DIVINE GRACE - CONFERRING BENEFITS

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CONFERRING BENEFIT – Even you don't like, Baba will impose on you

 

When Baba, with His wonderful powers loved Purandhare, He could not

endure the idea of this good fellow being ill-treated by all those

whom he had to contact in occupying a rented house. So, the first

thing that struck Baba was that He should make this poor clerk own a

bungalow of his own. The idea that a clerk on Rs. 35 monthly salary

could purchase a plot of land and build a bungalow on it was so queer

that Purandhare could not think of it. Yet, very early in his contact

with Baba, Baba told him definitely, `Bhav, you had better buy a plot

of land and build a bungalow on it'. Purandhere naturally thought it

was beyond practical politics, and he could not act upon it. Baba was

impatient. When Purandhare went to Him again and again without

building the house.

 

Love endureth all things. Love does not blame. Love does not find

fault. So he quietly endured without offering a word of explanation.

Then Baba treated him in a different way. Having exhausted the

threats and abuses, Baba inflicted on him, by His own mysterious

means, a severe neuralgic headache, which Purandhare went on

enduring, nights and days.

 

Once Bade Baba came and asked Baba to give Purandhare some

palliative, Baba simply said, `That fellow would not listen to me'.

Then Bade Baba said, `He is working heart and soul in your service.

So kindly give him some treatment'. No treatment given to Purandhare

would give him relief. It was not Baba's idea to give him relief till

he finished his building. So all the time he stayed at Shirdi, he

suffered intense pain. He was asked to go back his home and carry on

his work. Purandhare went home fully convinced that this headache

inflicted by Baba would only cease, as Baba said, after he built the

house. How is he to get the money?

 

It occurred to him that the office lent to the establishment some

sums for building purposes for building a tenement. So he applied and

got from his office a sum of Rs. 500 and got ready some materials

like bricks, etc., for building the bungalow. He was too unwell to

look to the building. So his brother went up and looked after the

building work. Quick building is jerry building and is bound to have

serous defects. The Wada or bungalow that was put up in the course of

a month by Purandhare's brother was built so hastily that in a short

time, in a year or so, there were cracks on the walls. It must be

remembered that the building was built on agricultural land without

any settu or hard foundation. Evidently the hasty foundations laid

for this Wada were insufficient to keep the walls together and in

perpendicular position. So cracks developed. Anyhow it was built

rapidly in a month, and Purandhare with his orthodox ideas wanted to

do Vastupuja himself on the building before occupying it. So he went

up and did Vastupuja and strangely enough, only after he went and

occupies this bungalow, his neuralgic headache ceased.

 

Here is a strange instance of Baba's Love forcing a man to get a

bungalow when he could hardly afford it. There were other defects

besides this jerry building. The site was a lonely site in the midst

of a waste. There were no neighboring houses to give one safety of

company. Purandhare was simply afraid of that, with young wife and

child at home, things were not safe, especially when he went away to

his office. Baba told him however, `Don't you be afraid. I am there

guarding your wife all the time'. This was found to be true, because,

though Baba's form was not always seen, no danger befell this family

living a solitary life in the midst of a waste

 

Now let us examine this method of exhibiting love. When we have a

person, we want to confer benefits. Baba loved Purandhare and was

conferring a bungalow on him. But in what way? By first violent

abuse, threats and finally by inflicting prolonged pain, which was

hard to endure. Anyone else other than Purandhare would have doubted

whether the game was worth the candle, whether it was worthwhile

getting a bungalow after enduring all this trouble and taking the

burden of loans, which he could only repay very slowly on account of

his very low pay. Yet Purandhare, being a sincere enthusiastic lover,

never questioned Baba's kindness or omniscience or guardianship of

himself and family and never complained to anybody. When he was in

the worst pangs of head ache, he simply wrote to Radhakrishna Ayi,

"Tell mother Baba that I am unable to endure this pain and that he

must kill me and take me to his feet or cure me"" But what could poor

Ayi do? Baba was adamant and had his own way and did succeed in

making a petty clerk own a bungalow and that too in double quick

time. This is one good instance of Baba's forcing benefit on those

whom he loved and loves. Baba's conferring of benefit could be found

in every direction.

 

This Purandhare had a lot of financial difficulties and official

troubles. He knew so little of how to provide for every contingency.

Baba anticipated everything and gave him mysterious warnings in

dreams and visions, and enabled him to go through all ordeals without

breaking under them. We will take one example. When he went back from

Shirdi to his house in Bombay, his wife contracted cholera, and there

were so many motions so as to thoroughly exhaust her. The doctor who

came and examined her found the pulse feeble and the breath very

slow. So he gave up hope and went away. But Purandhare was not the

man to give up hope and faith. He knew his God was the Shirdi Sai and

with the fullest faith, he went about and found Baba suddenly

standing in front of the Maruti temple near his house. Baba told him.

`Don't be afraid; give her udhi and tirtham' and disappeared.

Purandhare acted boldly on that advice. He had udhi with him, took up

some tirtham and mixed up the two, administered that cold water to

the patient. Some others got frightened and said that he should not

do this, as it would aggravate the disease. But Purandhare's faith in

Baba was unshakable and he did give this mixture. With what result?

In an hour's time, the sick lady had drunk up all the water and after

a little time her breath began to revive strongly. Her body heat

began to revive also. Her facial expression improved very much. When

the doctor came thereafter, he said that he noticed a very remarkable

change for the better and that there was much hope of the patient's

recovery. He asked what was the medicine given to her. Purandhare's

reply was `Nothing but udhi and tirtham'.

 

Courtesy: HH Pujyasri B. V. Narasimha Swamiji

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