Sai Ram.
Let us continue with the exploration of the spiritual gems from chapter 12.
"Some men desired to see Sai Baba's but they did not get any opportunity of taking His darshan, till His Mahasamadhi. There are many such persons, whose desire for Baba's darshan was not thus satisfied. If these persons, believing in Him, listen to His Leelas, their quest for milk (darshan) will be, to a great extent, satisfied by the butter-milk (Leelas)."
Sai Ram.
Since Baba was not confined to His physical body, He is present in His photographs, in His devotees, in His stories and in His name and of course in all Gods and Saints.
So, a strong urge to reach Him through any of these different means establishes the connection.
After all, as Baba told Shri Das Ganu Maharaj, When the devotee is bursting with love for Vitthal, He will make appearance, indicating that He is Antaryami or the Indweller.
The same idea was also conveyed by Sai in similar words on other occasions too.
So, looking at Baba's photo or painting is same as bowing to Him.
This too was confirmed by Sai when He told a devotee that He knew Him for 4 years when that devotee went to Shirdi for the first time. Similarly, when Ratanji Wadia of Nanded was first asked to pay Rs.5 as dakshina and was also told that He already received a part of it, He indicated His oneness with Mauli Saheb, the porter saint of Nanded. Many more incidents can be seen in Satcharitra to indicate the oneness of Sai with all Saints and Gods.
This is not surprising since it is the ego that limits one's consciousness and Sai, who was without the slightest trace of ego is One with that Supreme Consciousness that is called God, Allah, Jehova, ParaBrahman, Para Shakti etc.
So, devotees could see in Him their own Guru, or favorite God. "If some persons went there by sheer luck and took Baba's darshan, were they able to stay there longer? No. Nobody could go there of his own accord, and nobody could stay there long even if he so wished. They could stay there, so long as Baba permitted them to stay, and had to leave the place when asked to do so by Baba; so everything depended of Baba's will."
Every body has its Karma. Baba knew the karma of each and every man, woman and animal, its past, present and future. So, He arranged for the particular body to go to Shirdi, Prayag or some other sacred place at the appropriate time. Like He made Shama to go to Goddess Saptashringi and made the Pujari of the same Goddess come to Him, as desired by the Goddess.
Like He made Shama go to Kasi and Prayag and met him there in the form of His portrait.
Sai also told devotees that as long as one has one's ego, the results of one's karma have to be enjoyed or born.
Thus one tends to take pride for doing good deeds and feels bad for doing either intentionally or even unintentionally bad deeds. This accumulation of karma results in more births to pay off those debts.
Thus the cycle of births and deaths is perpetuated till one gets rid of one's ego through Brahma Jnana.
Sai Ram.