Can anybody tell me why now a days all Sai Center is having Politics?

July 10, 2008

Swami Says Love All _ Serve All

I need all my group members opinion on or before 12th july 2008 or earlier

Even everybody can see in Parthi also with Seva Dals? Why? Whats the reason? Is

it ego?

The first point to notice is that Baba did not force pace of spiritual

advancement in this visitors case any more than in others cases. Baba would have

had excellent reasons to immediately promote Khapardes spiritual interests

because Khaparde had been in one of his previous janmas a fellow pupil along

with Baba under the same Guru. In another janma he had been a member of the same

family with Baba, having sufficient to live upon but still, being impelled by

high ambition, Khaparde had chosen to leave the family and seek royal service in

order to advance his economic or other position.

This just gives a hint that ambition was deep in the nature of Khaparde not only

in the 19th century birth but in previous births as well. Such a person would

have had excellent help for striving high up in the spiritual line. Yet Baba did

not force the pace. He allowed him to take his own time and adopt his own ways

for his spiritual amelioration. Like 95 percent of the orthodox religious

people, Khaparde also had his religious convictions and ideas of spiritual

improvement.

Therefore, he went on with his prayers, attendance at bhajans, and study of

Panchadasi, Paramamrita, Yoga Vasishta, and Dasa Bodha. These no doubt have

their value, but most of the orthodox people make the study of these and the

adoption of the other programmes mentioned above, the be-all and end-all of

religion. They stop all their spiritual practices with these. In Sai's course

these formed a very minor item in one's spiritual advancement. The main thing is

to surrender to the Guru whole heartedly and be at his mercy for everything,

depending upon the Guru for everything and treating him as the all-in-all of the

sadhaka.

Khaparde was certainly not prepared to make such surrender. In fact the two

great essentials for a sadhaka are Nishta and Saburi, that is, full faith in the

Guru and a readiness to wait long, very, long for seeing the benefits. Baba had

adopted that course himself and had given Nishta and Saburi, to his own Guru. As

for Khaparde, he was not prepared with full Nishta, that is, full faith in his

Guru. He maintained his old line of thought, that is, great attachment to

wealth, comfort, name, position and a slight veneer of religiosity combined with

respectable life as quite sufficient for his purpose.

With such a mentality, one could not expect any great advance in his spiritual

condition. Sai Baba did not force the pace and make him surrender all that. Sai

knew or had ordained the subsequent life of Khaparde after releasing him from

the immediate danger of prosecution, namely that his ambitions and energies were

to be all utilised in totally different fields and his greatness was to consist

in becoming an M.L.C. and the father of a Minister of the Central Provinces. All

that Khaparde achieved. No doubt he has made a fairly good advance in religion

as understood by him.

However great that advance may be, especially from his own standpoint, that

advance cannot be treated as an advance from Sai' s viewpoint. Any Sai sishya

would see that all that is insignificant and amounts to practically nothing when

compared with what Sai could achieve for him had he surrendered himself to Sai.

But in the case of Khaparde he was very far from attempting the Sai view-point.

Humility and a readiness for poverty were the pre-requisites for one to benefit

by contacting a Samartha Sadguru. Khaparde notes that when his wife massaged the

feet of Baba, the latter said that Dixit should give Rs.200/- to her. This at

once mortified Khaparde. His pride felt wounded at the idea that he, a

practicing lawyer, should be thought so low as to make his wife receive Rs.200/-

from a Bombay lawyer like Dixit, though funds were indeed very low and he badly

required Rs.200/- or more. Later he understood that Rs.200/- was only

symbolical, that it meant to show Dixit's achievements of poverty and patience

or contentmart with his poor lot. Khaparde rebelled at this idea also.

He did not want poverty. He did not go to Shirdi to remain poor forever. On the

other hand he wanted to amass wealth and attain high position and Sai was his

cat' s paw to get at the desired things. Khaparde never forgot that he was an

Honorable Member of the Council and had 'visited England, was high up in

politics and looked up to by all and sundry as a great social and political

leader and a highly learned scholar who could even teach Panchadasi to Upasani

and others.

The diary frequently mentions that his position was all-in-all in his eyes and

when others came to Shirdi, he was an institution to be visited by them just as

they visited Baba. He spent his time in talks with such visitors, and in his

study of the dairy papers, to note especially what happened in the world

generally, perhaps with special reference to his own condition and the

possibilities of his own delicate position getting more delicate and more

dangerous.

A psycho-analyst studying the diary would at once declare the mentality

displayed in the diary is almost the antipodes of what the mentality of a

sadhaka like Dixit should be and was. Dixit made considerable advance and, as

Khaparde notes, turned over a new leaf, and on his face there was a visible calm

due to his internal peace. He notes the same in the case of Bala Saheb Bhate, a

retired Mamlatdar, who had the same calm on his face, though he had forsaken the

lucrative office of a Mamlatdar, without anything to fall back upon.

Yet he was able to achieve great calm. These are the exact opposites of

Khaparde. Baba's dealing with such a person on the spiritual side is highly

interesting. In some matters Khaparde's moral and spiritual condition was far

from being satisfactory, and it was known to Baba. Of course, this should not be

discussed either in the diary or in this biography, but there is sufficient hint

given of that position in Baba's dealings with him as mentioned in the diary.

Khaparde notes that Baba gave him advice in a fatherly way, keeping Khaparde

alone for giving that advice.

To show him that at the age of 58 he should no longer be thinking of sex

gratification, Baba gently gives a hint by calling his wife Ajibai, meaning an

old lady. Khaparde unable to take the same viewpoint mentions the same in the

diary regarding it as someÂ¬thing unintelligible whereas for one who is able to

read between the lines and note what is behind the scenes and what was to happen

later on, it is clear that Baba was pressing the button just at the proper point

and gave a valuable suggestion.

Again as to the possibility of further progress, especially in the matter of

reaching God, that is realising Satchitananda, nothing could be done in dealing

with a sadhaka in Khaparde's condition unless he should thoroughly submit

himself to Baba's rigorous discipline. Yet what did Baba do? Did he give up the

task as hopeless? Certainly not. To Baba nothing is hopeless. Khaparde could

work at reaching Satchitananda, but not at that time nor perhaps in that life.

So, he eggs him on to great efforts in that noble direction.

He gives him a Pisgah-sight of that promised land. He favours with a few Yogic

glances off and on, the effect of these Yogic glances being to immerse Khaparde

deep in a pool of bliss without any external visible stimulus whatever.

Khaparde' s joys in getting a fat sessions case or success in a sensational

trial or getting loud plaudits or cheers from the mass listening to his humorous

and highly cutting comments and also his domestic joys were perhaps the highest

that he had experience of.

Till he came to Sai all his joys evidently were joys due to external causes, but

when Baba's glances came, without any external stimulus, without any fee, or

birth of a grandchild or applause he felt waves of joy swallowing up his being

for hours. This is an indication that the soul has vast resources of the highest

sort of bliss independent of external stimuli.

This is a very valuable spur to one at working hard and proceed to realise

Parabrahma or Satchitananda, which would give him joy and peace without any

external cause forever. This is one of the valuable spiritual services rendered

to Khaparde by Sri Sai. There may be one or two more of that sort noticeable in

the diary but perhaps in this article unconsciously the dissection of Khaparde

has gone to unpardonable lengths, and it is high time that such dissection

stopped.

A careful reader of his diary might light upon the other point not mentioned

here, that is, points in which Sai Baba analysed his character and promoted the

chance of his reaching a high spiritual state and â€¦â€¦â€œThe first point to

notice is that Baba did not force pace of spiritual advancement in this

visitorâs case any more than in others cases. Baba would have had excellent

reasons to immediately promote Khapardes spiritual interests because Khaparde

had been in one of his previous janmas a fellow pupil along with Baba under the

same Guru. In another janma he had been a member of the same family with Baba,

having sufficient to live upon but still, being impelled by high ambition,

Khaparde had chosen to leave the family and seek royal service in order to

advance his economic or other position.