A pious reader would like to have a further sketch of the nature and the works of devotion at this stage before dealing with the expansion of the system of worship of Sai Baba throughout the country and its diversification.
The seeds of the Ankolam tree or plant are regrasped by the parent tree; the parent magnetic block attracts needles one behind another; the chaste wife clasps her husband; the tender creeper clings to the adjoining tree and mounts upward and upward; and the waters of the rivers are for ever drawn downward and downward till they reach the ocean and merged in it. Similarly the heart of the devotee longs after the Divine feet of Pasupati, God Siva. This is called Bhakti. This is how Bhakti is to be understood as a natural force, which is found working in all creations namely, vegetable, animal, mineral, and human.
Each illustration takes Bhakti one stage further up. First comes the tendency of the Ankolam plant and its seed. After the seed is first shed form the parent tree, it is detached from the tree and finally it gets reattached to the tree. Thus the tendency even in vegetables is to get back to the original source and get reabsorbed in it. That is the real nature of devotion in the human being also. We are parts, amsas, or spark from God, and are drawn by a natural force to look to and reach the original source of all creation and of us, namely, God, this force being devotion.
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