A Lesson in Faith

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A Lesson in Faith

By Sri

Narasimha Swamiji

Chinna Kistna Saheb was very devoted to Vishnu from his boyhood. Even

from his younger days, he used to sit for long in one asana (yogic posture) meditating on his

chosen deity. This went on till, in his twenty-first year, (about 1910), he had

three successive dream-visions in one night. At first he experienced his

separation from his physical body and before him was the divine form of Lord

Vishnu. A second time the same vision recurred but this time there was someone

else standing beside him. Lord Vishnu pointed to that stranger and said, 'This

Sai Baba of Shirdi is your man; you must resort to Him. " In the third

vision he again left his physical body and drifted in the air to some village.

 

There he saw someone and asked him for the

name of the village and was told that it was Shirdi. Then he enquired whether

there was a holy man by name Sai Baba in that village. The stranger led him to

a mosque where Chinna Kistna

saw Sai Baba seated leaning against its wall with his legs stretched before

Him. On seeing Chinna Kistna,

Sai Baba got up and said, " Do you take my darshan? I am your debtor. I must take your " darshan " and

placed His head reverently on Chinna Kistna's feet. Then the vision ended. Though he saw Sai

Baba's picture earlier, he never knew that Sai Baba's most characteristic

manner of sitting was with His legs stretched out before Him. Shortly after, Chinna Kistna went to Shirdi to

verify whether Baba was his destined Guru as the dream seemed to indicate. When

he actually saw Baba, a doubt arose in his mind whether it would be proper to

worship a man like Him.

 

At once Baba said, " What

do you worship a man for? " The rebuff was keen and to the point. When

nothing more happened to confirm his dream Chinna Kistna was a bit dissatisfied. Later, in the afternoon,

when every other devotee retired to his room, Chinna Kistna made bold to visit Sai, though it was thought that

no one should visit Baba at that hour. Baba, far from getting angry, beckoned

to him. Chinna Kistna

approached Him and bowed in reverence. At once Sai Baba hugged him with love

and said, " You are my child. When others (i.e., strangers) are present, we

(i.e., saints like Me) keep off the children. "

Thus was the man's dream confirmed.

 

On another afternoon Baba embraced him and

said, " The key of my treasury is now placed in your hands. Ask anything

you want. " " Then Baba " , said shrewd Chinna

Kistna, " I want this. In this and in any future

birth that may befall me, You should never part from

me. You always be with me. " Baba patted him joyously and said, 'Yes, I

shall be with you, inside you and outside you, whatever you may be or do. "

 

There is one instance to show how, when Chinna Kistna's heart was

yielding to some other love, Baba asserted His monopoly over it. Many years later,

Chinna Kistna's child died

and his wife was disconsolate. With the dead child in his lap Chinna Kistna sat on with a

grief-stricken heart. Baba at once appeared before him and said, " Do you

want me or the dead child? Choose! You cannot have both. If you want me to

revive the child, I will; but then you will have Me no

more with you. If you do not ask for the revival of this one, you will have

several children in due course.' Then Chinna Kistna said that he wanted Him only. “Then do not

grieve " , Baba said and vanished.

 

Another confirmation of his earlier

dream-vision that Chinna Kistna

was Baba's man: When he visited a great saint of Poona named Sri Madhava Nath, on seeing Chinna Kistna, at once said, " You are Sai Baba's Man. "

 

In 1912 Chinna Kistna visited Baba on the holy Guru Purnima day. Seeing other

devotees offering garlands and other gifts to Baba he realized how unfortunate

he was in that he did not remember to get any gift to the saint. At once Baba

said to him, " All these are yours! " , and He pointed at the bundle of

garlands offered to Him by other devotees. Thereby Baba hinted that the heart's

loving desire to offer is of greater value than a formal physical offering.

(Source Shri Sai Padananda April 2002)