Chapter 3, Leela 3: Rohilla's story

Leela:

The story of Rohilla illustrates Sai Baba’s all-embracing love. Rohilla, tall and well-built, strong as a bull, came to Shirdi, wearing a long Kafni (robe). He used to recite day and night in a loud and harsh voice, the Kalma (verses from Holy Koran), and shout ""ALLAH HO AKBAR"" (God is Great). Most people of Shirdi worked in their fields all day, and when they returned to their homes at night, they were welcomed by Rohilla’s harsh cries and shouts. They could get no sleep. They suffered this nuisance in silence for some days, and when they could stand it no longer, they approached Baba and requested Him to speak with Rohilla and stop the nuisance. Baba did not attend to their complaint. On the contrary, He took the villagers to task and asked them to mind their own business. He said to them that Rohilla had a very bad wife, who tried to trouble both Rohilla and Himself, but upon hearing Rohilla’s prayers, she dared not enter and they were at peace and happy. In fact, Rohilla had no wife, and by his wife Baba actually meant durbuddhi (bad thoughts). As Baba liked prayers and cries to God better than anything else, He took Rohilla’s side and asked the villagers to wait and suffer the nuisance, which would abate in due course.

 

Based on Shri Sai Satcharita, The wonderful life and teachings of Shri Sai Baba, Translated by Nagesh Vasudev Gunaji (Mumbai: Shri Sai Baba Sansthan, Shirdi, 20^th Edition 2002), p14

 

Teachings from Leela:

1)    Remembering God frequently throughout the day improves the quality of your thoughts and helps to purify your mind.

Through this leela, Baba taught the usefulness of remembering your chosen deity often. When you remember your deity, thoughts about Him or Her appear in your mind, reducing the space for negative thoughts. When you reduce negative thoughts, the overall quality of your thoughts improves and this helps to purify your mind.

2)    When you appeal to your Sadguru to intervene in a problem in your life, his response may not be what you expect, but will be what is best for you.

The villagers did the right thing by approaching Baba for help when things went out of control. They expected an outcome from Baba in their favour, but, on the face of it, it seemed that Baba ignored the villagers call for help, but in fact he did what was best for them. He even knew that this problem was temporary and would be resolved on its own, in a short time. Baba pointed out the importance of repeating God’s name day and night.

Putting into Practice

Here are some suggestions on how we could use this leela in our daily lives.

1)    Remembering God frequently throughout the day improves the quality of your thoughts and helps to purify your mind.

We have control over improving the quality of our thoughts but not over the quantity of our thoughts. The quality of thoughts can be improved with conscious effort, such as remembering, singing or hearing our deity’s name.

People, on average, have 7 to 42 thoughts per minute. Often, one thought leads to another of the same theme or subject matter. One negative thought can lead to several other negative thoughts. Similarly, a consciously injected positive thought can lead to several other positive thoughts.

We can take advantage of this feature of our minds by building habits to think of positive thoughts as we perform specific activities or arrive at certain places throughout our day. When we discipline our minds in this way, it will help us become freer from the bondage of worldly pleasures and closer to a state of permanent joy.

We can further improve the quality of our thoughts by following these simple processes described in Yoga Vasistha:

a.    By being intellectually alert: We must become conscious of the flow of thoughts in us. Recognize the good and bad tendencies without justification or condemnation. We must not pretend not to see, nor should we try to hide what we do see, but rather we should accept whatever is there in us. This choiceless awareness of our thoughts hastens the process of cleansing.

b.    By analysis: A doctor examines a patient, diagnoses the disease, understands the factors that aggravates the symptoms and then suggests the cure. Similarly, we must analyze the good and bad thoughts that come to us and think about what sustains them, what aggravates them and what stops them. When we see that, by brooding over thoughts, we are encouraging them, we should avoid brooding. We should also avoid the company of bad people, reading those books or seeing those programs, etc., which bring out the worst in us. These should be scrupulously avoided, just as a recovering alcoholic would avoid thinking about drinks and liquor bars.

Reference: Yoga Vasistha Sara Sangrahah, Translated by Swami Tejomayananda (Mumbai: Central Chinmaya Mission Trust, 2010), p31.

 

2)    When you appeal to your Sadguru to intervene in a problem in your life, his response may not be what you expect, but will be what is best for you.

Even though it might appear that Baba is not responding to your prayers or you are not getting the desired results from him, he is working on your spiritual progress internally. You must not give up or lose faith in Baba.  Do not be disheartened, accept things as they are, as God’s plan is in the best interest for all concerned.

Look for deeper meanings behind the situation surrounding you. You might be able to see what Baba expects you to learn from it.  

 

 

Mantra:

Om, Sarve bhavantu sukhinaḥ
Sarve santu nirāmayāḥ
Sarve bhadrāṇi paśyantu
Mā kashchit duḥkha bhāgbhavet
Oṁ Shāntiḥ, Shāntiḥ, Shāntiḥ

Meaning:

May all be prosperous and happy
May all be free from illness
May all see what is spiritually uplifting
May no one suffer
Om peace, peace, peace

 

This above mantra is from the Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/seekingshanti/2015/09/hinduprayerforeveryone_globalgoals/

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.