Chapter 4, Leela 5: Baba's Gurusthan

Leela:

One day it so happened that Lord Khandoba (a manifestation of Lord Shiva worshipped in the Deccan region of India) possessed the body of a devotee and people began to ask Him, "Deva (God), could you please find out which blessed father’s son is this lad and where did He come from".

Lord Khandoba asked them to bring a pickaxe and dig at a particular spot. When it was dug, bricks were found underneath a flat stone. When the stone was removed, a corridor was uncovered, which led to a cellar. There cow-mouth-shaped structures, a wooden seat and necklaces were found. Lord Khandoba said, "This lad practiced penance here for 12 years".

On hearing this, the people began to question the lad (the young Sai Baba, when he arrived there at age 18). He put them off the scent by telling them that it was His Guru’s place, His holy Watan (land owned by a landlord) and requested them to guard it well. The people agreed and closed the corridor as before.

During Sai Baba’s time, Mhalasapati and other Shirdi devotees regarded this site as the resting place (Samadhi-Sthana) of Baba’s Guru and prostrated before it.

 

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), p20

Based on Shri Sai Satcharita, The Life and Teachings of Shirdi Sai Baba, G. R. Dhalbokar, Translated by Indira Kher (Slovenia: Bird Publisher, 2009), p34

 

Teachings from Leela:

1)    Instead of taking credit for praiseworthy actions, attribute them to your Sadguru or God.

As described in Indira Kher’s version, Page 34, verses 131-134 below:

131. This is my Guru's seat and my most sacred legacy. Listen to me this once and preserve it as it is.

132. But why is this, my tongue, moved to say that Baba was giving it a different turn?

133. I was amazed at myself. Why should I think in such terms about Baba? But now I have realized that this must have been his spontaneous sense of humour.

134. Baba dearly loved a joke. Maybe, the cell was his own dwelling. But what does one lose in saying that it is the guru's? How does its importance suffer?

When the villagers dug at the spot indicated by Lord Khandoba, to their surprise they found a corridor which led to a cellar which had a wooden seat. Lord Khandoba said, "This lad practiced penance here for 12 years". However, when Baba was asked about it, He attributed all His doings to His Guru.

Why did Baba attribute the penance performed by Him to His Guru?

·         You might have noticed that whenever a devotee is praised for their good deeds, they do not accept credit but attribute it to their Sadguru, saying, “My Guru arranged to do this through me. I had nothing to do with it”.

·         An example of this is Hemadpant himself, who attributed the writing of the Sai Satcharitra to His Sadguru, Sai Baba.

o   As per the Indira Kher version of the Sai Satcharitra, page 19, verse 32:

For, the moment I took pen in hand, Baba subdued my ego, the "I" in me, and took upon Himself the writing of his own life-story. Thus, all the credit for writing it, is entirely His.

·         Even though Baba always comes to help His devotees during times of trouble, He has always said that He is not the doer and that He is a humble servant of God.

·         By attributing his penance to His Guru, Baba would always remember His Guru and feel obliged to Him whenever He is close to His place of meditation.

·         Baba is trying to teach us to give up our Ego and “I”-ness of doership to our Sadguru. He too practiced what He preached as this leela is an indication of His teachings. At many other times, He attributed His deeds to God Himself.

·         Here is a similar teaching from another spiritual master, Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa:

Suppose you are cooking rice in a pot, with potato, eggplant, and other vegetables. After a while the potatoes, eggplant, rice, and the rest begin to jump about in the pot. They seem to say with pride: 'We are moving! We are jumping!' The children see it and think the potatoes, eggplant, and rice are alive and so they jump that way.

But the elders, who know, explain to the children that the vegetables and the rice are not alive; they jump not of themselves, but because of the fire under the pot; if you remove the burning wood from the hearth, then they will move no more.

Likewise, the pride of man, that he is the doer, springs from ignorance. Men are powerful because of the power of God. All becomes quiet when that burning wood is taken away. The puppets dance well on the stage when pulled by a wire, but they cannot move when the wire snaps.

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, page 486, originally recorded in Bengali, By M., a disciple of the Master

Is it okay then to perform bad deeds, and use the excuse of what Baba said to claim to not take credit for your deeds?

We are responsible for our intentional bad deeds so we must make all attempts to avoid them. I don’t have to tell you to avoid doing wrong – you already know this. Your karma give rise to their own results. This is a universal law we all live by.

When we progress to an advanced stage of spiritual development, we will no longer be capable of intentionally carrying out bad deeds but may still carry out such deeds unintentionally, through neglect or absent-mindedness.

How will you know if you are at that stage? You will find yourself no longer capable of intentionally doing harm: by hurting others, by stealing, cheating, or engaging in other unethical behaviour, by indulging yourself in directing your frustration upon others through temper tantrums, etc.

In another leela in chapter 50 of the Sai Satcharitra, Pundalikrao was going to Shirdi to visit Baba with his friends. When Shri Tembe Swami (Vasudevanand Saraswati, 1854-1914) heard this, he gave a coconut as an offering to Baba on his behalf. Forgetting the significance of the coconut, Pundalikrao and his friends broke it open and consumed it during their journey back.

Baba, being omniscient, and aware of what happened to the coconut given by Tembe Swami for delivery to Him, asked for the object sent by His brother (Tembe Swami). Pundalikrao, realizing his mistake, held fast Baba's Feet,confessed his guilt and negligence, repented, and asked for His pardon.

Baba then said to him, “why should you take the responsibility of the actions on you? Do not entertain the sense of doership in doing good or bad deeds. Be entirely prideless and egoless in all things and your spiritual progress will be rapid."

Baba’s message of denying doership of bad deeds applies only to those devotees who are sufficiently advanced spiritually that they are not capable of doing bad deeds intentionally.

From the above leela, we can see that the wrongdoing was due to absent-mindedness. It was not purposefully intended. Things do happen in life which are beyond our control, and even though they are wrong on the face of it, we must take our learnings from such incidents and figure out ways not to repeat the same mistake again. Afterwards, we must move on without taking credit for them. On the other hand, if we do some good deeds, we must not take ownership of them and attribute them to our Sadguru.

 

Putting into Practice

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

1)    Instead of taking credit for praiseworthy actions, attribute them to your Sadguru or God.

Do not feed your ego by accepting praise for your good actions. Redirect the praise to your Sadguru or God. Remember this leela, that Baba too attributed all his penance and hard work to His Guru and to God.

Our bad deeds can be traced to two sources: ego and attachment. If sufficiently provoked, we are likely to become angry and commit wrongs in defense of our ego. Likewise, we are likely to commit wrongs in the quest of aggrandizement of our ego.

Similarly, we are likely to commit wrongs either to obtain or to protect objects (or people) we are overly attached to. Over-attachment to objects can show up as greed, over-attachment to people can show up as over-protectiveness, and over-attachment to sensory pleasures can show up as lust.

Stay vigilant to identify these natural flaws (we all have them). Once identifying them, work to reduce them and to eventually root them out.

 

Listen to the stories with reverence; Reflect upon them deeply. After reflection, contemplate on them. This will bring great satisfaction. Shirdi Sai Baba Shri Sai Satcharita, The Life and Teachings of Shirdi Sai Baba, Chapter 3, verse 18

 

 

 

 

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.