Sai Baba the Master

[Guest guest]

Once, a devotee by name Dengle presented a wooden plank, about 4 ½ feet

long and about 3/4th of a foot wide, to Baba so that he might use it as a

sleeping board. Baba accepted the gift and used it but in a strange manner.

 

When he was alone, Baba somehow managed to suspend the plank from the

ceiling of the mosque, about seven feet above the ground and nearly a foot

and a half below the roof, by means of thin strips of cloth. They were

indeed so worn-out that people wondered how they bore the weight of the

wooden plank. On the four corners of the plank he kept four earthenware oil

lamps burning all through the night. And Baba slept on the plank!

 

People wondered how the strips of cloth bore the weight of the plank and

of Baba’s body? Then, how could Baba accommodate himself on such a small

plank without disturbing the oil lamps or snapping the strips of cloth? And

how did he climb up to such a height without the help of any ladder or

support? People flocked there to watch Baba getting upon it. But no one ever

saw him doing that. When the crowds became too big and it started being a

virtual stampede, one day Baba broke the wooden plank and threw it in the

dhuni. Then a devotee, H.S. Dixit offered to give Baba a cot to sleep on.

Baba said, “I do not want it. Am I to lie on a cot, leaving

Mahalsapathy on the floor? Far better would it be if he should sleep

higher”. Dixit then offered two planks, one for Baba, one for Mahalsapathy.

Baba replied, “Sleeping on the plank is no joke. Who will sleep keeping his

eyes open, all awake, like me? Only such a person can lie on the plank.

Even when I lie on the ground I ask Mahalsapathy to sit by me and keep his

palm on my chest. I lie down making mental namasmarana (remembrance of Lord

’s names) and I say to Mahalsapathy, ‘Feel it by placing your hand on my

heart. If you catch me dozing, wake me up’. Such was and is my order to

him. So you see that a plank will be of no use to him!” One is reminded of

the verse in The Bhagavadgita, Chapter II, verse 69 which says: “What is

night to all beings, therein a restrained man (or a sage) is awake and

where all beings are awake, that is night for a muni (seer)”. How literally

the verse could be true in the case of such a great seer as Baba!

 

 

Source: http://www.saibharadwaja.org