DwarkaMai - Sai Baba Forum
Indian Spirituality => Philosophy & Spirituality => Topic started by: Ramesh Ramnani on May 11, 2005, 10:30:49 AM
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My contact with the spiritual tradition of Lord Dattatreya was quite fortuitous, a discovery by chance. When I was collecting material for the comprehensive account of Sai Baba of Shirdi, I came across the experience of one Kusa Bhav.
Kusa Bhav served his Guru, Sree Datta Maharaj 1and learnt occult skills like mysterious transference of material objects. He could produce sweetmeats from "nowhere" by a wave of his hand with the power of the mantra and distribute the same to amazed devotees as prasad. At one stage, he started pestering his Guru to teach him black magic with which he could harm his opponents who derided him as a charlatan. The wise Guru realized that it was not good for either of them to stay together any longer. He directed his disciple to seek spiritual guidance henceforth from Sai Baba of Shirdi and himself returned to the Himalayas to pursue his own spiritual quest for perfection.
When Kusa Bhjav arrived at Shirdi, Sai Baba was wild with rage and would not allow him to enter the mosque. He said that the sweetmeats produced by the former were not ‘created’ as the gullible devotees supposed, but were merely transferred from elsewhere by the power of a mantra. The sweetmeats thus pollute their devout recipients spiritually and would inspire them, in their turn, to hanker after cheap occult powers instead of seeking spiritual Enlightenment, which is the only noble object of man’s life. Sai Baba insisted that unless the visitor chose to give up his weird practices and leave off the power at the holy river Godavari, he would not allow the latter to come to him. Kusa Bhav vacillated for some time and, after much inner struggle, had to give in. He went to the Godavari, threw away the iron-bangle on his right hand and, taking the holy water in his palms, he vowed to give up all his occult powers as directed by Sai Baba. To his amazement he discovered that he could no longer produce such material objects by a wave of his hand. Henceforth, Sai Baba allowed him to visit him at the mosque and instructed him to study Sree Guru Charitra 108 times and visit holy Gangapur now and then. Later, Sai Baba blessed him with the power of obtaining sacred ash by merely thinking about him.
This incident drew my attention to Sree Guru Charitra as a potent means of winning the grace of a Perfect Master. Soon I discovered that the marathi texts which devotees study at Shirdi are those of this holy work. But none of the devotees knew English and I had no occasion to learn its contents for quite some time.
Again, in the course of my study of the life of Sree Sai Baba, I came across incidents, which demonstrate the spiritual identity of the great fakir with his equally great contemporary saint, Sree Swami Samarth, more popularly known as Sree Akkalkot Maharaj (1856-1878). Naturally, I was drawn to learn more about the latter and then I came to know that his life was a continuation of that of Sree Nrisimha Saraswathi, the second Avatar of Lord Dattatreya in this age, celebrated in Sree Guru Charitra.
I stumbled upon the subtleties of the Dattatreya Tradition no less fortuitously. Ever since I visited Shirdi (1963) and studied the marvelous life of Sree Sai Baba, I traveled extensively in search of such a SadGuru so that I could dedicate my whole life to his service.
Once I visited Sree Ma Anandamayi at Naimisharanya (Uttar Pradesh) during the Bhagavat Saptah.3 At one of the daily expositions of the holy text, the revered speaker, Sree Akhandananda Saraswathi remarked that only a living SadGuru could lead his devotee to Self-realization and that a SadGuru who had cast off his body, however great he might be, can fulfil prayers for one’s material good. He spoke in Hindi which I could only understand but cannot speak and so I could not discuss with him. As Sai Baba is no longer available to me in flesh and blood I wondered what I should do, but I had no chance to get the clarification.
After a few months, I visited Shirdi on a proposed stay of seven days. I wished to obtain Sai Baba’s guidance and clarification in this matter. On the second day, I was very strongly impelled to visit my old student who was working in Pune. It was quite unusual, as I never visited anyone of my friends or kinsfolk. I had to yield to the impulse and reached Pune. My friend was away at the office. So I left my bag in his house and went out, wishing to spend the time in going round the city till my friend’s return. Quite accidentally, I enquired at a wayside flower shop whether there was any great saint worth visiting in Pune. The shop keeper directed me to see later Sree Gulavani Maharaja, direct disciple of Sree Vasudevananda Saraswathi.
As soon as I entered the mutt, aged saint greeted me saying, "Oh, the child of Sai Baba has come!" I at once realized that I could get a reliable clarification for my problem from him. He heard my question and said, "What that learned speaker said is true of only those who attained Enlightenment through their effort. But Sai Baba of Shirdi is not such a one. He is the Avatar of Lord Dattatreya. He manifests himself to his worthy devotees even today in his physical form and guides them. You are on the right track. Go ahead " When I took leave of him, I asked Sree Gulavani Maharaj to give me any books that might help me in my quest. At his call, a devotee gave me a sanskrit translation of Sree Guru Charitra and a book of Sanskrit verses in praise of Lord Dattatreya. "These are the only copies left with us. You are fortunate in getting them", said the devotee. At once I realized that Sai Baba had blessed me with three things; the solution of my doubt, a version of Sree Guru Charitra which I could read and for which I was longing; and the darshan and blessings of an eminent saint of the Datta tradition. I was all happier to learn later that Sree Vasudevananda Saraswathi used to read Sree Guru Charitra every day and that this, along with his other devotional practices, had won for him the darshan of Lord Dattatreya in a vision and His direct initiation with a mantra. The present work is a free English rendering of this work. I was more fully impressed by the value of the book when I learned that a large number of devotees were divinely directed to resort Sree Akkalkot Maharaj as their Guru as a result of their devout study of Sree Guru Charitra.
About the Work:
Sree Guru Charitra was first written by Sree Gangadhara Saraswathi in Marathi Language. The eminent Marathi scholar L.R. Pangarkar4 says that the first two incarnations of Lord Dattareya, Sree Sreepada Sreevallabha and Sree Nrisimha Saraswathi the two protagonists of the immortal work, had flourished in the 14th and the 15th centuries A.D. The original text recounts, in 53 chapters, the life and the teachings of the two incarnations in about 7000 verses. In the late nineteenth century, Vasudevananda Saraswathi, a famous saint of the Dattatreya Tradition, translated the work in sanskrit of equal numbers. Later, he was told in a vision by Lord Dattatreya that details pertaining to matters of Hindu religious ritual, have infringed on the proper theme of the work, and was directed to abridge it into 2000 verses. The present translator and the Sanskrit pundit who had assisted in him in the reading the Sanskrit text were blessed with darshan and blessings of several great saints during and after the study and the translation of this Sanskrit work. This is quite in keeping with the subtleties of the Dattatreya tradition. The present English translator is still working hard to gather material about the historical background of the first two Avatars of Lord Dattatreya. He hopes to furnish the same in a more complete form in the subsequent editions of the work.
The Purpose of Translation:
The present rendering into English is intended to serve a six-fold purpose. Firstly, its study is a very effective means of contacting the deeper perennial springs of spiritual wisdom of all religions through proper attunement of our psyche. For according to the Perennial Philosophy (or Sanatana Dharma), the Spirit is the medium, Substratum or the essence, of which the whole universe is a manifestation. This Spirit or Essence is Lord Dattatreya, which manifests itself as the great SadGurus from time to time. When we study their life histories, their acts and teachings, our hearts are attuned to the Essential Spirit of Datta. Secondly, in the form of Nrisimha Saraswathi, Lord Dattatreya has vowed to manifest himself amidst us in response to our loving call. In the modern age of cultural chaos and confusion of values, it will be of immense help to mankind, if a large number of noble aspirants for spiritual perfection, their own and that of their fellows come together in Spirit in a process self-attunement to the Eternal Spirit of Lord Datta through a widespread study of the work and, together all of them call upon the Spirit of the perennial Guru to manifest himself amongst us and guide us along the noble path. Thirdly, as the life of Sai Baba of Shirdi, the latest, and the most complete manifestation of Lord Dattatreya, is the One Spirit that manifests Itself through all the Enlightened Spiritual teachers of today that belong to various nations and religions. By the widespread study of Sree Guru Charitra and my other life work Sai Baba the Master, ever larger number of responsive souls amidst us would be able to draw richly upon the grace of all these Masters. Fourthly, a diligent study of these works would educate the masses of devout souls to transcend the vicious, narrow barriers of religion and race and pray with the Vedic seers, "Let uplifting thoughts come to us from all directions." Fifthly, these devotees would be sufficiently informed mic aspects are called Prakriti. The whole nature around us, from the distant nebulae and galaxies to the smallest "particles" and "fields" of modern Physics, constitutes Prakriti and its play. At the end of active phase comes a state of total dissolution of all material existence and two states are figuratively described as the "sleep" and wakefulness" of Brahman, the Creator. In these are involved many sub-phases or cycles of time, called ‘Kalpas’, each bearing its own name. For instance, the present one is called Svetaraha Kalpa, literally ‘the kalpa of the white Boar’. Each kalpa is subdivided into Manvantaras, each having its own universal lawgiver or Manu. Each Manvantara is again sub-divided into the sequence of four Yugas, of which there is a definition in Sree Guru Charitra.
At every phase of total Dissolution or Pralaya, all the living creatures and other aspects of the previous active phase of material existence are said to recede into a dormant state in a subtle form, just as all our feelings thoughts and knowledge lie dormant in our individual consciousness during deep sleep. When we wake up, all these re-emerge into manifestation. So does it happen with the recommencement of the active phase of the Universal Spirit.
Every active phase of the Universal consciousness is set to begin as the stir in the Divine Will (The Word, as the Bible puts it) to manifest Himself as the Many. According to the Indian scriptures, the first to be created are spiritual principles called the four Brahma Manasa Putras (the spiritual offspring of Brahma, the creator) who chose to remain forever as such, i.e., as fully enlightened sages and not get entangled. In the next phase of active cycle were projected the Prajapatis (lit the progenitors of material creations and living creatures) and sages like Atri who willingly chose to further the divine plan of creation. Then were projected the various conscious forces in nature, described as Gods by the Vedas. The rest of the material creation is a product of the collective, harmonious functioning of these conscious principles, described as the Yagna.
The whole of the active phase or Prakriti is characterized by three modes of functioning of the cosmic energy- Sattva, Rajas, Tamas which can be described as Harmony, Activity, and Confusion. After the evolution of the material universe, including the earth. With all it’s flora and fauna, sages like Atri manifested themselves on earth in human forms and propagated knowledge of the fundamental creative processes among mankind. This body of knowledge is the Veda, which later came to be classified into the four Vedas. The sages also try to impart all this knowledge to as many as possible through religious philosophy, metaphysical and ritual. The whole process of creation, of which man is a part, was presented as a spontaneous, joyful, creative process of self-fulfilling activity with no other aim or goal. Man can live in harmony with the rest of creation and with his own self (which is basically a manifestation of the cosmic or universal process). To the extent that he grows in this realization and he can thus transcend all those narrow, selfish concerns which shut out such understanding and which are, in their turn are products of lack of such an understanding.
Guru and Disciple
As such man, with the help of this understanding has to inform and mould his every thought, word and deed with the urge to realize this wisdom. That is, understanding moulds thought, word and deed. Cultured thoughts, word and deeds actualize is understanding and thereby perfect it. Thus, in the form of a chain reaction man enters the real relentless stream of divine creation towards self-harmonization and perfection, freeing himself from the cocoon of petty selfish drives or needs that are projected as natural and legitimate by his limited, clouded view of creation. The later is a blurred distorted image obtained through the sense medium of his wrong understanding or more correctly no-understanding. When one realizes this harmonization, with the rest of creation, the basic disharmony with himself implied by his former concept of discreteness, distinctness of his own self, ‘other’ selves and things is dissolved. And he realizes the unity that is the essence of the seeming diversity of forms. Such a one perceives the misery of others as remnants of disharmony of his own self and strives to resolve it while, from the strength of his own perfection, he knows that there are in fact no others to be saved from misery.
Such a one is called the Guru, The teacher, that can make all our life’s struggle for lasting contentment and bliss, worth the game. Without him, the immense creation and one’s own disharmonious life together seem the ocean of misery of phenomenal existence. With his help, it is an ocean of Self- Realization. Anyone who knows or intuits this is bound to love the Guru. His heart’s strength, with which he has hitherto loved wealth, his life, wife, and all else separately, is now put together in adoration of the Master.
It is on this basis that Sree Guru Charitra, maybe termed the glorification of the Guru, who is the Truth, the Way and the Life, and is worthy of being loved with all the strength of one’s soul and heart, as the Christ puts it. The proper conduct of a true disciple to the Guru, as depicted in the stories in Sree Guru Charitra would seem childish forms of self-enslavement, if this truth is not understood. The details of a disciple’s conduct are not something that can be formally implemented, but they constitute the spontaneous experience of love. The joy of such love consists in acting it out, leaving it out. It is not the veneration of an individual called the Guru; it is the spontaneous realization of the essence of the Guru; it is wisdom-in-action that is the ultimate object of one’s own life’s struggle. In short, only such a one is a disciple and, to him, the Guru is all the Gods, all the holy places and the rest. What his own life cannot give him, he is sure that Guru can, and hence the later is dearer than the former than his own life. Do not human beings stake their lives for love, wealth, and fame etc, which cannot promise as much.