BABA’S METHOD OF TEACHING
As for Baba’s declaration about his Guru, Professor Narke heard Baba say, Maja Guru Brahman ahe, that is, My Guru is a Brahmin. Having said so much about his Guru, professor Narke carefully noted that Baba did not say that he had any sishya to continue his line. On the other hand, Sai Baba said, ‘I would tremble to come into the presence of my Guru.’ There was no one prepared to serve Sai Baba in that way at Shirdi.
Once Sai Baba asked, it seems, ‘Who dares to call himself my disciple? Who can serve me adequately and satisfactorily?’ But apart from a disciple to continue the line, Baba helped in various ways and in various degrees. He encouraged them, protected them, and gave them instructions occasionally.
Narke was studying Baba’s methods of teaching and improving devotees. Baba gave our moral tales and a few occasional directions. But these were exceptional. But the traditional method of Baba was not oral. His traditional method was first the negative portion; that is, the Guru did not give to his chosen disciple any Guru mantra. Usually a Guru whispers a mantra into the ear of the sishya, and he seems to be almost biting the ear when he is whispering. So, Baba said, ‘Me Kanala Dasnara Guru Navhe.’ That is, ‘I am not the Guru that bites the ear. He did not regard japa and meditation as sufficient for the sishya. These produce in the sadhaka Abhimana or Ahamkara. Unless and until Ahamkara is completely wiped out the Guru is unable to pour all his influence into the sishya.
In Baba’s school, the Guru does not teach. He radiates or pours influence. That influence is poured in and absorbed in full by the soul which has completely surrendered itself and blotted out the self, but is obstructed by the exercise of intelligence by reliance on self-exertion and by every species of self-consciousness and self-assertion. Baba, therefore, would tell some devotees, ‘Be by me and keep quiet and I will do the rest,’ that is, ‘secretly or invisibly.’ Of course faith in him – absolute faith – is a pre-requisite. One who was merely seeing him and staying by him for a while got faith. Baba gave experiences to each devotee, of his vast powers of looking into his heart, into the distance regions of space and time, past or future and this infused faith. One need not swallow a thing on trust. The solid benefit, temporal or spiritual reaped by the devotee and his feeling that he is under the eye and power of Baba always, wherever he may be and whatever he may do, gave him an ineradicable basis for his further temporal and spiritual guidance.
Baba’s is the power that controls this world’s goods and our fate here and now, as well as our experience and fate in the future, in this world and many unseen worlds. The professor concludes that the duty of a devotee under Baba is only to keep himself fit for the Guru’s grace. That is, he should be chaste, pure, simple and virtuous and he should look trustfully and sincerely to the beloved master to operate on him secretly, and to raise him to various experiences, higher and higher in range, till he is taken at last to the distance goal. ‘But one step is enough for me’, is the proper attitude now, He need not take the trouble to decide complicated metaphysical and philosophical problems about the ultimate destiny. He is ill-prepared to solve them now. The Guru will lift him and endow him with higher powers, vaster knowledge and increasing realisation of truth. And the end is safe in the Guru’s hands.
These above conclusions, as the professor says, are not from any single lecture or address by Baba, but are gathered from the various hints, his dealings with many people and his occasional words.
Written by: HH Pujyasri B. V. Narasimha Swamiji
As for Baba’s declaration about his Guru, Professor Narke heard Baba say, Maja Guru Brahman ahe, that is, My Guru is a Brahmin. Having said so much about his Guru, professor Narke carefully noted that Baba did not say that he had any sishya to continue his line. On the other hand, Sai Baba said, ‘I would tremble to come into the presence of my Guru.’ There was no one prepared to serve Sai Baba in that way at Shirdi.
Once Sai Baba asked, it seems, ‘Who dares to call himself my disciple? Who can serve me adequately and satisfactorily?’ But apart from a disciple to continue the line, Baba helped in various ways and in various degrees. He encouraged them, protected them, and gave them instructions occasionally.
Narke was studying Baba’s methods of teaching and improving devotees. Baba gave our moral tales and a few occasional directions. But these were exceptional. But the traditional method of Baba was not oral. His traditional method was first the negative portion; that is, the Guru did not give to his chosen disciple any Guru mantra. Usually a Guru whispers a mantra into the ear of the sishya, and he seems to be almost biting the ear when he is whispering. So, Baba said, ‘Me Kanala Dasnara Guru Navhe.’ That is, ‘I am not the Guru that bites the ear. He did not regard japa and meditation as sufficient for the sishya. These produce in the sadhaka Abhimana or Ahamkara. Unless and until Ahamkara is completely wiped out the Guru is unable to pour all his influence into the sishya.
In Baba’s school, the Guru does not teach. He radiates or pours influence. That influence is poured in and absorbed in full by the soul which has completely surrendered itself and blotted out the self, but is obstructed by the exercise of intelligence by reliance on self-exertion and by every species of self-consciousness and self-assertion. Baba, therefore, would tell some devotees, ‘Be by me and keep quiet and I will do the rest,’ that is, ‘secretly or invisibly.’ Of course faith in him – absolute faith – is a pre-requisite. One who was merely seeing him and staying by him for a while got faith. Baba gave experiences to each devotee, of his vast powers of looking into his heart, into the distance regions of space and time, past or future and this infused faith. One need not swallow a thing on trust. The solid benefit, temporal or spiritual reaped by the devotee and his feeling that he is under the eye and power of Baba always, wherever he may be and whatever he may do, gave him an ineradicable basis for his further temporal and spiritual guidance.
Baba’s is the power that controls this world’s goods and our fate here and now, as well as our experience and fate in the future, in this world and many unseen worlds. The professor concludes that the duty of a devotee under Baba is only to keep himself fit for the Guru’s grace. That is, he should be chaste, pure, simple and virtuous and he should look trustfully and sincerely to the beloved master to operate on him secretly, and to raise him to various experiences, higher and higher in range, till he is taken at last to the distance goal. ‘But one step is enough for me’, is the proper attitude now, He need not take the trouble to decide complicated metaphysical and philosophical problems about the ultimate destiny. He is ill-prepared to solve them now. The Guru will lift him and endow him with higher powers, vaster knowledge and increasing realisation of truth. And the end is safe in the Guru’s hands.
These above conclusions, as the professor says, are not from any single lecture or address by Baba, but are gathered from the various hints, his dealings with many people and his occasional words.
Written by: HH Pujyasri B. V. Narasimha Swamiji
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