Sai Baba the Master

[Guest guest]

This side of the Ramadasi’s personality was what Baba wanted to expose and

correct and the situation developed exactly as he wanted. So he addressed

the Ramadasi and said, “Oh Ramadasi, why are you so furious? Is not Shama

our own man? How is it that you, a devotee, are so quarrelsome and so biting

in your speech? Your mind is still impure inspite of reading such holy

books, and your passions still uncontrolled! As a Ramadasi (a servant or

devotee of Sree Rama) you ought to be indifferent to all things. It is

strange that you covet the book so much that you are so wild with Shama for

taking it. Go, sit and ponder coolly over the whole thing: books can be had

for money and not men. I took the book and gave it to him and he is not to

blame. After all, what is the price of the book ? Besides, you have already

memorised it thoroughly.” The lesson went home to the Ramadasi.

 

This incident has gained its several objectives: to benefit Shama with the

reading of such a book, consecrated and given by Baba who is unrivalled in

his awareness of the spiritual needs of his devotees; to inculcate and

strengthen the faith in him that he should accept anything that Baba, his

guru-god, gave without presuming to judge it by the tiny light of his own

moral judgement; to teach the Ramadasi the need to control his passions and

be happy in giving others at least what he no longer needed and what is

likely to benefit them. Finally, the whole episode, when taken at one

glance, is just calculated to confirm, to one and all, how Baba’s mind is

unerring in directing a situation to pin-point the flaws in the

personalities of his devotees and giving them the necessary correctives

which would contribute to their spiritual betterment.

 

Baba’s teaching did not always come through the medium of language or in

elaborate action. The communication was sometimes mysterious. And what was

so conveyed was usually something, which words cannot convey. Sri Narayana

Ashram records his experience: “Sai Baba had different ways of dealing with

different people. He was the centre and to each man he darted separate

radius ..immediate proximity was not needed for spiritual development under

Baba. When I was at Shirdi, I would mostly go and sit away by myself in the

wada and not be at the mosque. Even at the wada, one is under Baba’s direct

influence…Baba had a way of touching (with his palm) the head of the devotee

who went to him. There was no adhikari (i.e. deserving person) evidently,

to receive everything Baba could give and thus there were none to succeed

him to his position. But his touch did convey certain impulses, forces,

ideas, etc. Sometimes he pressed his hand heavily on the head as though he

was crushing out some of the lower impulses of the devotee. Sometimes he

tapped, sometimes he made a pass with palm over the head, etc. Each had its

own effect - making remarkable difference in the sensations or feelings of

the devotee. Baba’s touch was one means. Apart from that, he would invisibly

operate on the nature of the devotee and effect a great change in him. He

graciously conveyed to me without any words, the feeling that all the

differences were unreal, that the one real thing is that which underlies

all. This was after my first visit in 1913 or 1914 perhaps. But Baba never

spoke out this truth so far as I know.”

 

Source: http://www.saibharadwaja.org