Who is Sai?

Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s reality is difficult to comprehend, and yet we really want to understand it. On June 19, 1974, He allowed us a glimpse into this reality.

God is inscrutable. He cannot be realized in the objective world; He resides in the very heart of every being. Just as gemstones are found deep within the earth, not in mid-air, God is found and must be sought in the depth of one’s heart, not in nature, which, as tantalizing as it appears to be, is ever changing. The body has been given to you for this high purpose, but you are now misusing it, like the person who cooked his daily food in the gem-studded heirloom vase.

Man describes God as omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent, but ignores God’s presence within him! There are many who venture to describe the attributes of God and proclaim that He embodies one or the other of those attributes. Such assertions are based on their own guesses and reflect their personal preferences.

Is there anyone who can describe God, affirm that He does not exist in a particular form or that He embodies a particular attribute and not another? One can collect from the vast ocean only as much water as can be contained in the vessel one carries to the shore. From the water in the vessel one cannot fathom the immensity of the ocean.

Every religion defines God within the limits it has demarcated and claims to have grasped Him. Like the seven blind men who having each touched one limb of an elephant’s body, mistook it for a pillar, a fan, a rope, or a wall, so too, every religion takes one aspect of God and asserts that its understanding of Him is full and complete.

There is only the religion of love

The proponents of the different religions of the world forget that all forms, names, and attributes are God’s. The religion of humanity is the sum and substance of all these partial faiths, for there is only one religion, and that is the religion of love. One single stream of blood flows through the various limbs of the elephant, which the seven blind men failed to recognize as one body. Similarly one single stream of love flows through the various religions that appear to be separate and distinct from each other.

Truth cannot be seen with the physical eye, which produces false and fogged information. There are many who observe My actions and make pronouncements about My nature. They are unable to gauge the sanctity, the majesty, and the eternal reality that I embody. The power of Sai is limitless and eternal. All forms of ‘power’ reside in Sai’s palm. The scholars, spiritually advanced, and wise persons who profess to have understood Me, are aware only of the least important, the causal, external manifestation of an infinitesimal part of that power, namely, the miracles I perform! They have not had the desire to contact the source of all power and wisdom that is available here at Brindavan [Swami’s official residence in Bangalore]. They are satisfied when they secure a chance to parade their knowledge of Vedic lore. They do not realize that He from whom the Vedas emanated is in their midst, for their sake. They even ask for a few more chances to parade their knowledge!

Defeats are divine play

This has been the case in all ages. People may be physically close to the Avatar, but they live out their lives unaware of their good fortune. They exaggerate the role of miracles, which are as insignificant, when compared to My glory and majesty, as a mosquito is in size and strength to the elephant upon which it squats. Therefore, when I hear you speak about the miracles I perform, I laugh within myself out of pity at how easily you allow yourselves to lose the precious awareness of My reality.

My power is immeasurable; My truth is inexplicable and unfathomable. I am announcing this about Myself, for the need has arisen. But what I am doing now [the manifestations] is only the gift of a ‘visiting card!’ Let Me tell you that such emphatic declarations by Avatars were made clearly and unmistakably by Krishna only. Declarations notwithstanding, you will notice in the career of the same Krishna that His efforts and endeavors failed on a few occasions.

You must, however, recognize that those defeats were part of the drama He had planned and which He Himself directed. For example, when a number of kings pleaded with Him to avert the war with the Kauravas [from the epic Mahabharata], Krishna stated that His peace-seeking mission to the Kaurava court had failed! But He had not willed that it should succeed! He had decided that war would be waged! His mission was to punish the Kauravas for their greed and iniquity, and to condemn them before the whole world.

Don’t seek trivial material objects

Now, I must tell you, that during this Sai Avatar, there is no place for such drama with scenes of failures and defeats! What I will, must take place; what I plan must succeed. I am truth, and truth has no need to hesitate, or fear, or bend.

My grace is ever available to devotees who have steady love and faith. Because I move freely among them, talking to and singing along with them, even intellectuals are unable to grasp My truth, power, and glory, or My true task as Avatar. I can solve any problem however knotty. I am beyond the reach of the most intensive inquiry and the most meticulous measurement. Only those who have recognized and experienced My love can assert that they have ‘glimpsed’ My reality. For the path of love is the royal road that leads mankind to Me.

Do not attempt to know Me through the physical eye. When you visit a temple and stand before the image of God, you pray with closed eyes, do you not? Why? It is because you feel that the inner eye of wisdom alone can reveal Him to you. Do not seek from Me trivial material objects, but make Me the object of your desire, and you will be rewarded. This does not preclude you from receiving from Me the objects I give as sign of grace, and out of the fullness of love.

I shall tell you why I give rings, talismans, rosaries, etc. These objects symbolize the bond between Me and those to whom they are given. When calamity befalls them, the articles come to Me in a flash and return in a flash taking from Me the grace of protection. Grace is available to all who invoke any name or worship any form of God, not merely to those who wear these gifts. Love is the bond that wins grace.

There is no creature without love

Consider the meaning of the name, Sai Baba. Sa means “Divine;” ai or ayi means “mother” and Baba means “father.” Like Samba-Shiva, the name Sai Baba denotes the divine mother and father. The love your physical parents shower on you is tinged with selfishness, but the love this Sai mother and father showers on you, which may take the form of affection or reprimand, is designed to lead you to victory in the struggle toward self-realization.

Sai has incarnated for the purpose of achieving the supreme task of (1) uniting mankind (2) affirming the Atmic [soul] reality of every being, and bringing to light the fact that the Divine is the basis on which the entire cosmos rests, and (3) inspiring all to recognize the brotherhood of man, rid themselves of animal tendencies, and rise to divinity, which is their goal.

I am the embodiment of love; love is My instrument. There is no creature in this world that is devoid of love. Even the lowest love themselves. The self is God. So there are no atheists, though some might dislike God or reject Him, just as malarial patients dislike or diabetic patients refuse to have anything to do with sweets! Those who describe themselves as atheists will one day, when their ignorance has vanished, cherish God and revere Him.

I had to tell you as much about My reality, for it is my desire that you contemplate it and derive joy therefrom, be inspired to observe the disciplines laid down by Me, and progress toward the goal of self-realization, the realization of the Sai that shines in your hearts.

Source: Sanathana Sarathi, July 1974