OM SAIMA

The Aspirant's Dream

The very titling of the essay seems to be dubious, as a dream is always a dream and a reality is the only truth that causes its events to materialise as the realised one. However all dreams are not dreams, but. some of them are surcharged with the deep inner workings, desires and the will to achieve, the Sankalpa (determination) with which they are motived.

Let us take some common examples that are the inlaid thoughts of individuals to grasp the things they need in life according to the prevalent situations. A young bride or bride-groom fancies various requirements in their would be bride-groom or bride respectively according to their aspirations and hopes. So also an ardent student lays rich foundations to become a doctor, a lawyer, a technician, a musician, an administrator, an academician or whatever he cherishes to be. Similarly a spiritual aspirant and a bhakta builds many castles in his mind about the Lord he adores. So may be the case with every staunch thinker in accomplishing his adorable ambitions. This conglomeration of needs and desire first develops into ideas that takes gigantic proportions to occupy an individual wholly to torment him, in season and out of season to ruminate on it and find ways and means to work for it. This results in many dreams that are dreamt, very consciously both during sleep and at working state. This state of dream may be called the contemplation or the Tapana of that person who wishes to perform purified action to become that or achieve that.

Any dream that is associated with fear, Kama or Krodha ( lust and anger) etc., leaves trails of bitterness in it, to motivate a person to entangle himself in series of and in succession of wrong doings resulting in monstrous and devilish effects. Some dreams do vanish when they are weak and found unachievable.

I am here taking up the subject of a spiritual aspirant with Bhakti and that too on the sweet Lord Sai Baba.

Even in such aspirants of Sai Baba their dreams take different shapes. I myself am not placing all my cards of ideas that so swiftly pass on in my mind for want of space and time.

In the course of several years of knowing Sai Baba of SHIRDI, in different ways hearing lot of stories about Him, our hopes and aspirations on Him immensely have developed in many sided proportions.

We know Him as our sweet Father capable of giving anything we need in our life for a satisfied life. We know Him as our Mother who would give us all the succour to nourish our body for health. He expands the horizon of the layers of our consciousness in us to develop suitably for higher pursuits of remaining in Him ultimately. He is our friend, a relative of all comprehensive nature to experience the various impulses which such relationship produces. We are conscious of the fact that He is our Guru (Teacher) to guide us into the mysteries of our presence in the world, in which we live. He illumines us to reach the unknown destination, and experience all-absorbing peace. We know Him as a 'Brahman' in all attributes and ramifications and we are confident that He can make us Himself, so that all disturbing qualities cease in us.

With the above short Biography of Sai Baba's capacities we shall see to what islands of Bliss we are wafted and taken by Him.

Though we enjoy His Grace in abundance in many matters of the wordly life. His eternal protection, the analysis of the happiness we enjoy, shows that they are of transistory nature adding more and more complicated problems to be solved by Him. The worthless pursuit in finding peace in worldly desires have become so prominent in us, that we really feel sorry and pained for having taxed the MAHAPURUSHA, the GOD Sai with our frivolous needs than what He could Himself offer in us in abundance to taste the perennial Bliss.

Here starts the dream of us on our Sweet Sai and the many storeyed aspirations we build to get the glorious sight of Sai Baba in His Real Nature.

The aspirant's dream is that Sai Baba is a great Saint or an Avatar of this century who appeared under the Neem Tree (Gurusthan) as a lad of sixteen years. His parentage, the date and the place of birth are not known to anyone. Reports of Sai's early life, parentage etc. whether authentic or non authentic seem unnecessary to us.

The next step in our aspiration is to capture Him or see Him, in His physical frames that adorned him. All His movements at Shiridi and in all the places are conjectured and also with the persons with whom He had spent His days in guiding them to better life. We specially fix our thoughts on people like Mahalsapathi, Nana Saheb Chandorkar, Hemadpant, G.S. Kapharde etc., etc and the full story of Sai Baba is enacted in our mental plane.

The next dream is as how Sai Baba is blessing today His ever increasing number of devotees. It becomes a constant revelling thought to identify Him in all His proximity. We take the scene as to how He appears to us in many photos we see and we struggle to see Him in our meditation, laughing, guiding and contacting us in many ways. The rendezvous we make in this imaginative thoughts, bursts into His finer attributes of adoration, beauty, love, mercy and many facets of His characters that emanates from Him.

Slowly and steadily we are made to see Him in all places and in all forms and we see nothing else than Sai Baba. All this universal and terrestrial pursuits of Sai Baba makes us His subordinate gradually, resulting in the disintegration of our body and self into His mighty marvellous indescribable SAI, known in different names, forms and attributes.

Finally our aspirations end and merge in Sai Baba and in His Reality, profusely lighting the dazzling and pleasing Light of Jnana (Knowledge) in us that we are He, the OMNIPOTENT, OMNISCIENT and OMNIPRESENT.

O. V. G. SUBRAMANIAN

Machilipatnam,

Krishna Dt.