Leela:
At noon when Lakhamichand
was sitting for meals he got some sanza (wheat-pudding) from a devotee as
Prasad. He was pleased to have it. Next day also he expected it, but got
nothing. So, he was anxious to get it again. Then on the third day at the noon
Arati time, Bapusaheb Jog asked Baba, what naivedya he should bring. Baba told
him to bring sanza. Then the Bhaktas brought two big potfuls of sanza.
Lakshamichand was very hungry and there was some pain in his back. Then Baba
said to him - "It is good that you are hungry, take sanza and some
medicine for the pain in the back." He was again wonderstruck to see that
Baba again read his mind and spoke out what was passing therein. How omniscient
was He!
Shri Sai Satcharita, The wonderful life and teachings of Shri
Sai Baba, Translated by Nagesh Vasudev Gunaji (Mumbai:
Shri Sai Baba Sansthan, Shirdi, 20th Edition 2002), p148.
Teachings
from Leela:
1) Since bad thoughts create bad karma, it is important to purify
your mind.
Our
mind produces all kinds of thoughts. Mind is the origin of action since every
action begins with a thought. Bad thought results in bad action which leads to
bad karma. Even if there is no action from the thought, the thought creates bad
karma.
Through this leela Baba demonstrated to us that he is aware of each thought in our mind. He did this to make people aware that they should cleanse their minds of bad thoughts.
Baba
wanted us to understand how important it is to purify our mind. The reason why
Baba displays his omniscience is not to show off his ability to read our minds
but to make us aware that we need to be careful with our thoughts just as much
as our outward behaviour. It is not enough to show outward behaviour of being
nice, polite and friendly but inward have desires, anger, jealously, greed, hatred
and negativity towards others.
This is also an important step to prepare your mind for more advanced teachings. In our ancient teachings, there is a story of a man who approached a learned sadhu to teach him Atma Vidya. The sadhu asked him to prepare a meal and that he would come in the afternoon. When the sadhu arrived, and gave him the bhiksha patra, the man saw that the patra was very dirty and asked the guru, “how could I put fresh clean food in this dirty vessel?”. The sadhu replied, “how could someone with and unclean mind accept Atma Vidya?”.
Note: This teaching can also
be found in the following leela(s):
https://at-the-feet-of-baba.blogspot.ca/2017/02/chapter-28-leela-3-evil-eye.html
Putting
into Practice
Here are some
suggestions on how we could use this leela in our daily lives.
1) Since bad thoughts create bad karma, it is important to purify
your mind.
Start
observing yourself for both bad thought and bad action. If you catch yourself
with a bad thought just dismiss it or replace it with a good thought. If you
catch yourself doing a wrong action, for example getting angry, stop immediately.
You will find that with consistent practice, the time it takes for you to catch
yourself with a bad thought or bad action will get shorter and shorter.
Note: This teaching can also
be found in the following leela(s):
https://at-the-feet-of-baba.blogspot.ca/2017/02/chapter-28-leela-3-evil-eye.html
I would encourage all of you to please share your interpretations, learnings and experiences on how you have put this leela into practice.
Om Sai Ram.
4 comments:
Jai Shri Sai!
Wonderful and very well explained Laxmi, thanks for this blog.
My experience about the Thought process...This one thing I noticed during Arti in the early few weeks when Baba made His presence at His 'Dwarkamai' taking us into His fold.
Devotees started visiting Baba, and sometime during the Arti I noticed some devotees would pull their ears. Back then I did not know or understand the Arti as we only had access to the Marathi version...I thought there must be something in the Arti that compells the attendees to realize something to pull their ears, but I could not ask them what it was. Then I received Arti Book with Hindi translation, 'Shri Sadguru Sainath Sagunupasana', translated by Mrs. Chabbra with the team of devotees, and 'Aashivarchan' by Guruji Shri Chandrabhanu Satpathy ji. Reading the translation of Artis I still did not understand why the devotees have to pull their ear, is it a ritual or what. As I moved forward in the journey and after many readings of Satcharita, I came across many leelas like the one in chapter 28 and others about for eg..behaviour, action, ego, charity, karma, bhakti, meditation, relationship, responsibility, day to day dealings at both personal and worldly levels etc etc., realized it is The THOUGHT that crosses our mind... That's exactly when I understood, why the devotees were pulling their ears during the Arti or manytimes even when they were just sitting down in the company chitchatting, and I started doing the same... Because, our mind never stop thinking...Good or bad Baba thru this chapter made us understand, how He is aware of each thought in our mind...and for cleansing Baba recommended, offer all thoughts to Him before putting them into actions......We cannot thank Baba enough for demonstrating through these real life experiences of devotees who visited Him. At the sametime we cannot thank Hemadpant Ji for giving us this prasad of 'Satcharita' Continuous reading of Satcharita not only help you evolve spiritually, but it also helps to become a better person...Guruji says, "To evolve spritiually, answer to every question and complete guidance...we must read Shri Sai Satcharita every day and understand the essence of what we read and then put it into practice.
Thanks for the kind words Shammi and for sharing your experience regarding this blog. Truly appreciate it!
Very nice Laxmi. It emphasises the point that Baba always listens to each and every thought of ours. If we can see Him standing in front of us, we would think and say the most humble and pure things only, we should feel His presence all the time with us, then bad thoughts will never find a way. You are right that Baba showed us that He could read the devotees mind , not to show His ability but to make us pure so we can make ourselves worthy of receiving His Grace. Thanks for the blog post.
Thanks and I truly appreciate your comments. I really liked your thought that if we can see Baba standing in front of us all the time then bad thoughts will never find a way.
Om Sai Ram!
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