ShirdiSaiBaba

That is a correct description of Baba’s Marga. It has been called Guru Marga in Guru Gita. Guru Marga is a form of Bhakthi Marga in which faith in and devotion to the Guru is the only Sadhana for achieving everything including salvation, Mukti or Brahmaiktya, Satchidananda conquest of samsara, and also all yoga, siddhis and temporal welfare.

Here Baba showed the applicability of the Guru Gita to religious progress. The one who is acquainted with the ‘ins’ and ‘outs’ of the spiritual field, a forest is a vanjari. The fourth person, Baba who realized that a guide was needed, and mere talk with bookish knowledge was of no use at all to help one to realize God and himself. Above all, the question was not an intellectual one. It was a problem as to how a particular soul was to be raised to realization, and that as essentially a matter of moulding the entire soul of the student or sishya. What is wanted therefore is humility, receptivity, and a powerful desire to reach the goal with the aid of a Guru. Therefore, a readiness to adopt a Guru and surrender everything to the Guru is needed. Everything is Tan, Man, Dhan that is, body, mind and possession. As a result of the intense love he bore to his Guru, Baba sacrificed and surrendered at the feet of his Guru. The solution of the problem as to whether there is need for a Guru is already reached when the sishya get into the proper humility, receptivity, and longing attachment to the Guru, culminating in mutual love. Then realization is reached. Purely by Guru’s grace, Realization flashes upon the sishya. Baba said, “The Guru’s grace is our only sadhana. Jnana comes as experience or in the wake of Guru’s grace. He alone succeeds who feels the Guru is the one thing needed.”

As we roamed aimlessly through forest, we met a man who works in the forest. He asked us “where are you going in this heat into the forest?” We gave no direct reply. He warned us politely not to get lost into the thick woods and that too needlessly. He offered his food to us. We disdained his advice and walked into the forest.

But in that vast and dense wood we lost our way. To our surprise we met the same forester. He said that by relying on our own cleverness, we had got into a wrong way. He said that a guide is a must to show the way. By saying “Do not refuse offers of food. Such offers are auspicious signs of success in one’s endeavour.” he again invited us to take food with him. Again we declined the food and went away. I soon felt hungry and I went and accepted a bit of bread and ate it and drank some water.

The forester then said, “What was your dispute?” and I told him all our talk. The others left him and did not care for him. But I reverently bowed to him. Then he took me to a well tied up my legs with a rope, and suspended me, head downwards, from a tree by the side of the well. My head was about three feet off the water, which I could not reach. And the forester left me there and went away. I do not know, where he has gone. He returned after 4 or 5 hours and asked me how I felt. I answered, “My time was passed in great bliss”. The forester might be pleased with me. He drew me near him, passed his palm over my head and body and spoke to me tender words dripping with love. He put me into his school where I entirely forgot my father and mother and all attachments and desires. I loved to gaze at him. If he were not there to see, I would not like to have eyes at all. I did not wish to go back. I forgot all other things but the forester, the Guru. My life was concentrated in my sight in him. That was the object of my meditation. In silence, I bowed. Meaning, Realisation flashed upon me, of itself without effort or study purely by his grace.

Guru’s grace is our only sadhana. Jnana comes as experience or in its wake.

There are so many souls, which has been immersed deep into the forest of Samsara and lost all knowledge of even the cardinal directions and got confused. Salutation to the Guru is a must that shows the path to get out of this. The Guru alone can help one to enter the spiritual field. On one occasion this point was raised by Baba. Baba was referring to the fact that he himself was a Guru who could guide those who came to Shirdi or to his feet to make spiritual progress. About the necessity for a Guru, Baba mentions the discussion between himself and three other fellow disciples.

Baba himself described how he met his Guru. Once myself and three others were studying our pothi, parayana puran, and other works and discussed how we were to get realization.

One said we should depend on ourselves and not on a Guru. For Gita says, Raise your self by the Self (uddharet-Atmana).

The first sadhaka here is like the Devil quoting scripture. In quoting Gita, he wrests a verse out of its context and misapplies it. The Gita emphasizes the need for a Guru to get realization, and these are ignored and the wrested verse is treated as cancelling the other express reference to the need for a Guru. The Sadhaka ignores the all-important fact that the Gita upadesa is given to Arjuna only after he got disgusted with his life situation and he made Prapatti and Saranagati.

The second and third sadhakas quote the need of qualifications or requisites for Brahmajnana as per Vivekachudamani. But this is mere reproduction by bookworms.

How to get self-control and release from doubts?

How to feel the animal nature and overcome them?

How to overcome our desires?

There lies the hurdle. Books do not solve. Surrender to a loving Guru and love towards that Guru alone can solve these problems.

Baba the fourth sadhaka was practical and noted that Surrender and Love to Guru were the only solutions.

Second one said, ‘the main thing is to make the mind self-controlled, free from thoughts and doubts. It is we who are in every thing everywhere.’

Third one said, ‘the form that is in phenomena is ever changing. The formless is unchanging. So we must always be making Vichara that is distinguishing between Nitya, unchanging and Anithya changing.’

Then Baba said, ‘I dislike bookish knowledge. Let us do our prescribed duty, and surrender our body, speech and life to a Guru, who is all pervading. Faith in him is the thing needed.’