Importance of worship - from Sagun to Nirgun

There are two aspects of Brahman, namely Sagun (with form) and Nirgun (without form). Sai with form was non-attachment incarnate.

Sagun worship includes the worship of image, altar, fire, light, Sun, water and Brahma. But, Guru is better than all these objects of worship, because we can bring image of our Guru in front of our eyes. It is important to note that whether it is Sagun worship or Nirgun worship, it has to be whole-hearted. Though Sagun and Nirgun are one and the same, it is advisable to start with Sagun worship.

There are several reasons for starting with Sagun bhakti. It is easy to get associated with Sagun through Sagun worship, as it is easily possible to develop love and devotion towards Sagun. We can prostrate at the feet of one whom we can see i.e. Sagun, and develop love for it. We can offer fruits, flower, apply sandal paste to Sagun. We can talk with those with form e.g. Sai. As we advance, we get attracted to Nirgun. It is necessary to understand that frozen ghee and melted ghee are one and the same. Similarly Sagun and Nirgun worship are one and the same.

In Saileela there are several instances where Baba makes deliberate attempts so that devotees tend to tilt towards Nirgun. He made some leave Shirdi, did not allow some to leave, kept some in isolation, and directed some to read religious books only. He would disallow his darshan for some. All this was done with a view to bring home importance of Nirgun bhakti. To show that Nirgun bhakti and Sagun bhakti are same, he allowed Dr. Pandit to apply sandal paste on his forehead. This was because Dr. Pandit saw his guru Kaka Puranik in Sai. There are several mentions of Sagun worship in Saileela.

 

Thus we find that it is necessary for one to start with Sagun worship and finally reach Nirgun worship.

Saibaba's gift to Shama - Vishnusahasranama

Guru, like mother, is ever concerned about welfare of His disciples, at times even more than one’s own mother. Mother loves child irrespective of whether child is intelligent or not. Likewise Guru also loves disciple irrespective of whether disciple is spiritually learned or not. Like innocence of child attracts mother, innocence of disciple attracts Guru. He is ever on a lookout for an opportunity to introduce his disciple to the ways of achieving moksha i.e. freedom from the cycle of birth and death.

Madhavrao Deshpande, a village teacher in Shirdi, fondly called as Shama, was very dear to Saibaba. Everybody knew about this close relationship between Saibaba and Shama to the effect that anybody with whom Saibaba was reluctant to meet would ask Shama to mediate to have darshan of Saibaba and Saibaba would never let Shama down and then that person will definitely will get darshan of Baba.

Saibaba wished that Shama should get in the path of moksha and hence when He found an opportunity, He introduced Shama to the chanting and study of Vishnusahasranama. He gifted a book of Vishnusahasranama to Shama in a very funny incident described in Chapter 27 of Shri Saisatcharit.

Chanting and listening Vishnusahasranama is considered as the most authentic way to get into the practice of chanting the name of God. It is considered as the second most important spiritual scripture after Srimad Bhagwadgita. In fact they say Bhagwadgita tells what to do, whereas Vishnusahasranama helps to do what is told to do in Bhagwadgita i.e. perform every action by remembering God.

Mere chanting or listening to Vishnusahasranama offers great benefit. It’s like fire. Whether one has knowledge about characteristics of fire or not, whoever touches it, whether child or adult, gets burn. Same way whether one understands meaning of Vishnusahasranama or not, whoever chants or listens to it, whether man or woman or child or adult, gets benefited equally.

What are the benefits one gets by chanting Vishnusahasranama? To march towards moksha one should have ability to overcome obstacles. Desires are obstacles in moksha. To fulfill desires one needs to perform duties of life. And to perform duties of life one needs a support from God. And one gets support from God when one remembers Him. So the greatest benefit of chanting or listening to Vishnusahasranama is the support of God that one receives in fulfilling one’s own duties of life.

There are no restrictions to chant the name of god. For many rituals there are requirements such as to find an auspicious time and have bath before starting any spiritual exercise. But for chanting name of god, it’s not mandatory to find auspicious time or worry about whether one is pure or not. Name of god, whether Shrirama or Shrikrishna or Sairama or Saikrishna or any of the thousand names of God, can be chanted by anybody, anytime and anywhere.