Sai Baba the Master

[Guest guest]

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)?

 

Nana : Yes, one can read it as ajnanam (i.e.,

ignorance or nescience). But Sri Sankaracharya’s

commentary gives no such construction of the verse.

 

Baba : Never mind it. Is there any objection to

using the word ajnanam if it gives a better sense?

 

Nana : No. But I do not understand how to construct

the stanza by substituting the phrase ajnanam for

jnanam.

 

Baba : Again, tell me, why does Krishna direct Arjuna

to jnanis or tatwadarsis when he himself is a jnani in

fact?

 

Nana : Yes. He was. But, I cannot make out why he

directed Arjuna to other jnanis.

 

Nana’s pride of learning was knocked out. Then Baba

began to explain the various aspects of the verse

thus:

 

1.It is not enough merely to prostrate before jnanis

(enlightened Masters). We must make sarvasya

saranagati (total surrender) to the Sadguru

2. Mere questioning is not enough. The attitude is

important. The question must not be prompted by any

improper motive or attitude viz., to trap the guru and

to find fault with his wisdom, or simply out of idle

curiosity. The attitude must be sincere and serious,

and inspired by a desire to achieve moksha or

spiritual perfection.

3. Seva is not rendering service while still

retaining the feeling that one is free to offer or

refuse service to the Master. One must feel that he

is not the master of his body, that the body is the

guru’s and exists merely to serve him. If this is

done, the sadguru will show you what the jnana

referred to in the previous stanza, is.

 

How is jnana upadesh (i.e., imparting of realization)

to be effected by the guru? Destroying ignorance is

jnana (wisdom). Saint Jnaneswar in chapter 18 in the

Jnaneshwari says, ‘Removal of ignorance is like this :

O Arjuna, if dream and sleep disappear, you are

yourself. It is like that,’ He also says : ‘Is there

anything different or independent in jnana besides the

destruction of ignorance? Expelling darkness means

light. Destroying duality (dwaita) menas nonduality

(adwaita). The disciple, like the sadguru, is really

the embodiment of jnana. The different between the

two lies in the attitude, in the high realization,

marvelous super – human Sattha (Beings) and unrivalled

capacity and aiswarya (i.e., divine powers). The

Sadguru is Nirguna Satchit Ananda (Attributeless

  Existence- Consciousness – Bliss). He has

indeed taken human form to elevate mankind and raise

the world. But his real nirguna (attributeless)

nature is not destroyed thereby even a bit. His

beingness (or reality), divine power and wisdom remain

undiminished. The disciple also is in fact of the

same Swarupa (original nature). But, it is overlaid

by the effects of the samskaras (tendencies) of

innumerable births in the shape of ignorance which

hides from his view that he is Suddha Chaitanya (Pure

Consciousness). As stated therein, he gets the

impression, “I am jiva, a creature, humble and poor.”

The guru has to root out these off-shoots of

ignorance and has to give an upadesh or instruction.

To the disciple held spell-bound for endless

generations by the ideas of his being a creature,

humble and poor, the guru imparts in hundreds of

births, the teaching, “You are God, you are mighty and

opulent.” Then, he realises a bit that he is God

really. That he is the body, that he is a creature

(jiva) or ego, that God (Paramatma) and the world are

different from him, is an error inherited by the

disciple from innumerable past births. From action

based on it, he has

derived his joy, sorrow and mixture of both. To remove

this delusion, this error, this root-ignorance, he

must start the inquiry, “How did the ignorance arise?

Where is it?” And showing him this is called the

guru’s upadesh. The following are the instances of

ajnana:-

1) ‘I am jiva, creature.’

2) ‘Body is the soul’ (I am the body).

3) God, world and jiva are different.’

4) ‘I am not God’.

5) Not knowing that body is not the soul.

6) Not knowing that God, world and jiva are one.

 

Unless these errors are exposed the disciple cannot

learn what are God, jiva world and body and how they

are interrelated, whether they are different from each

other or are one and the same. To teach him these and

destroy

the ignorance is this instruction in jnana or ajnana.

Why should jnana be imparted to the jiva (who is) a

jnanamurthi or an embodiment of knowledge? Upadesh is

merely to show him his error and destroy his

ignorance.

 

Baba added : ‘Pranipata implies surrender of body,

mind and wealth. Then why should Krishna refer Arjuna

to other jnanies?”

 

“The sadbhakta (true devotee) takes everything to be

Vasudeva (the Lord of existence) says the Bhagavadgita

(ch. VII v. 19) i.e., any guru will be Krishna to the

devotee and guru takes the disciple to be Vasudeva,

and Krishna treats both as his prana (Sprit or Life),

and atma (or Self). As Sri Krishna knows that there

are such bhaktas (devotees) and gurus, he refers

Arjuna to them so that their greatness may be known to

all.”

 

Bhishma was a widower who lived in Nagpur. Though he

was drawn to Baba he did not overcome his notion that

Baba was a moslem. As a result he could not take, as

many others did, the padateertha of Baba (i.e., water

that was consecrated by being used to wash Baba’s

feet). He could not accept, too, the smoking pipe

(chilim) that Baba offered to devotees.

 

On a full moon day, Bhishma had a dream in which he

saw a man with tripundra (or the vaishnava mark on his

forehead) and performed puja (or worship) to the holy

man’s wooden sandal (paduka). The holy one showed him

a paper on which a mantra was written. It was

“Satchidananda”. As soon as he read it, the mantra

disappeared from the paper and Bhishma woke up from

his dream. When he asked a sadhu about his dream and

the mantra he had seen, the latter told him that it is

the name of the guru he had seen in his dream and that

the name of a perfect guru is also a mantra.

 

After some days Bhishma came to Shirdi. On seeing him

Sai Baba smiled and said! “Jai Satchidananda” Bhishma

immediately realized Baba’s omniscience and his

transcendence over the narrow barriers of caste and

creed. As soon as this realization flashed in

Bhishma’s mind, Sai immediately nodded and said, ‘We

are moving all over. There’s Ram (or the Spirit of

Lord Sri Ram) everywhere”. Henceforth Bhishma also

started accepting such favours from Baba as the chilim

from which he smoked.

 

(From saibharadwaja.org Sai Baba the Master)

On behalf of Mr.LeeladharJi.

 

 

 

 

 

Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005