Independence and Indian Culture - Sri Sai Master's message on our Independence day!

Jai Sai Master!

Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought to; Let us have faith that right makes might and in that faith let us; to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it- Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States (1809-1865)

We are celebrating our 65th year of Independence tomorrow. Many of us, may not give much importance to the word "freedom", as we have not yet experienced the same or we do not bother much of it. This is more so, as we have not understood what it means to us and we continue to live in our own small world, with boundaries and with fear and anxiety and other issues. 

Our country which lost its freedom around 12th century got its freedom in the year 1947 August 15th. Every country has a special character and so is India. India is known as land of spirituality and purely due to this, our country survived many an onslaught. Probably this is the only country where many religions are co-existing, peacefully, although we see some ups and downs here and there. On the whole, we embrace any religion or any faith, which is a hall mark of spiritual independence, the biggest factor for any country to stay on top. If one observers carefully, even though the Muslim kings died and their influence died, their religion stayed mostly due to Mahatmas like Hazrat Khwaja Moiddin Chisti and his disciples. Many Hindus visit these famous darga and they serve there too.

One of the tall leaders of freedom struggle, Sri Balagangadhar Tilak paid visits to Shegaon and Shirdi and took blessings of Sri Gajanan Maharaj and Sri Shirdi Sai Baba. When Sri Tilak asked Sri Shirdi Sai Baba on freedom, Sri Sai Baba told him that he did enough selflessly and told him to sleep. Sri Sai Baba also indicated that someone else who is responsible for that would come. As indicated, Mahathma Gandhi came after Sri Tilak died and he lead from the front the independence movement. Lord Krishna appeared to Sri Aurobindo when he was jailed and on Lord's command, an Ashram was constructed at Pondicherry and became a realised soul. 

Only when spirituality arises in everyone, the way we attained freedom on the day of Sri Aurobindo's birthday, then only we get our real freedom from the clutches of slavery, slavery of every kind. If one observes carefully, only when the spirituality was at the forefront and our leaders believed this to the core, then only we lived happily, otherwise, there were upheavals in the society. The same can be observed even today in the society. Those who do not understand the principles of religion, or understand the freedom of religion which is a backbone of our country, think that religion is the reason for our downfall. On the contrary, only when we all appreciate and savour the religious freedom with proper understanding, and live spiritually, then only our society can become a happy one. Every human being needs to focus on value systems and that deep rooted value system can only be installed by the spiritual education. To prove this, one can read Sri Sai Master's books on Shirdi Sai Baba and His Teachings or Matam Enduku?

Today, every kid, every young person needs to embrace spirituality, and gain the right knowledge by reading the books like - Edi Nijam? or Sri Swami Vivekananda's literature. May this independence day become the point at which we all turn towards achieving our real INDEPENDENCE. 

May we seek blessings of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba and Sri Sai Master to give us strength to move in the right direction.

Jai Sai Master !!

(Points in the article are free translation from the book - Manamu and Mana Samskruthi by Sri Sai Master)

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