Sai Baba the Master

[Guest guest]

The Master and His ways of Teaching

Different devotees were drawn by Baba to himself and each derived benefit

by experience according to his ripeness. Baba’s methods of teaching were as

varied as were his devotees.

 

A characteristic form of his teaching was in the form of parables and

stories. Some of them were often the accounts of some one or the other of

his devotees assembled there though Baba used to narrate it in the first

person. Others were more cryptic and less direct in their import. They were

intended to be understood only by one or two among the devotees. Others

often took them for meaningless gossip and it made him seem a mad fakir to

most of the natives of Shirdi. Such were the words that Baba spoke to Haji

Siddik Falke. (See Ch.4 “Call of the Guru” and excerpts from Khaparde’s

“Shirdi Diary”.)

 

Some of these parables were less cryptic and, with a little thought, can

be understood by all. We shall note two from Das Ganu’s account. (1)

Sai Baba once said to his devotees, “I was at Puntamba. There was a

struggle between two parties. I wondered why they fought. I found near them

a pot full of coins. That was the bone of contention between them. Then I

quietly moved up and carried it away. They found that their wealth was gone

and began to mourn and lament. I was saying to myself, “Who am I? What is

this wealth? Whose is it? What confusion and struggle for this? The pot is

mine and I am the pot’s”. (The parable is like a double-edged knife, giving

off two complementary significances. At one level, it points out the

arbitrary and illusory nature of anyone’s claims for possessions. At

another level the treasure trove symbolizes the infinite wisdom hidden at

the root of our consciousness which, helps one to transcend the illusion of

‘I’ and ‘mine’. Not having got to that stage the people wrangled over a pot

of material wealth. Baba had won the wisdom and hence his was the real

treasure.

 

(2) “Once, at Shirdi, somebody had prepared ‘sira’ (i.e. sweetened

semolina pudding). Baba asked me if I was given sira. I then said that I

was not on good terms with Baba and that I was not given sira. Baba then

gave me instruction: ‘Who gives what and to whom? What is this sira? Who

eats it? Do not say of anyone that he is inimical to you. Who is whose

enemy? Do not entertain any ill feelings towards anyone. All are one and

the same’.

 

Sometimes Baba did not speak in parables but acted them. Note, for

instance, how practically he demonstrated the inviolability of God’s decree

and how a devotee had to derive courage from a firm faith in it. This

incident was recorded by Prof. Narke.

 

Source: http://www.saibharadwaja.org