What is God?
How Baba answered the question through self-enquiry, gentle conduct and love.
Sai BabaDevotee experienceVolume 4
The chapter
People can describe charcoal, silver or food by their colour, weight, place and other attributes. When they try to describe God in the same way, the certainty disappears. The idea of God remains at the edge of thought rather than becoming an object that the mind can completely define.
Narendra asked Ramakrishna whether he had seen God, and Ramakrishna answered yes. The Upanishads take another route and say that Brahman is not what the eyes see, the ears hear or the mind thinks as an object. Both answers point beyond ordinary perception.
Baba answered a woman who wanted freedom from birth and death with the words, “Think who you are.” He also told people to stop barking at others, speak gently, bear reproach and break the wall between “you” and “me”.
His final answer is expressed through love. A small spark of love must be developed until the whole person becomes love. Such love changes the devotee and can soften even violent or degraded beings. God, in Baba’s practical teaching, is not known by collecting definitions but by becoming loving.
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.