This contains the essence of the doctrine of Bhakti or devotion, and therefore, earnest readers who are anxious to study the history of Sai Baba, who realized in himself the perfection of Godhead by attaining Purna laya, concentrating his mind always on God with intense love from his earliest period of life, and thereby attained Aikya, so that he could say Mai Allahum, that is Aham Brahmasmi could exhibit all the powers of God; would find the use of the above stanzas. Sai identified himself with Krishna and with every other form of God. As the object of everyone should be to please God in Sai form or in any other form, one may note how in point of historical fact, from this biography, numbers of people were drawn to Sai Baba and achieved the love olf Sai Baba, and thereby achieved every object of human existence. The succeeding chapters of this book would deal with the details of a large number of devotees being drawn to and benefiting from Baba, and would fully illustrate the truth of the above verses. At present we have sufficiently satisfied highly sensitive readers who wish to have the essence of Sai Baba’s Marga placed before them, before we deal with the expansion of the Sai movement and the details of persons who approached him, and the problem that arise for consideration in the life of Baba.

Thus the various stages, attitudes, and relations of a Bhakta can be very well dwelt upon and learnt by studying the above illustrations and applying them to oneself.

A number of loving bhaktas are ever remaining in one’s heart who show how Bhakti achieves its ends. The end of Bhakti is not achieved by the offer of money to God or by mere learning or by age or beauty of a person; God does not want any of these. God wants only heart, that is, your self, and he will not be satisfied with anything else.

For the hunter Kannappa, what Achara or religious course of conduct had he?

For Dhruva, What was his age?

For the elephant Gajendra, what education or degrees and titles had He?

Had Vidura, favourite of Krishna, any qualification in respect of caste? He was the son of a slave or dancing girl.

For the king of Yadavas called Ugrasena, who was favoured by Krishna, what manliness had he? He was a great coward.

For Kubja, who was favoured by Krishna, had she any great beauty? She was deformed.

For Sudhama, known as Kuchela who also was favoured by Krishna, had he any wealth?

The third is human. The chaste wife longs for her husband, and even his slightest absence for even a short period makes her full of unrest, viraha and pant for his presence, and when that presence is regained she is full of bliss and joy and sticks to him. This again is quite descriptive of Bhakti.

The bhagavata treats all devotees as females, Gopis, and the only male in the universe is Krishna. So, in the Rasakrida, Krishna by his flute or magic sound draws all the Gopis to himself, and they form a ring round him. Between every two Gopis is Krishna and between every two Krishnas is a Gopi. That is, each Gopi sees only Krishna on either side of her and not the other Gopis. Perfect white heat of love converts everything into Krishna. This feminine devotion to the male (purusha) is the loftiest love and bliss known to humanity; Therefore, it is the best way of indicating what devotion is.

The seeds of the Ankolam tree or plant are regrasped by the parent tree; the parent magnetic block attracts needles one behind another; the chaste wife clasps her husband; the tender creeper clings to the adjoining tree and mounts upward and upward; and the waters of the rivers are for ever drawn downward and downward till they reach the ocean and merged in it. Similarly the heart of the devotee longs after the Divine feet of Pasupati, God Siva. This is called Bhakti. This is how Bhakti is to be understood as a natural force, which is found working in all creations namely, vegetable, animal, mineral, and human.

Each illustration takes Bhakti one stage further up. First comes the tendency of the Ankolam plant and its seed. After the seed is first shed form the parent tree, it is detached from the tree and finally it gets reattached to the tree. Thus the tendency even in vegetables is to get back to the original source and get reabsorbed in it. That is the real nature of devotion in the human being also. We are parts, amsas, or spark from God, and are drawn by a natural force to look to and reach the original source of all creation and of us, namely, God, this force being devotion.

The water given for bath abisheka carried by the hunter in his mouth mixed his saliva was enjoyed as a divine ablution.

The raw flesh, which was previously tested by tasting and offered by the hunter, had been found delicious as newly cooked food.

Well, what cannot devotion achieve? A forest hunter was esteemed as the highest worshiper.

Thus it is the spirit that matters. But when all is said and done, one must recollect that Kannapars are not found everywhere, and every one cannot imitate Kannapa. The ordinary man has to remember that his gentle plant of devotion has to be grown and tended and hedged with considerable care. For that purpose the regular forms of worship and the usual directions for the growth of devotion by attending pujas, Bhajanas and other ceremonies must be followed for a long time before attaining full completion of Bhakthi.

Especially the nine modes of worship mentioned in the Bhagavata and stressed by Sri Sai Baba often have to be attended to and followed. In setting out those nine forms, one can see how the external and internal are inextricably interwoven and combined and how one gradually progresses with lower and external forms till his inner kernel of devotion attains maturity and perfection.

The nine modes are:
Sravana – listening to accounts of the deeds of God, his Avatars and saints.
Kirtana – reciting history of God or repeatedly chant names and praise of God.
Smarana – constantly recalling these, especially uttering God’s names.

Padasevanam – doing pooja to the legs of God and saints.

Archana – formal worship, for example with flowers, water, food, scents and all the 16 upacharas
Vadana – is falling flat on the ground at the feet of God and Saints.
Dasya – for example service, doing every work for God or Saint.
Sakhya – remaining in the company of God or Saint.

Nivedana – that is, surrender of the self that is forgetting oneself entirely into the contemplation of god after formally offering the self as a gift to God.

Most of you would have admired the simple hunter Kannapa’s worship of a stone Linga in Periya Purana. He just saw the linga on a hill covered by leaves and flowers, and water used by some adorer who had made formal worship of the stone. At once by some traces of memory from past births (Purva Vasana), Bhakthi entered into his soul and he had a powerful urge to go to the lingam and worship it. He had no prayers (sankalpa or initial portion of every puja) but simply felt the irresistible impulse to go to the Lingam and to feel its beneficent presence. What was the worship he offered? So besides leaves and flowers and abisheka water brought in his mouth, as he had no vessel, he offered roasted/raw flesh to God, as that was the food he liked and lived on.

Hunter Kannappa was under the impression that whatever is man’s food is the food of his God. This flesh was repulsive to the orthodox Saiva Acharya who was worshipping the image there. Lord Siva appreciated Kannapa’s unmotivated but powerful love, and wanted to prove the superiority of worship with such love to people with cold formal worship with Vedamantras. Lord Siva began to bleed in his eyes. Kannapa, who saw it, at once plucked out one of his eyes and placed it on the eye of Linga’s bleeding eye. Then Siva made his second eye of the Linga bleed. Undaunted, Kannapa started to pluck out his second eye for replacing the second eye of the Linga. Then he started to think, without both the eyes, how to place the plucked eye correctly on the Linga. Kannapa placed his foot with its chappal near the second eye. Then Siva appeared and stopped this sacrifice of the second eye.

Highly refined and sensitive souls might have been waiting eagerly to know Worship in detail. These persons wish to have the kernel, the very essence of the fruit of worship without having to deal with any shell or bark. It is true that mere formal performance of worship unaccompanied by the pure and fervent spirit counts for nothing and that the spirit is the essence. But so far it was dealt with externals. They are indispensable to clothe, embody and convey the spirit form person-to-person, form place to place, form stage to stage and even form age to age. It is the nectar we want, but the liquid nectar comes only in a cup. What we want is Sweetness. Worship is saturated by fervent admiration, reverence or love. A few words on the nature and essence of the worship are necessary to stress their importance.

Indian readers would appreciate worship better if we take them to the corresponding Sanskrit words. Those words are puja and upasana. These are well-understood terms in constant use. We say a person is doing puja when he offers flowers, water, food, scents and praise to a person or an image of divine being. Yet all the while, that worshipper is not acting like a robot, but is simultaneously using speech and thought. He utters words, mostly mantras and slokas and his mind turn to their meanings for most of the time. Occasionally he may be merging himself in the object of worship mentally – attaining Poorna laya, or feeling prefect bliss and forgetting all ideas of his self.