See Me in a dog also… D O G – dog will lead you to God – G-O-D Some years ago, at the end of a Guru Purnima Divine discourse, Bhagawan urged the devotees to develop compassion. Bhagawan said then, See Me in a dog also… D O G – dog will lead you to God – G-O-D. What a beautiful statement hidden with Supreme Truth of coexistence! True, one needs to rise to a level of higher consciousness to understand and imbibe this Supreme Truth. With Bhagawan HimSelf showing all-out compassion for all of His creation, are we not, His ‘devotees’ bound to practise His precepts? Let’s learn a lesson from the Life of Bhagawan at Shirdi as to how He Taught To See GOD in a DOG, an insightful reminder from the Sai Satcharita… Once, Mrs Tarkhad was staying in a certain house in Shirdi. At noon, meals were ready and dishes were being served, when a hungry dog turned up there and began to cry. Mrs. Tarkhad got up at once and threw a piece of bread, which the dog gulped with great relish. In the afternoon, when she went to the Masjid and sat at some distance, Sai Baba said to her, “Mother, you have fed Me sumptuously up to My throat, My afflicted pranas (life-forces) have been satisfied. Always act like this, and this will stand you in good stead. Sitting in this Masjid I shall never, never speak untruth. Take pity on Me like this. First give bread to the hungry, and then eat yourself. Note this well.” She could not at first understand the meaning of what Baba said. So she replied, “Baba, how could I feed You? I am myself dependent on others and take my food from them on payment.” Then Baba replied: “Eating that lovely bread I Am heartily contended and I Am still belching. The dog which you saw before meals and to which you gave the piece of bread is one with Me, so also other creatures (cats, pigs, flies, cows etc.) are one with Me. I Am roaming in their forms. He, who sees Me in all these creatures is My beloved. So abandon the sense of duality and distinction and serve Me, as you did today.” Drinking these nectar-like words, she was moved, her eyes were filled with tears, her throat was choked and her joy knew no bounds. II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II

The Tiger Skin Story From Prasanthi Nilayam When He walked the Earth as Sri Sathya Sai, every moment with Him turned out to be a lesson, lesson in watching Him ‘walking His talk’, making His Life His Message for everyone to follow. Long ago during His teen days, Bhagawan encountered an English hunter at Uravakonda, who sought after Him for His magical help in starting his stranded vehicle in the forest. …And Bhagawan left him ‘enlightened’ asking him not to shoot any more wild beasts, advising him to shoot them with his camera. …And thus the story of Bhagawan’s tiger mat in the bhajan hall in Prasanthi Nilayam, as narrated by Prof Kasturi in ‘Sathyam Sivam Sundaram’. While reading this, one need to understand the inner significance of the tiger skin in spirituality. Tiger skin is symbolic of conquering animal, beastial tendecies or vasanas in man.  One day a jeep-driver crossed the river bed and walked the streets of Puttaparthi, trying to locate Swami. His master, a young English sub-divisional officer, had gone for Shikar (hunting) to the forest on the other side of the Chitravathi, and while returning to Anantapur the vehicle had stopped right opposite Puttaparthi village. The driver did his best, as did the officer, to get the vehicle moving, but failed. The driver suggested that there was a ‘Boy’ at Puttaparthi who could materialise Vibhuti (sacred ash). Yes, “create, by a circular movement of His palm, the very panacea for all ills, even for the jeep!” Stranded halfway, the Englishman agreed and let the driver go to the village, while he himself sat in the jeep. The driver bumped into the Boy at last, but was astounded to hear Baba say, “I Am coming, myself, to the jeep.” He walked across the sandy bed, and on reaching the road, peeped into the vehicle and saw the carcass of a tiger that the officer had shot barely two hours ago. Swami’s deep love for all beings could not tolerate animals being killed or tortured. He said, “I stopped the jeep at this place, for it is a mother, whose three small cubs are at this very time loudly wailing and calling out to her, that you are carrying. Go back! Recover those cubs and gift them to some zoo where they will be well looked after. And do not shoot wild beasts again, for they have caused you no harm. Why do you kill them, surround them and lay traps to catch them. Shoot them instead with a more superior weapon, your camera. That won’t maim or kill them.” The Englishman was at once enlightened, and he never carried a firearm again. Shooting wild beasts armed with a camera, he discovered, was far more adventurous and sathwic (pure). He presented the orphaned cubs to the zoo, and when the tiger skin came back from the taxidermist, he brought it to Puttaparthi. Prasanthi Mandir was then under construction. He met Baba and placed the skin at His Feet. Sakamma of Coorg pleaded with Him to sit on it in Yogic fashion, with a rosary between His fingers. She had a photographer ready. And Baba obliged, though He has never sat in Dhyana (meditation) or held a rosary! (PS: Tiger skin in Indian spirituality signifies overcoming animal, beastial tendencies, vasanas.) II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu II