Sai Baba the Master

[Guest guest]

Similarly on one Ekadasi day (eleventh day after the full or new moon,

auspicious to the Hindus) a devotee by name Jog asked Baba as to what dish

should be prepared as holy offering to him. Baba said, “Prepare onion

kichadi.” Onion is a prohibited item of food, especially for a Brahmin. Yet

Jog, obeyed Baba’s order and offered him the same. Baba laughed, tasted a

little of it and gave it back saying. “It is good, distribute it to all and

you too eat it.” Though Jog always fasted on Ekadasi, he obeyed Baba’s

command.

 

However, such eye-opening pranks were not directed by Baba at the Hindu

devotees only. Once a moslem vowed to Baba that if, by his grace, they had

a child, they would visit Shirdi and distribute sweets to all in his name.

Shortly after, they had a child and so the family visited Shirdi to fulfill

their vow. Baba asked them to distribute peda (milk cake) in the Maruthi

temple opposite the mosque. The moslem devotee was taken aback and said, “As

moslems how can we go to a Hindu temple to fulfill our vow.?” Baba good

humouredly said, “There was a fight between Allah and Maruthi; Maruthi

defeated Allah (so the former deserves to be honoured)”. The moslem couple

was very averse to his command. So he flared up, rushed to beat the moslem

saying, “What a moslem (i.e., the faithful) you are! Go and distribute it

there”! The moslem realized what Baba meant, and distributed the sweet in

the temple.

 

The significance of Baba’s words would become evident if we understand the

utterly unreasonable attitude of the devotee. On the one hand he resorted

to Baba for a child, as his last refuge and he did get one. Can such a

powerful saint err in asking him not to be too obsessed with religious

differences? The interruption of their earlier faith by the latter doubt is

ruinous to any faithful ones.

 

This idea of Baba is more clearly expressed in another curious incident.

One day a party of moslems arrived at the mosque for a namaz and at the

same time a group of Hindus also arrived for bhajan (devotional chanting).

Each party complained against the other. Baba patiently heard them both and

remarked, “Neither your bhajan, nor their namaz is worth the name, get

out!”

 

 

Source: http://www.saibharadwaja.org