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)

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