In the previous reflection, we explored śravaṇa, manana, chintana (listening, contemplating, and constant remembrance) that form the spine of Bhakti and how collective remembrance shapes collective consciousness. In this reflection, I want to turn to the potency of Baba’s words, the nature of devotion, and the subtle workings of karma as far as my very modest understanding presently stretches. Before entering theory, I feel moved to share something personal because it gives context to what follows. Even though I read, write, contemplate, and have devotion, patience and surrender that others often point out admirably, I am still not the devotee I long to be. I am faithful, but inwardly restless; surrendered, yet suddenly fearful; trusting, yet easily shaken by doubt. Baba, in His endless mercy, keeps reassuring me, and much of last year was dedicated to learning how to trust His word and trust my own intuition both of which I have violated so many times that I carry genuine remorse for that disrespect.

Writing has been my anchor for years. Through some very dark phases, writing is what stopped me from sinking. I wrote for myself, maintained a private blog, poured hours into it, and kept it locked away from the world. Those posts helped me again and again. But this blog, began almost miraculously. It feels like the first thing I am writing not from my mind, but from Baba’s insistence, tug, and direction. It is slowly becoming my labour of love, a tool for remembering Him, contemplating on Him, and doing what perhaps I was always meant to do. Every time I read the stories, I get a new insight which had previously eluded me. Which is why more than the prose, grammar, spellings, sentence formations, or improving my skill, which are not the focus of this blog, I let the words flow semi-automatically, which professor James Pennebacker specially mentioned in his book, Writing to Heal.

The birth of this blog happened one midnight when Baba kept pushing me to create it, while I was half-asleep. The very next day He pushed me to buy the domain, formalise it, make it real. And then He said, “Write every day.” This was right after I left my corporate job, confused, exhausted, and directionless. I had done well academically, excelled at work, studied at a top university abroad, and then suddenly walked away from a path that others considered “secure”. In social terms, it was irrational. But something in me knew I was not being nourished at all.

After months of numbness, Baba created this blog through me or so I believe because many a times words have flowed without any conscious effort but despite His advice to build a habit, I didn’t listen. Months passed. I was too exhausted to write. The one thing that saved me was the same thing I abandoned. I would cry because I saw no light except my stubborn grip on Baba’s hand. My rational mind kept interfering and still does sometimes, in exercising His advice. How will I earn? What will my parents think? What about stability, reputation, ‘career’? What if I fail? What if this is irresponsible?, the usual noise of a conditioned mind terrified of the Unknown.

Anyway, so I ignored His call for six months, pleading for “purpose” instead of embodying what I myself preach. Sometimes the purpose is simply being, and Baba’s words are never empty. I am now indeed writing full-time. I have projects to finish. I do not know how they will land in the world or if they will ever be “published”, but I know one thing with crystalline certainty, this is something Baba wants me to do, not something my ego wants to do.

Hemadpant ji felt something very similar, I believe. He too left his job. He too struggled with doubt. He too wondered whether he should follow the Guru’s word or the world’s expectations. He too felt inwardly ashamed when Baba gave assurances that he still couldn’t trust. He was gifted a job “because he wanted it”, as Baba says, “I give you what you want until you want what I give” but that job was not in his prārabdha and eventually dissolved, just like mine did. Even sweetness turns to repulsion when taken in excess, he says. I relate to him so deeply because everything I chased fell away, and everything Baba has wanted for me persists regardless of my will (one of the reasons I do not believe in freewill or doership).

Karma moves in three streams: sañchita, the vast storehouse accumulated over countless lives, prārabdha, the small portion of that stock which has ripened into this present birth and must be lived through, and kriyāmāṇa, the karma we create now. What we are generating moment to moment through intention, speech, action, and even subtle desires. Baba, in His omniscience, burns sañchita, guides kriyāmāṇa, and helps us live through prārabdha with faith and dignity. We only see the outer events and call them fortune or misfortune; He sees the blueprint, the Akashi records as they are called. So if something leaves our life suddenly, either it was not in our prārabdha or it had fulfilled its karmic purpose. What the ego calls loss is often karma concluding itself. I talked about this many months ago on my channel here.

Now I find myself doing exactly what the author did, even though I am in no way even close to one percent of his writing prowess but writing these letters are purifying me, calming me, showing me parts of myself I never examined, and slowly aligning me with what Baba wills for me. Recently in a dream, I looked at the sky and told Baba, “I surrender to You. I own nothing. I have nothing except Your Bhakti, to gain or lose. You decide the rest.” And I woke up knowing that the author’s words are true, these stories do free one from bondage and orient the mind toward liberation.

We need no elaborate rituals. Just reading, listening, contemplating these leelas with love and sincerity is enough to dissolve massive karmic stock of past and present without leaving a trace. In my own life, nothing ever worked by my will, but everything began to work the moment He took control of it. Even though it is sometimes difficult for the ego-mind to accept but the soul knows the truth, always. To simply forget this again and again and then remember again and again, is the play of Maya.

From both our experiences, all I can say is, surrender to Baba without conditions. He will take you where you are supposed to be, not where you want to be. We genuinely do not know what will bring us true, lasting joy. Happiness and pleasure are mental or physical respectively, joy and bliss are Brahman, as Chandogya Upanishad says, not dependent on anything. Once you taste the true nature, you abide in it.

Lastly, coming to the structure of this blog, trust me, it came to be on its own as well. All the reflections from chapters are titled the same with different numbers, for e.g.- 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, without revealing the reflection’s theme. Each post becomes its own teaching, its own seed of grace. They feel like fortune cookies to me, simple on the surface, containing exactly the message someone needs at that moment by Baba’s grace. I don’t know who will benefit, or if I am standing upto His expectations at all, but I pray that for every single alphabetical letter written here, may beings multiplied by a trillion be benefitted across realms, seen and unseen, human and non-human, animal, non animal, in suffering or in peace, without any exception.

May the merit of writing and reading these words ripple into the awakening and healing of all by His grace – yours, mine, and everyone else (visible and invisible), without exception. Thank you for everything, my Gurudeva, the ruler of this universe and all others.

|| OM SAI SHRI SAI JAI JAI SAI || 

|| SHRI SATCHIDANANDA SADGURU SAINATH MAHARAJ KI JAI ||

Note: Since the chapters are long and stretch across many ovis, I will be breaking them down in a way that allows us to go deep without losing track. Each reflection will cover either a single concept, a leela, or at most 50 ovis – whichever completes a thought fully. This way, we can sit with every aspect of the Satcharita as carefully and reverently as possible, without skipping a single detail, guided always by Baba’s grace. I’ve also chosen this approach because very long posts can feel heavy or overwhelming for some devotees. Keeping them snack-able and focused will hopefully make it easier for everyone to read, return to, and reflect on in their own pace. All rights reserved.