The Guru appears in human form to demonstrate both by precept and example the nature and significance of true bhakti to the benighted and erring mortals below.

Shri Sai Baba’s teachings, extolling the qualities of faith and devotion are true for all times. He maintained that dry intellectualism has no force, no potency, and that all great movements of life are actuated by intensity of feeling. Birth itself which is the greatest event of life is the summum bonum of the intensity in feeling. Shri Sai Baba recognized that for a religion to be a living and effective force, profound enthusiasm is necessary, and, that man is the most enthusiastic who loves the best. Devotion gives a man the power and the inclination to do and to dare. Such transcendental love is the ideal of every religion, but it is an ideal very difficult of attainment for an impersonal or unseen Being.

 The human soul hankers for something tangible, someone of flesh and blood to whom can be given this unstinted devotion. Shri Sai Baba proved this to be this ideal embodiment of God. The Sai Baba whom his devotees worship is not an ordinary human personality, for it is not possible to worship a human being who is in the same category as ourselves, but then again, he is not the transcendent God beyond human ken, since, as such, he could not have inspired so much love and warmth. The Sai Baba whom thousands of devotees worship is precisely the personified Guru --- the manifested Divine who in his infinite compassion assumes a human form to resuscitate religion.

It is possible even now, years later, to recapture vividly the wonderful leelas of this master artist. The dynamics of his personality, the versatility of his accomplishments, the works and miracles he wrought from day to day, the peculiar mysticism attached to his birth and death and deeds can be composed into a story that reads like a romance yet unsurpassed in the annals of biographical literature.

A visit to Shirdi is an experience in itself. An insignificant village lying almost on the banks of the sacred Godavari river, Shirdi has nothing much to commend it in the way natural scenic beauty or civilized amenities, save for the profusion of sugar cane plants, from which it has derived its name.

 The name is, however, symbolically appropriate, for the mystic who chose this spot as his abode did indeed fill it with the aroma of his sweet and gracious presence. The exterior of the Ashram is unimposing too, but as soon as one enters the precincts of the holy shrine where the mortal remains of the seer lie interred, an unspeakable thrill of ecstasy passes through one’s being, and there is almost an instant awareness of a living presence. This illusion -- or should we rather not term it a supreme truth -- that Sai Baba is alive and actually present in some part of the ashram is one which many a devotee has experienced. A strange expectancy hovers about the atmosphere, as if just there round the corner we would inadvertently come across the familiar and lovable figure.

For the many descriptions of the Saint and the remarkable likenesses that the camera has reproduced of him in his many moods and poses, it is possible to create him anew! A tall loosely built physique, long and shapely limbs -- one can visualize him sitting in the masjid distributing Udi (ashes of the sacred fire that perpetually burnt before him) to all those who went to him. An arresting appearance, the olive complexion set off to advantage his handsome features. But the chief attraction lay in his deep eyes of a mystic half drunk with some secret nectar, and yet capable of reflecting the many changes in his moods. When his gaze fell upon a devotee the eyes seem to be probing into the devotee’s innermost recesses, and yet no one seemed to mind this for the expression in those eyes was one of habitual compassion. This was the mystic of Shirdi, as he is described by some of the veteran devotees who saw him, as his photographs and portraits reveal him to us.

So whether it is in the main hall of the Shrine, or in the Lendi Gardens where Baba meditated for 2 hours everyday, or in the Dwarka (Masjid) where he lived and assembled his durbar and where he manifested his loving protection over devotees far and near, the feeling of his dynamic presence and nearness persists, and there persists too an all-pervading peace despite the very voluble and frantic worship that is poured out by the pujaris and by the incessant chain of visitors who throng in the ashram from the early hours of the morning. In Shirdi there is not that atmosphere of dignified peace which one expects in ashrams; here there is a catholicity of worship untrammeled by any rules or restrictions where each man, woman and child just unburdens his or her heart in perfect spontaneity.

 The Master’s compassionate sanction is there, “Cast all your burdens on me, and I will bear them.” In spite of all the din and noise, the place is instinct with holiness, and the peace which belongs to it is of another world, and it seeps into one’s innermost self almost surreptitiously. It was the same when Baba was alive and resided in the ashram; It is the same now, three decades later -- a sudden discovery of the true silence within the heart amidst all the noise and liveliness without; a coming upon the quintessence of one’s being -- this is an experience which many devotees gratefully share. It is as if the Master were saying again, as he was wont to say then, that true solitude springs from the wells of the Atma and comes as the result of an inward purification. Not only any external or physical isolation, but by the difficult process of making the mind quiet does man’s consciousness open to the forces of Divine.

As a matter of fact, Baba often decried the practice of renouncing the world and running away from it, for he feared that such an escape into isolation or solitude very often gave rise to a false sense of smugness in the sadhana. For, said Baba, so long as the six elemental passions of Kama, Krodh, Lobha, Moha, Mada and Matsar had not been sublimated, so long as the mind continued to chatter, so long would it be futile for the aspirant to seek solitude, for in the very act of alienating himself from the world he might miss a true perspective of his inner preparedness and progress. So Baba usually cautioned his devotees to be in the world and not of it.