SAI SERVICE NEWSLETTER - 23

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SAI SERVICE Newsletter – 23

Issue 12-09-2002

 

[shri Shirdi Sai Baba's Messages, Life events, Articles are available

in / and

updated/added on daily basis]

 

This Thursday's Message: (Baba said)

 

If you do good and surrendered it to God, good will come to you. God

the Lord of them that do good. Both wicked and virtuous want good

things from me? How (or whence) can I give? (i.e. If they have not

put forward the good karma warranting the gift)

 

 

a. Baba's Talk with Devotees

 

Dada Kelkar, an over zealous Brahmin, abhorred onion and in his over-

zeal objected to visitors and Sathe Wada using onion. He fell foul on

S.B. Nachne's mother-in-law for using it. Then his grand-child had

sore eyes.

 

Dada Kelkar: Baba, the child has sore eyes. What should I do?

 

Baba: Use onion for fomenting the eyes.

 

Dada Kelkar: Where can I go for onion?

 

Baba: Take it from this mother (pointing to S.B. Nachne's mother-in-

law)

 

S.B. Nachne's Mother-in-law: Baba Dada Kelkar abused me for using

onion. So I do not like to give him anything. If you order it, I will

give.

 

Baba: Give.

 

Then the lady gave the onion and Baba, through her, humiliated Dada

Kelkar for his intolerant over-asceticism.

 

b. Divine Dews from our Sadguru

 

 Why should you take the responsibility of the actions on you? Do

not entertain the sense of doership in doing good, as well as bad

deeds; (SSS Ch. L)

 

 This Masjidmai (its presiding Deity) is very merciful, She is

merciful Mother of the simple devotees, whom She will save in

calamities. Once a person sits on Her lap, all his troubles are over.

(SSS Ch.XXII)

 

 Nobody should take the labour of others in vain. The worker should=

 

be paid his dues promptly and liberally. (SSS Ch.XVIII & XIX)

 

 Always worship Me, who is seated in your heart as well as in the

hearts of all beings. (SSS Ch.XV)

 

 "Allah Malik", i.e. God is the sole Proprietor, nobody else is our=

 

Protector. His method of work is extra-ordinary, invaluable and

inscrutable. (SSS Ch.XVIII & XIX)

 

 

 

 

c. Weekly Article:

 

IS BABA A TEACHER?

 

This question is diversely interpreted and meets with diverse

answers. Superficial persons answer in the negative as he was seldom

seen making hortatory or didactive speeches or busying himself as a

pedagogue does. Others who have carefully studies his words and

activities give an empathic affirmative answer. They say if any one

was a teacher, Sai Baba was undoubtedly one, that his teaching was

mostly so subtle and secret, that few could discover the fact he was

teaching and that what he taught was the highest lesson viz.,

knowledge of God and the self. Even careful observers sometimes say

that Baba was not a teacher but mean that he was not a mere teacher,

but a great deal more, i.e., that he was the guardian angel or all in

all of his trusting devotee. The majority of those who came to see

him, came out of momentary curiosity or just to have the merit of his

darshan or get a want satisfied or grievance redressed and, having

made no study of Baba, they are surprised to see a collection of

Baba's sayings, a bare perusal of which leads to one conclusion only

viz., that Baba was a great and remarkable teacher, unostentatiously

adopting subtle but efficient methods and sadhanas inevitably and

finally carrying his devotee to the grand goal of all being, and Baba

is still rendering that service to all that he draws to himself or

that place themselves in proper contact with him.

 

Persons noting how Baba dealt with sincere and fully surrendered

devotee like Nana Saheb Chandorkar, Raobahadur H.V. Sathe etc., say

that Baba was not a teacher i.e., a mere preacher of truths but a

trainer – one who undertook the task of putting the pupil through all

the entire course necessary for attaining his objective and therefore

inspired, encouraged, warned, watched, corrected errors, staved off

temptations, prevented falls and rendered every help to strengthen

and develop the struggling soul of the devotee to rise to its fullest

stature. T enable the render to appreciate the above view, a few

facts may be narrate.

 

Sai Baba, the fakir of Shirdi, sent word to Nana Saheb Chandorkar, a

Deputy Collector, to come and see him, and them explained the reason

for such a strange invitation. Baba and Nana had been on intimate

terms for the preceding four births (evidently as Guru and devotee) –

a fact of which Baba and not Nana, was aware – and Baba wished the

devotee to renew his contact in this birth also with some difficulty

and after Baba showed Nana not nearly his wonderful or superhuman

knowledge, powers and kindness, Nana placed himself in contact with

and under the guidance of Baba. Baba then occasionally gave him

counsel and warnings, and took care to watch his conduct at all

times, in his (Baba's) and unseen form, and rebuked him for his

errors.

 

Baba: Nana, if any one begs of you anything, if that be in your hand

or power, and if you can grant the request or get it granted, do so.

Do not say "No". If you have nothing to give, then, give a suave

negative. Do not mock or ridicule the applicant nor get angry with

him. If you do not like to part with what you have, do not say

falsely that you have nothing. Decline to give it in polite terms and

say circumstances or your desire stand in the way. Will you remember

this lesson or forget it?

 

Nana Saheb Chandorkar: What is difficulty in this? I shall remember.

 

Baba: This lesson is not quite so easy as it may seem.

 

Nana Saheb Chandorkar: I will keep it in mind.

 

Sometime later, Nana, who had promised to pay Rs.300/- for charity to

be done at the Kopergaon Datta temple did not bring the money and

therefore avoided a visit to the temple, which was on his way to

Shirdi. He, with the approval of his friend, took a detour through a

very thorny path, as a result of which he and his friend ran thorns

in their bodies. When they reached Shirdi, Baba would not talk to

them.

 

Nana Saheb Chandorkar: Why don't you talk with me?

 

Baba: Nana, when a man says he will remember the lessons I taught him

but really does not, how can I talk to him?

 

Nana Saheb Chandorkar: Baba, I remember all your lessons.

 

Baba: You gentleman, you evade seeing `sircar' (God Datta) and take a

detour. Why? Because the saint will ask for Rs.300/- is this the way

to remember my lesson? If you have not the money, if it was not easy

to arrange to get it, you have only to tell him that fact. Will the

saint eat you? But what device is this, to avoid the temple of God

for fear of the saint demanding money? Well then, have not thorns

pierced your feet and body and the posterior part of your sapient

friend? How can I talk to such a person?

 

Nana repented his mistake and was thankful to have such a guru to

watch him everywhere and rebuke him.

 

Baba: Nana, If anyone comes and begs for anything give him as much as

you can, and if that person be not satisfied and asks for more,

answer him suavely in the negative. Do not pour your wrath or display

all your official authority against that person.

 

Nana Saheb Chandorkar: Good.

(But one day at Kalyan Mrs. NGC was greatly provoked by the

importunity of a beggar woman who refused to budge unless she was

given as charity the whole stock of `Bhajani' (fried and spiced

grains); and Mrs. NGC. appealed to her husband, NGC came down and

called out to the peon to neck out the beggar unless she quietly

accepted the quantity given and left the house. Sometime late Nana

Saheb Chandorkar visited Shirdi, but Baba was glum and would not talk

to him.

 

Nana Saheb Chandorkar: Baba, why do you not talk to me?

 

Baba: How can I talk to one who does not care for my advice or lesson?

 

Nana Saheb Chandorkar: What lesson have I forgotten? I remembered all

your lessons.

 

Baba: That day, when the beggar woman was importuning you for

`Bhajani', how did you happen to call your peon to expel her and to

show all your official authority. What mattered, if she remained

sitting your door, asking for more, while refused it? What could she

do? After a while she would have gone away. Instead of gently

replying her, why get angry with her and call the peon to expel her?

 

Nana then recalled the advice given, exactly applying to the events

that actually happened, and was full of regret.

 

 

Before dealing with Baba's teaching or training of Nana Saheb

Chandorkar or anyone else, one important fact has to be noted. Among

the various sins and vices enumerated in the Dharma Sastras in the

Maha Sankalpa of the Sravana Upakarma, is Bhritake Adhyapana (i.e)

imparting instructions for pecuniary or other valuable consideration,

as it must necessarily degrade the teacher, the thought and the

teaching, according to the highest spiritual standard. Though many

gurus have succumbed to the charms of wealth and plunged into this

sin according to well-known verse:

 

 

Bahavo guravah santi

Sishya vittapaharakah

Virala guravah santi

Sishya chittapaharakah

 

Sai Baba never fell into it, as he was always supreme in his self-god

idea and treated the yellow dust just as he treated all other dust

and dirt. Here is a good instance:

 

A wealthy lady wishing to get Sai Baba for her Guru filled a big

plate with silver coins and for four days stood before Baba with that

plate hoping that Baba, who knows of course, the desires of every

one's heart, though unspoken would accept her gift and impart his

instructions or mantra. Finding that Baba did not take any notice of

her or her unuttered wish, she spoke out.

 

Lady: Baba, I have come here for a guru. Take my dakshina now. Make

yourself my guru and give me upadesa.

 

Baba (refusing to take the money): It is not the guru that makes

himself your guru. It is you who must regard him as guru, i.e., place

your faith in him. Take a potsherd and regard it as your guru and see

if your goal (or aim) is reached or not.

 

What then was the motive or consideration, which impelled Sai Baba to

impart spiritual instruction of even the highest invaluable wisdom?

That which moves all great souls and sages – Love. In some cases,

love appeared as gratitude or rinanubhandha. In the case of Nana

Saheb Chandorkar, who was given more valuables and numerous lessons

than most, the question of motive was specially raised by the latter.

When the all knowing guru living as a poor fakir in the Shirdi Mosque

sent word for the first time for the Nana Sahib to come unto him, the

latter, after refusing two invitations, responded to the third and

asked Baba, why he (Nana) was sent for.

 

Baba: There are thousands of persons. Do I send for all of them?

Should there not be a special reason why you alone should be sent for?

 

Nana: There might be. But I am not aware of it.

 

Baba: Nana, you and I have been connected with each other

(rinanubandha) intimately during four births (janmas). You do not

know that, but I do. So, be going over here whenever it is convenient.

 

Nana had been rendering service to Baba deriving instruction from him

in previous births and Baba wanted the devotee to resume his role-to

begin his lessons perhaps at the point where he left them in his last

birth. Nana was unconsciously swayed by his ideas of admiration and

attachment to the guru.

 

Poorvabyasena tenaiva

Hriyate hyavasopi sah

 

In the case of the northern Indian judge, whose experience is the

first and most valuable in the volume of Baba's devotees' Experience,

Baba drew him by visions in dreams wherein he assured him that he

(Baba) was the debtor (i.e., under rinanubandha) bound to take darsan

of the judge.

 

But love is the ultimate shape that the motive takes, Pity also moves

the mind to love. Baba repeatedly declared that he was the mother of

the devotees and was bound to look after all their interests, "I am

your father" he also said to G.G. Narke. "You have to get your

benefit and everything from me." Everything of course, includes

wisdom and the highest spiritual culture.

 

It is love that renders the contact between the teacher and the

taught specially effective and happy.

 

What delights can equal those

That stir the spirit's Inmost deeps

When one that loves but knows not reaps

A truth from one that loves and knows !

 

These lines from Tennyson, appear to refer to imparting of

information by the teacher to the taught, when the motive for the

imparting is mutual love. But the fruits of love are never confined

to the mere mechanical transfer of knowledge from one head to

another. Love swells up from the heart of one and includes similar

ebullition of love in other hearts, which it contacts and then deep

calls unto and flows on to the deep and the result is blissful

oneness, before the actual realization of this oneness in perfection.

Delightful hints of the coming oneness surprise the parties more

especially when they reach practically the same level of thought and

feeling an idea which is well expressed in the following verse:

 

When each by turns was guide to each

And fancy light from fancy caught

And thought leapt forth to wed with thought

Ere thought itself could wed with speech.

 

The inter-relation between the pupil and the teacher in the rishi-

ashram gurukulas of ancient days was not infrequently of this type.

There the pupil was treated and loved as a son by both the teacher

and his wife and the pupil identifying himself with the interest of

the master was ready for any-even the highest sacrifice. An excellent

illustration is the Tamil saint, who was sent out to see that guru's

land property irrigated. Finding that a ridge in the land had given

away and all the water was running away from master's field and

finding no stones, blocks or other material available to stop the

gap, the pupil lay down, thrust his head into the gap thus saving the

water for the master and losing his own life. Baba's own relation

with his guru was of this type of intense love. Baba said that when

he was taken as a boy of tender age, (about five years of age), he

sat by his guru's side and being filled with intense love for the

guru, gazed and gazed upon him from morning till night, for a period

of about 10 or 12 years. The guru loved him with equally ardent love

and the result of this mutual love was the transfer of the entire

panoply of powers and nature from the guru to the pupil. By guru

kripa, the pupil attained all that had to be attained, that is

oneness with his guru-god and his manifestation in the Universe, -

involving the possession of all siddhis, i.e., superhuman powers and

love for the entire universe.

 

Love is itself a training, in fact, the highest training and is at

the same time, the end and goal of all training. Baba taught (without

oral instruction generally) this love and trained his devotees to

develop this love to the fullest extent of their capacity and in ways

peculiar to each devotee, as will be seen from the experience of Nana

Saheb Chandorkar and of the North Indian judge, as also of Rao Saheb

Galvankar, as described in the "Devotees Experiences of Sai Baba".

 

 

d. Spiritual Spectrum:

(EXTRACTS FROM PURANAS, MESSAGES FROM SATPURUSHAS)

 

GURU ARJANDEV: A Martyred Saint

-Sadu Vaswani

 

What a colossal figure!

 

He lived in the 16th century. We of the 20th boast of our "science"

and "civilization". We feel as pigmies of his presence.

 

He organised the Sikhs into a community. He planned the Hari Mandir.

He founded Taran Taran.

 

And this organiser was a poet-seer. To him came a perception of the

truth that there is one Religion in religions as in the various

forces of nature there is really but one Force. Guru Arjun saw this

higher harmony of Hindu bhakti and Muslim mysticism.

 

And he had the courage, rare in these days, to bring together in the

Granth Sahib the sayings of Hindu saints and Muslim fakirs. He

suffered for it. He was persecuted, cruelly tortured by the

government of his day. But he would not, he said to his king, change

even an iota in the Granth Sahib. It could not be, if he would change

it, a scripture of synthesis, of human brotherhood.

 

He preferred death to disloyalty to the faith of his soul, and he had

the courage to say to the sovereign: "If in following the truth, this

perishable body departs, I shall rejoice, deeming it a great good

fortune."

 

In this saint dwelt a poet's soul. His hymns are a poet's offerings

to the Spirit of Nature, the Spirit of Humanity. Out of his heart-the

heart of a saint-came that wonderful scripture, the Sukhmani, it is a

song of the Pilgrimage Life.

 

Superior to rites and ceremonies

Is the utterance of the Name.

 

The Sukhmani is a song of the Eternal World. He whose lips uttered

the song died a martyr. He lives in million hearts. His message, the

message of the Sukhmani-is for the nations. It is a message, which

has given consolation to many wounded heart. At this very hour

thousands find in the Sukhmani scripture, the solace of their broken

lives, the strength of their broken hearts. And at this hour I would

say to the young; So work and so suffer for India that a sceptic

world may know that India is not dead, but that the Mother, still

bears witness to the wisdom of the Rishis and the Song of the Gurus.

 

(Courtesy: East and West Series – June 2002)

 

 

Publisher's Note:

 

THE SOLE PURPOSE of this newsletter is to present Sai messages and

other spiritual messages to the interested devotees on Thursdays.

Feel free to forward this newsletter to your interested associates.

 

In this newsletter, wherever the sources of the articles not

mentioned, please consider these items are taken from H H Pujyasri B

V Narasimha Swamiji's books.

 

Mailing Address: Vasuki Mahal Shri Shirdi Saibaba Trust, Vasuki Mahal

Compound, Gandhi Nagar, Edayar Palayam, Coimbatore 641025, India. e-

mail to: essgee.