DIVINE GRACE - GURU KRUPA SAVES DEVOTEES

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DIVINE GRACE – GURU KRUPA SAVES DEVOTEES:

 

Nana's benefit in temporal matters from Baba was not merely for

himself but also for the person connected with him. Baba who saved

Nana from the pangs of hunger and thirst in hill and a forest would

certainly not leave his disciple when his life was in danger.

 

See the Bhagavata verse below that, "He is no guru who does not save

one's life". Such a juncture arrived one day when Nana and Lele

Sastri were starting from Poona in a tonga. They had gone a few miles

when suddenly the horse reared, and the carriage capsized. That was a

perilous moment. Both the occupants of the carriage were corpulent

elderly people who would in such an accident ordinarily suffer

serious damage to life and limb, Sai Baba, however, who was watching

over Nana wherever he went, at that very movement blew what is called

`Bum-Bum', (the Conch sound-for at death people blow on the conch),

keeping his hands in front of his mouth as though the hands were a

conch. This is a signal of danger and distress. We shall give the

account as it appears in the Gospel of Baba:

 

One day at Shirdi, Baba made the dolorous Sankha sound (indicative of

coming death) and said "Hallo, Nana is about to die! will, I let him

die?" At that time N. G. Chandorkar and Lele Sastri were near Poona.

They were in a tonga the horse of which reared and overtured the

tonga. N. G. Chandorkar and Sastri were in peril of their life. But

they picked themselves up and found that they had suffered no injury.

When they reached Shirdi, they found that Baba had made the above

declaration and had saved their lives.

 

Gurur na sasyat Svajano na sasyat

Pita na sasyat Janani on saa syat

Daivam na sasyat Svapatir na sasyat

Na mochayet yas Samupeta mrityum

 

which means, "If a person does not save one's life, when it is

threatened by Death, that person is not a Guru, a kinsman, a father,

a mother, a god or a husband.

 

Thus Baba saved Nana's life, just as Baba's Guru saved Baba's life.

There is a saying, i.e., that the string of a flower garland borrows

its scent. Similarly Lele Sastri, who was not himself a staunch

bhakta of Baba, derived his safety from his company with Nana

Chandorkar.

 

Baba on this occasion proved the truth of his statement. "If a

devotee is about to fall, I stretch our my hands, and thus with four

outstretched hands at a time, support him. I will not let him fall."

This is Karavalambha.

(1) Na me bhaktah pranascyati i.e., My devotee shall not perish (BG

IX-31)

(2) Tan Uddharishye ham achitat Apatbhyo now riva arnavat i.e., I

quickly save them as a boat saves in the ocean. (SB XI (17)44.

 

It is not merely the friend of a devotee that Baba saves. Baba's

interest is in every one in whom a devotee is interested

 

Courtesy: HH Pujyasri B. V. Narasimha Swamiji

(Vasuki Mahal Shri Shirdi Sai Baba Trust, Coimbatore-641025, India)