am I right or not? Part 01

[Guest guest]

Everything on earth is liable to change or mitigation and if we remember this,

we shall be very often able to meet 'the objections sometimes raised to Sai

Babaâs statement about karma. In the very opening Charters of Baba " s Charters &

Sayings, we find the statement of Baba. ˜If one puts his foot on Shirdi soil,

his karma is abolished. Many a man wonders whether that is possible, especially

in view of the dictum quoted above, Avascyam Anubhoktavyamâ. Baba also told

Chandorkar that certain broad decisions arrived at as to the birth and death of

people are treated as facts resulting from previous acts of inviduals.

 

Regarding birth of a child, death of son-in-law, etc., about which Chandorkar

was anxious to make Baba work on his behalf, Baba declared that they were the

result of previous karma and could not be altered. In a sense that is true.

Certain births and certain deaths are all fixed by series of antecedent events,

but yet Baba is able to mould these and shape these at certain stages and modify

these for the benefit of the concerned devotees.

 

When talking of Dr. Chidambaram Pillai, Baba explained the correct doctrine. Dr.

Pillai had intense suffering from guinea worm. He told a friend to go and report

to Baba that his sufferings were intolerable and to request Baba to transfer

these sufferings to some ten later births of his and leave him free from the

sufferings in this janma. When this was reported to Baba, the latter sent for

Pillai and told him, ‘What! you want ten janmas? What has to be endured in ten

janmas can be crushed into ten days by the power of satpurushas.

 

So Baba ordered him to remain with his legs outstretched at Dwarakamayee and he

told him that a crow would come and peck at his wound and cure him. In a few

days, Abdul, Babas permanent attendant, carelessly put his foot down upon

Pillais wound and crushed all the guinea worms out of it, merely by accident as

he (Pillai) would have thought. But nothing done at the Mosque to Pillai could

be considered as an accident, and Baba said that Abdul was the crow, and that no

further crow was wanted to peck at Pillaiâs wound. Pillai was then asked to go

home, and in ten days, the entire suffering from guinea worm was cured.

 

In another case, that of Bhimaji, who had serious chest disease, asthma,

tuberculosis, etc., Baba first told Shama, ˜Shama, in bringing this thief to me

what a load of responsibility you are placing on me! Baba meant that the

tuberculosis, asthma, etc., from which Bhimaji suffered were the result of

Bhiinajis karma in a previous janma consisting of theft. Bhimaji felt Babas

declaration a blow. At once he surrendered himself to Baba and said, ‘Helper

of the helpless! I am helpless. Pray show thy pity and grace to me.

 

Then Babaâ€s tone changed. Baba told him, ˜The Fakir (God) is merciful, and your

disease will be curedâ. He was suffering from the results of a karma but that

could be mitigated, and so the man was sent to live and sleep in a wet verandah.

Bhimaji did so. There, he had two very dreadful dreams.

 

In one dream, he was mercilessly birched by a school master. For, in the dream

he fancied he was a boy and the master was birching him. So, he felt the pain in

the dream and he roared out. In the second dream, it was even worse. He felt

that some one was placing a stone roller and rolling it over his breast. He

suffered all the horror of instant death approaching him. All the pain of a

hanging sentence and whipping sentence were endured by this man in the course of

one night.

 

Baba thus changed the punishments which he had earned by his previous karma, and

told him that he was thus free from karmic effects. He then recovered his

health. The above instances go to show that most of our conceptions about karma

are nebulous and ungrounded, and that the safest course for us to follow would

be to be guided by the dicta of Satpurushas like Sai Baba.