Sai Baba the Master

[Guest guest]

Not only did Baba reject the dead traditions and accept the traditions

which are good but he also interpreted them afresh even as Christ had done

to the ancient Jewish Law in his Sermon on the Mount. These God-men came

‘not to destroy’ but ‘to fulfil’ the scriptures, fulfilling in both the

senses of the word namely in reestablishing their infallibility and also

supplementing and ‘completing’ them wherever they are inadequate or

incomplete. For instance, one of Baba’s Hindu devotees complained that

though he tried his best to fulfill the ancient injunction that one should

feed an athithi (guest who arrives by chance); some times even after

waiting or searching for one, he had not often been able to find anyone.

Baba said, “Nana, the sastras (sacred laws) are not at fault, nor are the

mantras wrong; you have got into your head some worthless interpretation

and then stand and wait for guests. (So) they will not turn up. Does the

term athithi denote only a man, 3 ½ cubits high, and of the brahmin caste

only ? Athithi is whatever creature which is hungry and comes to you at

that time. All these seek food. The real athithi that you get, you do not

regard as such. At kakabali time, take plenty of cooked rice outside the

house and leave it there. Do not shout or call any creature nor drive any

away. Do not mind whatever the creature that comes to eat, thereby you get

the merit of feeding lakhs of guests.”

 

Such corrective interpretation was extended by Baba even to sacred texts.

Thereby not only did he give a better interpretation of them than were

given by earlier savants, but he put down, too, the pride of learning of

the devotee.

 

Nana Saheb Chandorkar had studied The Bhagavadgita with commentaries and

was proud of that. Baba, one day, pricked the bubble. Those were days

before crowds flocked to Baba.

 

Baba : Nana, what are you mumbling to yourself?

 

Nana : I am reciting a verse in Sanskrit from the Bhagavadgita.

 

Baba : Recite it aloud and explain it to me. Nana then recited verse 34 of

chapter IV of the Bhagavadgita and said,

 

“Making sashtanga namaskara, or prostration, asking the guru for the

teaching, serving him, learn what this jnana (wisdom of the self) is. Then,

those (jnanis) that have attained to real knowledge of the Sad Vastu

(Reality or Brahman) will give you upadesh of jnana.”

 

Baba : Nana, is it enough to merely prostrate before the guru?

 

Nana : I do not know of any other meaning for the words ‘pranipata’ than

this.

 

Baba : If ‘pari prasna’ means putting questions, what does prasna mean?

 

Nana : The same.

 

Baba : If pari Prasna means the same as prasna (question), why did sage

Vyasa add the prefix pari? Was Vyasa off his head?

 

Nana : I do not know.

 

Baba : By seva what sort of seva (service) is meant?

 

Nana : Just of the kind we have been rendering you.

 

Baba : Is it enough to render such service?

 

Nana : I do not know what more is meant.

 

Baba : Leave it aside. In the next phrase upadekshyanti te jnanam can you

read any other word in lieu to jnanam (without violence to the metre of the

verse)?

 

Source: http://www.saibharadwaja.org