Baba describes himself (continuation)

Grace and Love are no different.

If you eat a mango and plant the seed, it grows into a mango tree. This tree yields around thousand mangoes. The seeds of those thousand mangoes grow into thousand mango trees. And this grows manifold.

This is how the mango tree called Love multiplies. The seed called Love grows into the tree called Grace. Grace yields several Love seeds. The process goes on eternally of its own accord. This is how the world functions. He who understands this concept becomes what I am.

God can assume any form.

Pilgrimages those days, involved taking the Ganges water in a kavadi to Rameswaram and performing abhishekham to Lord Siva; taking a handful of sand from Rameswaram and dissolving it in the Ganges. Eknath was on such a pilgrimage. When he reached Ramanathapuram, he saw an exhausted donkey, its tongue rolling out in thirst. Moved by pity, Eknath gave the donkey, water from his kavadi. His fellow travellers chided him, ‘You carried water across these two thousand miles for Siva and now you have wasted it on a donkey. How can you hope for salvation?’ Eknath replied, ‘You have not understood spirituality. Siva whom I came seeking from across two thousand miles, has graced me by His presence five miles before the place’. God can take on any form. If He cannot, then He is not God. He is present as all forms in this world. If you think He will not take on the form of a donkey, the fault is in your comprehension.

Thiruvilayaadal Puranam records that in Madurai, a pig died soon after delivery. The just born needed to be fed. Sundareswara Himself took the form of a mother pig and fed the orphaned pig. MahaVishnu assumed the form of a wild boar in His Varaha Avatara. At Bhadrachala, Rama took the form of a buffalo to grant darshan to His devotee Gopanna. That is your history. Shirdi Sai Baba presented himself in the form of a black dog to accept his devotee’s bread. To prevent his devotee from taking sour curds, he came in the form of a cat and upset the container. How many such records you have come across!

I have visited Kailash nine times and had several divine experiences. During my visit four years ago, I did not get any experience. I wondered why because every visit prior to that had always bestowed me with experiences. Only then I realised that there was nothing more to be experienced. The first visit, I saw Lord Vinayaka. Can you believe this? It seems to you like a Vikramaditya story, doesn’t it? You are unable to believe it, because you have not yet gained that experience. People are unable to believe in others’ experiences, until they personally undergo it. This is the way of the world!

On one of my visits the devas with their respective vehicles paid their respects to me. I asked them, ‘It is I who must worship you. Why are you showing me respect?’ They responded in chorus, ‘You are BadriNarayana Bhagavan Himself. That is why we are showing you reverence’. You may refuse to believe this. But that is the truth, regardless of whether you accept it or not.

The aim of this human life is to discard what is unworthy; the aim of life is to sing eternally the praises of that Lord dancing deep within our hearts. The date on the calendar you tore today represents one day in your life. It is not a piece of paper; it is a day in your life. And how many days are wasted thus! What did you achieve yesterday or the day before? Have you ever analyzed your life? You ask me, ‘What is there of life?’ Here is Vallalar’s reply: ‘The scenes I saw in ThiruPonnambalam were moments of bliss; there was a radiant mountain, Jyothi. How do I describe the spectacle I saw beyond the seven veils of illusion? God alone knows the immensity of my fortune. I was not myself; it was indeed Him within me.’ That is the state of being transported to realms of never-ending bliss. We melt into the Oneness. Then there is no distinction of the object that is seeing and the object seen. There is nothing like the worshipper and the worshipped. Everything becomes one.

Arunagirinatha describes Muruga. ‘Aren’t you the jolly, easygoing, frolicking, unperceivable One? Tell me the secret of rising above the fetters of my physical being.’ That is the highest state of evolution. If you ask me how I attained this state, my reply will be ‘Only God knows. I don’t remember anything. This body was not there. The Divine Light devoured my physical form. How can this physical being explain the experience of that Divine Light?’ This is the answer I give to people who ask me about my death experience.

I saw my dead body. I was in a state of ecstacy which I later knew had lasted for more than two-and-a-half hours. By the grace of KotiSwami, I saw a four and a half feet high Siva Linga at Pazhanimalai. I was asked to explain. How do I explain in words some experience that the soul has undergone? You may have observed when you are meditating; suddenly a tremor passes through your body. What do you remember prior to that? This is spirituality’s route. Vallalar expresses inability to describe his experience in words. Then he proceeds to cry out in sheer ecstasy. Once that bliss is attained, nothing in the world will appease you. The only intoxication worth striving for has drawn you into Its folds.

Siva Shankar Baba knows he is God. He also knows that people will not accept this statement. Who will understand that God has struck at the very roots of my being, transformed me and made me His abode? People will not understand.

next>>>>

<<Previous page