Part-1

[27-12-2002, Message on Anaghashtami] The Guru always points out the mistakes made by the disciples. He does not praise the virtues of the disciples or the achievements of the disciples. The Guru always explains the mistakes made by the disciple and corrects them so that those mistakes do not happen again and the disciple rises to the next level in spiritual practice. Even if the disciple gets 99 out of 100 marks, the Guru will not appreciate it. He will analyze only about that missing one mark. He will encourage the student to achieve that one mark also. The Guru hopes that because of that encouragement, he will get one hundred marks in the next examination. A disciple should not misunderstand the Guru by saying that the teacher criticizes him instead of praising him. If he is praised, his ego increases and this time the 99 marks in the exam will come down to 90 marks. That is why Sant Kabir said, “Whoever criticizes you, that person is your friend”. In such a case, you will rectify yourself with that criticism and go to a higher level. He who praises you is your enemy actually. The reason being, your ego will rise because of this praise and you will fall further.

The Guru always thinks that his disciple should rise up in spiritual practice. Therefore, the Guru finds only faults in the disciples. Once, Nana Saheb Chandorkar was reading the following verse from the Bhagavad Gita:

“Tadviddhi praṇipātena paripraśnena sevayā |
upadekṣyanti te jñānaṃ jñānina stattva darśinaḥ” ||

Then, Shri Sai Baba asked the meaning of that verse. Nana said that 'when you serve and surrender to the Gurus and ask them your questions, they will preach you the knowledge.’ Then Shri Sai Baba asked as follows: “In the phrase – Upadekṣyanti te jñānam, if the word ‘ignorance’ (te 'jñānam) is substituted in the place of ‘knowledge’ (te jñānam) by making a euphonic combination (Sandhi, which means a combination of words), does it change the meter of the verse?” Nana replied that the meter of the verse is not changed by such a modification but the meaning is changed. Got surprised at this new interpretation, Nana asked Baba, "When I go to the Guru, does He preach ignorance instead of knowledge?".

Then Shri Sai Baba replied as follows: “Guru always shows the ignorance in you. Because of that, you recognize your ignorance and try to get rid of it. In other words, the Guru suggests you to think and identify the errors caused by your ignorance and when you correct those errors, you will be deserving to receive the spiritual knowledge. So, before bestowing spiritual knowledge, the Guru removes ignorance from you.

When a guest comes to the house, the house is swept and cleaned beforehand. In the same way, you have to get rid of your ignorance before receiving spiritual knowledge. The Guru's attempt to make you worthy of knowledge is by finding out your faults. So, Guru Datta always catches the wrong thinking of His disciples because He is the true and perfect Guru. He who knows this, recognizes His affection in reforming us. He who does not understand this truth, leaves Guru Datta. Today is Anaghashtami. Who is Anagha? Anagha means the ‘first soul.’ Anagha is the first wave of will of the God to create this world. That wave is also called 'Ātma Linga.’ The same Anagha is called Mahāmāyā, Mūlamāyā. She is Anagha, because She is ‘sinless.’ She is supremely holy. God made her the presiding deity of wealth in the entire creation. But her focus is never on the creation. Her focus is always on the Creator, Paramātman only. She always sits at the feet of Swami. Her focus is always on God. Her love and meditation are all on the Paramātman only.

Part-2

Knowledge, meditation and devotion are useless without service. That is why her hands are always pressing the feet of Lord. She has not an atom of ego, even after having so much wealth. If we acquire a little bit of wealth, we employ several servants to do our service. But, in spite of having so many riches, mother Anagha became a servant with humility. She is doing practical service to inspire us on the path. On this day, the eight sons like eight types of miraculous powers (Aṣṭasiddhis), the eight daughters like eight types of wealth (Aṣṭaiśvaryas) of Anagha-Datta, are ritually invited on the eight sanctified vessels (Aṣṭa Kalaśams). Having invited them, the Anagha-Datta are worshipped. What is the inner meaning of this ritual? This is to test whether you focus on mother Anagha who is concentrating on the Lord or you focus on Aṣṭa Kalaśas, signifying Aṣṭasiddhis and Aṣṭaiśvaryas.

Aṣṭasiddhis and Aṣṭaiśvaryas are related to creation. Lord Datta is their creator. Aṣṭasiddhis and Aṣṭaiśvaryas are part of creation and resulted from the Yoga (union) of Anagha-Datta. Here, Yoga means not like in case of the sexual union between a man and a woman. Creation came into existence when Anagha being the will of creating this creation, joined with Swami, the creator of this creation. Therefore, it should not be taken in a literal sense. Internal meaning is the true form of knowledge. The test of God Datta is to see whether you chose the creation or you chose the creator. This is called the ‘Test of Datta.’ If your focus is on the Aṣṭaiśvaryas and on the Aṣṭasiddhis, you will have to face the eight types of great difficulties. Also, if you focus on Anagha Devi, then you will realize that because her unwavering focus is on the creator only, He gave her Aṣṭasiddhis like sons and Aṣṭaiśvaryas like daughters.

If your focus is on the Aṣṭasiddhis, the Creator will give them to you. There is no doubt about it. But then your situation will be like that of a untrained ring-master who stands among the lions in the circus and is not able to control them and thus, eaten by them at the end. But, when can you acquire the power to control the Aṣṭasiddhis and Aṣṭaiśvaryas? It can be acquired only when you do not focus on them but focus on the Creator as they fear the Creator and remain under your control. You will never catch your shadow when you are trying to catch it. But if you do not focus on it, instead focus on the Paramātman by travelling towards Him, your shadow will follow you like a servant.

A devotee did penance for God. God appeared and asked for a boon. The devotee asked for the boon that whatever he wished must happen. Such a boon is one of the Aṣṭasiddhis. God gave that boon and disappeared. Then the devotee thought like this – ‘I want a beautiful wife,’ and a beautiful wife appeared. Then the devotee thought – ‘let her body be adorned with all costly jewels,’ it happened so. Then he thought like this – ‘Oh! What? She looks like the Divine Mother!’ Then she transformed as the Divine Mother. Seeing this, the devotee thought – ‘What, is this Divine Mother going to eat me?’ Then Divine Mother attacked and swallowed him.

Therefore, excessive wealth and Aṣṭasiddhis without self-restraint lead to severe difficulties. Only Lord Datta can control infinite wealth and Aṣṭasiddhis. So, as long as your focus is on the Creator, you are close to the Creator. Then neither the lions like Aṣṭasiddhis nor the tigers like Aṣṭaiśvaryas can do anything to you. You are close to the circus master. Therefore, the spiritual message we should get from today’s Anaghashtami is, "You do not focus on the creation and focus on the creator and remain in the service of the creator and whatever wealth is attained by His grace, do not get the ego of being its master. Always know that you are a servant; do not get the ego predominant of Rajas and Tamas and be humble with predominant Sattva. Then you will also enter into the heart of Swami like Anagha". Therefore, considering Anagha Devi as an ideal who remained a servant at Swami’s feet, you should also enter into the heart of the Lord, just like Anagha attained that position of the deity of Swami’s heart. She never enjoyed the wealth given to her. She is donating that wealth to the devotees of Swami. What she gets from Swami, she donates it to others.

So, Brahman can be attained only by sacrifice. "Tyāgenaike amṛtattva mānaśuḥ," so says the Shruti. Brahman is attained by sacrifice and not by self-enjoyment. Prahlada tried to share the spiritual knowledge he got from Sage Narada with the boys around him. He never tried for self-upliftment. Self-upliftment is selfishness. Similarly, Radha glorified about Krishna to the other Gopikas and instilled devotion in them, thinking that Krishna would become their lover. Radha never thought about herself. Radha wanted to help the Gopikas and always followed them like a shadow.