Devotion
Devotion means unflinching faith and love in God or Guru. Until, unless the faith is mixed with love, it is difficult to sustain it all the time. Some times, in difficult situations, the faith is put to severe trials. This can be seen in the lives of the great saints and sages. Because of their unshakable love in God, they survived through the trials without losing the balance. The love for Guru can be for the physical form or for the change less essence present behind the physical frame. Sri Sai mentions about both in his teachings. Sai advises his devotees about seeing his (Sai's) form in the living beings (Bhakti), meditating on the essence behind the form (Jnanam). It is very important to have faith in Guru and his teachings. If some thing goes in a different way, other than expected, it does not deny the Grace of the Guru. Acceptance of results for the actions (after doing one's personal best) is the basis of faith. For the heart breaking and difficult problems of life, there may not be ready made answers. But, it is vital in those times to hold on to the torch of Faith, other wise there is every chance to fall into the deep abyss of doubting mind. The doubting mind never allows anyone to establish in any thing. A great saint in one of his compositions ironically laments, "What can I do with my tricky mind? If some thing goes rightly, I feel that it is mainly because of my effort and partly because of God's grace; if some thing goes wrong, I feel that mainly it is due to your lack of Grace and partly due to my lack of proper effort. Kindly show Grace on me and make my mind steady on your Lotus feet in both pleasure and pain". Let us pray to Sri Sai to grant us steady faith and love on him.
