“Shuklam Baradaram Vishnum,
Sasi Varnam Chatur Bhujam,
Prasanna Vadanam Dyaayet,
Sarva Vignoba Saandaye”
Dressed in white, you are, oh all pervading one, glowing with the colour of the moon. With four arms, you are the all knowing one. I meditate on your ever-smiling face, and pray, “ Remove all obstacles on my way”.
“AGAJAANANA PADMAARGA
GAJAANANA MAHIRNISHAM
ANEKA DANTAM BHAKTAANAM
EKA DANTAM UPAASMAHE”
I worship day and night that elephant faced Lord Ganesha, who is like sun to the lotus face of Mother Parvati. Giver of many boons, single tusked Ganesh, I salute Thee to give me a boon!
My dearest embodiments of Love!
Today on the occasion of the 12th World Peace Conference and Baba’s 47th birthday, I shower my ever new and abounding blessings along with my love which you could not have experienced before, on all the delegates and devotees who have come over here from all the four corners of the world and on those who have come over here by crossing the boundaries
Embodiments of Love!
A leader is not at all a leader if he has no followers. In the same way, God without devotees is not a god at all. So without you, the devotees, there is no reason for me to come down on to the earth as an Avatar.
Like a mother who worries about her children, I also feel the same anxiety
and concern towards you. What is the reason? Just now the other speakers on the dais said that there is no one before me and behind me and I have no children and no wife. If you say that I have no family, I would have felt happy. But when you said that I have no children, I stand here as a lone mother without any child and I feel deeply the agitation and disturbance of a woman who has no child.
I have all of you in thousands as my children. How could I be a childless mother? I am no lesser than any rich person in the world! I feel happy as a powerful, wealthy, glorious, prosperous, great and wealthy God.
How is it possible?
My whole property is you. All I have is yours and all you have is mine. If both of us unite, who else will be therein the universe to be richer and wealthier than me? I feel proud about it.
Whether there is a government or a leader or a prime minister or even a God, they are there only for the people.
So I bless at first all of you, who did even a little bit of service on this occasion, like the small squirrel which did the smallest service to Lord Rama in Ramayana, but gained the greatest merit. In the same way, here also the village folklore singers, and the village cultural troupes, NCC students, the students and teachers of the Bala Sai School, the press and electronic media – they all keep me as a medium, but we must keep them as our medium and both of us must march forward – to each and every one of you, who ever participated even in a small way in the service of Baba, to all the devotees who have come over here from all over the world and the artists who have come over here bearing all the troubles and losses – to each andevery one of you in all your names, this is my blessings:
‚Even if you forget me, I will never forget you. Even if you leave me, I won’t leave you. As the eyelids protect the eyes, I will be always with you protecting you. I will take away all your troubles and losses and in return, I give you my peacefulness and happiness and comforts and relief.‘
Embodiments of Love!
n this Kali-Yuga (Black Age), we can gain both physical sustenance and spiritual liberation only through doing service to the society. For example, in Krita-, Treta- and Dwapara- Yugas, the yogis, saints, ascetics and devotees did penances, absorbed deeply in religious meditation, attended with austerity or self mortification and chanted incantations, read sacred texts and hymns and prayers and thus evoked the presence of God and thus had His Darshan and united with Him. But in this Kali-Yuga, the Black Age, you can attain salvation only through service.
People become Sai Baba devotees in thousands and lakhs in number. But they do not understand the principles
of Sai-ism – Sai- Philosophy. In our Sai- Tattva, in our Sai-Culture – may it be Shirdi Sai, Sathya Sai or Balasai – the principle is service to mankind! We keep service to humanity in the place of penance, worship and oblation, and we place service to our fellow beings as our sole principle which is mainly in publicity, also in the place of meditation, prayers and Japa. There is no place here for mantra or incantation, Tantra or mystical formulae for rituals.
What I specially want to convey to my devotees is that I take to my heart ‘the service to humanity and service to the society’ as the dearest quality.
And what I want to tell you, my devotees, is that the hands, which help the fellow lives, are better than the lips that chant ‘Sairam, Sairam’.
There is no need for anybody to give anything to God directly or there is no need to do any service personally to God, as God has everything and God is everywhere. What I request from you all is to help your fellow being who is the representative of God.
If you earn ten rupees, even if you spend nine rupees or save nine rupees, at least give one rupee as a help to a needy and if you can be happy by enjoying the happiness in his face, your attaining the salvation (Mukti or Moksha) is not far away.
So far, I am fulfilling others’ desires and wishes only. I, myself never had a desire. But in this year of two thousand and
seven, a tiny desire springs out even without my knowledge.
Whatever I wish to achieve, whatever my goal may be, I want to achieve that through you only. This is my tiny desire. When the children are able and clever and when they are praised by the wise, the parents’ hearts fill with happiness. In the same way, I put you as my heir to all my wealth and to my goal and desire also.
What is my desire? Just now I explained. You are all good persons and Baba’s devotees. It is not enough, if you are just pious devotees. Within your limitations, you must try to do service to the needy, to the society. This is my desire.
What is my goal? Our Bharat, our India, was ruled by foreigners for hundreds of years. Under those useless, cruel rulers, the people of Bharat suffered a lot. We were forced to live like ‘the frogs in the well’ – like slaves, loosing all our identity. Whoever looted our country on behalf of his government, whoever they may be, either British or any other nationality, in the name of spirituality and devotion – in the name of love and humanity – I have decided to make those foreigners walk in the path of virtuous conduct and in virtuous way of life, to bring back all those wealth from them and to give it to you as my gift for the welfare of our country men. This is my goal.
So if you want to develop the ability to fulfil my wish, you also have to try to participate within your capacity in all the social service activities that Baba has undertaken. Just now the political leaders on our dais also have said, so far I have never taken
anything from anybody by my hand. My hands are always giving, but have never taken anything in return. My divine love also has the same quality, only giving. I don’t want you to be lazy devotees. I don’t want to see you idly. I do not want to keep you in a life without any responsibility.
If you are my real devotees, ideal devotees, then you must follow my footsteps to whatever goal and ideal I have put forward to myself. You also should become an ideal model for others in fulfilling them. This should not stop within a limited area or society or organization. These service activities should go beyond boundaries and reach the entire world. When we construct a plan for such a development, then the time would not be far away for the attainment of peace all over the world. Then there will be total availability of comfort and relief to all the people. What else does the world need other than peace, comfort and relief?
Embodiments of love!
You all know I have no employment for earning. I have neither a place as my own nor a name. But from the very day of my birth till the end, I live like an emperor.
If a person was able to earn one lakh rupees, he will try to multiply it into another lakh by depositing it in the bank or investing it in the share
market. Or even he will try to save the money on the name of his children or invest it on real estate. People jump into such decisions immediately when they have money in their possession.
But as you see, I have this dress, which I wear and a meal that I eat, which you serve me. This is my possession. Whatever I get, I am spending for the welfare of the society through service activities. I don’t have a single Paisa as my own.
Whenever I get single Rupee, I take a loan of another Rupee and spend both the Rupees on social welfare activities. In this way, so far I have spent hundred crores of Rupees on social services. Even then my desire for service activities is not yet quenched. Only when both you, the devotees and I, hold hands in hands and work together for the welfare of the society – then only my thirst for social service would be satisfied at least a little.
But, everywhere there is jealousy.
When an artist comes into success in his field, another artist becomes jealous. Even in spiritual field, seeing one spiritual leader growing in fame, another one gets jealousy.
Wherever you look, there is competition, competition, competition. If the competition is in a healthy and growing spirit, then it should be welcome. But, otherwise – for example, if you purchase a silk sari worth rupees one lakh and keep it for safety in a trunk box and lock it, the destructing moth enters in to the box and spoils the whole silk sari. In the same way, even though we work without the aim of any profit, if we progress in our endeavour, there are many people in the society who cannot tolerate it and started criticising and hating us (like the destroying moth). But we need not take them into account. As a soldier marching fast in the battlefield, we must go forward in our social service activities.
Behind me, there are people belonging to two universities. Last year also I requested – especially, ladies and girl children, who discontinued their
studies for various reasons, can continue their studies even up to university level without any fees. I am ready to educate them even up to PhD level. Even those women, the housewives, who have taken the sewing machines, can join in our evening schools and study up to university level. I am thinking of giving those jobs in our school itself so that they can lead a respectable and comfortable life in the society. So many times I asked you to utilize this opportunity by gathering the required information from our office and register yourself in our schools and get Baba’s blessings. But every year my request went in vain. Everyone seems to be satisfied with the sewing machine and tricycle. They do not do any effort to get a permanent and long standing life style! This will also be an idle life then!
So once again what my heartfelt request and anxiety is – when a girl child studies well, she can teach the whole family – so even if it is difficult to fulfil, if necessary, I am ready to give five hundred rupees per month as pension to each girl child and bless her to come and study. But if I find her taking the five hundred rupees and sitting merely in the house without going to school, I will come to your house and collect back six hundred rupees instead from you.
Like wise, for those handicapped persons, we can arrange something for
their livelihood. I am instructing the Trust to take a list of those handicapped persons’ names and arrange for a pension of two hundred and fifty rupees to five hundred rupees every month for their livelihood as a help in starting some “small business”.
In the same way, you all know the Seva or service activities that we are doing. I have adopted this Kurnool district for the eradication of blindness and have completed so far about sixty thousand eye-operations. This is a record from a private charitable organization in India.
Wherever there is backwardness, either in education or in economy, I bless our Trust to take steps to improve our neighbour districts like Adilabad, Warangal and Kammam by organizing special health camps, study centres and educational institutions for the tribal and backward people and take this 2007 year as Total health and Educational Year for their welfare.
I am also the Chancellor of a University, Kalinga University. In that position, I ask my friends Badrinath and Jagannath, who are behind me, not to always keep their eyes in the cities, but start to work in those above said districts like Adilabad, Warangal and Kammam – ok – Mehabubnagar and start do establish study centres there and do service there also – not only in our state, but also wherever it is possible, wherever it is necessary, throughout the country.
If only we have resources, there is no end for service activities. We can go on doing this. Even then it won’t be enough for our country! It would
be like pouring a glass of water into the River Ganges. As I said earlier, I try to get back the money from foreign countries and pour it in our country.
Even though I take the social service activities as my life breath, there is one more thing that I like very much. That is taking care of the welfare of my devotees.
I lead them in the right path, both in material and spiritual fields. So that they can attain the highest spiritual benefit either by getting the highly elevated rebirth or union with the almighty itself ultimately. This is my most auspicious aim, my goal and my mission.
Then, there is a small matter. Just now, Labbhi Venkata swami, the Chairman of Jilla Parishad, requested me while conversing with him, to join free of cost some fifty merit students from poor families in our International School. It may cost us one crore rupees per annum. ( R.R.: It is a costly affair)
For that, I request the trustees to look into the matter and make arrangements to educate those fifty students in our school whom the Government select and send. I bless them for the same.
When there are two people, and when both of them do not love each other, there arise a situation of anger and quarrel. If the husband is angry and not interested to talk to his wife, the wife can calmly love her husband and talk to him. Love and happiness will grow as much in proportion as you give. We get back much more love and happiness when we share them with others.
What I want to convey is, I always think and talk about Seva or service.
Some times I may talk about matters other than Seva or service, but you must put your mind always on Seva or service only.
What I want to say now is one more thing. The government is not always utilizing the services of Non Governmental Organizations. At least the voluntary organizations like ours can join hands with the Government and start doing service activities. If this happens, then the people and the society will get perfect benefits. Then the recipients of those Seva or service will feel very happy. Their happiness will become a blessing for those who worked hard in the service activities whether they are members of the voluntary organization or the Government. They can lead a secured life in material field and also get the greatest benefit of God’s blessings.
As a proof for the above said, I have decided to join the good natured person with good character, the young man Labbhi Venkata swami, the Chairman of Jilla Parishad, as a partner with us for this 2007 year to do service in the fields of education and health care for this district.
Embodiments of love!
If we keep apart what ever I said so far, there is one more thing I want to
convey. A human being cannot become whole if he solely concentrates on material wellbeing. In the same way, if he always meditates and keeps his mind on god alone and lives a totally spiritual life, ignoring the basic necessities of his body and his material welfare, then also he cannot become perfect.
For example, when there is a temple, if we take the external structure as materialistic, the idol inside the sanctum sanctorum is spiritual. When the outside architecture of the temple decays, the idol will also get destroyed. In the same way: if we neglect our body without giving it the needed nourishments, the Atma, the soul which resides inside, also will emaciate.
So, embodiments of Love!
One who has faith in god, who thinks of god will come up in his life and prosper like the rubber ball which comes up when beaten on the earth. But, on the other hand, the life of the person who neither takes part in service activities nor takes care of his own family and lives without faith on god will get degraded in life and go downwards like the ball of mud which will stick to the ground without coming up when thrown down on the earth.
Embodiments of love!
Do not spend all your time singing bhajans and thinking spiritually. And do not get immersed totally in social service and material pursuits. When spiritual pursuits, service activities and material pursuits hold hand in hand marching forward in a man then, mukthi, moksha, or the salvation will be visibly near him “as plainly and vividly as a myrobalan fruit (a kind of berry, ‘amla’) placed on the palm of the hand is seen”
Particularly, you all have come over here tolerating all the difficulties and troubles to listen to Baba’s discourse. What ever I have told so far is not a lecture not a discourse. It is only a message, a friendly word.
The day when you try to utilize even a single flower from the garland of messages that I uttered so far, on that day I feel that my life’s mission get fulfilled.
Once again, who ever come over here tolerating all the troubles and difficulties, I bless you that I take away all your difficulties and troubles giving you peace, happiness and comforts and relief.
I bless you all to get what ever you wished, with what ever desire or purpose you have come here during Baba’s Darshan, will get fulfilled.
I bless the students for good knowledge, intelligence and success. For elders, I bless happiness and comforts. For the artists, I bless good future in their fields by donning colour on their face daily along with spiritual advancement.
Lastly, with a small wish I complete my message. The speakers on the dais told without any reluctance that I have none as my own. But I wish and I am sure, that you pull me out from the feeling of loneliness by assuring your faith on me, by keeping me securely in your hearts and by loving me wholeheartedly. You, my devotees are my heir for whatever wealth I have including my love, peace, and happiness. I bless you all.”
Baba concluded his message with two melodious Bhajans by singing them sweetly:
“ Om Shivaya Om Shivaya……” and “Subrahmanyam, Subrahmanyam….”
With Mangala Aarati, the morning function on Baba’s 47th
birthday celebrations was concluded.