Sai Baba is an epitome of reverence who generates faith and confidence to his devotees who are looking for salvation. His mission is to make people become mindful of their divine consciousness and transcend the limits of the mortal body. Among his teachings are the cardinal paths called “Shraddha” and “Saburi”.
Shraddha is a Sanskrit word which means faith with love and reverence. He believes those factors are generated with conviction, which is not a result of a rational belief or intellectual wisdom. According to him, having a firm and strong love to God is the gateway to eternity. His teachings, direct or indirect developed the significance of Shraddha.
Saburi means patience and perseverance. He believes that Saburi is what a man will need through his path to reach the goal. This quality, he said, must be instilled to the person from the very first day of his life. In case one loses his pace and leaves the path half way, this character will help him continue his journey.
For Baba, Purity is not just about the body, but the inner purity. No physical cleansing could wash a man with his impurities if his mind and heart remained impure. Therefore, he admonished his devotees with asceticism as an end to it, in case they give in into physical mortification.
Sai Baba was also an image of compassion and love. He taught compassion to all his devotees and told them, “Never turn away anybody outside your door, may it be animal or human”.
Sai Baba also put Guru on a high pedestal on reverence. For him Guru was a fundamental base of the path of devotion. He indicated that his physical frame was the temple of the Guru and he is not there anymore. Thus, a complete surrender to the Guru was what he wanted his devotees to do.
He also had teachings with Udi and Dakshina.
Udi or the sacred ash was made from the perpetual fire called “dhuni”. He explained the meaning of life by the Udi and said that like Udi, all the visible phenomena of the world are short-lived. This example wanted his devotees to understand the difference between the real and unreal.
The Dakshina or alms was demanded by Baba for those who visited him. This simply means the detachment of the worldly things.
