I carry on your burden - Baba By Chakor Ajgaonkar

[Guest guest]

I carry on your burden - Baba

By Chakor Ajgaonkar (Former Editor of 'Sai Leela]

" Do you love dolls? " a little girl asked the guest " Yes, I do " , he

replied. At once she ran and brought a heap of dolls. The guest asked her,

" Which one do you love the most? " " Promise not to laugh at it I tell you? " He

said, " I promise " . She picked a doll whose hair had come off, with a broken

nose, scratched cheek, one leg and one arm missing. " This one " " Why? " asked the

visitor. " Because " , she answered, " If I don't love this one, no body else

would! " What a great lesson from a child! God loves the broken ones, those no

one else loves!

 

In Gita, Lord Krishna has given express assurance that those who are

totally dedicated to Him with implicit faith and those who worship Him

incessantly are helped and protected by Him. Sai Baba has given a

similar promise to His devotees. His symbolic discourse with Shyama

fully reflects his divine assurance to devotees who place unflinching

faith in his protection as guardian Godfather.

 

Shyama was a school teacher. He became the first knowledgeable and

conscious follower, devotee and propagator of Sai Baba's glory among the

incoming educated and elite persons who visited Shirdi occasionally during olden

days.

 

At first Shyama considered Sai Baba as a crazy fakhir. He was attracted to Baba

as he was fond of tobacco and Baba used to give him sips of chili. After having

a close company of Baba, the intelligence and education of Shyama brought home

the understanding to him, that the strange behavior of the Master has some

scheme behind it. He used to select good and pious persons for blessing and

granting udhi with boons, whereas Baba at once found out the black sheep and

wicked persons in society and remonstrated them. Thus Shyama who used to treat

Baba as a mad fakhir and came only to enjoy and relish tobacco smoking, came to

realise that Baba was the wisest among men and greatest among the sadhus of

contemporary decades. Slowly he became the introducer, mediator and follower of

Baba and used his affinity as a media to incoming devotees.

 

Once Baba gave a book of Vishnu Sahasra Namam taken by Him form the

bundle of a Ramadasi, Shyama refused to accept it. Instead he requested Baba to

protect him, remove his worries directly without the mediation of book or name.

Baba then assured (in the words of Sai Geetayan) as follows:-

 

" O! Shyama is it necessary for me to repeat this to you every time that I carry

the burden of my devotees for ever. I swear by the sacred flames burning in the

Dhuni. There will be nothing short in the house of my devotee. He will be never

destitute of food and clothing. Those who forget their body consciousness in my

memory are blessed by me. I carry their burden. Those who will climb the

footsteps of this mosque will be lifted up from the mire of this magic and

transitory samsara. I will carry them on my shoulders to the yonder bank of

peace, tranquility and deliverance. These devotees are dearer to me than my own

soul because they forget themselves in the recitation of my name and meditation

of my form. Shyama - I carry their burdens. I have repeated this a million

times to you " .

 

Baba has not left the world of devotees although he has left his human body. He

is beside, before, behind and accompanying his devout

followers. All burdens are to be placed at his feet by the devotees and behave

in the world with 'Shraddha' and 'Saburi'. In fact this is the summing up of

what Baba did and said during his lifetime. Shyama is the first and foremost

comrade devotee assured in straight and direct terms.

(source Shri Saipadananda Special Magazine