Love and Grace Of Sai Baba, that's all we need

Sai Baba our Sadaguru is always showering his
love and grace on us. Sai Baba is always eager
to help his devotees and erase their problems. We
the devotees always run with our problems to Sai
Baba, we visit the Holy Land Shirdi, in the hope of
getting free from our conflicts and problems. Some
of us looks out for mantras and attend aarti, sing
song of Sai Baba. And why not it is this great
characteristic of Sai Baba of Shirdi, that he runs
for his devotees welfare and is always anxious to
solve their problems.
After giving us so much and making us free from
our anxieties, Sai Baba asks us for faith and
devotion, which is much needed for the us to get
closer to his infinite self and merge into it and get
the ultimate freedom. How many of us can do this,
even after getting so much love and care from our
Sadaguru.

Should not our ultimate goal should be listen to
him and look only for his love and grace, after
demanding so many things from him and getting
all the help.Truly all we need is Sai Baba's love
and grace, and nothing more than that. Nothing
can be better than that. This reminds me of a
Sufi story, which i will narrate as I remember.

There was a Sufi dervish, who used to live with
a group of followers. The Sufi Master had much
love for God and wanted nothing more than the
love and grace of God. Once it happened that
the while moving about, the group got lost in the
forest. They had to pass through much discomfort
and hardships. Even food and water was not
available for the whole day while they were
roaming about to find a way out of the forest.
After the exhausting day physically and mentally,
finally they manage to reach a village in the
evening. The villagers of the village they reached
were rather fanatic in nature, who hated Sufi
culture. So the Sufi Master and the his followers,
who had reached there after facing much
difficulties, were drove out of the village with
harsh words spoken to them and even stone
thrown at them. After all this, the Sufi Master
sat for his regular prayers. The prayer that ways
always in his heart and always flowed through
his mouth. He would pray Oh God thank you for
everything you have given me, I thank you
immensely for all the love and grace you shower
on me always. Listening to this one of the
disciple could not hold himself. He told his
master that it was too much to say that for,
after what they had gone through that day. He
told his Master that at least for that day,
the Master should have complained to the God.
If not complained it was too much to thank him.
To this the Master asked him to keep quiet,
he told, " None knows better than my God what
is best for me. Indeed this was needed, otherwise
why would he give it to me. The Almighty knows
best what is good and needed for me, otherwise
there is no reason this should have happened to
me. I know his Love and Grace is with me and
that is all that I need. Nothing more is required."
How many of us can pray only for Sai Baba's
Love and Grace. How many of us have such
Faith in Sai Baba.

This also reminds of a similar Zen Story titled Is
That So A beautiful girl in the village was pregnant.
Her angry parents demanded to know who was
the father. At first resistant to confess, the anxious
and embarrassed girl finally pointed to Hakuin, the
Zen master whom everyone previously revered for
living such a pure life. When the outraged parents
confronted Hakuin with their daughter's accusation,
he simply replied "Is that so?"
When the child was born, the parents brought it to
the Hakuin, who now was viewed as a pariah by
the whole village. They demanded that he take
care of the child since it was his responsibility.
"Is that so?" Hakuin said calmly as he accepted
the child.

For many months he took very good care of the
child until the daughter could no longer withstand
the lie she had told. She confessed that the real
father was a young man in the village whom she
had tried to protect. The parents immediately
went to Hakuin to see if he would return the baby.
With profuse apologies they explained what had
happened. "Is that so?" Hakuin said as he
handed them the child.

Alpesh Patel