Editorial

First Word

I saw a movie at Las Vegas USA during my short visit in May 2017. In this film a had the opportunity to take God’s job. He found out quickly that God is bombarded with endless complaints and prayers from billions of people requesting things, all at the same time. In fact, in this humorous movie, when God checked his email there were millions of email messages of complaints and requests. It may be a funny film, but it has some truth in it.

We pray to Sai Baba because we want blessings to come just the way we want. We include an instruction manual with our prayer telling Sai Baba how we want those blessings to come. When they don’t come the way we want, we disregard the fact that Si Baba sent his blessings anyway. If we look back on the blessings later in life, we realize that what Sai Baba sent us was far better than what we had imagined or asked for.

Will a mother allow the child to have poison, even if the child demands it and throws a tantrum? Instead, the mother will give the child what is best for him. The child may not realize it at that time but as the child grows, the child is grateful for all the things the mother denied him that were ultimately not good. Sai Satcharitra has many
references, as Sai Baba refered to light, fire, moon, radiance and effulgence in several instances in his interactions as practical aspects of the bondage of human existence. In the Gita, when Arjuna beholds the cosmic form of Krishna, he says: “If the splendor of a thousand suns were to blaze forth all at once in the sky, that would be the splendor of that Paramatma”. Arjuna is able to see a spectrum of colors in that exalted form exuding a blazing radiance.

Let us recall the poem ‘Lead kindly light’ by John Newman. Here the light being referred to is Lord Almighty and the poet prays that he is encircled by the darkness of gloom and, although during his youth, pride ruled his will, the time has come when he no longer can find his own way. He prays the ‘Kindly Light’ to lead him on the right path.

We often hear great men urging us to follow the Guru within, but perhaps when we sit before his ‘samadhi’ shrine that Sai Baba blesses us in an inimitable manner. We always invoke Sai Baba to shed light on us: “Lead us from unreal to real, from darkness to light and from death to immortality”.

Our prayers should be for the blessings in general, for Sai Baba knows best what is good for us. Praying for something has some pitfalls. There is a danger of disappointment, depression and loss of faith. But when we don’t pray for anything other than what Sai Baba wants to give there is no danger of disappointment. The two paise ‘Dakshina’ of ‘Shradda’ and ‘Saburi’ leads us to this stage.

May Sai Baba bless us all.