The only and ultimate Lord.

God is addressed differently by different groups of people and also personally by individuals through various names. God, the unseen, is thus addressed differently as He does not have a single form. His manifested forms are millions and millions. These forms maybe visible to the human eye or may not be. He has gross forms, subtle forms, energy forms, thought forms, feeling forms. But the ultimate form of God is an unseen form, which no one has seen. All Saints, paths and religions, at their best, have called it a vast, timeless, spaceless, causeless, attributeless ocean of emptiness or a primordial void.
Whatever God reveals about Himself through the sense and beyond perceptions to the human beings, is what they understand Him to be. Species other than human beings are not mentally evolved to conceptualize that the movements in the universe and also in them are created by God as their soul‐force. The excellence and superiority of the homo‐sapiens lies here. Not only do they have the capacity to conceptualise God in myriads of forms but they have also worked through the methods to experience God at different stages of consciousness. Whereas other religions have conceptualized a limited number of these forms of God, Hinduism, being one of the oldest religions on this earth has created thousands of symbols for millions of aspects of the unlimited God. This has not happened in a day or year. It has evolved through the passage of time of thousands of years through the experience of practitioners who have devoted their full lives to the realm of spiritualism.
The universally accepted principle of experiencing God can be explained through the parallelism of a river meeting an ocean or sea. All rivers emanating from different places (locations), meandering through different lands and paths ultimately merge in sea. Thereafter, forever the river is a part of the sea. It merges its total identity in it. When we think of the Bay of Bengal, we do not picturise is it as a combination of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and other similar rivers and thousands of other water channels merging in it. Herein comes the concept of multiplism and dualism leading to Monism (Advaita). Since each of these rivers flows on different soils, through different hills and forests, takes different curves and falls, the attributes of the water it carries cannot be the same ‐ i.e., in content, speed, density, quality and quantity. However, once merged in the sea, all its qualities merge and become one with the attributes of the seawater.
Different religions and paths that people follow are like these different rivers. It is wrong to criticize any of these religions and paths. One is free to practice any path he chooses, but is socially and morally not free to slander other religions or paths.
This is what Shri Sai Nath Maharaj taught his disciples through His own conduct and precepts. Shri Sai Satcharitra amply elabo
rates on this universalism of Baba in the backdrop of some day‐to‐day happenings at Shirdi. Following the Master, Sai devotees should, therefore, develop the highest quality of religious tolerance. As Baba used to say all are the children of God and He is the only and ultimate Lord.

Shri C. B. Satpathy Ji

The Real Happiness

Human beings carry within their selves the two opposing aspects of nature: good and bad. Usually, that which gives pleasure is considered good and which gives pain is considered bad. In this context, pleasure includes both pleasure of body and mind. Our bodies and minds need satisfaction at every moment from the smallest things say such as, adding a little sugar to our morning cup of tea to setting up a Sugar factory. At the mental level, a person may be inspired by the photograph of a film hero in a magazine or the wish to become a hero. All the time human beings are seeking instant gratification of the multi-dimensional aspects of their lives at the desired level and in the desired style. If we make a daily assessment of the number of physical and mental activities that gives us pleasure, then we may find that at least some of these desires never got fulfilled. That area of dissatisfaction becomes something like an area of deficit, sort of an emotional hole.
At the end of the day, some people often forget these fulfillments and remember the areas of deficit only. Let us, for instance, place all the activities of life under twelve categories, namely parents, brothers, sister, wife, children, health, job, money, property, fame, religion, God etc. With certain rare exceptions, most people want the greatest possible satisfaction in all such desires that they nurture simultaneously.
Satisfaction of the temporal status of human beings is not material in this situation because all the aforementioned aspects are human aspects and are common to all human beings all over the world. History tells us that no person on this earth, howsoever powerful or great had ever been fully satisfied in all aspects of his life. For the sake of argument, however, let us assume that someone got complete satisfaction in ten or eleven aspects of life and incomplete satisfaction in one or two aspects. Even in such a scenario, we find that this person will spend more time and energy in brooding over only these two aspects of life which he lacked. At times such deficits or unfulfilled aspects are taken too seriously. Sometimes, the waste of time and energy on the smaller areas of life are able to cripple or even destroy the other happier and vital aspects of life. Let us take the example of a person who has everything else but has a crippled body due to an accident. History is studded with examples of such people who achieved many things despite their physical disabilities. However, some of these people due to their pessimistic outlook have a propensity not only to disturb their own lives and also that of everyone around. Because of their peculiar mental state (sometimes magnified due to their imagination or selfishness) they become a liability for others. Such a state of mind often creates complex psychological condition or even adverse health condition. Many of these people even become self-destructive leading to suicide such as in cases of failure in love and exams etc. Some people consider such extreme reactions in them with a sense of idealism and believe that to remain dissatisfied is a great virtue. They are often shocked to find some other people happy even despite great adversities in their lives. Sometimes they look at such balanced people as insensitive beings or as persons who are escapists or careless.
Thus in the ultimate analysis it will be seen that the enjoyment of life depends on the level of one’s satisfaction. Life gives certain things and denies certain things to all living beings. Therefore one should not be over happy when life offers certain desired pleasures and should not break down when certain things are denied by life or go wrong in life. Shri Shirdi Sai Baba often used to tell his devotees to be happy and satisfied with whatever God has given them and to patiently watch the changing patterns of life dispassionately. This, then, is the key to a happy and meaningful life.

Shri C. B. Satpathy Ji

The path towards the Sadguru

The path towards the Sadguru is the real path, more so in this age of conflicts, contradictions and acute materialism. As Swami Vivekananda said like all rivers leading to the sea, all the paths that men take lead to Him, the God eternal. The paths that are mostly adopted by the seekers are Rajyoga, Gyanayoga, Karmayoga, Bhaktiyoga, Hathayoga, Layayoga, Nivriti Marg, Pravriti Marg etc. There are even Avadhootas, Kapalikas, Aghoris and many other types of seekers. Various religions have different approaches. In this multiplicity of approaches towards God realization, there has to be something common and universal that must be all pervading. The seeker of this universal path makes spiritual progress with comparative ease.
Sitting in Shirdi Masjid, Baba said that there are many paths, but one of the paths leading to God is through the Dwarkamayee. When one analyses how Baba led thousands of people towards God realization at Shirdi a certain pattern is discerned. The basic principles of the Sai path are based on the existence in physical form of a perfect being known variously as a Perfect Master a Sadguru or a Qutub as called by the Sufis. A Qutub simply means an axis, a pivot around which others, living and nonliving, both revolve. The Perfect Master, having himself experienced different stages of evolution including that of man has at last reached the stage of God. However, those among these perfect beings, who, out of infinite compassion, make the greatest sacrifice of not enjoying the blissful state of God but incarnate on earth in a human body to serve the imperfect, suffering humanity, are called the perfect Masters. As Meher Baba has said, at any point of time there are five perfect Masters on earth in embodied form. In my view they are possibly more in number
When in human body, they act as both human beings and Gods. As Gods they have infinite power, infinite knowledge, infinite happiness and infinite existence. Like God they are Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient and enjoy the powers of the Almighty. They share their power, knowledge and pleasure with millions of human beings by certain methods unperceivable by human beings and are known as Leelas or divine miracles. All miracles are based on the laws of nature. Only one has to know experience and master them. All the elemental and subtle forces of nature like fire, water, air etc., on earth defined as deities by the Hindus work under their command or wish. As Gods they see everything in themselves and themselves in everything. So they serve everyone without any differentiation as if they are serving themselves. They see God in everyone even though others may not be able to see God in them. They give infinite love to others and take infinite pain for others. Once any human being or any species is linked with them in any manner, they ensure that they are evolved, life after life, till they merge with God from where they came. This ultimate stage of evolution is ordinarily known as Mukti or Moksha.
These Perfect Masters alone are capable of leading human being to God realization. They follow what is common and universal in all religions i.e. humanism based on love. Out of love they not only take care of the spiritual evolution of the devotees but also their temporal requirements. Once one has surrendered to them they look after all his needs as a mother would do for a child. They can go to any extent, even to sacrifice their human body; to protect their children. That’s what Baba did for many as can be read in Shri Sai SatCharitra and as experienced by many. To develop closer and closer links with him, one has to patiently develop faith in Him even under the most trying circumstances. And also to develop the qualities of humility, sacrifice, tolerance and steadfastness in devotion and actions that are desired by the Sadguru. One will evolve earlier than others worshipping too many deities if he follows this path of Guru. Baba used to give visions to many people in the form of their deities like Hanuman, Ganesh etc., which convinced them that there is no difference between Baba and any other deity or even God. One can therefore, at the first stage, try to see all deities in Baba, and worship Him in the method in which other deities are worshipped. In short, one should try to see and seek everything in and from Baba. This path may be difficult at the initial stage but can certainly be achieved with steadfastness and faith in Baba. So let us try.

Shri C.B. Satpathy Ji

Guidance by Shri C.B. Satpathy Ji

For these who want to come closer to Baba the only way is to keep unshakable faith in Him under all circumstances. But some people come to Sadguru with the desire of worldly gains or exhibit their devotion with such expectations hidden in their hearts. Sometimes, when their desires are not fulfilled or when they have to suffer the consequences of their own Prarabdha (past actions), they tend to lose faith. In the time of any Avtaar or Sadguru every wish of every man was never fulfilled. Sadguru, never fulfills those desires, which would become barrier in their spiritual progress. There is His hand behind both, the fulfillment or unfulfillment, of such desires. Therefore, one who can experience Baba both, in pleasure and pain, is the true devotee. The pleasure seekers are bound to deviate from the path as they don’t seek the love of the master but the material benefits.

Shri C.B. Satpathy Ji