Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Surrender - Part 8

Sairam to all of you,

In one of the Samarpan  Bhajan talks, “LOVE ALL, SERVE ALL”, a very simple, often repeated words of Bhagavan, was dealt with on 2 Tuesdays by HIM, through me who is also HIM, as ONLY HE IS.

(For those who are not aware of the Samarpan bhajans, a garland of 251 bhajans were learnt together by devotees of a wonderful Sai centre in Oman, Sai Sadan. The SAMARPAN name is not an adjective, not something special to distinguish these bhajans from Sai Bhajans, but SAMARPAN is to only re-affirm the attitude of PURE SURRENDER, the topic which are dealing now. The name was also a blessing which  we got from someone residing in Puttaparthi, who was requested by the author to give an appropriate name for these sessions and the devotee, the author’s mother, seated in Sai Darbar, got this name and gave it to us.

In fact, during the entire process of learning these 251 bhajans from 2006 to 2013, few members of Sadan did nothing at all except that they came together, they sat together in the sanctum sanctorum and shared pure love. That is all.)

Now, let us rewind our thoughts and refresh our God filled memories on what we learnt from this apparently very simple words of the Lord - 

"LOVE ALL SERVE ALL."

STAGE 01- LOVING THE GOD OUTSIDE US (LOVING GOD WITHOUT)

• As dealt with in the previous post, man, after keeping God’s love as mild on one hand and love for world and world’s beings, relationships etc. as intense, reaches a stage in one birth where, he finds that he never gets back the love which he gave to the world, from anyone in the world and at this point, the force of his love for world is withdrawn and with more force, the same is directed towards Lord. Mild love for God becomes teevra- intense love for God.

• Bhajan, poojan, temple visits, pilgrimage, satsangh, attempt to read religious books and filling the mind with Godly thoughts – all these things occupy man’s mind and heart now!

• Man’s heart sings mira’s feelings for the Lord- “Jo tum chodo piya, mein naahi chodoon re, to se preet thodoon Krishna, kaun sang jodoon re” (Even if you leave me O Lord, I dare not leave you ever. If I break my love for you, who else in this creation is worth, to whom I can direct the flow of my intense love).

• Love for God expands, rises higher and higher, beyond the sky, beyond the sun… (jyothi meditation words…..)

STAGE 02- LOVING THE LORD WITHIN, LOVING ONE’S SELF

• Lo and behold, The Lord was ever there in my own heart, I searched for him in Shirdi, Parthi, Mathura, Ayodhya, Mecca, Madina, singing – Aana hi padega baba…..!!!

• Swami turned towards the devotee and whispered- “I am there, in your own heart, as hrdaya nivasi. Where all you are searching for me??”... “Mein gaya hi kahan tum se door, jo mujhe aana padega ab”

• Even when you travel all the 7 hills up and reach my sanctum sanctorum in tirupathi or undertake the several kilometer walk, chanting in unison “jai mata di” and reach my shrine in vaishno devi, in those silent moments when you really find me there, your eyes are closed, you are not looking for me in the idol installed there, you look within, closing your eyes to cut off from the world outside, to find me WITHIN. Don’t you??

• A poet sings to his beloved “Socha tha tujh se door nikal jayenge magar paya har makaam tere rah guzar mein”- For Lord’s devotee- if this is to be understood, not that  he thought of getting away from the lord, but his mind drew him away from lord all these years, all the past births but when appropriate time came, ‘paya har makaam, tere rah guzar mein’- in every walk of life, in every stage in ,life, in my very breadth, I could find nothing but you, I could not be any where else but in You, with You, Within me!!.

• The game of treasure hunt has been won. Lord, knowing the man’s monkey mind, had chosen a very safe place in the game of treasure hunt, the devotee’s own heart, as Lord was sure, that is the only place where the devotee wont search for HIM. The time came, mild prarabdha and very intense purushartha made the devotee earn God’s grace. God’s grace is  not something which is very rare, which is unattainable. It is and it ever will be  directly in proportion to the devotee’s looking up to the Lord and craving for Lord’s love, with his love turned in all its intensity towards the Lord supreme.

• Game won, the chitachora discovered within the devotee’s own heart. Lord could no more hide in devotee’s heart. The devotee succeeded in discovering Lord within his heart, not in a small way, not during the few minutes of morning prayers but in all Lord’s splendour, in all the time, eternally and completely!

Let us all soak in this experience and absorb the essence of both the above stages to prepare ourselves for the Stage 3 which would take us to a different dimension.

Love.