Baba’s Samsara
The meaning of worldly existence and Baba’s relationship to it.
Sai BabaSpiritual studyVolume 1
The chapter
Samsara means the continuing round of birth and death, but the chapter first asks whether worldly life is simply sorrow. Everyday existence also contains the pleasures that sustain life; the deeper problem is desire, because pleasure tied to desire rises and falls and cannot provide the lasting bliss associated with Brahman.
When Nana Chandorkar tells Baba that he wants nothing to do with samsara, Baba explains that one cannot escape the cycle merely by disliking it. To a woman who asks to be freed from samsara, he replies by asking whether she has come prepared to die. While the body remains, some form of samsara remains. The practical answer is to live rightly, perform one’s duties and reduce the desires that turn experience into bondage.
Baba then applies the teaching to himself. He speaks of being bound to the world by his body and by his promises to devotees, including assurances to M. B. Rege and the young Bandra devotee that he would return with them in future births. Such rebirth is not the samsara of attachment: a realised being may accept birth to fulfil a promise and guide a soul while remaining established in the knowledge “I am Brahman.”
What this account invites us to reflect on
The account invites reflection on the difference between involvement and bondage. Worldly life becomes a chain when driven by possessive desire; the same world can become a field of service when action is performed with detachment, responsibility and remembrance of the Divine.
Editorial note: This page is a concise paraphrase for web presentation and does not reproduce the complete chapter. Please consult the original PDF for the full account and wording.