Divine Message

24 November 2021

When we were planning the 96th Birthday celebrations of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, some of the students asked me, “How do you get the idea what to do next? How do you decide whether we should hold a Music Conference or a Medical Conference and on what themes they should be? Where do you find the time to study all these topics and decide who should be selected as participants and who should be in-charge? How do you know all these things?” Then, they simply concluded by attributing all this to the idea, “Oh, you have God in You and You know everything.” I want to tell them that it is not just because of the Divinity that I know all this. It is simply because of the Love. It is the love within us that prompts us to do good to the world. That love is intuitive, intelligent and aware; it will guide us to do the right things and tell us what to do next.

I am letting out a big secret to both those who know me and those who don’t! If you ask Me today what we are going to do next or what is coming next, My answer is, “I don’t know.” I can tell you tomorrow what needs to be done tomorrow because that will be revealed tomorrow. What needs to be done the day after will be revealed the day after. This is why the present is called the Omnipresent. You should live for today and do what needs to be done today. You should just do it with all your might, sincerity, effort and love. Why worry today thinking about tomorrow? Tomorrow will reveal itself to you tomorrow. That is how Divine guidance happens.

Why am I sharing this with you? Because I want to dismantle the idea that Divinity means one person manifesting in one place and in one form. I want to destroy that complete concept and tell you that your intuition, which arises out of pure feelings of love for each other – the selfless feeling − is Divinity. Each one of us has it. This is what has been told to us for 96 years by Swami (Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba) − that you are Divine; trust yourself, trust your intuitions, trust that voice of God within. It is nice to come on stage and give a discourse that you are God, I am God and everything is God, and go for lunch after that! But my question is, “Who is really paying attention to what I am saying?”

Trust your Divinity; trust your intuition; don’t be afraid.  How long will you hold your parents’ hand and walk? It is ok to do so when you are kids. If you are grown up and you still go out with your father or mother, holding their hand, it doesn’t look nice. Likewise, I am there as a physical presence for the children who are still growing. For them, physical presence is needed because that is the only way they can relate to this idea of what God’s love is like. Otherwise, they wouldn’t know. They have experienced mother’s love, father’s love, brother’s love, friendship and things like that but they have not experienced God’s love. For them, My presence is a must because they have not yet grown into a state of understanding beyond that. But for the others, esp. the elders, the most important thing that you must all do is to turn within and believe in your intuition. It’s okay to take a chance. In the worst case scenario, you will fail once or twice. Accept it. Next time, you will learn and move on.

Therefore, do not doubt your Divine intuition. That is how God has spoken. Before He came as Sathya Sai Baba, was God not there? Did people not achieve great things in their life? Did they not go on to realise their Selves? Did they not become mahāpuruṣas (great personalities)? How did they do that without having someone around? They trusted their intuition and recognised that Divinity, which always speaks from within. That is exactly what we also have to do, especially the elders, who have been in the fold for a very long time. That is what I will be pushing for here onwards. The youngsters have some more time. However, it will be much easier for them. They will understand it much faster because they don’t have preconditioned minds.

How will you know that it is your intuition guiding you and not your instinct or intelligence interfering with your thinking? The fact is that there is no attachment in intuition. When you have some personal idea, where your individual intelligence is at work, you are attached to that idea. If something does not happen as you want it to, you get agitated. If it happens, you get excited. Although you tell everybody that it’s all God’s Will and it’s all God’s doing, within yourself, you say, “I did it. I did it.” Somewhere in your private personal space, you will tell yourself that and feel good about it. That is not intuition. People achieve great things with intelligence also. There is no doubt about it. But that’s not what God wanted you to do at that point in time.

We end up doing lot of things that God does not want us to, either because of our instincts or intelligence. But when intuition is at work, we do exactly what God wants us to do. Sometimes, you would not know what to do or how to go about doing it. In such situations, you have to just trust your intuition and take that step forward. Slowly, you will see how the whole puzzle starts falling in place. It feels a bit scary in the beginning to trust one’s intuition, which comes from within. It looks fearful because we are used to getting guidance and being told that this is not the way. But the real way forward is to trust one’s own intuition. How do you test your intuition? If there is no sense of attachment to your idea, then you know it is your intuition working. If there is any attachment to the idea, you know that it is lower level event and simply an interference in God’s work.

That is the idea and a very simple one, but I want everybody to practice this every day. How long will you send Me messages or emails? How long will I answer them? Of course, there are some important things like large projects that have several aspects, and especially when I have initiated them, you have naturally to seek My guidance. But there are lots of things that you have to do in your daily life, in your own countries, campuses and homes. For these, you must develop that inner connect and trust it. Let it go wrong one or two times; it is okay. We have fallen many times before we learnt to walk. So, trust your intuition and walk ahead. Don’t keep looking for Swami to approve everything. That is how each one of you will grow into that true Divine Self.

Devotees come in different colours and hues. There are some devotees who have been ardent devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba from generations. They have never seen Sathya Sai Baba. Yet, when they come here, they experience so much of Divinity. They try to look for Shirdi Sai Baba in me because that is the only way they can connect to me. I allow them to do so. They call me Baba and I accept that because it makes them happy. Next, there are people who come here in search of Sathya Sai Baba because they are attached to the Sathya Sai Baba form. They try to analyse, understand, assure themselves and feel comforted that this is indeed Sathya Sai Baba here. To them I say, “Alright, you feel comfortable that way? You call me Swami or Sathya Sai Baba.” Then, there are many new devotees who have come here recently; In fact, they are coming to such a gathering for the first time. They have neither seen Shirdi Sai Baba nor Sathya Sai Baba; I am also new to them. They call me Swamiji or Sadguruji and have their own understanding of how things are. But for their sake and for them also to get connected to this Divine path, I allow them to go ahead too. Finally, there are a few other people who know me ever since I came here 11 years ago; earlier to that, they knew me as a brother, colleague or friend. They cannot overcome that and call me the same even today. I allow them to do as they feel too.

Why do I do all this? Just to allow each of you to slowly rise and finally connect to the Divinity within. You don’t have to look outside. New things will happen; new people will come to experience and connect to that Divinity. But there is a greater responsibility on those who have already experienced and known what the Truth is − the responsibility to go beyond names and forms. Ultimately, there is no form and name. As long as you dance around names and forms, you will never be redeemed; you will find redemption only when you come out of it.

Even Meera, who was such an ardent devotee of Krishna, was so attached to the form of Krishna. She had not seen Krishna; she had only heard about Him, His charm and beauty from others in her childhood. She never had the physical darśana, sparśaṇa or sambhāṣaṇa of Krishna all her life. Even though she got married, she felt that Krishna was her husband and was always pining for His form and craving for His love. Finally, she found that Krishna was present in that love itself; she found Krishna as her own Self; there was no separate Krishna. She sings that the Krishna whom she was searching for outside was actually within her. You can also feel Divinity in Love. When your every thought, word and deed is suffused with that pure love, and when all that occupies your being is the sole feeling to love others selflessly and unconditionally, in that practice you will experience Divinity. That practice must become more and more intense in each one of you. That is my message.

You will see changes happen. Those who are very attached to forms and names will struggle. There are millions of devotees of Shirdi Baba but they cannot accept that idea that He can be Sathya Sai Baba. They cannot accept the tall and strong old man becoming the slender, beautiful and charming form of Sathya Sai Baba. Even Hanuman, the greatest devotee of Sri Rama, who is ciranjīvī (ever living, deathless), did not do the kind of work in the Krishna avatāra that he did in the Rama avatāra. Though he accepted that Sri Krishna can be Sri Rama and did what he was asked to do by Sri Krishna, somewhere in his heart he was too attached to the name and form of Sri Rama. Though he was a jñāni, he was bound by name and form. Jambavan, the bear king, fought with Sri Krishna and understood that He was Sri Rama only after being beaten to pulp. Yet, his chapter too ended in the bhāgavata.

Do not get entangled with name and form. Trust your intuition. Trust the Divinity within and do not look for the things outside. One phase of the phenomenon has come to an end; this is how it was meant to be. The next phase has begun and in this phase, each one must withdraw and go within. It does not mean that you should not come for satsang; however, you must come with a different attitude and a different idea that this form is just another vessel filled with Divinity. Like water takes different shapes in different vessels, Divinity fills different forms, including each of you. If the vessel is transparent, you can see through and feel the Divinity within. If it is a coloured bottle, the water looks coloured. That’s all is the difference between us. The vessels or forms are different but the water is the same. Take that form and continue on the path.

You have to learn to slowly withdraw and understand this great Truth. This has been repeated quite often and it is time to pay more attention. All this got triggered again because somebody asked me, “Now that 96 years of Sathya Sai are over, how should I call you? Should I call you Baba or Swami or Sadguru? Please clear my confusion.” I replied, “Call me whatever your heart says and however you feel comfortable. But if you want to be technically correct, you should know that one phase has come to an end and a new phase has begun. Therefore, try to understand that and conduct yourself accordingly. If you are too attached to name and form, it is impossible to outgrow that attachment. You have to look deeper within and you will find that it is all the same, including what is within you.”

This is what scriptures say, this is the Truth and this is what we have heard for decades. It is time to put it into serious practice to feel that Divinity within. The best way to do this is to ‘Love All, Serve All’. If you develop more and more love for each other and for others, especially those who are in need, you will start experiencing Divine intuition and Divine feelings in that love, and that will redeem you. You will then be satisfied and contented wherever you are.

Feel that love within. Express that love without, freely for all. In that love, find that Divinity. Do not allow names or forms to restrict or limit you. That Divine intuition will guide you at every step and at all times, provided you are ready to listen to it and follow it. This is the Ultimate Truth; there is nothing beyond this. ‘ahaṁ satya bodhakaḥ − I am the teacher of the Truth.’

Sit down, think, contemplate on the Truth, understand it and more importantly, practice it. Just as ‘father’ and ‘mother’ are titles, ‘Swami’ is also a title. Swami means one who has mastered himself and thereby, is somebody who is to be looked up to. Swami is not a person; He is a personality.