A Lesson In Dream By Shirdi Sai Baba

January 21, 2010

Dreams are constituents of our life. I have heard, about one-third of our total life is spent in sleeping. Thus one-third part of our total life, we live in world of dreams. Dreams sometimes make us feel happy, sometimes we get those things in dreams which we are unable to possess in reality, sometimes dreams are so miserable that in waking states we feel and thank God and Sai Baba ji for making it only a dream and request not to turn them into a reality. Sai Baba ji has always been gracious to His devotees to give them those visions and dreams which carry deeper meanings of the messages which He wants to convey. One such dream of mine is narrated in this post.

It was sometime in the fifth month of the year 2009 that I was blessed and taught a lesson through a dream. Dear Readers please allow me now to fully narrate the dream and i request for your patience since it would be going to be lengthy.

In the dream, as usual i was returning home at late night. On the way, i was worried about few of worldly problems and they were making me morose. Among these problems, financial problems were dominating the most and were engulfing me to their core. Somehow heavily loaded with such burdens, i reached home and sat quietly thinking. I was talking to Sai Baba ji that why such situations have surrounded me and there seems no escape. Suddenly an idea cropped in my mind. The idea was to rob a bank. " Yes! this is good idea, i can make money overnight and will be freed from all clutches " , were my feelings. I was thinking, " What can happen to me as my Sai Baba ji is with me " . No sooner this idea struck me, i took my car and rode to a bank. Very quickly and easily i robbed away the money, gathered bundles of currency notes in a bag and drove away. While driving my thoughts were, " Now everything will get settled and Sai Baba ji, You are with me, now nothing will be as before " . I was very confident that Sai Baba ji will save me from consequences of that robbery in which i was only indulged.

But something untoward happened which was almost opposite my expectations. I heard siren of police vans which were nearing towards me and I was praying to Sai Baba ji to save me from any future consequence of the robbery. More or less i was overconfident that nothing would happen to me and Sai Baba ji will come rushing to help me.

Soon, then, I was surrounded by police vans from all the four sides. No escape was seen. Heart of hearts was crying for Sai Baba ji who could get me out of this situation. The policemen, doing full justice to their duty, arrested me within no time. I was put behind bars with no clue of what will happen in future. The situations, which were bad earlier, had now grown up to worse. There was some chance to get out of financial crisis, but now those opportunities were lost. Now my family consisting of my wife and two kids will have to strive. I was much concerned about them, than myself. Their crying and sad faces were coming in front of my eyes every second. I was dejected but more than that i was worried getting no clue and option to escape from the situation.

This worry of mine now developed in repentance. I had acted wrongly and it was an addition to my bad deeds. I had always tried to be humble with everyone, did all good to others as much as i could, never talked ill about others or possessed ill-feelings for anyone, did not spoke any word which would hurt the listener, i did tolerate every jealousy, anger, hatred, if any, of others towards me and never resented back, i had tried to live teachings and philosophies of Sai Baba ji and Shri Guru Nanak Dev ji, as a thumb-rule, i always filled my heart with love for everyone, then how could i do such an act of downfall? I felt all good deeds of my this birth and previous other births have been washed away with this one sin.

Everything seemed as a fog in front of my eyes and my future seemed totally in dark. This news of robbery spread like fire to all and all my friends and members of Sai family started criticizing me. I asked for forgiveness from my beloved Sai Baba ji, as His court was the Supreme for me. With true and heavy heart, I was mentally praying to Him with tears in my eyes. Suddenly i was woke up and found everything to be a dream. I thanked Baba ji for making me face such situations only in dream and not in reality. My family was safe, i was safe and so were my good deeds. When i woke up i was surprised, but my portals of heart were shedding happiness which were flowing through my eyes.

Now, everything in my life became normal as earlier and i was happy and contented with the half piece of bread in my house. The dream had left a lasting impression on my mind, but its impact was somewhat negative. Since, it was my thinking that i have been saved from such a big calamity with Sai Baba ji's grace, now nothing will happen to me. The dream was very realistic and the way i escaped from adversity was blessings in disguise for me. Thus it was a matter of proud for me and rather remaining down to earth, i started flying high with no wings and not realizing that i was to fall badly someday.

Another cause for increase of proud in me was that i was getting popular as Sai Baba ji bhajan singer and was accepted by more and more people day by day. At every such event, i was praised and honoured leading the level of my proud rise high up. I bore same feelings for Sai Baba ji in my heart and sung bhajans for him as i used to do earlier. Consequently i left my regular worship to Sai Baba ji and my tongue spoke proud and my words revealed proud. Ego, of which proud is a part, also started growing in me, which was certainly not liked by Baba ji.

Overnight success does not last long and the same happened in my case. My proud, my ego was the cause of my downfall as a singer and ultimately as a human being. I realized this when I saw my near and loved ones behaving with me distinctly. Now no one loved me as earlier due to my proud. There was a change in behaviour of my Sai sisters too. Though I had deep love for everyone including Sai Baba ji and my proud had not been dominating over my love, i had to face other’s wrath. This made me feel helpless. I again prayed to Sai Baba ji to make me as i was earlier. I was not at all greedy for praise and honour, but i had greed for love of others which was my life-time earning and an ever filled treasure. Due to this shock, wherein i was not liked by anyone now, i was awakened. Thus whole of this incident consisting of bank robbery and event of proud coming in my life was a dream. More importantly robbery was a dream in a dream. Sai Baba ji, i really thank you from the bottom of my heart to make this whole incident only a dream and teaching me such valuable lessons. I just want to be dust of your Holy Feet and never i want the demon of proud and ego to chase me. Love You Baba ji for this and for everything.

Now dear readers, let me share with you all what i learned from this dream (incident) :

* If you love Sai Baba ji truly then He warns you of any future calamity or difficulty and it is upto us to understand such messages and be alert. He never wants that His children should suffer for any cause, but sometimes we ignore such messages and repent later.

* It is a true fact that Sai Baba ji is always with His children, but He will never support us if we are wrong and then expect that He would save us from the consequences of wrong deeds done consciously. Instead, He will make us face the consequences and then like a loving mother, who sometimes punishes her child for doing something wrong and then hugs and forgives her child, forgives us.

* Sai Baba never tolerates ego. This has been said by Him when He was in flesh and blood and today also He never spares His egoistic devotees. Rather He destroys their ego and make them walk on the path of spirituality to achieve supreme goal of every soul.

* Sai Baba ji made me understand that i should be down to earth and proud should not be given any room in our hearts because that can be the cause of downfall in all respects.

* We must never stop our formal way of worship thinking that Sai Baba ji is always with us. There is no doubt that He is with His devotees and requires no such formalities, but a person treading on this earth with body made up a dust which is going to merge in dust ultimately in the end, should pray to His chosen deity. Prayer is a connection between man and God. So prayer is always a solution to all this worldly problems.

Looking forward for your valuable comments and thoughts regarding this dream. Jai Sai Ramji...Sai Lover -- Rana Gill