Madhavarao Deshpande, alias Shama, and Kaka Mahajani were also there and listened attentively to the portion being read. Once, in Kaka Mahajani’s house in Bombay, Kakasaheb was reading the Ekanathi Bhagawat in the morning. Kakasaheb read these daily while Baba was alive and followed the practice even after Baba’s passing away. Sai Baba had instructed Kakasaheb Dixit to read from two works of Shri Ekanath-The Bhagawat and the Bhawartha Ramayana- every day. The following story will illustrate this. In short, always chanting the name of the Guru and meditating on Him, enables us to see Him in all beings and confers eternal bliss on us. When we thus worship the Brahma or Guru wholeheartedly, we become one with Him and attain self-realization. And as It transcends and besets the universe, we begin to worship It in all creatures. Then we realize that the Brahma, which is our Guru, is the sole reality. Ultimately we attain complete dispassion or non-attachment for worldly objects. When we begin to practice discrimination, we come to know that the world is transient and unreal, and thus our passion for worldly things decreases.
Instead of depending upon others, we should have full faith in ourselves. We have to discriminate between the Unreal and the Real, renounce the material enjoyments of this world and the next, control our senses and mind and aspire for liberation. We have to chalk out and traverse the path of self-realization ourselves. No one comes to our aid in attaining the goal of life (self-realization). Yet the former falls far short of the latter, which is incomparable. The love that a chaste woman bears for her husband is sometimes compared to that which a Guru has towards his disciples. If worship or meditation is to be done, it ought to be done with all our mind and soul. It is of no use if one engages some organs in worship and deflects the others. All our senses, organs and mind should co-operate in worshipping and serving Baba. What was expected, then and now, is wholehearted devotion to Baba. But if any of them did not develop a dispassion for the material objects and enjoyments of this world and did not have their minds turned to the Lord, it was truly unfortunate. Those who met Baba when He was alive, were indeed very fortunate. This clearly shows that Baba is always alive and continues to help His devotees. However, even after He passed away, fresh Leelas have taken place and are even now happening. We have largely spoken about the Leelas which occurred during His lifetime.
His physical or finite form has undoubtedly disappeared from our view, but the infinite or spiritual form always lives. In the last three chapters, we described Baba’s passing away.
You can also listen to the free audiobook version of this Chapter on Youtube: Chapter 45