A Lesson in Faith

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A Lesson in Faith

 

By Sri Narasimha Swamiji

 

Chinna Kistna Saheb was very devoted to Vishnu from

his boyhood. Even from his younger days, he used to

sit for long in one asana (yogic posture) meditating

on his chosen deity. This went on till, in his

twenty-first year, (about 1910), he had three

successive dream-visions in one night. At first he

experienced his separation from his physical body and

before him was the divine form of Lord Vishnu. A

second time the same vision recurred but this time

there was someone else standing beside him. Lord

Vishnu pointed to that stranger and said, 'This Sai

Baba of Shirdi is your man; you must resort to Him. "

In the third vision he again left his physical body

and drifted in the air to some village.

 

There he saw someone and asked him for the name of the

village and was told that it was Shirdi. Then he

enquired whether there was a holy man by name Sai Baba

in that village. The stranger led him to a mosque

where Chinna Kistna saw Sai Baba seated leaning

against its wall with his legs stretched before Him.

On seeing Chinna Kistna, Sai Baba got up and said,

" Do you take my darshan? I am your debtor. I must take

your " darshan " and placed His head reverently on

Chinna Kistna's feet. Then the vision ended. Though he

saw Sai Baba's picture earlier, he never knew that Sai

Baba's most characteristic manner of sitting was with

His legs stretched out before Him. Shortly after,

Chinna Kistna went to Shirdi to verify whether Baba

was his destined Guru as the dream seemed to indicate.

When he actually saw Baba, a doubt arose in his mind

whether it would be proper to worship a man like Him.

 

At once Baba said, " What do you worship a man for? "

The rebuff was keen and to the point. When nothing

more happened to confirm his dream Chinna Kistna was a

bit dissatisfied. Later, in the afternoon, when every

other devotee retired to his room, Chinna Kistna made

bold to visit Sai, though it was thought that no one

should visit Baba at that hour. Baba, far from getting

angry, beckoned to him. Chinna Kistna approached Him

and bowed in reverence. At once Sai Baba hugged him

with love and said, " You are my child. When others

(i.e., strangers) are present, we (i.e., saints like

Me) keep off the children. " Thus was the man's dream

confirmed.

 

On another afternoon Baba embraced him and said, " The

key of my treasury is now placed in your hands. Ask

anything you want. " " Then Baba " , said shrewd Chinna

Kistna, " I want this. In this and in any future birth

that may befall me, You should never part from me. You

always be with me. " Baba patted him joyously and said,

'Yes, I shall be with you, inside you and outside you,

whatever you may be or do. "

 

There is one instance to show how, when Chinna

Kistna's heart was yielding to some other love, Baba

asserted His monopoly over it. Many years later,

Chinna Kistna's child died and his wife was

disconsolate. With the dead child in his lap Chinna

Kistna sat on with a grief-stricken heart. Baba at

once appeared before him and said, " Do you want me or

the dead child? Choose! You cannot have both. If you

want me to revive the child, I will; but then you will

have Me no more with you. If you do not ask for the

revival of this one, you will have several children in

due course.' Then Chinna Kistna said that he wanted

Him only. " Then do not grieve " , Baba said and

vanished.

 

Another confirmation of his earlier dream-vision that

Chinna Kistna was Baba's man: When he visited a great

saint of Poona named Sri Madhava Nath, on seeing

Chinna Kistna, at once said, " You are Sai Baba's Man. "

 

In 1912 Chinna Kistna visited Baba on the holy Guru

Purnima day. Seeing other devotees offering garlands

and other gifts to Baba he realized how unfortunate he

was in that he did not remember to get any gift to the

saint. At once Baba said to him, " All these are

yours! " , and He pointed at the bundle of garlands

offered to Him by other devotees. Thereby Baba hinted

that the heart's loving desire to offer is of greater

value than a formal physical offering.

 

(Source Shri Sai Padananda April 2002)

 

 

HANDS THAT SERVE ARE HOLIER THAN THE LIPS THAT PRAY'

Baba

 

 

 

 

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