Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s Letter to His Brother

On May 25, 1947, at the age of 20, in response to a letter from his brother, who was concerned with what He was doing, Sri Sathya Sai Baba wrote the following letter. This letter disclosed His mission.

My dear one! I received the communication that you wrote and sent. I found in it the surging floods of your devotion and affection, with the undercurrents of doubts and anxiety. Let Me tell you that it is impossible to plumb the hearts and discover the natures of jnanis, yogis, ascetics, saints, sages and the like.

People are endowed with a variety of characteristics and mental attitudes, so each one judges according to his own angle, talks and argues in the light of his own nature. But we have to stick to our own right path, our own wisdom and our own resolution without getting affected by popular appraisal. As the proverb says, it is only the fruit-laden tree that receives the shower of stones from passers-by. The good always provoke the bad into calumny; the bad always provoke the good into derision. That is the nature of this world. One must be surprised if such things do not happen.

The people have to be pitied rather than condemned. They do not know. They have no patience to judge aright. They are too full of lust, anger and conceit to see clearly and know fully. So, they write all manner of things. If they only knew, they would not talk or write like that. We, too, should not attach any value to such comments and take them to heart, as you seem to do. Truth will certainly triumph someday. Untruth can never win. Untruth might appear to overpower truth but its victory will fade away and truth will establish itself.

It is not the way of the great to swell when people offer worship and to shrink when people scoff. As a matter of fact, no sacred text lays down rules to regulate the lives of the great, prescribing habits and attitudes that they must adopt. They themselves know the path they must tread; their wisdom regulates and makes their acts holy. Self-reliance and beneficial activity – these two are their special marks. They may also be engaged in the promotion of the welfare of devotees and in allotting them the fruits of their actions. Why should you be affected by tangle and worry as long as I am adhering to these two? After all, praise and blame of the populace do not touch the Atma, the reality; they can touch only the outer physical frame.

I have a ‘task’: to foster all mankind and ensure for all of them lives full of bliss (ananda). I have a ‘vow’: to lead all who stray away from the straight path again into goodness and save them. I am attached to a ‘work’ that I love: to remove the sufferings of the poor and grant them what they lack. I have a ‘reason to be proud,’ for I rescue all who worship and adore me, aright. I have my definition of the ‘devotion’: I expect those devoted to me have to treat joy and grief, gain and loss, with equal fortitude. This means that I will never give up those who attach themselves to me.

You can yourself see the full glory in the coming years. Devotees must have patience and forbearance.

I am not concerned nor am I anxious that these facts should be known. I have no need to write these words; I wrote them because I felt you would be pained if I do not reply.

Thus, your Baba