WONDEROUS SAINT SRI SAIBABA-PART 33

BY PUJYA SRI NARASIMHASWAMY JI

THE MYSTIC BLISS OF BABA

Baba gave all things to his devotees and filled them with all sorts of joys , 'enjoyment of worldly objects, comforts of domestic life riches, honour, success in one's efforts, security from danger, release from disease and troubles of various sorts. It is not to these joys that this article is devoted, nor even to the joys be gave them of overcoming defects and vices. The new life of virtue and power, with the joyous sense of achievement not only increased the quantum but also the tone and scale of their happiness; lifting it from the animal level of selfish sense gratification to the angelic level of selfless spiritual joy, the joy of life that is grounded in love. But there are special grades of joy including the "Mystic Bliss" that Baba favoured some devotees with and it is that bliss that will be now described.
First it is necessary to define the term used. 'Mystic' is a very elastic, very popular, and therefore much abused, term so much abused in fact as to deter some from using it in serious works. Such vagueness and the resulting confusion and abuse can, however, be easily avoided by starting with a definition and strictly adhering to it. This writer uses the word Mysticism to denote the blissful direct immediate contact by intuition, or attempt at such contact by any person, with the Real or what stands to him as the ultimate that lies beyond the universe of phenomena, subjective and objective.
This Real or Ultimate is God to most persons and in their case, mystic bliss is the same as or a part of and preparation for perfect Divine Bliss. But even among religious minded people, the Real that the touch in such experience may not be distinctly identified with God. For instance, Tennyson even as a boy began to dive into himself, by pronouncing his own Christian name and ridding it of its finite association, with the result that he was lost in a trance, in which the consciousness of his little ego perished or rather expanded infinitely into an unlimited illuminating Light of Self, full of joy and life, where in death was an unimaginable or laughable absurdity. This was clear mysticism of the self without distinct reference to a personal or impersonal God, though few would hesitate to give that name to the limitable Deathless state of enlightenment.

Joy Alone Left :
This mystic bliss comes to Buddhists in attaining "Nirvana", in "extinguishing" their little self but as they do not recognise or ascribe their joy to God, such blus cannot be described as Divine Bliss by them, though a student of religious psychology may have good grounds for identifying the Buddhistic Joy of Nirvana with the Vedantic Bliss of the Atman, Brahmananda.
Sri Sai Baba was (and even now is) shedding or showering joy upon his devotees, occasionally when they were away, but frequently when they were in his presence. Anna Saheb Dabolkar in his monumental Marathi biography of Baba,
Sai Satcharita, has thus described it:
"When one gazes and gazes upon Baba's fact, all hunger and thirst are gone , what other joy can compare with thou? One forgets all miseries of earthly exitence".
And again!
"Gazing into his eyes, loses one's sense of individuality; Bliss gushes out from within and the mind sink into an expanse of sweetness".

Care Vanish :
And he further adds that the Vedic description of Brahman is mere bookish knowledge to most, while at Shirdi, it was the common and daily experience of devotees. That Sri Dabolkar has not overstated fact is borne out by reliable testimony. The Hon. Mr. G. S. Khaparde, the Pepys of Shirdi, has noted the same in his daily dairy during his seven months, stay with Baba in 1910, 1911 and 1912 and in his preface to a biography of Baba. In the latter, he says: "From the moment I approached him, all the load of my worldly cares disappeared, though only a few minutes before, it was felt to be exceedingly oppressive and such as to excite disgust of life".
It is needless to quote from the numerous other devotees who have spoken out their experience in similar terms; but we may first refer to those of a Marathi lady Mrs. Manager, and of a Parsi, Mr. Jahangir of Bombay.

A Paradise :
Mrs. Manager says:— "His (i.e., Baba's) loving care combined with those powers made Shirdi a veritable paradise. Directly we went there, we felt safe, that nothing could harm us. When I went and sat in his presence, I always forgot my pain—nay the body itself with all mundane concerns and anxieties. Hours would pass and I would be in blissful unconsciousness of their passing. That was a unique experience shared I believe, by all his real devotees".
Says Mr. Jehangir, "My experience with Baba was very happy. Whenever I went into his presence I forget everything. I had no trouble, no anxiety, no Care, no fear. Everything was blotted out and I passed a blissful time in his company. That was most wonderful. Even now, if he comes in dream vision, that effect is reproduced".
We shall next proceed to consider the instances of mystic bliss he granted through Sakshatkara or vision of divine forms.
A Brahmin doctor who was a devout Ramabhakta was persuaded to go to thee , Sri Sai Baba despite his strong antipathy to bow at the feet of a Muslim, as Baba was taken to be. But Baba's grace evidently in consideration of his devotion to Rama was shown to him from the time of his entry into the mosque compound. When he saw Baba there, he hurried up and fell at his feet, and later explained his sudden change of attitude to his friends. What he beheld in Baba's seat as soon as he approached it, was not the human figure of Baba, but the divine glory of Sri Rama. Having found God in the flesh, he determined to get the highest out of Him,viz. Brahmananda. As Baba did not grant it at once this petulant child started satyagraha. He resolved to fast and not to visit Baba at the Mosque unless he should be given the bliss he sought, or be sent for by Baba.
So he fasted three days. Baba, the kind mother that he was, knew of course how the wind blew and sterred his own course. On the fourth day of the fast, an intimate friend of the doctor, not seen for many long years turned up at Shirdi ,accidentally one might say, if one did not know Sri Sai Baba's vast powers of control. Overflowing with the joy of the friend's arrival, the doctor forgot his fast and his vow and accompanied him to the mosque. Baba asked him, 'Doctor, did any one send for you?" The doctor saw that nothing was or could be concealed from this powerful Sai, and he mentally pressed his quest. That midnight, Baba's grace vouch-safed a response, and the doctor was filled with a strange ecstasy for which there was no physical or physiological explanation and which was clearly a glimpse of Paramananda or Siva Ananda granted by Baba's will. But what he experienced was short lived. In response to his prayer after he went home, he again experienced this joy for a full fortnight. But after that, it ceased. The doctor was not yet qualified to get the perpetual Ananda that becomes part of one's nature or rather becomes one's self, i.e., the Jivan Mukta state. Baba gave him just an appetizer to make him work up to the goal.

A Yogic Doctor :
We may close this article with an experience of greater permanence than those above recited. Sri Sai Baba though invested with the nature and powers of a Yogasiddha, was never known to practice Ashtanga Yoga and sometime warned his devotees agaist the snares of the mystic powers for which parts of the yoga course are gone through. If, however, any one who had difficulties or had come to ruin in yogabhyasa sought relief at his feet, relief was afforded. The best instance known to this writer of such help was that given to Sri Upasani Maharaj. In the course of his hata yogic efforts at suspension of breath, his respiration became fitful and evidently on account of a paralytic attack on some of the respiratory organs, respiration would now and then suddenly threaten to collapse, filling him with the fear, thus, of sudden death. No doctors and no yogis could help him. But Sri Sai Baba appeared to him at Rahuri 30 miles of Shirdi and gave him a very simple recipe which almost completely cured him.

Stream of Sweetness :
Sri Sai Baba further drew him to Shirdi arid there taught him the secret of the Yogic Ecstasy (as practised by Sufis).
Before he went to Shirdi, Sri Upasani Baba easily attained the. Samadhi state and remained in it even for days. But it was a Sushka Samadhi. It was no doubt free from the cares and sorrows of the world but there was no positive element of joy in it. Sri Sai Baba showed him how to turn his dry Samadhi into a joyous experience. He was made to retain a thin trace of his personality and with it draw in an inexhaustible stream of sweetness from Iswara, the Ocean of Sweetness (Rasa).
And this was a permanent gift. Sri Upasani Maharaj has ever since resorted to this form of ecstasy in preference to his former method. But even this ecstasy is but a preparation for the highest goal, the Jivan Mukta state in which one's personality merges for ever in Sat-Chit-Ananda from which there is no return.