FROM LIFE OF SRI SHIRDI SAI BABA BY NARASIMHA SWAMI

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FROM " LIFE OF SRI SHIRDI SAI BABA " BY NARASIMHA SWAMI

 

……“So far as Lobha is concerned, it is excessive greed and is looked down

upon even in an ordinary person, and much more in a person who aims at spiritual

uplift. But so far as Nana was concerned, Lobha does not appear to have been a

defect in his character. In any case, Lobha is only an exaggeration of one's

attachment to moneys and goods. Baba took very good care to see that Nana’s

attachment did not reach excessive heights. Baba adopted his usual methods for

this purpose. It is ‘Dana’ that is the exact opposite of, and, therefore,

the antitode for, the venom called attachment or greed. This truth comes from

even the date of the Brihadaranyaka. Prajapati was approached by his three sets

of children, the Devas, the Naras, and the Asuras. Each of these came and said,

‘Please give us instruction as to what we should do’. Prajapati answered.

‘Da, Da, Da,’ to each of these. In the case of the gods, the ‘Da’

required for them was Dama

that is, self-control, moderation. In the case of the Asuras, the ‘Da’

required was Daya, i.e. mercy. Their excessive cruel nature had to be met by the

spirit of compassion, which was the antidote for their cruelty. In the case of

men, the ‘Da’ was ‘Daana’ i.e, charity. Man’s natural instinct is to

grasp, to be greedy, and to get more and more, and the best way of checking this

greed is by making man give up all that he has got. Daana forces a man to part

with his money, etc. and by constant parting, he will get accustomed to feel

quite nonchalant, quite unaffected while parting with moneys or when moneys are

lost. Thus ‘Da’ (Daana) is the recipe given to men as the rule of their life

by Prajapati.

 

The importance of eradicating greed from one’s nature may be seen from the

simplest and one of the best of all the 108 Upanishads-viz., lsavasya Upanishad,

so much praised by Mahatma Gandhi. In the very first verse of this Upanishad,

the order is given, ‘Ma Gridhah Kasyasvid Danam’. That is, ‘Covet not

wealth whosesoever it may be.’ Or it may be translated thus, ‘Covet not;

whose is wealth?’ This means, what is your wealth today is mine tomorrow and

somebody else’s on the third day. So there is nothing fixed about wealth, and

one need not concern oneself so much about this fleeting possession. Therefore,

Daana has been specially insisted upon not only in the Vedas and Upanishads

(dakshina is prescribed for all the rituals) but also by Baba in his daily

practice. Baba the Soul of Vairagya never cared to ask for moneys in the

beginning. But when visitors began to rush upon him in crowds, in hundreds, he

began to ask for dakshina, which had

various meanings and explanations. One way of keeping out undesirable people,

the over-greedy people who think of nothing except money is to ask for dakshina.

A lawyer, who went to see Baba when alive, noted that he, a lawyer, accustomed

to get money from others, was being asked to pay money to Baba. So he felt

repelled and never again visited Baba during his life time. That is evidently

one of the ideas underlying Baba's demand in some cases. In many other cases

also, the demand of dakshina serves the purpose of reducing attachment. In the

case of Nana, Baba used to demand off and on various sums, and so Nana was

accustomed to take with him large sums like Rs. 300 or Rs. 400 whenever he

visited Shirdi. Whenever Baba asked for money, Nana would give him money. This

constant giving of money to Baba would naturally reduce his attachment to

wealth.â€â€¦â€¦