, one can imagine how much practice one will need to ensure that the mind is filled with thought of God at that moment. One will obviously wonder how can one even perform this practice while executing all responsibilities of life.
Mind’s basic need is entertainment – manoranjan. Why do we see movies and commercials? For entertainment, is it not? After every episode of commercial we are curious about what will happen in next episode. So in a way our mind gets locked to those commercials even while we are performing our household duties.
Saints suggest us to utilize this same need, of the mind, for entertainment to our own benefit. They suggest us to slowly transform our need of entertainment. Nothing is possible overnight. A slow transformation always yields better results. So, while we continue to entertain ourselves with our usual entertainment sources, saints suggest us to slowly get into the habit of establishing habit for reading stories of saints. This habit, they say, will be the most beneficial habits of all habits.
Result is, the mind will slowly start recollecting stories of saints even while we are engaged in our household duties. And will automatically result in establishing practice of remembering god and saints, who are but living forms of God. And once one firmly gets established in this practice, the final goal is not difficult.
Saints and their great devotees assure that this is not suggestion in vain. It is proven. Many have already benefited from this. And so without any doubt one can rely on this practice.
They say that with this practice of reading Saisatcharit one can actually feel the presence of Saibaba while performing all household activities. Those who have travelled with Shri Raghupathi Sir have experienced this. On numerous occasions, whether it is padayatra or a casual travel with Shri Sir, accompanying students, with the blessings of Shri Sir, have experienced presence of Saibaba.
Human body is considered as boat. A boat that can help one cross bhava-sagar – a sea of samsara. However they warn that crossing this sea is not easy. This sea of samsara is filled with all kinds of creatures, feelings, desires that create delusion and hence drag one from the path of crossing this sea. They also caution that if one drowns in this sea without reaching the other shore or without ensuring that one gets a boat again, it can take indefinite time to get
again an opportunity i.e. human body to cross this sea.
That is where Guru can help. Whether one wants to have joyful experience of samsara or whether one wants to renounce samsara, both can get guidance from Guru. They say Guru can safely escort his disciples through bhava-sagar to the final destination and that is merging with God.
To benefit from Guru and cross this sea of samsara Shri Saibaba has given us a very valuable mantra and that is – shraddha (faith) and saburi (patience). One should have faith in instructions of Guru and then patience to get results. This mantra is even important than mantras in Vedas as without this mantra all those mantras in Vedas cannot be grasped.
Indian culture highly talks about necessity of Guru. They say one should not remain without a Guru. Remaining without Guru is like travelling in a boat that does not have any direction whatsoever.
One need not go far in search of Guru. What one needs is knowledge that one is caught in bhava-sagar and then strong desire to cross this bhava-sagar. This strong desire is enough to attract Guru. In fact why go far? The pinnacle of great sentences in Indian culture is maatrudevo-bhava and pitrudevo-bhava – i.e. revere mother and father as God. Remembering and connecting to God is really a state of mind than state of body. Everybody has mother and father. Can anybody even come into this world without mother and father? But not everybody considers mother and father as God. Those who consider are immensely benefited. It is with blessings of mother and father that one gets in contact with Guru who then can escort one easily through this samsara.
It is not important whether one’s own Guru is famous or not. There may be many Gurus in the world who have achieved fame. But the crux of messages from all scriptures is that one should have strong faith only in one’s own Guru and nowhere else; and follow his instructions with utmost devotion. In fact it is really the undivided faith of disciple in his/her own Guru that brings the results and helps acquire blessings of Guru which then help in achieving one and only goal of human life and that is merging with God. But it is very difficult to find examples of such disciples. And that is why it is very easy to get deluded and lose faith in Guru and Indian culture. It is really the parents who can set good examples in front of their children by acting as per Guru’s instructions.
Indian calendar is filled with auspicious days that bring people of all ages together in joyous mood to remember one of the important aspects of Indian culture. Gurupournima is one of such auspicious days which is meant to remember one of the important aspects of Indian culture and that is remembering and paying homage to Guru.
Wish you all a very happy and joyous Gurupournima. May this Gurupournima (July 22) bring you all and your family members most auspicious gains.
Once Dasaganu Maharaj, ardent devotee of Shri Saibaba, and known for his numerous writings on saints, the most famous one being Shri Gajanan Vijay, visited Saibaba to take His permission to visit Prayag, a holy place usually visited by devotees during parva, a holy occasion, when devotees take a dip in river Ganga with a belief that whoever takes a dip in Ganga during parva time gets rid of all of his/her sins. Saibaba, instead of giving Dasaganu permission to visit Prayag, asked him to give up that wish and stay at His feet and assured him that if his devotion is real, His (Saibaba’s) feet will give him same benefit and experience that of visiting Prayag. Dasaganu without any delay fell at the feet of Saibaba and voila, water started flowing from thumbs of Saibaba’s both feet. Astonished by that unusual and awesome phenomenon, Dasaganu was filled with extraordinary feeling of devotion and impromptu sang a poem on Saibaba as follows:
