ఆశ-అత్యాశ
The
human life is full of hope and this is what keeps us alive. But greed can pull any one to a different
level of existence. The scripture say that we have to abide by the rules of
existence.
Where is this greed coming from?
Is it coming from hope?
But this
hope crosses the line and transforms in to greed. Some times we are not aware
of this fact. If we live by the law of scriptures, we are well protected. Other
wise greed will make us impatient and there will be no mental peace. What is
mental peace any way? When ever we lose track of righteous living, there starts
the fall of human being. This means we deviated from our original nature. When
ever some one deviates from their original nature there will be no balance with
nature. This causes imbalance. Our original nature is peace, love, forgiveness,
and all the righteous qualities. Here we can say that people who are virtuous
suffer in this society. Even though they appear to be suffering from
difficulties but they have balance and utmost peace.
Baba
talked about greed several times. We saw this in Damu Anna’s story where he
wanted to start cotton and grain business. We want to acquire what ever is in our
reach and beyond. Greed was mentioned as one of the original sins. The so
called karma influences our well being, wealth, and other factors in our life.
No body can escape this. If we desire every thing around us with out following
the rules and this will lead us to the world of greed. Some people acquire wealth enormously and it
will be sufficient for coming generations. Still they can not come out of the
clutches of demon of greed. Baba wanted to make sure that we do not fall in to
this trap. Because of this greed we are moving away from God.
Baba used Madras
Bhajan (singing) group as an example and taught all of us a great lesson.
Madras Bhajan (singing) group story:
They heard that Sai
Baba was a great saint, patient, generous and one who had controlled his
passions. He was kind to pilgrims and distributed large sums of money. He was generous
with small change; half and quarter rupees rained freely. He gave ten, twenty
and fifty rupees to some. This was not only on festive days, or for some
special occasions. Everyday, he gave it happily, in the above mentioned
proportions. Showmen came, ‘nautanki’ troupes danced, great singers gave
performances, bards performed, persons doing ‘tamasha’ paid obeisance, kirtankars
gave engrossing bhajans. Having heard by word of mouth that Maharaj was
generous, and liberal in giving charity, they desired to have darshan.
Sometimes, if Baba felt like it, he distributed money even to the travelers. He
inquired after the well-being of the poor and the meek. Sainath was the
embodiment of kindness. He distributed money but he did not give to everybody.
No one was aware of what was in his mind. Fakirs and beggars came to beg alms
always at Baba’s door. Though Baba was very kind he did not give charity to
all. Only he whose time had come to have good fortune, he alone received the
happiness of the money. Even a small coin, touched by the hands of a saint, is
obtained only by the fortunate.
Lord Sri Ram Darshan:
The Madrasi Bhajan
group had heard stories of this generosity and as their selfish desire had
arisen for the money, they started the practice of the bhajans. The bhajans
were beautiful to listen to but they were sung out of great greed. They stayed
in Shirdi, the whole family, in the hope of getting money. Out of the group, three of them had great
greed and hoped that Baba would give a lot of money. But only the wife
worshipped Baba with devotion. This was her feeling while singing. Her
reverence was like that of the peacock dancing happily on seeing the
rain-bearing clouds or that of the chakor for the moon. One day when the
Later in the afternoon, brimming
with great joy, she told her husband about the wonderful experience of Ram darshan,
given by Sai. “I saw Ram, he of the complexion of the blue lotus, the
wish-fulfilling tree of the devotees, the elder brother of Bharat, the joy of
Sita and the son of Dasharath. I saw Janaki Nath, adorned with a crown, wearing
earrings, a garland of wild flowers, appareled in yellow
The lady was very
devout; but her husband was very selfish. “Women are guileless, like this! How
would Raghupati be here? The innocent and devout see what is in their heart? We
all saw Sai. How can she alone see Ram?” He ridiculed his wife with several
such remarks. But the lady did not have any ill feeling as she had not wrongly
imagined anything. It was popularly believed that she had earlier attained
spirituality. She used to have Ram’s darshan, often, when her mind was
calm and composed. Later, she became greedy for money. God does not co-exist
with money. She was unable to have Ram darshan, for that is the nature
of greed. Sai was aware of all this. Knowing her tendency, he gave her Ram
darshan again and fulfilled her desire. Be it so. Later, that same night
something strange happened.
Baba teaching a lesson to husband & giving a gimpse of Swami samardha Ramadas:
The man, while sleeping, had a frightful dream. He
found himself in some city, the prisoner of the police, who had tied his hands
with ropes so tightly behind him that the very bones creaked. There was a
lock-up, near which Sai stood outside, quietly and observing the scene. Seeing
Maharaj near by, folding both his hands, he spoke in a humble and pitiable
voice.
“Baba, having heard your fame I came to your feet. Why has this happened
to me when you are present here? ” Maharaj replied: “One must suffer for one’s
deeds”. The man said with great humility: “I have not done anything wrong. At
least, not in this life, whereby I have to suffer this hardship”. Whereupon
Maharaj said: “Then it must have been in another life”. He thereupon replied:
“What do I know about the previous life? And if at all there is anything, it should
burn to ashes by your darshan, certainly. It should burn like a blade of grass
in the fire at your darshan. Why then have I not been freed from it? Then
Maharaj said to him: “Do you have so much faith?” When the man replied in the
affirmative, he instructed him to close his eyes. As he stood with his eyes
closed, as instructed, at that moment he heard a thump, a sound as if someone
had fallen down. He was startled by this sudden sound. He opened his eyes and began
to look around. He found himself free and the policeman lay on the ground,
covered with blood. He was very frightened by this. He began to look at
Sainath, who laughed and said to him: “You are well caught now. Now an officer
will come and after observing everything, will certainly declare you to be the
culprit. He will arrest you again”. Then the person said sincerely, “Baba, what
you say is true. Now, do something and have me released. No one else except you
can protect me”. Hearing this Sai said: “Close your eyes again”. After doing that,
when he opened the eyes, he saw another strange sight. He was outside the
lock-up and Maharaj Sai was near him.
He did an eight fold obeisance. Then Baba
asked him: “Think well and tell me whether there is any difference between your
prostration that you have done now and the ones that you have been doing before
this?” Then, the man replied: “As different as the sky is from the earth! My
earlier prostrations were done for monetary gains but this one is to
acknowledge you as God. Earlier I had no faith in you. Not only that, but I
believed that as you were a Muslim, you were defiling the Hindus.
That was why I had anger within me, against you”. Whereupon, Baba asked: “Do
you not believe in any Muslim deity?” The man replied in the negative. Baba
further asked him: “Do you not have a ‘panja6’ in your home? Do you not
worship it during ‘Tabut’? 7 Think carefully. You also have Kada Bibi at
home, whom you worship and propitiate at the time of weddings. She is a Muslim
deity”. He admitted this. Then he was asked if he desired anything. The man
wished to have darshan of his own Guru, Ramdas.
Maharaj then asked
him to turn around and look. Then when he did so, he saw Samartha Ramdas
standing before him. But as soon as he bent down at his feet, Samartha disappeared.
Then, as he looked curiously a strange thought came to his mind. “Baba you are
quite advanced in age and look like an old man. Have you any idea of the
longevity of your life?” “How do you say that I am old? See if you can race
with me?” and saying these words, Sai began to run and the man ran behind him. Maharaj
raised a cloud of dust as he ran at full speed; and disappeared at that moment.
The man then woke up. So be it. After waking he thought over his dream, and
found that his whole thinking had changed.
He extolled the greatness
of Baba. Seeing such a marvel, his devotion at Sai’s feet was firmly established.
His earlier attitude changed and his doubts about Baba vanished. Although the whole
thing was a dream, but when the listeners hear those questions and answers,
they will realize the profundity therein. By reflection on these questions and
answers, the Madrasi learned a great lesson. His antagonism to Sai disappeared,
amidst laughter and jokes. Next day, early morning, when the group came to the Masjid
for darshan, Sai Nath gave them ‘barfi’ worth two rupees and showed
his grace. Also, Baba gave them all two rupees from his pocket and made them
stay longer. They continued with their bhajans and worship. Later, after some
time, the group decided to leave. Though they had not received a lot of money,
they received blessings in plenty:
OM SAI RAM!
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