“A wonderful inspiring book about the life of Shirdi Sai Baba that elevated my mind and spirit. I was transported to another realm of reality, the state of this enlightened master who is one of India’s most beloved saints. Shirdi Sai Baba‘s grace, power and teachings flow from the pages through his divine playful acts, and miraculous interactions with devotees and people from all walks of life. Thank you to the author Bodhi Shuddhaanandaa for writing such a beautiful and detailed commentary on Shirdi Sai Baba’s extraordinary life.” John C., Australia

The Gift of Human Birth: Consciousness

Every organism has these four needs: food, sleep, fear, and procreation. Man is special, as the universe has provided him with an extra attribute – consciousness. Man can use the faculty of conscious and analytical discrimination between truth and untruth, good and evil, order and anarchy, and righteousness and falsehood. This consciousness is the tool that helps man transcend the limitations of egocentric desires and awakens him to the new dawn of ego-less reality. This embedded consciousness carries the seed that can blossom into the awareness of the reality of one’s own self-effulgent, divine, and eternal self. The human body can be free from the never-ending cycles of pain and pleasure and taste the nectar of everlasting joy. Thus, no other species can attain liberation. This is the reason why even the deities living in the astral world are desirous of being born in the human womb; only a human birth is the key to spiritual enlightenment and ultimate freedom. Thus, the ultimate gift to mankind is the gift of the human body itself.

Many believe that the human body is extremely impure. It is made up of flesh and blood, is temporary, diseased, and mortal. Although this is partly the truth, there is more to the human body than that. The reality is that despite being replete with impurities, its value is beyond measure. It is the most priceless gift, for it is the divine instrument for the attainment of ultimate wisdom. Only upon obtaining the human body can the soul realize that this human body is gross and temporary; only upon obtaining the human body can the soul realize that in this entire universe, everything is in a constant state of flux. The more and more this realization begins to deepen, the more and more the soul starts to lose its grip over worldly temptations and attachments. This deepening realization leads the soul to culminate into oneness with the eternally blissful universal consciousness. If we demean the value of the human body and despise it by calling it impure, we shall forever remain unfulfilled in the purpose of self-realization–-the only purpose of human life on earth. Also, if we assume this human body to be a mere object of experiencing sensual pleasure and use it to fulfill the temporal cravings of materialistic desires, then our downfall is for certain.

The only objective of the human body is the realization of the Self that can also be called God-realization. Thus, we must perceive our gross physical self as a divine tool for transformation from the lower self to the higher self. This physical body is to be consistently recognized as the tool to perform only those actions that relate to the realization of the higher self. They say that even after the creation of innumerable species of life, God did not feel satisfied. The reason was that none of these species could conceive the source and essence of this incredible creation. Therefore, God created a human, in whom was planted the seed of self-consciousness, self-awareness.

When God saw that humans were able to perceive all the incredible creations and infinite wisdom, he was immensely pleased (Bhaagwat, 11-9-28). Thus, it is a matter of great fortune to be born in a human body. However, it is a greater blessing to be able to love and serve the lotus feet of a true enlightened Master.

Man’s Final Destiny

The human birth is a rare blessing on earth. For every man born on earth, death is the ultimate truth and its arrival is unforeseen. We must remember our final destiny, and therefore, must never lose sight of the primary goal of human life–-a movement towards the inner self. Just as a king would desperately employ all his power and resources to get back his lost prince, so also it is our essential duty to earnestly start working towards our goal without wasting a moment. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to leave behind us the shadows of procrastination, habitual ruts, and un-mindfulness, and instead spend time in contemplation of the divine. If we are unable to do so, we shall never be free from the clutches of never-ending sorrows. The reason being, the root of all sorrows lies in self-forgetfulness.

The Simple Path to Attain Eternal Peace

The only simple path to eternal peace is to dwell in the nectarine shelter of a “Sadguru,” or true spiritual master’s Lotus Feet. Whoever has attained such a shelter is the fortunate one, for he has come under the shelter of God himself. Guru and God are one in their intrinsic essence. Listening to endless spiritual discourses and reading every book of wisdom and holy scriptures cannot make one achieve what can be simply achieved by being in the presence of a living Master’s divinized aura. Certainly, the light that we get from the sun is incomparable to the light that we get from millions of stars in the galaxies. So also, the intuitive knowledge that we can attain by being in the aura of the grace of a true master is impossible to be attained through any other means. A true Guru manifests every divine quality–-love, compassion, nectarine words, individualized spiritual guidance, forgiveness, inner stillness, non-attachment to the material, complete mastery over the physical senses, and egolessness. As a result of these attributes, the true Guru becomes the personification of the ultimate Truth, whose presence alone commands trust and stirs a deeper quest in the hearts of people.

Sai Baba is one of the rarest true Masters that the world has seen. Although for the external world, he revealed himself only as a very ordinary fakir, his inner self was ever absorbed in a state of “sahaj-samadhi.” He was filled with compassion for every human being and he saw the essence of divinity in each one of them. He did not have even the slightest attachment to any worldly object. Nobody ever saw him getting tense in difficult situations. The rich and the poor were one in his eyes. Baba was an ocean of grace, one drop of which could make a king from a pauper, but he himself went begging for food as the most ordinary fakir, from door to door.