FROM LIFE OF SRI SHIRDI SAI BABA BY NARASIMHA SWAMI

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FROM " LIFE OF SRI SHIRDI SAI BABA " BY NARASIMHA SWAMI

 

Once Kondajis (a Marwadi) stack of hay took fire. Baba tried to prevent it by

sending him to go and look at it. But he returned without seeing it properly,

and then said there was no fire. Then Baba pointed out to the smoke issuing from

the stack. He then ran up and found that the whole thing had been reduced to

ashes. People in the neighbourhood, with neighbouring stacks, were all afraid

that the brisk breeze that was blowing would set their stacks also on fire. Baba

then came up, and going round Kondajis stack, drew a line of water round it, and

said; ˜Only this stack will be burnt. Kondaji, however, was very sorry that he

had lost his property. Then Baba said, ˜How stupid is this? The marwadi talks of

himself as his body, that is, the form made up of flesh, bones etc. Hay is

something totally different. What has he to do with the stack or the stack to do

with him? Hallo, Marwadi, you better make up for this loss in some other

transaction’. Thus, Baba gave him some practical advice to get over his grief,

and at the same time pointed out that philosophically speaking, there was no

basis for the notion of either ‘I’ or ‘Mine’. It is ruinous for any soul

that desires its true welfare to go on dwelling over and over again upon ‘I’

and ‘Mine’. When he thinks of the ‘I’ it does not get to the real

inwardness of the ‘I’. On the other hand, it centres its emphasis on

everything unimportant. For instance, if you ask a boy whom you meet, ‘Who are

you?’ you may get ten different answers, such as, ‘I am a boy, I am named

Rama, I am the son of Krishna, I am a Hindu, I am aged 16, I am a boy attending

St. Peter’s School’, etc. That is, every one of these things is not he, but

it is an accident attached to him which he mentions as he. What is the central

core round which all these accidents gather? That he does not know. Philosophers

might say, ‘There

is a piece of Chaitanya or Pure Consciousness which, however, changes its

purity and gets attached to some external body, and then a particularity comes

into it, namely, a red haired youth. So, the ‘I’ becomes a red haired youth.

Thus we develop various notions of I, which stricty speaking are not true, and

which do not help us in the ultimate goal that we have to reach, however useful

some of them may be for our progress in our material circumstances. Therefore,

Baba tried to rebuke this egotism especially when it showed itself in offensive

forms. Abhimana means overfondness of dwelling on this particularity you call

‘I’ connected. with the body, and it also comes in relation to property,

Therefore, the most important thing to be attained in the case of a sadhaka is

to lessen and remove this abhimana to dissociate himself from the body idea.

‘I’ and ‘mine’ represent the body idea.â€â€¦â€¦