Divine master who reinstilled value of service to humanity

The 86th Birthday of Sri Sathya Sai Baba falls today

November 22, 2011, 9:43 pm 

By Kanchana Kodituwakku

Divinity manifested in human form, 86 years ago on 23nd November 1926, at a village named Puttaparthi, located in the southern region Damabadiva. He was named Sathya Narayan Raju, after the family tradition and grew upwith His family up to the age of 14 years, at which time He declared He was "Sai Baba" and that He no longer belonged to the Raju family, as He has come for the service of entire mankind; so saying left the family house. He told his family that many thousands in theworld were eagerly awaiting His arrival, bringing the divine light ofsalvationfrom worldly bondage, to mankindand thus took His first step for the service to humanity. Soon thereafter,He embarked on His divinemission with a few of His close devoteesand subsequently took up residence at ParshanthiNilayam ( meaning the ‘Abode of Supreme Peace’) located about one and a half kilometres away from His place of birth.

The commencement of His divine ‘service to mankind’ was not to be without impediments, due to persons of varying ideologies and backgrounds, trying to stall and hinder the progress of His mission by spreading false propaganda in order to bring disrepute to Sai. All such sinister endeavours of those adversaries however,were never a success and furthermore,all those who had the wrong perception of Sai ultimately did turn around gradually to follow the righteous path of Sai.

His foremost endeavour was to instil and develop the fundamental human qualities in mankind. Anyone embarking on the study of the core teaching of Sai, based on Truth (Sathya), Righteousness (Drama), Love (Prema), Non Violence (Ahimsa) and Peace (Shanthi),will come to the conclusion that they are not in any way contrary or different to any of the spiritual paths laid out in fundamental teachingsof the World religions, be it Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhist or any other. The experiences of true spiritual seekers of the world belonging to all major world religions were that, the teachings of Sai have had a remarkable impacting rightly understanding the deeper meanings of the doctrine taught bytheir great teachers, may it be the Lord Buddha, Lord Jesus Christ, Allah or the Hindu Vedas. Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba emphasises the fact that everyone should understand the guidelines set out by their own great religious teachers and consciously follow and act according to the principles laid out by their own religions.

The occasions that Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba practically demonstrated the real essence of his teachings on ‘Service to Humanity’ is numerous and uncountable. Sathya Sai Baba who often affirmed "My Life is My Message", established 3 large Super Specialty Hospitals equipped most advanced up-to-date medical equipment in India and over 1000 medical centres are in operation throughout India offering medical services free of charge to the needy, devoid of any kind of differentiation on race, caste, colour, creed or religious differences, only with supreme Love towards Humanity. At the same-time, numerous schemesfor provision of food for the needy and housing for the poor too are in operation. He successfully constructed and commissioned large scale drinking water supply projects on His own accord, for the continuous supply of purified drinking water to the backward remote villages in India. The children from poor underdeveloped villages, are given ‘free education’ from kindergarten level to PhD level at the numerous Sathya Sai schools, colleges and the universities, so much so that today the Sathya Sai University complex which holds a foremost position among those in the world, is an undoubted testimony to its on-going success.

When discussing the subject of divinity of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, it is appropriate to include another vital phenomenon of His. At these present times, it is a well substantiated fact discovered by scientists, that a radiance of colours – an aura - emanates from the human body, not visible to the naked eye, which depicts ones inner spiritual development where the colours of radiance and the extent of radiance determines nature and level of development. The darker colours similar to black, grey, red and blackish purple depicts innermost unholy characteristics of a person filled with lust, anger and hatred etc. However, the aura of a person with pure love, developed mind and kind thought characteristics will radiate with colures like white, yellow, pink, light blue, light purple and green. A normal persons aura usually emanate to a distance of 2 inches to a couple of feet depending on his or her intensity of inner development. A professor who has carried out extensive scientific research over many years on the subject of human aura is Prof. Frank Baronovsky of the Arizona State University, USA. The Professor travelled to many corners of the world, experimenting on the aura of spiritual teachers, religious leaders, preachers and the like. Once he happened to be in India and carried out photography experiments using the Kirliancamera to photograph the aura of Bhagawan Baba. The outcome of his experiments was thus reported. The aura emanated by the living body of Sai Baba was of extraordinary intensity in white and pink colours and it transcended to unfathomableinfinite distances in all direction.In the end, Prof. Baronovsky not only understood the phenomenon of divinity, but became an ardent devotee of Sai Baba. His personal experiences may be browsed even to this day through the Internet pages.

Bhagawan Baba elaborated his mission on earth in human form, saying "My advent on this earth took place to give to you guidance to reach the pinnacle of spiritually, but out of the many millions of devotees who come to me, those who ask for what I have really come to give and those who actually receive it are only limited to a few. Many of them come to me to ask from me for worldly things which will make them more and more attached to the materialistic world"

Therefore, the outcome of Bhagawan Baba’s advent on earth could be made more fruitful, if everyone makes a concentrated effort to tread the path to Nirvana, without further developing materialistic desires just by trying to make the impermanent as being permanent, which would only make the cycle of birth & death longer.

It is exceedingly difficult to understand the reality of the spiritual journey towards the goal of reaching Nirvana for the ignorant man living in a materialistic world attempting to satisfy the five senses. Even though this process is an extremely gruelling one, like swimming against the current, it is imperative for one to overcome the obstacles and go through the process to realise the real purpose of human life. To realize this final goal of life, the guidance of a real genuine teacher is essential. It was Bhagawan Baba, who gave proper guidance and propelled mankind in to the right orbit towards self-realisation and finally shed his mortal coils on 24thday of April 2011 to merge with the cosmic consciousness, immersing the world in an ocean of tears. Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba has reiterated the fact that, Divinity has no birth or death, although the cosmic consciousness may take on a human format difficult times when necessary to undertake the task for the well-being of humanity and will remerge with the cosmic consciousness once the task thus undertaken is completed. The highest veneration one could offer to Bhagawan Baba, who for 85 years of His life, carried mankind along the path to achieve spiritual elevation through the power of Truth, is by treading the path to liberation, diligently adhering to the guidelines set out in one’s own religious teachings.

Joyful Birthday wishes to Sai Deva, the One who ushered-in the divine light to mankind.