Dwarakamayee Masjid was attracted by the beauty of a woman

[Guest guest]

……“Usually Masters like Baba do not force disciples to

follow their advice. They suggest the prescriptions

directly (through words, actions and direct

experiences etc.) and/or indirectly (through dreams,

anecdotes, hints and mediums etc.) to each disciple or

some times to a group of disciples. Baba at times used

to speak cryptic or broken sentences or utter a

certain un-intelligible language. The devotees could

understand its meaning only after a protracted mental

deliberation over the issue. Baba could have given a

direct solution but His method was to lead the devotee

through a self-finding mental process. Many a times He

would enquire from some devotees as to what they were

talking about when they were together. He would then

advise them on how to handle the compulsive negative

thoughts of mind and to inculcate a habit of

generating positive thoughts. The omniscient Sadguru

used to keep a watch on the negative and positive

thoughts of His disciples and there are hundreds of

such examples. Baba used to create thought waves in

the minds of devotees by His subtle powers thereby

leading them to find a solution to their own problems.

To many, He used to give direction in dreams as well.

He used to render such help with a view to create a

clearer and purer state of mind in the devotees, which

is essentially required to tread along the path of

spiritual evolution as per His (the Master’s) scheme.

The Sadgurus do not wish to keep Their disciples

dependent on Them for all times to come with a view to

get their service. What they desire is to evolve the

disciples to the state of perfect human beings

(Satpurush), with perfect noble qualities so that they

can further carry on certain subtle and difficult

tasks on this earth or elsewhere in accordance with

the Divine Plan. The Sadgurus not only give

emancipation to the human-souls under Their care but

also create a few spiritual workers from among the

evolved devotees to assist Them in Their universal and

subtle activities. The basic principle They follow is

to light a number of candles from a single candle and

They expect the process to continue for all times to

come.

 

If we analyse the different methods that Shri Sai

adopted while dealing with different devotees, one of

his prescriptions stands out prominently i.e. the

qualitative evolution of mind. In whatever He did

towards the training of His devotees, the moot idea of

Baba was to evolve not only the mental qualities but

also the thought process itself. For example, when

Nana Saheb Chandorkar sitting near Baba at

Dwarakamayee Masjid was attracted by the beauty of a

woman, Baba never advised him not to look at women.

What He advised was that while looking at any

beautiful woman or beautiful object, one should think

of 'beauty' as an aspect of God’s creation. He further

emphasized on the internal beauty of the soul and not

on the external beauty of the body. The lesson that

Baba gave was that when the mind is attracted to

anything, it is better to attach a higher value to the

thought itself rather than to struggle with mind to

avoid the object of attraction. No one can struggle

with his own mind, as it is the most powerful force in

human beings as ordained by nature. The moment one

tries to struggle with mind in order to erase an evil

thought or enforce a good thought sheerly by one's

will, it is bound to create certain reactions and such

reactions lead to further problems. This is the most

difficult task for any human being to perform, living

as he does in a complex world. Therefore, Baba used to

keep a constant watch on the thoughts arising in the

minds of His devotees and guide them promptly.

 

For example He asked Kaka Saheb Dixit to stay quietly

(Uge-muge) in Dixit-Wada at Shirdi and not to mix with

others. He told Dixit that he should be wary of

thieves in the Wada lest they would take away

everything, meaning thereby loss of his positive

quality of mind and peace. Similarly Upasani Baba was

asked to stay at Khandoba temple and not to meet any

one. He was not even allowed to meet Baba sitting a

few hundred yards away for a long time. By separating

the genuine seekers from the rest of the world, Baba

wanted them to maintain a purer and positive state of

mind and not to get contaminated by the negative

thoughts of others as usually happens in social

interactions. Baba used to render advice in the same

or similar line to different devotees e. g. to keep

one’s promise always, to make adequate payment for the

services received from any person, to tolerate and not

to quarrel even if provoked, to avoid speaking ill of

others, to avoid differentiating among human beings on

the grounds of material or social differentiation etc.

and finally to visualise the presence of God in every

object, every thought and every feeling.

 

All religious rituals including Poojas, Aartis and

Parayanas, etc. are methods of human evolution at the

first stage. Evolution of the thought process of mind

in itself is the intermediary stage and emancipation

of the soul through realization of God is the third

and final stage in the spiritual journey of the soul.

Since the omniscient Baba could easily read through

the thoughts of all His devotees, He could prescribe

the methods of thought control and spiritual evolution

to each devotee, specific to him.

 

History shows that it is the positive forces of human

minds that had created mighty civilizations and it is

the negative forces of human minds that had brought

about the total destruction of their own civilization

as had happened in Rome, Egypt, Peru etc. We see the

world as our mind visualises it and our visualisation

is limited and often distorted. We see the world with

a fixed kaleidoscope from a certain angle. If the

kaleidoscope is rotated, then different forms and

patterns of life would appear. Since each individual

sees life from a certain fixed angle, each experiences

a specific pattern, the pattern of life experienced by

him seems to be the only truth. Let alone the people

with a predominantly evil nature, even people with the

best of qualities suffer from this limitation of

mental fixity. It is seen that at times the best

qualities of an individual, become the greatest block

in his evolution in certain situations. For example,

there was a kind person who used to help every one. He

had the expectation, as is usually the case with human

beings that others would be equally kind to him and

reciprocate, in his bad times. But when he was in

distress every one did not render the required help in

the manner and to the extent he had rendered to them.

As a result, he started questioning the very plinth of

kindness and decided not to help others as he used to

do earlier. Now his proactive kindness turned to

reactive narrow-mindedness. His evolved quality of

natural benevolence was blocked and the evolution

process of mind slowed down. No doubt as a

worldly-wise person he went a step forward but in his

spiritual evolution he had gone a step backward. If he

had the flexibility of mind to accept the imperfection

in others without passing value judgement over the

imperfect conduct of others, he would have been

happier and more evolved. The lesson to learn is that

howsoever perfect one claims to be, the universal

nature (containing both so called perfect and

imperfect aspects), does not give a license to any one

condemn others, howsoever, imperfect. Therefore, the

wise ones have proclaimed that one may hate sin but

not the sinner. Baba unequivocally declared that when

any one condemned any one else, his feelings were

hurt.

 

Some psycho-analysts hold the view that inflexible

perfectionists suffer psychological stress the most as

they find it difficult to adjust with the imperfect

traits in the character of others with whom they

interact. Such persons are, sometimes, highly creative

because of their sense of perfection but nevertheless

they suffer the most due to social maladjustment. This

problem of human beings is not limited to this

category alone. It is more or less with every one to

some extent. The fundamental problem with the

magnificent human being is that each person considers

himself to be the centre of the Universe – the little

Universe he has created for himself. Therefore, he

desires that every thing around him should fall in

line with the requirements of that little Universe.

They are not prepared to visualise themselves as an

infinitesimally small particle in the vast Universe

with millions and millions of ever changing patterns.

These millions of little Universes juxtaposed in the

social fabric of our complex world try to clash with

each other and to pull each other apart by the

gravitational force of their atomic individualism or

ego. The Sadgurus have always tried to give simple

solutions to this complex problem.

 

If we follow the prescriptions of Baba, as contained

in Shri Sai Satcharitra our thought process can go

through a qualitative change and we can have a clearer

picture of the world around us. It will not only do

good to us but also to others around us. Therefore,

when reading Shri Sai Satcharitra or other literature

on Baba, our thoughts should always be focused on this

aspect of conscious mental evolution that Baba

repeatedly taught and exemplified through his own

conduct..”…….