Cover Story: Glorious Sai, His Grace

Volume 3 - Issue 11
NOVEMBER 2005

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GLORIOUS SAI - HIS GRACE

This cover story is organised in six parts including the preamble. This is the third part of the story.
You can go to other parts from the links below.

Darshan – The Gift Supreme

Eighty years have gone by since Swami chose to descend and at least six decades since He made Darshan – the divine act of going to the masses and conferring them peace, joy and untold blessings - a part of His daily routine. It is a routine which He has followed actively and assiduously day after day, month after month, year after year, decade after decade.

Darshan is the single divine routine through which the bond between the devotee and the Lord is established. Every devotee yearns for that moment each and everyday He spends in His physical presence in His Ashram, be it in Prashanthi Nilayam, Brindavan, Kodai Kanal, Chennai or Mumbai.

Darshan is overwhelming! You would have seen Him just this morning but you want to see Him again in the afternoon, you would have enjoyed His presence yesterday but you want it today also and wish you could get it everyday.

His Love and Grace – Universal and Irresistible!

Never in the annals of history has a sea of humanity waited with bated breadth for the glimpse of a single person for hours in silence and prayer. Never before has it been recorded that one person, with His presence could initiate miracles galore, make the sorrow of the populace vanish in a trice and force a gathering to willingly forget itself and transport each one of them to the highest realms of ecstasy. Never before has any person commanded such love and adoration from an assembly of people with myriad professions and varied age groups, of assorted backgrounds and mixed cultures. How very powerful is the wand of the love that the Lord waves! How irresistible is His grace!

Yes, it is compulsive, enticing and more importantly spiritually reinvigorating – the divine attraction is simply overpowering!

They come from every corner of the globe and from every strata of Society. One may be rich and another poor, one may be a king and another may be a pauper but all distinctions vanish before God. Everyone is His child. In a temple or a church, one must go to the sanctum to have His Darshan but here in His Home, He comes down to us, where we are seated, with a smile that transports everyone to the very heavens. Darshan is not just Swami coming to us…So many incredible things happen, things that become treasured memories for a lifetime!

The Yesteryears…Golden Moments

The old-time devotees go into divine raptures when they recollect the nostalgic memories of those wonderful days when there was an Arch in Prashanti Nilayam, where the Sai Kulwant Hall now stands. Yes, it was somewhat uncomfortable, especially when sitting on sizzling sand under a blazing Sun, vulnerable to the rain and the wind, but who bothered? Did not time stand still as He gently walked by, smiling, blessing and waving?

His one look, one glance is sufficient to change the course of our lives for the better, for good. People clamour for the chance to touch His Feet, to have their children named, or initiated into spiritual disciplines according to scriptural rules by Him, to receive some token of His Grace, and to lay before Him, their mental and physical illness so that He may render them whole. His Grace grants 'colour to the painter, notes to the composer, voice to the singer, strength to the athlete, endurance to the climber, and bliss to the Yogis'.

The old-timers who have seen the Lord sitting blissfully under the blessed banyan tree in the Brindavan of the 80’s and early 90’s - the “Sai Ram” shed as they used to call it – will not miss a single opportunity to narrate how the setting and the scene was so wonderful and captivating…a bewitching Lord at the front, an enchanting Krishna idol behind Him, birds chirping and joining in during bhajan sessions, the banyan tree so lively and full of glee being Baba’s tree spreading its copious branches and leaves to make a natural roof over every devotee. God, man and nature had become one!

An Open Invitation to One and All

Baba has an open invitation for everybody to seize the chance of His Grace and save themselves with alacrity.

"By seizing this chance, you can elevate yourself step by step, steadily. A stomach ache or a fever, some loss or grief brings you to Prashanti Nilayam. You start liking this place and its atmosphere, the Omkara, the Bhajan, the calm quiet that prevails. You see Me and observe My movements, words and actions; you leave with hope and courage, confidence and strength with a Bhajan book and a picture, perhaps.

Before long you forget the ache or fever, for it has either disappeared or lost its acerbity; you have developed a new ache - for Prashanti, (Unshaken Peace) for Darshan, Sparsan, Sambhashan, for Japam, Dhyanam (spiritual practices) and Sakshathkaram (Realisation). Follow My instructions and become soldiers in My Army; I shall lead you on to victory," Baba said on one occasion years ago.

The Golden Books of Our Lives…

Each one who moves to His presence with hope and confidence, has a story to tell, each one more fascinating and reassuring than the other. Each one has in his heart a book of experience with letters written in gold. Baba, even when physically present at Prashanti Nilayam or Brindavan, arouses ardour and yearning, awakens curiosity and interest, stimulates thirst and restlessness, assures comfort and cure and alerts and admonishes in dreams and through visions.

Distance is no barrier, time is no hindrance, power, position or wealth are no criterion when it comes to His Grace. However disintegrated the personalities of individuals may be, when they come to His Lotus Feet they assemble in unison. He is like a divine goldsmith who melts the small metal pieces of our individual egos into one beautiful resplendent ornament and in His company we shine brilliantly.

“Each one of you has to be saved….”- Baba

In puncturing our egos, breaking the barriers of our hearts and removing the narrowness of our minds, He is ever relentless and as determined as ever. He said on one occasion,

“Each one of you has to be saved, and will be saved. I shall not give you up, even if you keep afar. I shall not forsake even those who deny Me, I have come for all. Those who stray away will also be drawn near and saved; do not doubt this, I shall beckon them and bless them."

Do we need any clearer intimation than this about His Grace and His Divinity?

To the students of a medical college, Swami once said,

"For a four-lettered degree, you spend the best part of your life; for attaining the Degree of Degrees, namely God’s Grace, can you not spend at least five minutes a day, contemplating silently on the mystery and majesty of God, which is evident in the construction, the functioning, and the disintegration of every atom and cell?"

It is up to us to seize this opportunity. Swami says, “Make Me your Charioteer!" All we have to do is to surrender the reins of our lives to Him and He, the divine charioteer, will smoothly and safely take us to our goal. There should not any worry, any doubt. He is our Divine Insurance. His Grace is our only true property which will be with us at all times and at all places, here and hereafter.

- Heart2Heart Team

Go to the links below to read the other parts of this cover story

You can write to us at : h2h@radiosai.org

Vol 3 Issue 11 - November 2005

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