Swami Vivekananda and Shri Saibaba

[Guest guest]

Swami Vivekananda and Shri Saibaba

 

" If you want to see God face to face serve man demisters and see God in his

smiling face " .

 

A few years ago while on a visit to my son in the Army at Barrackpore (near

Calcutta), during my morning walks, I bumped into Ramakrishna Vivekanand

Mission on the banks of River Ganga. There in the Math premises I saw the

above lines displayed prominently on a board, I was very much impressed and

thrilled on reading those lines of Swami Vivekananda and remembered how our

Sadguru Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi also preached and practiced the same thing.

 

In his early days Shri Sai Baba acted as a physician to cure hundreds of

villagers with his strange medicines and infallible Udi. Sometimes He took

over their diseases on His own body (as in case of Bubonic Plague of Master

Khaparde Chapter 7, Sai Satcharita). Sometimes He cooked food for 50 or 100

persons, buying the rations Himself and served it to the poor and hungry. In

later years, when devotees started gathering around Him, He preached that

serving the distressed and needy was more important than keeping fasts (as

in case of Mrs. Gokhale Chapter 32, Sai Satcharita) and make them practise

it also. On one occasion Sai Baba did not permit His devotee Bala Patil

Newaskar to return to his village but asked him to nurse Dagdu Bhau although

a Muslim and suffering from a contagious disease like leprosy.

 

On returning home I started thinking and found so many similarities

between the teachings of Swami Vivekananda and Shri Sai Baba.

 

Food " Certain regulations as to food are necessary, we must use the food

which brings the purest mind, but the extravagant meaningless fanaticism,

which has driven religion entirely to the kitchen, as may be noticed in case

of many of our sects, without any hope of the noble truth of that religion

over coming out to the sunlight of spirituality, is a peculiar sort pure and

simple materialism " . (Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Vol. I. 136 & III.

66)

 

" The man who will mercilessly cheat widows and orphans and do the vilest

deeds for money is worse than any brute even if he lives entirely on grass

alone (Vol. Ill 67).

 

Shri Sai Baba also was never fussy whether His devotees were vegetarians or

non-vegetarians. He himself did not mind owing served with fish or meat. He

also cooked meat-pulao for distributing to the poor. But He never forced

Brahmins or strict vegetarians to eat it. However sometimes He joked with

them over their not eating meat and not eating onions on Ekadashi (11th)

Day- just to teach them to avoid extravagant and meaningless fanaticism and

to learn the value of strict obedience of Guru's orders at any cost.

 

(contd...)

Source Shri Sai Leela June 1985.