Sai Baba the Master by E.Bharadwaja

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Ramlal, a Brahmin of Bombay once saw in his dream an odd-looking saint.

The spiritual magnetism of the holy one was so striking. He at once

decided to take darshan of the saint but he knew little about the saint or

his whereabouts. Yet the next afternoon, when he was strolling along a

street, an exact portrait of the saint was placed prominently in a shop.

He enquired and was told that he was Sai Baba of Shirdi. He at once

visited Shirdi and took Baba’s darshan and stayed on there till his death.

 

Balakram Mankar, a devotee of Baba was dejected when he lost his dear

wife. Entrusting the family to his son, he came and lived at Shirdi. One

day Baba gave him Rs. 12/- and told him to go and stay at holy

Macchindragad in Satara district and told him that it would help him much

spiritually. Baba sent Mankar with the instruction that he should practise

meditation thrice daily and assured him of his (Baba’s) presence with him

there.

 

At Macchindragad, Mankar, with great faith put Baba’s instruction into

practice. After some days one day when mankar was quite awake, Sai Baba

appeared before him physically. Mankar bowed to him at once and even

touched his feet. Then he asked Baba why he was sent to Macchindragad.

Baba replied, “When you were at Shirdi your mind was getting disturbed by

thoughts. You were developing the erroneous view that I am identical with

my physical body which is confined to Shirdi. Now, see whether this form

of mine is in any way less real than my form at Shirdi. It is to

demonstrate the truth about me that I have sent you here.” Later Mankar

went to Pune.

 

One day Mankar wished to go to Dadar. The crowds were too big at the

railway counter and there seemed little hope of his getting a ticket in

time. Suddenly a villager clothed only in his loin-cloth and rapped in a

coarse wool garment approached him and enquiring of Mankaar’s destination,

handed him a ticket to Dadar and said that as he himself droped his

intended journey to Dadar, he was willing to give the ticket to him (i.e.,

to Mankar). Before Mankar could pay for it, the man disappeared in the

crowd and could not be found any where! From Dadar, Mankar went to Shirdi

and lived there till the end of his life.

 

All devotees are not cast in the same mould. Yet, a guru, like a mother,

responds with equal love to their different demands. Some of Baba’s

devotees were demanding in their attitude. Usually it is a Master that

says to the devotee, “If you take one step towards me, I shall take two

towards you.” But with Baba, at least in some faces, it seemed the other

way round. Some people were prepared to believe in him only if their

conditions were satisfied.

 

(To be contd....)

 

Source http://www.saibharadwaja.org)