Monday, December 4, 2006

Bestowal Of Grace


From Chapter 21. Bestowal Of Grace. Sai SatCharitra translated by Indira Kher.

109. “ How insincere people are! They will bow at the feet, even offer dakshina, and yet curse you all the time in your heart!” How strange, indeed!”

Today, again the feeling of helplessness has taken over. Nothing seems to go in the way our mind is trained and conditioned. Our mind is trained and conditioned for success, success in the goals set by our conditioned mind. Success in earning, earning money, earning name and fame, earning respect from the people having the same conditioned mind. We are trained to respect people with power, people with money, people with knowledge and information. We do not give a dime to someone who has not earned something of the above, and naturally because we crave for it.

Most of the time we remember Sai Baba, or pray to him, or visit Sai Baba’s Temple, it is for the same craving of our conditioned mind. We hardly are opened for what Sai Baba has to offer. We seldom sit quietly in front of Sai Baba, Quietly in the sense quite from inside. Do we sit in front of Sai Baba with a quite mind, without the urges and wants borrowed from society? Have we set in front of Baba, just gazing at him, just allowing what he has to offer? Without the borrowed ideas from the society interfering. These are the questions we should ask.

Even while reading the Great Blessed book Sai SatCharitra, we sometimes hurry through the book. We hurry through it because someone has said, if one finishes the book in a time period, our wishes would be fulfilled. Indeed it has a mystical power, any many devotees have found themselves miraculously freed from their troubles. This has been a peculiar accept of Sai Baba, the great Sai, to attract people and evoke Faith (Sraddha), in his devotees, in his children. So many devotees have been freed form their troubles and the deep feeling of gratefulness, a divine quality, have arisen in them. This has been happening in the times when Sai Baba used to roam about as a Fakir, as a beggar, in the insignificant small village called Shirdi in those times. To this day, where Shirdi is recognized as a Holy Land, and Sai Baba of Shirdi, is considered as God, the savior, the grace showering Saint, by millions who are drawn and attracted by Him.

And even after getting so much, even after getting drawn by Sai Baba, drawn by the greatest, getting drawn by the one who can give boundless, we go to him with the bounded wishes.

Many a times we rush to Sai Baba’s temple, rush to Sai Baba’s image with a mind flooded with our wants. Flooded with our desires, ask his help to solve our problems created by our wishes and wants, and rush back to solve our problems with the hope of getting help from Sai Baba, which mostly delivers. And with a grateful heart, a grateful heart is always a divine quality in a human being, we visit the Sai again. Do we allow the gratefulness to work, with closed eyes, do we allow the feeling of gratefulness work on our being, or we run for other ambition, other project of our society.

While reading Sai SatCharitra, do we read slowly and ponder on what Sai Baba has said. Do we allow the statesman of Sai Baba to work on our minds, our hearts our being? Or are we occupied with the wants and desires of our mind? Chapter 18, Thereupon Sai Baba explained that Sathe should read the book in seven days again - this time slowly and carefully understanding its meaning as He Himself demonstrated in the vision. In chapter 41 Sai Baba appeared in B.V. Deo's dream and asked him to read Jnaneshwari in His presence. He also advised him not to read it hurriedly but to read it slowly and understanding the meaning of every stanza. In chapter 21 "What Appa told you was all right but these things have to be practiced and lived. Mere reading won't do. You have to think and carry out what you have read otherwise it is of no use. Do we read the way Sai Baba had indicated many times or we just go through it, so that our troubles are over.

Now the stanza, which I read and intended to hold in my mind and write, what comes out. 109. “ How insincere people are! They will bow at the feet, even offer dakshina, and yet curse you all the time in your heart!” How strange, indeed!”

Yes we get insincere most of the time. We don’t allow the gift of gratefulness, to flower in our heart. Our mind rush to other desires, which inevitably leads us to problems. The walls of wants and desires are built against the real wealth, the grace of Sai Baba, which is always showering. The mind is again occupied in the wants and desires, the mind does not ponder over the words that flowed from Sai’s mouth. Even if it ponders it tries to mould it according to it’s own conditioning.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very true. Human desires know no boundaries.

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