Dear Devotees,
Om Sairam! Jai Gurudeva Datta!
I write this for the forum with prayers to Sai and Datta. The very intent to post this came from my readings of Sri Gurucharitra recently. I hope the following will help devotees to understand Sai better and know what it means by guruseva. I will also post more in the days ahead.
First of all, Sai is none other than the direct poorna avatar of Lord Dattatreya. You may ask me what proof do I have to say this. The proof is in the amazing similarities between Satcharitra and Gurucharitra (GC). Sai's leelas follow the same pattern as Datta's leelas. Sai indirectly indicated that He is Datta by asking many devotees (such as Kushbhau) to read GC. That is consistent with the rule that a true yogi should not proclaim himself directly as divine. They define themselves in many other sweet, wonderful ways.
GC upholds what Sai has always spoken of: the need to serve a Guru selflessly and devotedly. A true disciple will never wean away from the path of his Guru, no matter what happens in his life. Serving one's Master is the same as serving Parabrahma. In other words, one should look at a Guru as a "Saguna Roopa" of God, to serve and please. There can be no other God other than our Sadguru. Period.
GC also talks of Dattatreya's severe tests to His devotees to see if their faith and bhakti are strong. In fact, Datta is known to be a hard taskmaster. If one can endure the sufferings of this age, with courage, magnanimity and with Sai's name on their lips -- then they are closer to Sai/Datta than ever. On this forum, I have seen many devotees pour forth their agonies at their realworld sufferings and many even blame Sai for it. It is wrong. No God hurts His children. Our sufferings are a reuslt of our own sins; not God's fault. What we perceive as realworld trauma, is infact the repaying our karmic debts and sins.
But then, just as Sai did for Dr.Pillai, Datta also showed that he can adjust/transfer our karma between our current and future janmas. Remember, ONLY a Sadguru is capable of doing that. Not even the Trimurtis can do what a Sadguru can. The powers of a Guru are beyond our mortal comprehension. As GC sings:
"Vande Vangmanasaa teetham, Dattatreyam Jagadgurum..."
(vang = voice or spoken word; manasa = mind)
Sai/Datta's leelas are beyond our puny little intellects. Our job is just to keep in mind that He is The Ultimate Reality or Aim of every living being on earth. Datta is ageless and timeless; so is Sai. Take heed of it, my friends. Take heed. The next time you see a photo of Sai, look at it as the physical manifestation of the Lord Dattatreya, a union of Trigunas and Trimurtis.
Let me close with what Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa once said about a Sadguru:
A Sadguru is the person who officiates as the priest at the wedding of Jeevaatma and Paramaatma.
It is so true.
Om Sairam! Jai Gurudeva Datta!
= Sriram
Dr. Sriram Kalaga
Jacksonville, Florida, USA
e-mail:
drkalaga@aol.com
Topic: Saibaba-Dattatreya Tatwas (Read 3304 times)