There is a complete identity between the Guru and truth. There is no truth apart from the Guru. With complete faith, devotion and surrender to the Guru path of truth and self-realisation. It is said that the divine Guru, by the application of the collyrium of knowledge, opens the eyes of one blinded by the disease of ignorance.
In India, in particular, the Guru has almost become the accepted axiom of spiritual progress, and as such, the relationship he bears to those whom he guides is unique. The quest for liberation is impossible to accomplish till the Guru’s grace paves the way for the mortals to follow. Of course, this grace is not denied if our quest is sincere.
The beautiful bond which is established between the Guru and his devotees is the harbinger of Supreme Bliss since it fosters a direct union with God. A firm and unfaltering faith in the Guru, according to Sai Baba, is the highest Sadhana. Sadguru Sainath believed that each individual soul is eternally and essentially perfect and all bondage is super-imposed. His way, therefore, was of trust in the compassionate Guru whose silent shower of spiritual grace would remove the dark veils of ignorance to usher genuine seekers into the realms of spiritual awareness. Once this vista is thrown open to man, he witnesses a supreme harmony that reveals to him everything in its right perspective; the dimension of Divinity permeating everything is revealed to him.
While the disciple dedicates his body, heart and soul to the Guru, the latter’s grace is just as spontaneous. The Guru takes up the entire being of the disciple to prepare him in the way he thinks best for a life of contentment and perfection. Baba himself once exemplified this idea by comparing the disciple to a lump of plastic clay from which the master potter fashions fascinating pieces of pottery. In Chapter 2 of Sai Satcharitra, Hemadpant was contemplating on the necessity of a Guru. Sai Baba answered by saying that the way to reach is our destination is extremely tough, full of obstacles and pitfalls. However, by taking a guide with us, there are no difficulties and the journey is smooth.
According to Sadguru Sai,one has to make the Guru the sole object of one’s thoughts and aims to attain the supreme goal of life, “Trust in the Guru fully — Guru is verily God” — was, therefore, Baba’s paramount teaching to transforming us into true seekers of truth and wisdom.
Baba described how he once roamed about in a forest seeking for truth with three young men. They discussed amongst themselves the right way of reaching their goal. But Baba was content even at that stage to feel that surrender of the body and soul to the Guru was the best way. He meditated on nothing but the Guru, and had no goal or objects other than the Guru! Wonderful indeed the way of his Guru! Sai wanted nothing but the Guru and he wanted nothing but this intense love from the former.
There was a living tender beauty in Baba’s personality which made all those who met him feel the urge to surrender to him. Sai Baba was in the deepest sense of the phrase a Guru incarnate. He naturally attracted people, and they were willing and anxious to surrender to him. “Why should anyone fear, when I am near”, he said, “Cast all your burdens on me and I will bear them”. According to him, not by running away from life and its problems but by facing them with courage and fortitude does man reach the true understanding of his Creator?
Just as we can light more than thousand candles from a single lamp, so too only the one who earned wisdom viz., the Guru can enlighten others to remove their ignorance. Lamps are many but light is one which shines as wisdom in a million hearts, the Universal Luminosity, which is God. Sai Baba, whom thousands of devotees worship, is our Sadguru — the manifested Divine who in his infinite compassion assumed a human form to enlighten.
Rajiv Kaicker,
New Delhi
