by Devotee
I had never been a big follower of him - he has his fair share of ardent followers, admirers and detractors too. In fact, more often I was a skeptic of his motives, but so I was about every person who wore an ochre robe. But what I admire most and I have to admit is the serious devotion, goodness, simplicity, moral and spiritual discipline that his devotees imbibed through following him. In fact the reference given below is a testimony to this fact. I had seen numerous such people since childhood: a devoted family who were poor financially and with a paralytic as the family head, but always had evening aarati and meditation on him at their home; another person who worked in office but distributed Baba’s pithy spiritual and moral short sayings to children of various schools during his off-work hours so as to inspire the children etc. Besides the devotional and spiritual focus, his organization also does a lot of welfare activities: They run schools/colleges, hospitals, build homes, lay water supply network to their home district (county) etc.
The Baba had given his teachings as ABC … of Life to a close devotee who presented the same to a large gathering [1]. The gist of that presentation is being given here:
ABC: Always Be Careful, Always Be Cautious, Always Be Compassionate, Always Be Concerned, Always Be Charitable, Always Be Cheerful, Avoid Bad Company
D: Duty, Dedication, Devotion, Discipline, Discrimination
Sri Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi in India is revered by millions all over the world as a saint or God Himself. His biography can be read in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sathya_Sai_Baba
I had never been a big follower of him - he has his fair share of ardent followers, admirers and detractors too. In fact, more often I was a skeptic of his motives, but so I was about every person who wore an ochre robe. But what I admire most and I have to admit is the serious devotion, goodness, simplicity, moral and spiritual discipline that his devotees imbibed through following him. In fact the reference given below is a testimony to this fact. I had seen numerous such people since childhood: a devoted family who were poor financially and with a paralytic as the family head, but always had evening aarati and meditation on him at their home; another person who worked in office but distributed Baba’s pithy spiritual and moral short sayings to children of various schools during his off-work hours so as to inspire the children etc. Besides the devotional and spiritual focus, his organization also does a lot of welfare activities: They run schools/colleges, hospitals, build homes, lay water supply network to their home district (county) etc.
The Baba had given his teachings as ABC … of Life to a close devotee who presented the same to a large gathering [1]. The gist of that presentation is being given here:
ABC: Always Be Careful, Always Be Cautious, Always Be Compassionate, Always Be Concerned, Always Be Charitable, Always Be Cheerful, Avoid Bad Company
D: Duty, Dedication, Devotion, Discipline, Discrimination
E: Be Energetic, Enterprising, Eager to learn the ways of life
F: Follow the Master, Face the Devil, Fight till the End, Finish the game
G: Be Gracious, Be Grateful, Be Godly
H: Be Honest, Be Humble, Be Holy
I: Have Intellectual Devotion (not just blind faith), Integrity, Intensity
J: Be Jubilant as we are dealing with God, living with and in God, if necessary we will die for Him; Be Joyous - Joy is Jesus first, others next; Be Just, Be a good Judge of yourself, don’t be Judgemental of others
K: Be a King (अमृतस्य पुत्राः, children of immortality) - no room for any misery or suffering or disappointment or discontentment, Be a man of Highest Knowledge, Be an embodiment of Kindness
L: Be Loving, Living, Listening, Learning, Lifting - rise above the material world
M: Be Modest, Master the mind and you become the Mastermind
N: Be a Nobody (no identification with anything), Be Noble
O: Be Obedient, Be Organized - use intellect (that which is available in the world should be achieved through our self efforts, don’t beg for them from God), Ask from God that the world cannot give you - the divine bliss
P: Be an embodiment of Purity, Peace, Patience but not of Power, Possession and Property
Q: Be Quiet (internally and externally), Only in intense silence can you hear the inner voice of God; Be Quick to serve God, Be Quick to follow the Master, Be ready to Quit or let go: only true surrender to God can help us to get rid of desires, position in society, craving for property, attachment to relationships etc.
R: Be a true Reflection of God
Reference:
Youtube video: Vedam Chanting by the European Veda Union Group, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCc8weZ5CkM (From 32:06)
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