Leela:
Though Sai Baba acted outwardly like an ordinary man, His actions showed extraordinary intelligence and skill. Whatever He did, was done for the good of His devotees.
He never prescribed any asana (is a Sanskrit term which is often translated as “posture” or “pose.”), regulation of breathing or any rites to His Bhaktas, nor did He blow any mantra (group of words from the Vedas, chanted or sung as a prayer) into their ears. He told them to set aside all cleverness and always remember "Sai" "Sai".
"If you did that", He said, "all your shackles would be removed, and you would be free".
This is the easiest path, but why do not all take to it? The reason is that without God's grace, we do not even get the desire to listen to the stories of Saints.
INDIRA KHER VERSION:
129. Hence surrender your Being at the feet of Sai, offering up to him all the material objects of worldly life. He will then bless you. This is an easy way to get His blessings.
130. Such are the means, small and easy, by which people can reap the highest benefit. Why then all this disinterest, this indifference?
131. The listeners will naturally have a doubt in their minds, that if so, much gain lies in such effortless and easy means, why are people in general so indifferent as to neglect it?
132. There is only one reason for this. Such a desire will not arise without God’s Grace. But when God is pleased to bestow His Grace, the fondness, the desire to listen will arise at once.
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, 20th Edition 2002), p
Based on Shri Sai Satcharita, The Life and Teachings of Shirdi Sai Baba, G. R. Dhalbokar, Translated by Indira Kher (Slovenia: Bird Publisher, 2009), p82
Teachings from Leela:
HIGH LEVEL TEACHINGS:
Baba is pointing out to us an especially important lesson taught in our traditions. In the Ramcharitmanas (a devotional version of the Ramayana composed by Tulsidas in the 16th century), Sunderkand V 43, Ram says to Vibhishana:
“Nirmal man jan so mohe pava, Mohe kapat chal chidra na bhava”
I am not impressed by cleverness, by
cunningness, by deceit.
I am impressed by a simple, trusting, childlike heart.
What is cleverness?
Cleverness is your mental capability; it has both positive and negative connotations, depending upon the context in which it is used. The positive connotation is synonymous with intelligence and talent, whereas the negative connotation is synonymous with cunning and craftiness.
Baba is asking us to give up cunningness and craftiness and to surrender to Him, as He has advised us that this is the easiest path to remove our worldly shackles.
He is also asking us to give up ownership of our intelligence and talent, as it often leads to conceit and arrogance.
Why is it that we are still not able to adopt this easiest path?
This is not the first time we have this heard about this wisdom of the easiest path. Infinite lifetimes have passed knowing about this wisdom, yet we have still been unsuccessful on this path. There are certain obstacles and certain difficulties we face, and these difficulties still exist. We must first understand and explore them to overcome them.
What are these difficulties and obstacles?
The difficulty is that in the world, we have become habituated to cunningness and craftiness. The problem is that interacting with this world we have learned to become clever in these ways. First, we practice cleverness with our friends and then with our relatives and when we engage in it with our work colleagues.
So, due to this cunningness that we have learned and accumulated in our minds while dealing with the world, this needs to be thrown away and we need to go back to the state in which we were born. A simple, trusting child.
It is easy to learn something but very difficult to unlearn it. Baba is pointing out to us that in order to overcome this obstacle we need to leave off and unlearn all our cunningness, and become simple, as this is the easiest path which will help us surrender to God and removes all our worldly shackles.
In chapter 17 of the Sai Satcharitra, Baba said, “My treasury is full, and I can give anyone, what he wants, but I have to see whether he is qualified to receive what I give. If you listen to Me carefully, you will be certainly benefited. "
In order to qualify to receive Baba’s grace and get what we desire, we must give up our cleverness. Avoid duplicity (The practice of working to people's disadvantage behind their backs) in your dealings with others and of cheating and deceiving others.
Surrender is possible when we posses a simple heart. A conniving, deceitful heart is unable to surrender as it is constantly thinking of manipulating the situation to its own advantage. God who is omniscient knows all that goes on in our minds is not impressed by cleverness, by cunningness, by deceit, but he is a slave to a simple, trusting, childlike heart.
The Story of the Orphan Boy
Here is a beautiful story narrated by Swami Mukundanandaji, in His YouTube video, in this regard:
Once there was an orphan boy who was employed by a temple priest to assist him with the worship. The boy in return was given a place to stay in the temple and food to eat. Once the priest had to go on a pilgrimage for two months, so he said to the boy, “Here is two months worth of food; offer food to God before eating it”.
The boy had never seen how the priest fed God as there would always be a curtain drawn when the priest would offer food to God. On the first day, the boy offered food to the deities expecting them to eat, but the deities did not move. He thought that there might be some problem with his cooking, so he threw the food away and prepared another meal, but again the same result. He got upset and angry with God and said that if they do not eat then he too cannot eat, and he slept with an empty stomach that night.
The next day, the same problem happened again. This time, the boy picked up a stick and said, “Look, if you do not eat, then Punditji will get annoyed with me and he will dismiss me from this job. I am an orphan. Where will I go? What will I do? you had better eat, or I will beat you with this stick!”
Now, that stick was a symbol of his fate, his conviction that this is God. That is the kind of faith that comes from a simple heart. That is what God is waiting for.
He says, “I'm not impressed by scholasticism. I am impressed by the trusting heart”.
He who is all pervading in this world is also present in the deities. So, the deities started moving. They reached for the plate and started gobbling up the food. Hanumanji was a voracious eater, and that little offering finished quickly. The boy came and replenished it again, and again. The result was that the ration Punditji had left for two months was finished in a week. The boy wasn’t sure what to do. So, he would go to the market and beg from shopkeepers, “Sir, please give me something. I need to offer it in the temple”.
Punditji returned in one month's time instead of two months. He said, “My child, I'm very hungry. Give me something to eat”.
The boy said, “Punditji. You know, we have nothing here. I have to go do bhiksha (begging) and then bring it”.
Pundit said, “What do you mean? I left you rations for two months. There must still be food for one month. Did you go and sell it all in the market and see movies with the money?
The boy said, “No, No, Punditj! How would I ever do something like that? I will not lie to you. What could I do? God used to eat so much and Hanumanji would keep eating away”.
Punditji said, ”All right. Offer it in front of me. Let me see how they eat”.
The boy placed the plate on the altar as before and requested the deities to please come and eat this time. The deities were not willing to move, and the boy became annoyed because he would be proved a liar. He picked up his stick once again and said, “Will you eat it or not, or I will whack you with it again”?
The deities started giggling. They came to the plate and started eating. Punditj,i seeing this spectacle, was shocked. In his entire life, in all his worship, he had never even seen the light of God. And look at this little child. God was coming and eating from his plate. How fortunate he was!
So that is the trusting heart, the simple heart that
enables us to win the grace of God right away.
Putting into Practice
Here are some suggestions on how we could use this leela in our daily lives.
1) Give up all your cleverness and surrender to God, as this is the easiest path to remove your worldly shackles and be free from the cycle of birth and death
Remember this leela and be vigilant of your actions. Get into the habit of evaluating your actions, by asking yourself, “is this action positive or negative? Is it self-serving or selfless?”. If it has negative connotations, give it up immediately.
This vigilance is a good start to wean ourselves of manipulative behaviour and start us working towards the greater good of all, instead of our own selfish motives. With sufficient practice we will be able to cultivate a child-like heart, which will make it easier to surrender to God.
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.
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