How Does Shri Sai Satcharitra Parayan Work?

Aum Sairam

I have penned down my thoughts on a certain act of worship that most of us follow in our daily lives here. I would be happy to read about other devotee’s thoughts and additions to this.

How reading Shri Sai Satcharitra or any Holy book for that matter would ease our burden and misery and grant us 'salvation'. The merit of Satsang cannot be described, I have heard. But how does this company of the saints ['sat'] destroy our problems that we face in our daily life?

Problem is a problem only when we think about it. When it is out of our mind [for example, in deep sleep] it is no longer a problem. Immersing ourselves in these sacred stories takes our mind away from our worries and fears [at least for those few hours] and relieves us of our stress. Secondly, the characters and circumstances in these stories, that we often read, are no different from what we face in our daily lives even today. We can easily relate to those characters and whatever advice or solution that the Saint or God gave them holds good in our case also. That is why, when we open the Shri Sai Satcharitra for our problems we feel Sri Sai is talking to us through that book and thus we learn our lessons.

The most common advice offered to all those people [who went to Him with problems] is 'Cast your burden on Me. I will take care of everything' How easy it sounds and yet how difficult to practice in daily life! This single advice, when followed, will teach us the meaning of Trust and Surrender. Where there is Trust, there Surrender will come naturally and where there is Surrender, Peace will come to stay. When we entrust something to our friend or parents or spouse, who we know will do it to perfection, we will no longer worry about it anymore and what more, we will only be glad we have them in this life.

How do we develop habits? When we are accustomed to doing something again and again. The same thing, applies here also. When we read these stories again and again, even unconsciously we imbibe the essence of His teachings. So next time we face a tough time, we know how Sri Sai would advice us to act. We would have the silent but a constant urge to make Him feel proud of us [i.e., strive to practice His teachings].We learn to accept rather than question Him 'why me?'
This is the secret to salvation, and the greatest miracle that these readings can perform is this change in attitude or outlook that it brings about in us. The greatest devotees that our scriptures talk about were not rich or happy in all respects. They were those who saw God in everything - in their happiness and in their misery. This sameness of vision alone made them great and this is what the company of a saint would offer.

Some people might tend to call things like this 'blind faith'. When we are in distress we cry to Him, 'I do not know how, but if at all someone can pull me out of this hell, it is only You. You are my only refuge.' Do we then care to see any logic as to how He is going to perform the impossible? What is it that we have then?

Faith - Faith in His Name, Faith in His Mantra, Faith in His words and blind only to the ways in which His Grace would work [which is impossible for the human mind to fathom anyway]. I firmly believe that anything done with Faith will bring its own rewards.

Faith must trample under foot all sense, reason and understanding. May Sri Sai bless all His children with Faith and Patience.

Allah Malik