31. God helps those who help themselves
A huge number of books about Sathya Sai Baba are being written now. As a rule, the books describe stories that tell about the manifestations of his fantastic supernatural power. Often these stories begin with a person coming to Sathya Sai Baba with some problems, of which Sathya Sai Baba blesses and liberates this person from, and then the “problems” are instantly solved.
Difficulties and sufferings are different. They can be associated with illness, family life, financial failures, the search for one’s destiny, spiritual crises, and deep religious issues.
In most of the stories about Sathya Sai Baba, there is an involuntary self-deception, which consists of the Avatar solving the problems of all people and doing this, supposedly, instantly. Such ideas give rise to numerous illusions and leads to disappointment because, in reality, there is almost never an instant solution to problems.
An Avatar can help you overcome difficult situations, but you still need to solve them yourself because you created them yourself. Of course, there were cases when Sathya Sai Baba helped instantly, but this depended on many factors; in most cases the process of getting rid of problems took time.
I have always enjoyed studying the biography of Shirdi Sai Baba (1835 – 1918), the previous incarnation of Sathya Sai Baba (1923 – 2011). I have some wonderful books about Shirdi Sai which I reread all the time. Studying his biography, I noticed a very interesting thing. Suppose you open a book and read a fascinating story about a certain person who came to Shirdi Sai Baba and asked for help in solving problems and difficulties in life. Shirdi Sai Baba recommended this person to chant the mantra or make a pilgrimage. After fulfilling the prescription, all problems disappeared and the person was freed from suffering.
These stories usually fit onto half a page of a book. To read half a page, you need to spend about a minute, at which point the illusion is created that the problem of the person about whom the story is written was solved in one minute.
If you begin to study the same story more carefully, you gradually realize the story being described can be several years long. A person could suffer for ten years, then come to Shirdi Sai Baba, receive instructions, then practice mantras or prayers for several years, and only then solve all their problems.
