Does Baba Punish For Bad Action

Aum Sairam

Sri Sadguru Sainath strived all His life to uplift ordinary folk to the
realm of spirituality. He succeeded, in His own unique way, in making
all those who had the fortune to come in contact with Him, realize
their present and past mistakes, and correct their thoughts, words and
deeds. I am sure; Sri Sai Baba is still doing that.

He always said that one has to reap the results of one's action in this
life itself, and He is only an observer to the deeds of men. As a
Sadguru, whose sole purpose of Avatar is the upliftment of souls purely
due to His Infinite mercy, I do not think that He, as our ever
benevolent father, will ever punish His children for their mistakes,
committed knowingly or unknowingly. Punish may be too harsh a word in
His context. Yes, as God fearing people, we only feel that He punishes
us in the form of our sufferings.

Shri Sai Satcharitra clearly says that one cannot escape the
consequences of one's actions. Therefore, what we feel is Sadguru's
punishment is actually the results of our own past wicked deeds. So,
let us surrender at His lotus feet, and pray that He make us ever
vigilant in our thoughts, words, and deeds.

Since Sri Sai Baba is our Antaryami, He certainly knows all our
actions, good or bad. He also knows whether it was intentional or not,
and if intentional, the intention behind the action. If we think Baba
is separate from us like we think of God also, i.e. we operate with a
Dwaita Bhava, we must also accept that He will certainly reward us for
the good actions and of course punish us for the bad actions. This
implies that we have identified ourselves with our body or mind. This
also implies that we have desire for enjoying the fruits of our
actions. We may not actually desire to be punished, but that is a
natural consequence of this desire for rewards.

On the other hand, if we identify ourselves with Him [Baba, God, call
whatever you will], i.e. in true Advaita [non dual] mode, then we will
approach the question from a different perspective. Who does the karma,
punya / papa, good / bad actions? Is it the body, mind, the intellect
or something else? Who is that doer? What is our true nature?

If we accept that we are not different from God, read Sri Sai Baba's
teaching to Sri Nana Sahib Chandorkar, or putting it a little
differently that the Sishya is not different from the Guru and that
both are actually Gyanamurties, the only difference being that the
Sishya is deluded, while the Guru is not, then we are unaffected by
actions. We too, will accept everything as God's will and will observe
it like a witness.

Sri Sai Baba Himself used to say that, people unnecessarily attribute
to Him many things good or accuse Him of not doing well. He said that
He just looks a little ahead and tells them whatever is in store and
that He is a Witness. He also said that He is just an obedient servant
of God and He remembers Him often.

Recall what Sri Sai Baba said when Shama goes back to Him after
visiting his sister-in-law, who recovered from plague in just one
night, thanks to Sri Sai Baba's Udi. From a philosophical point of
view, destiny is of three types; what has been brought from the past,
what is being accumulated and what is in store for future. Our mind,
acts as per the previously accumulated destiny, which modifies the
present and thus paves the way for the future. It is as if we are
floating in a raft without any oar or rudder, down a river.

An observer seeing from a higher height can see ahead the path of the
river and May guide us or caution us. He may, if powerful enough throw
a rope to us and pull us to safety if needed. Sri Sai Baba was
certainly in that position of spiritual height and power. He knew
Allah's will and acted accordingly.

All actions and the fruits of the actions have only one purpose, viz.,
to teach us to go beyond our limited ego and learn to play our allotted
role in the drama of life without pride of doing. Once our intellect
takes control and our intellect will be awakened thanks to Sadguru Sri
Sai Baba, if we do Tadviddhi pranipatena pari prasnena sevaya, and we
start our journey to discover our true self, our desire for rewards of
actions is snapped and we are no longer affected by them. So neither
reward nor punishment affects us. We accept everything as His Will.

Allah Malik