Key to Progress (March 1976)

The urge for progress is, infused very deep in the human blood. The human beings are striving all the time for their uplift and progress. After a child is born, it tries slowly and slowly to crawl and speak. The crawling is slowly discarded and standing, walking and running follows. The articulation of monosyllables is replaced by words and speech in due course of time. In the childhood, the child is trying to acquire physique and learning. After attaining youth, the man or woman is trying to acquire wealth and property and yet comfort in life. Some out standing personalities become leaders of the people, some become great artists and some become great writers. Obtaining fame in this fashion, is the progress aimed at by certain ambitious persons in this world.

The progress explained above is all material progress. The human beings in general are all the time running after pleasure and their aim therefore, mostly is to get material benefits; but there are a few persons who have no particular interest in these things. They are interested in spiritual progress. We, who claim ourselves to be the devotees of Shri Sai Baba have no doubt to lead a good life in this world. We would like to live up to a certain standard of living; but that would not be the aim of the Sai devotees in this world. Their aim in life would be spiritual uplift or progress leading to Moksha or relief from the cycle of birth and death.

The question now is how to achieve this progress. For getting material benefits, people try various means and they obtain them. In many cases their ways are not liked by others; but the people, who are simply intoxicated with material progress and pleasures, are least worried about the ways and means by which they obtain them. Apart from obtaining wealth and property in the later age, for which the person concerned has to strive hard, we find that the human beings have to strive and struggle personally in their childhood and youth. Their object during this period of life is to acquire learning and physique. From our experience we know that even in the most advanced scientific age, that we claim to live in today, no pills or injections have been discovered so far to obtain these things. The persons concerned themselves have to strive hard to achieve both these things. As in the case of material progress, the devotee also has to plod on the way to spiritual goal. In the Bagawadgeeta we find a tip in this behalf given by lord Krishna Himself. We know that on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Arjuna was totally baffled to see his own relations standing before him to fight against him. He was then afraid of destroying his own family members and Lord Krishna had to advise him in various ways to clear off his doubts, Lord Krishna is a great personality. He knows very well how to coax a person. At times he ridicules Arjuna by smiling and saying that, the future generations would call him a coward who ran away from the field of battle. At times he paints before him a rosy picture of the future, after the victory of the Pandavas over the Kauravas. At times he holds learned discourses with Arjuna and tries to convince him about the necessity of fighting the war. Thus after the disturbed state of Arjuna’s mind is explained at length in the first canto of the Bhagawadgeeta, the arguments of Lord Krishna start pouring from the second canto. Thus Sankhyayog, Karmayog, Karmabrah-marpanayog, and Karmasanyasayog were explained by Lord Krishna at length in the second, third, fourth and fifth cantoes respectively of the Bhagawadgeeta and i.e., Arjuna followed the arguments of Lord Krishna very closely. He came to know that the sum and substance of the argument was that one should have control over the sense organs, one should make his intelligence stable and one should go on doing one's duty without expecting any fruit from it All the aforesaid advice was very good; but then the question arose how to bring it into pracitice ? As per expectations of the common man, Arjuna also expected that Lord Krishna, who was himself a Mahayogi, should inculcate all these things in Arjuna as he was encouraging him and was at times praising him by such epithets as one with long arms, one who is sinless, one who is best among men etc; but Lord Krishna, who perhaps read the mind of Arjuna, therefore, told him in the sixth canto of the Bhagawadgeeta Abhyasayog wherein he pointed out that, for achieving progress, - man has himself to exert. Just as an electric lamp is lighted simply by pressing the button, similarly it is not possible for every disciple of a Guru to get the shower of the Guru's favours by which he would rise very high in the spiritual field. In the lives of some saints no doubt some stories are told in which the disciple, who was just an ordinary person, was instanteneously enlightened by the Guru In the life of Saint Eknath, the history of one Gawaba is narrated' which is pertinent in this connection. This Gawaba was a totally uneducated person and from his early life nobody would have predicted that he whould in future complete the half finished work of the Bhawartha Ramayan of Saint Eknath; but this did happen ! Saint Eknath knew that his end was drawing near and that he would not be able to finish the book captioned Bhawartha Ramayan' which he had written half way. He, therefore, placed his hand on the head of Gawaba and blessed him and handing over his pen to him, ordered Gawaba to complete the work. We are told that the rest of the work was finished by Gawaba in such a way that we are hardly able to make out which portion of the book was written by Saint Eknath and which portion has come from Gawaba's pen; but barring such exceptions others have to strive hard for their own progress and uplift. This is told by lord Krishna to Arjuna in a nutshell as follows :

The meaning of the above shloka is Man should achieve progress by his own efforts. One should not allow oneself to be degenerated; because one is the only friend and foe of oneself. After thus explaining the importance of the self, Lord Krishna has explained in detail how to practice yoga and achieve progress by oneself. Dnyaneshwar, who also was himself a yogi, has commented at length on these shlokas in his book Dnyaneshwari and explained the practice of yoga further. In order to impress upon Arjuna the importance of the Abhyasayog while explaining the Bhakthiryog in the twelfth canto, Lord Krishna again tells him :

It will thus be clear that a teacher or a Guru ran just give guidance to his disciple. He cannot change his student overnight and bring about metamorphosis in him. The student himself has to strive hard. In the case of a teacher or a professor giving guidance to his students also we see that the teacher will be ready to guide his students constantly; but he cannot appear at the examination for the student. It is for the student to study according to the guidance of the preceptor. Similar is the case of a student wanting to build his body or to achieve proficiency in wrestling. A coach or a teacher can only give guidance to such a student. The coach cannot cause development of the body of the student, who himself has to strive and develope his body. In short the key to progress is self exertion.

From chapter fifty of Sai Satcharita, in which the discussion between Shri Nanasaheb Chandorkar and Shri Sai Baba about the shloka from Geeta has been described at length, we know that Shri Sai Baba knew Sanskrit very well and had full knowledge of the Bhagawadgeeta. The philosophy of the Bhagawadgeeta was mastered fully by Him in His own behaviour and His advice to His devotees. It was because of this that He never collected an army of disciples, who would be longing for progress at His hands, He at times, gave advice to the devotees for their guidance. He told the devotees to follow the advice and behave accordingly.

He assured them about the relief in this world and the next. Let all of us, who call ourselves devotees of Shri Sai Baba, therefore, bear in mind this teaching of the Geeta and Shri Baba and start for our uplift by ourselves, keeping complete faith in Baba as per His advice, which is reported at length in Sai Satcharita.