The sayings of a Sat Purush are self-validating. There is no need to explain them; no is it necessary to comment on or interpret these few intimate charters of the great Master. They have come down to us as the priceless heritage of spiritual wisdom, happily preserved by his devoted and loyal disciples. We owe a debt of gratitude to these bhaktas for giving us these cherished maxims in their original form, particularly to the great Shri Narasimha Swamiji and Shri Annasaheb Dabolkar from whose works these maxims have been culled and reproduced.
Shri Sai Baba did not give any sermons, nor did he write any spiritual thesis, though his scholarship was profound and he could surpass the knowledge of the many pandits and moulanas who often came to him for elucidation of the texts. The source of Sai Baba’s mastery over the scriptures of all religions was as unfathomable as his entire personality was enigmatic. No one knew how this incredible avatar was able to amass so much knowledge and that too in all its immaculate details! Sai Baba had settled in Shirdi at the tender age of 20, and after that no one saw him studying or reading a single book. In him was manifested the innate genius who had fathomed the profundities of that luminous Reality, knowing which everything else becomes self-revealed. Just as Baba was Guru Incarnate, he was also Knowledge Incarnate. Sai Baba, however, preferred to transmit knowledge and teachings through the spoken word in the age-long tradition of Bharat. Not only spiritual masters but venerated teachers of classical nritya and sangeet preferred this method of transmitting knowledge in the ancient past and many of them do so now. Like the rishis of old, Sai Baba also believed in a close and intimate association of the teacher and the taught. Each sadhaka’s spiritual and material problems were peculiar only to him; therefore, Baba preferred a very individual transmission of Grace and instruction to his flock of disciples. He neither gave any formal talks nor wrote any books.
Shri Sai Baba’s conversation and sayings were not delivered with the purpose of dazzling a handfull of intellectuals with technical discussions of philosophy; his aim was to rouse the moral insight of the average seeker. Often employing analogies and similies drawn from experiences that are common to all men and women, the Master was able to carry conviction and inspiration to those who came to him. Using simple stories and clothing great truths in simple parables like Jesus Christ, Baba was able to create a pyramid of perceptions in the listener.
Somehow, when a Satpurush speaks, subtle forces are at work, and the words of these great Masters acquire a strange power, which perhaps is not inherent in the words themselves. Even the familiar stock-in-trade of ethical admonishments and moral reflections assume a compelling power which again is not inherent in them, for, the same words issuing out of the mouths of ordinary men would sound common place and platitudinous. Hundreds of disciples, however, would listen to Baba’s word’s in rapt wonderment which soon changed to conviction. This is because one knows that the truths uttered by realized persons have been actually experienced by them; their words consequently carry authority and conviction. One Mr. Francis Brabazon in an introduction to one of Avatar Meher Baba’s brochures very succinctly confirms this in the following sentence: “The words of (Ordinary) men are like candles which burn out leaving both the speaker and his audience in darkness; but the message of the Divine Incarnatiom, both at the time of utterance and for posterity, is a sun which never sets and is always available if one will but pull up the blind of prejudice and partake of its light.”
Some of Sai Baba’s sayings reveal the hunger in his heart for true and selfless adoration. The Master’s yearning for the love, freindship and understanding of the bhaktas who belonged to him with a touching and lovely fact of his relationship with his disciples.
As a matter of fact, Sai Baba often hinted that he had not come to teach but to awaken. He sought to bring about this awakening through the impact of his love. Through the centuries men had read volumes of philosophy, but so long as there is no integration between thought and practice, sadhakas do not grow in spiritual Grace. Sai Baba, therefore, simplified his teachings so that the bhaktas may get down to the sheer practice of spiritual sadhanas. As the Master repeatedly told his followers, all great work for God is done first in the individual soul of the worker.
The Saint of Shirdi was one of the most compassionate of the avatars. He accepted all the self-imposed limitations, restrictions and sufferings that the ordinary human body is heir to, so that he may inspire men by the example of his magnificent life. He descended from that eternal abode of peace to embroil himself in the affairs of men. This was his supreme act of redemption for humanity which he loved so tenderly. The living thoughts of a saint who has taken samadhi have constantly to be restated, reinterpreted and reassessed, and, thus to use Plato’s lovely words, “restored to youth and beauty”.