Understanding Shirdi SaiBaba Philosophy

Where do you think God is? As a child I always thought that God was sitting high, up above, beyond clouds, watching over all my actions and would reward me accordingly. Next thought would be, does God have so much time for me? Am I so significant to HIM in HIS huge universe? I thought God was in places of worship. So I visited temples, offered flowers, sweets, donation and recited hymns and prayers that I had read in religious books to please HIM. I often wondered, God is creator of All that is, does HE need all these things which he created Himself? I never saw God taking anything that I offered. My senses were enjoying fragrance of incense sticks, my tongue was tasting the sweet, my ears were listening to religious hymns. It was ‘I’ doing and enjoying everything and feeling satisfied while worshipping the God. But where was the God I was worshipping?

Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha has explained the logic behind idol worship so well.  According to him, the man believes that the idol/image placed in the centre of shrine is God so he bows before it in reverence and worships it. Does that mean all things other than idol/image/symbol is non-God. Is God so limited? Most of us have made God separate and so very distant from us. Obviously we have not properly introspected about the concept of God and what God stands for. ‘Darshan’(vision of idol/image) brings peace and joy to us. However, we should understand that it is not that image which gave peace and joy but it was our own mind which could generate and produce these qualities from within by looking at the idol. Thus the image/idol of God is a reminder, reflection of our own divinity. This can be explained in this manner. A man cannot see himself. So man made a mirror. When we look into the mirror we see our own reflection. When we comb our hair in front of a mirror, nothing is happening to the image inside the mirror. It is merely showing us our own action.

Thus whatever we do to our own self is reflected in the mirror. On its own, mirror is not doing anything. Same is the case with image/idols/symbols used to represent God. These are objects, which the Subject uses to connect to itself. This is initial stage of devotion. After sometime, even these images are not required to connect to the God. One can think of God and invoke the ‘bhav’(intention/ feeling/attitude) of deep fondness, love and reverence towards the all knowing Self. The mind which was confined to only I and my family learns to expand and look beyond.

Thus Mind expands and sees God in all. Everyone is extension of self. When we feel limited we do not feel God. When we connect to the God within, everything turns God. Its all the play of our own mind. Lord Krishna asked us to use our intellect and train our mind to expand beyond our limited physical body. Lord Buddha said I am not in the body, the body is in me.

It is said that we are spiritual beings having human experience. Human birth is given so much importance in our scriptures because only human can use and sharpen his intellect to understand this reality and experience it finally. Walking down the Sai path(method), I have started to understand things in bits and pieces.

In Sai Satcharita, Shirdi Saibaba has explained this in such a simple manner. 

Saibaba said that barring our name and body, something is left. That is the feeling of being alive…..consciousness. This is Self. This is God. We should meditate on this Self that is all knowing. This explains that God is within us. 

Saibaba told his devotees to destroy this wall of ‘teli’ (difference/EGO) and come face to face with God, i.e., SELF, the ‘aatma’/ antaratma(soul). The difference is our wrongful perception of SELF as mere body and its name due to different shapes and sizes of all human bodies. This perception needs to be corrected to know God and realize our own inner spiritual splendour. Anything spiritual cannot be felt and experienced by our five senses. Spirit is transcendental and hence within us because we experience everything within. Like each grain has a seed, similarly each of us has divinity embedded in us. In right kind of conditions, the seed sprouts and reproduces a duplicate of itself. Each one of us has spark of Supreme Divinity in us. Places of worship have been made to provide conditions to ‘water and sprout the seed’ of devotion within us which brings us face to face with our source, the knowledge of God.

Thus idol/image is a trigger point to increase immense love, devotion and fondness towards our own divinity. Even the devotee knows that the idol/image is made up of marble/paper and ink etc. But when a devotee sees an image, all the positive emotions surge within and he finds himself full of love. All the paraphernalia of worship is not meant to please some external object but the subject within. The SELF in us that we represent as ‘I’ is the Subject experiencing this world. This ‘I’ is God. e.g., it is not alarm that wakes us up in the morning, it is something within us that awakens at the sound of alarm. Introspect what is that ‘something that is awakened or was sleeping before the alarm’. God is present everywhere in as well as all around us – visible as well as invisible. In certain things we feel that natural life force energy while in some we do not. This doesnot mean that it is non-God. We should often introspect and try to feel, understand and experience this ‘I’.

We all have God within us but we search for God in outside world. When we focus on our own God-li-ness, we experience oneness with our source and then things start to happen just the way we want. 

This is one reason that Shirdi Saibaba advised his devotees to meditate on SELF. Feel like God and experience the bliss. Deities are meant to invoke this connection within us. But man thinks God is far away and hence feels himself as separate from God without realizing that ‘Jiva’(living presence) within his body temple is presence of God. We need to tune into this presence. 

Hinduism never promised showing God. Hinduism focuses on experience God within, right here, right now. If we study Vishnu Sahastranama(1000 names of Hindu God Vishnu), and understand its meaning, the focus is on attributes of God, ourselves, the Self, the ‘I’ within, the all knowing part of us. This could be the reason as to why Shirdi Saibaba gave importance to these names. We have given many names to God because of many ideas we have about God. These names are holy, they take away poverty of mind. It is our ego that makes us feel that we are separate from God. Otherwise everything is different faces of God. Clay makes all shapes and kinds of potteries. Basic material of all of us is same.

The outside world is reflection of the inside world. All is made up of five elements. When Scientists searched for the smallest particle, it turned out to be space in which electron, protons etc were vibrating. When scientists went far away in space, they again reached the same place – the empty space of vibration. Both the ends look same. Everything around us is vibrating and has consciousness. Thus God is all pervading and interpermeating this entire universe. When we discover the real God that permeates each cell of our being, a sense of deep companionship arises within and the deep lonliness dissolves. One starts to see Self in others and others in SELF. Everywhere is extension of our own self because all objects are reflection of our own personal experience. Everything is God’s representation. ‘Sabka Malik Ek’, ultimately all is one. If we start thinking of second factor it becomes cause of fear. Idea of many brings fear since it suggests separateness. Hence single pointed devotion makes us fearless.

We finally understand that God never ever punished us. It is our EGO that is cause of our suffering. If there is no EGO, we are GOD. So where is God? God is imperceptible to senses, therefore, He has to be within our body. Instead of searching outside, lets take easy route and reflect inside. Never say that worship of Lord is difficult. The Lord is seated within our heart, in us, surrounding us, interpermeating everything around. The Supreme Source that created us is present all around us and within us.  God is attainable and we cannot exist without HIM. HE is near us, constantly present within us, seated in our own heart. God is none other than our own ‘Aatma’(soul – compare it to water), part of Paramatma (Spirit – compare it to ocean). When we understand water, we understand ocean too. Inquire who is this ‘I’. Introspect regularly, think about it often. Lets not be an animal, who takes body only to eat, sleep, enjoy and procreate.

The chief Aim of human birth is to know our own self, our own nature and experience our own reality. This ‘I’ is that part of us which is transcendent and beyond the access of our five senses and all the three ‘gunas’(states of nature). The Supreme Lord is seated in our own feelings, attitudes and emotions which emerge from our mind and mind is supra material. Lets not wait for any special occasion to worship God. Anything that we are doing, lets offer all that as most tender flower to the Supreme. God only wants Love. Let us Love ourself, our own being. Do not see God in limited form. Let heart host an infinite God and expansion take place in our own inner personality. FEEL LIKE GOD to KNOW GOD.

VANDANA RITIK
NOIDA

How do I see God in Rapists, murderer etc.

Giving below the response I received from Revered Self Realised Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha for benefit of all Seekers.
Question:

Thousand prostrations to Revered Swamiji.

Today watching morning TV on Disha, I fully understood God is source and pervades everything around us. Makes perfect sense to me. But one question always crops up. Is He not present in a rapist, murderer etc also? How can I see God in these kind of people who torture innocent children, brutally murder and find joy in killing others. My intellect is not able to find logic of presence of God here. I am definitely  missing something here. I am unable to link karmic laws of nature with seeing God in everyone. I have obviously not understood  something. What am I missing here because I do believe that God is everywhere in visible and invisible form. God is everything around. Only this point is not clear. What am I missing here Respected Guruji?
 Koti Koti pranams at your holy feet.
 Vandana Ritik

Dear and Blessed Vandana Ritik:




Harih Om Tat Sat. Your email of 22nd Oct. 2012 is before me, and I am reading it again.

Dear Vandana, the moment you begin to think that God is omnipresent, omnipresent, omnipresent … your mind has to grow and expand correspondingly. The usual constrictions, preferences and prejudices, would start falling, as you reflect upon the quality of omnipresence. Will you accept a God, who is not omnipresent? Equally, can you accept anything besides or in addition to God?  If God is omnipresent, He alone is, can be, and nothing else. In such a background, discuss this question deeply, reflectively.

 Omnipotence of God makes Him produce a world of infinite dimensions, distances and variety. Infinity or infinitude in any field will mean containing everything and all. And that will mean good as well bad, the best as well as the worst, and everything coming in the midst.


In the case of human beings, in whom are all the other traits confluence, the behaviour will have to range from the best and the worst, in order to become full, ample. Thus, the thief, dacoit, wicked and the rapist, all have a place in the world.

 In all these, who is present is actually God. He is certainly present in the circumferential plane, the segments in between, and in all the variety these comprehend. That is why virtuous and wicked people are alike present here.  Unless this variety persists, comparison and contrast resulting in the evolution of knowledge will not be possible at all.

 So when we say God is present in the rapist also, it does not mean He is not present in the others. He is present in them also, in all. By triggering such a wicked trait, God displays how wretched and inexcusable it is, and what extent of derision and denouncement it will warrant, so that the rational mind can discriminate, withstand and outlive such tendencies.

Suppose God is not present in the rapist, then you will have to say somebody else is present in him. Is that acceptable? What will happen to the omnipresence of God then? God is the impersonal, impartial soul, beyond even the ego. In that spatial transparence, no activity emerges and no effect befalls. Unless, you can comprehend such a zero position within oneself as well as all, you cannot have peace, harmony and unfailing wellbeing.

 So, try to enrich and sublimate your emotions, think more feelingly, in a subtle, deep and comprehensive manner.

 Unless good and bad are equally there before you, how will you have knowledge at all, for which distinctions are necessary? How will you know whether it is bad or good, which has the intrinsic power to survive sovereignly? So, the world is bound to contain the infinite variety that it should.  And this variety should incorporate everything, ranging from the best to the worst.

Love and ashirvaad. Ma Gurupriya and Swami Nirviseshananda Tirtha also send their loving best wishes.

Antaraatma,

Swami Bhoomananda Tirtha


Narayanashrama Tapovanam

Venginissery, P.O. Ammadam, Thrissur Dist., Kerala – 680 563, India. Tel: 0487-2278302 / 2278363




 

Laws of Karma

All the visible actions that take place through our body and five sensory organs i.e., eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin, in spiritual terms, is actually karmaphala – effect of a cause (and also effect of past life karma) set in motion by us. Real karma is not visible but subtle. The intention (bhava) that we create in us while partaking this effect creates karma which will bring its effect in the next life time. In this lifetime we are repaying and receiving the effect of all our bhavas we created – knowingly or unknowingly – in past lifetimes. We are reaping rewards of all our subtle thought processes. Natural forces arrange themselves in such a manner that ultimately we get whatever we had really intended for. However, due to ignorance of this law we are left wondering as to why things did not happen the ways we had planned to do.

Karmic law is a naturally occurring scientific spiritual law. It works as per certain specified rules. It is metaphysical in nature and cannot be proved in a laboratory. After understanding laws of gravitation, electricity, etc., human being used it to their own advantage. Similarly once we understand laws of karma, we can use it to improve our future and create our own destiny. Otherwise, we are like puppets in the hands of nature and flow with the current and go in whatever direction life takes us.

Only a foolish would close his eyes and cross a busy traffic road saying “I will be saved if it is in my destiny.” As an intelligent human being, we are supposed to do our best, as per our own standards, and also make efforts to improvise. If despite all best possible efforts things do not work out, then take it as destiny; wait for some time and try once again because only human being has 'Will Power' and 'Consciousness' which can be invoked to create or change one’s own destiny.

Why not take the remote of our life in our own hands? Make efforts to be the Master Karma Creator.

Vandana Ritik

Noida