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Four important discourses by Sri
Sathya Sai Baba
Shiva Shakthi
Gurupournima Day, 6 July 1963, 6:30PM. (Sathya Sai Baba,
Sathya Sai Speaks III 5, 19.)
[Editor's note. This discourse was exciting for two important
reasons. First, Swami illustrated his powers by curing himself, in
a few seconds and before thousands of people, of a severe stroke
that he had had for eight days and explaining why this
event had to take place. Second, for the first time, Swami
mentioned
Prema Sai, his next incarnation. Swami said that he would come
back in a third incarnation as Prema Sai eight years after
he leaves this body.]
This is not Swami's illness; this is an illness that Swami has
taken on in order to save some one. Swami has no illnesses, nor
will he get ill at any time. You must all be happy; that alone
will make Swami happy. If you grieve, Swami will not be happy.
Your joy is Swami's food.
(Then, Baba signaled to Kasturi to speak. After his short
speech was over, Baba wanted the mike to be held before him. He
asked through it "Vinapisthundaa!". But, though he asked
again and again, the voice was so indistinct that no could make
out what it meant.
He then signed for water. When it was brought, he sprinkled a
little with his shaking right hand on the stricken left hand, on
his left leg. He stroked his left hand with the right. Immediately,
he used both hands to stroke his left leg, and that touch
was enough to cure it. He doffed the disease in a trice! He
started to speak! It was the same musical voice.)
For those who have no refuge, God is the refuge (Dikku
lenivaniki devude gathi). That is exactly the reason I had to
take on the disease that one helpless devotee was to get. He had
to suffer this dire illness, as well as the four heart attacks
that accompanied it, and he would not have survived it. So,
according to my duty (dharma)
to protect devotees (bakthasamrakshana), I had to rescue
him. Of course, this is not the first time that I have taken on
the illness of persons whom I wanted to save. Even in the previous
Sariram at Shirdi, I had this responsibility. The suffering
that you saw was too much for this particular devotee, so I had to
save him by going through it myself. This is my play (leela),
my nature. It is part of the task for which I have come,
sishyarakshana.
People who were near me during the last week were asking me to
give them the name of the person whom I had saved. I told them
that it would make them angry against that person, for Swami, they
would say, "had to undergo much pain in order to save that one
person." Then, they replied that they would honor the person
because of the extraordinary devotion that persuaded Swami to run
to his rescue that Saturday morning.
Some people even asked me whether it was this person or that,
giving names of those who had attacks of paralysis, especially on
the left side! This is even more ludicrous, because when I save a
person I save him completely. I do not wait until he gets the
disease, and I do not leave him a fraction of a disease so that he
may be identified later. It all looks funny to me, the guesses and
surmises that you make.
Even in Shirdi, Dada Saheb, Nadaram, Balawanth, all were saved
by these means. Balawanth was destined to get plague, but the bubo
was taken over and the boy saved.
This is perhaps the longest period when I kept the devotees
wondering and worried. That was because of the heart attacks,
which had to come later on the devotee, from which also he had to
be saved. Then, there is another reason why the 8-day period had
to be observed. I shall tell you why. This means I must tell you
about myself, about something I haven't disclosed so far,
something that I was keeping within myself for the last 37 years.
The time has come to announce it. This is a sacred day, and I
shall tell you.
You know I declared on the very day when I decided to disclose
my Identity, my mission, and my Advent that I belonged to the
Apasthamba Suthra and the Bharadwaja lineage (gothra).
This Bharadwaja was a great sage, who studied the
Vedas for a full one hundred years; but, finding that the
Vedas were endless (anantha),
he did penance (thapas)
for prolonging life, and from
Indra he got two extensions of a century each. Even then, the
Vedas could not be completed, so he asked Indra again for
another hundred years. Indra showed him 3 huge mountain ranges and
said, "What, you have learned in 3 centuries form only 3 handfuls
from out of the 3 ranges that make up the Vedas. So give up
the attempt to exhaust the Vedas. Perform a ritual (yaga)
instead, which I shall teach you; that will give you the fruit of
Vedic study, full and complete."
Bharadwaja decided to perform the ritual; Indra taught him how
to do it; all preparations were completed. The sage wanted
Shakthi to preside over and bless the ritual. So he went to
Kailasa, but the time was not opportune for presenting his
petition. Shiva
and Shakthi were engaged in a competitive dance, trying to find
out who could dance longer. Eight days passed thus, before Shakthi
noticed Bharadwaja standing in the cold. She just cast a smile at
him and danced along as before! The sage mistook the smile as a
cynical refusal to notice him, so he turned his back on Kailasa
and started to descend. To his dismay, he found his left leg, hand,
and eye put out of action by a stroke. Shiva saw him fall, came up
to him, and consoled him. Bharadwaja was told that Shakthi had
indeed blessed him and his ritual. Then, Shiva revived him and
cured him, sprinkling water from the Kamandalu. Both Shiva and
Shakthi granted him the boons of a sage (rishi); they would
both attend the ritual, they said.
After the ritual was over, they were so pleased that they
conferred even more boons on the sage. Shiva said that they would
take human form and be born in the Bharadwaja lineage, thrice:
Shiva alone as
Shirdi Sai Baba, Shiva and Shakthi together at Puttaparthy as
Sathya Sai Baba, and Shakthi alone as
Prema Sai, later. Then, Shiva remembered the illness that had
suddenly come upon Bharadwaja at Kailasa on the eighth day of
waiting in the cold on the ice. He gave another assurance. "As
expiation for the neglect that Shakthi showed you at Kailasa for 8
days, this Shakthi will suffer the stroke for 8 days when we both
take birth as Sathya Sai and, on the eighth day, I shall relieve
her from all signs of the disease by sprinkling water, just as I
did at Kailasa to cure your illness."
It was the working out of this assurance that you witnessed
today, just now. This had to happen, this stroke and the cure. The
assurance given in the
Thretha era had to be honored. I may tell you now that
the poor, forlorn devotee who had to suffer the stroke that I took
over was a convenient excuse, which was utilized. You see, a
railway engine is not made available to haul just one car; when a
number of cars are ready, then the engine is put into action. So
too, the disease had to be gone through, the devotee had to be
saved, the assurance had to be carried out, the mystery had to be
cleared, the Divinity had to be more clearly announced by the
manifestation of this Grand Miracle. All these were accomplished
by this one incident.
Let me tell you one more thing: Nothing can impede or halt the
work of the
Avathaara. When I was upstairs all these days, some people
were foolishly saying, "It is all over with Sai Baba," and they
turned back many who were coming to Puttaparthy! Some said I was
in
samadhi, as if I were a spiritual aspirant (sadhaka)!
Some feared I was the victim of black magic, as if anything can
affect me! The splendor of this
Avathar will go on increasing, day by day. Formerly, when
the Govardhanagiri (a mountain) was raised aloft by the little boy
Krishna, the cowherd maids and boys (gopees
and gopalas) realized that Krishna was the Lord. Now, not
one Govardhanagiri but a whole range will be lifted, you will see!
Have patience, have faith. Tomorrow morning, I shall give every
one of you the Namaskaram Blessing that you missed today.
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