91.
Yoga-kshemam
vahâmy aham (B.G. 9:22)
This
statement of the Lord Who guarantees the
yoga-kshemam of the devotee has given
rise to a great deal of misunderstanding. Even
pundits, not to speak of others, have failed to
grasp its real import.
A
learned pundit was once giving discourses on the
Gîtâ
in the august presence of a Maharaja. One day,
the turn of this sloka came:
ananyâs'
cintayanto mâm
ye janâh paryupâsate
teshâm
nityâbhiyuktânâm
yoga-kshemam vahâmy aham
ananyâh
-- having no other object; cintayantah --
concentrating; mâm -- on Me; ye -- those
who; janâh -- persons; paryupâsate
-- properly worship; teshâm -- of them;
nitya -- always; abhiyuktânâm --
fixed in devotion; yoga -- requirements; kshemam
-- protection; vahâmi -- carry; aham --
I.
"But
of those persons who concentrate on nothing else
but Me and who are fixed in devotion in proper
worship, I protect the union and to them I carry
what they need"
The
pundit was explaining enthusiastically the
manysided implications of this sloka, but
the Maharaja shook his head and said: "This
meaning is not correct". He continued to dispute
the correctness of every one of the explanations
the pundit gave. The poor pundit had won
meritorious distinctions at the court of many a
Maharaja and was honored by them all with
pompous titles. He felt as if he was stabbed
when the Maharaja in the presence of the entire
band of courtiers condemned his explanation of
this sloka as 'wrong'. He smarted under
the insult; but plucking up courage, he again
set upon his task, and collecting all his
scholarship, he plunged into an eloquent
discourse on the multiple meaning of the words,
"yoga"and "kshemam". The Maharaja
did not approve of even this; he ordered: "Find
out the meaning of this sloka and having
understood it well, come to me again tomorrow".
With this, the Maharaja rose from his throne and
went into the inner apartments.
The
pundit lost even the few grains of courage left
in him. He was weighed down by anxiety; he
tottered under the insult, he reached home and,
placing the copy of the Gîtâ aside,
he fell on the cot.
Surprised
at this, the pundit's wife said, "Tell me why
you came home from the palace today in such
grief? What exactly did happen?" She rained one
anxious question after another, so that the
Pundit was obliged to describe to her all that
had happened, the insults heaped on his head,
the command with which the Maharaja had sent him
home etc. The wife listened calmly to the
account of what had happened and after pondering
deeply over the incident, she said, "Yes, it is
true. What the Maharaja said is right. The
explanation you gave for that sloka is
not the correct one. How could the Maharaja
approve it? The fault is yours". At this, the
pundit rose in anger from the cot, like a cobra
whose tail is trodden hard. "What do you know,
you silly woman? Am I inferior in intelligence
to you? Do you, who are engaged in the kitchen
all the time, cooking and serving, claim to know
more than I? Shut your mouth and quit my
presence", he roared.
But
the lady stood her ground; she replied, "Lord!
Why do you fly into such a rage at a statement
of mere truth? Repeat the sloka once
again to yourself and ponder over its meaning.
You will then arrive at the right answer
yourself". Thus, by her soft words the wife
brought calm into the mind of her
husband.
The
pundit started analysing the meaning of each
individual word in the sloka.
ananyâs
cintayanto mâm, he began, deliberately
and slowly, repeating aloud the various
meanings. The wife intervened and said, "What
benefit is it to learn and expound the meanings
of words? Tell me what your intention was, when
you approached this Maharaja. What was the
purpose?"At this, the pundit got wild. "Should I
not run this family, this home? How am I to meet
the cost of food and drink, of clothes and
things, for you and all the rest? It is for the
sake of these that I went to him, of course; or
else, what business have I with him?" he
shouted.
The
wife then replied. "If you had only understood
what Lord Krishna has declared in this
sloka, the urge to go to this Maharaja would
not have arisen! If He is worshipped without any
other thought, if one but surrenders to Him, if
at all times the mind is fixed on Him, then the
Lord has declared in this sloka that He
would provide everything for the devotee. You
have not done these three; you approach the
Maharaja, believing that he would provide
everything! That is where you have gone against
the meaning of this verse. That is the reason
why he did not accept your
explanation".
Hearing
this, that reputed scholar sat a while,
ruminating on her remarks; he realised his
fault; he did not proceed to the palace the next
day. Instead, he got immersed in the worship of
Krishna at home. When the king inquired
why the pundit had not appeared, courtiers said
that he was staying at home and had not started
out. The king sent a messenger, but the pundit
declined to move out. He said, "There is no need
for me to go to anyone; my Krishna will
provide me with everything; He will bear my
yoga-kshemam Himself. I suffered insult
because I did not realise this so long, being
blinded by eagerness to know the manifold
meanings of mere words. Surrendering to Him, if
I am ceaselessly engaged in worshipping Him, He
will Himself provide me with all I
need."
When
the messenger took this message to the palace,
the Maharaja proceeded to the dwelling of the
pundit, on foot; he fell at the feet of the
pundit, saying "I thank you sincerely for
explaining to me this day, out of your own
experience, the meaning of the sloka
which you expounded yesterday". Thus the king
taught the pundit that any propagation of
spiritual matters which does not come out of the
crucible of experience is mere glitter and
show.
92.
Prayers
must emanate from the Heart
Listen
to what happened to sage Ramadas of
Bhadrachalam, the singer who was imprisoned by
the Nawab of Golconda, for misappropriation of
public funds (to renovate the Râma Temple
at Bhadrachalam), whose liberation from jail was
effected by Râma and
Lakshmana themselves paying the Nawab the
sum appropriated!
Ramadas
had piled up a large mass of palmyra leaves, on
each of which he had written with his stylo a
song on Râma. When his eyes fell on the
heap one day, a thought struck him: "Did I
compose these songs for my pleasure? Or, for
pleasing Râma?" He wanted to know those
songs which had pleased Râma, and fling
away those which did not. He decided to throw
the whole bundle into the Godavari River, and
let Râma save those which He approved.
Almost the whole lot sank in the depths; only
108 floated and were rescued. They alone had
arisen from the heart; the rest smacked of
cleverness, artificiality, punditry, pedantry.
Prayers must emanate from the heart, where God
resides and not from the head, where doctrines
and doubts clash.
93.
Who
is a Real Bhakta?
There
is the story of a rustic who sat among a
gathering of devotees and listened to the
exposition of the Gîtâ by a
great pundit. All were wonder-struck by the
scholarly commentry which the pundit gave and
his learned disquisition on each word and
phrase; and the rustic, though the exposition
was very much over his head, seemed to attend
very closely for he was all the time in tears!
When at last the pundit asked him why he was
weeping, he surprised everybody by the sincerety
of his bhakti. For, he said that he wept
at the predicament of the Lord, who had to sit
at the head of the chariot and half turning His
neck hold forth so long to convince the
dull-witted Arjuna. "How much pain must He be
suffering in His neck?" he asked and wept. That
was real devotion, a sure passport to spiritual
victory. He had identified himself with
participants in the episode and the whole
setting had become alive for him.
94.
Âtmâ
discriminates Best
Buddhi
or intelligence exhibits greater discrimination
than the senses and âtmâ exhibits
greater discrimination than buddhi. In one
village there were two beggars. One was blind
and the other lame. The two of them became
friends. The blind had his feet and the lame had
his eyes. They came to an agreement. The lame
man climbed on the back of the blind man and
gave directions like a steering wheel. On going
from one village to another, they came to a
field of cucumbers. The blind one asked if there
was a fence or wathman around and the lame man
said there were none. The blind man then said
that if the cucumbers were really good, no
farmer would leave them like that in a field
without a fence around or without a watchman.
This meant that the cucumbers probably would be
bitter to eat. The blind man could easily find
out the truth of the matter because he had
intelligence. This is the exercise of
buddhi. The senses cannot determine the
difference between good and bad. Buddhi
can discriminate but not implement because it
does not have the senses.
95.
Steadiness
and Ritualism must go with Discrimination in
Sâdhana
There
was a great bhakta once who failed in a
test and so could not get the certificate. Every
day at noon, he used to look out for a needy
guest whom he could feed lavishly. Thus he spent
years, but one day, a frail old figure toddled
into the house and sat for the dinner. He had
crossed the century mark in years.
The host had
the steadiness of the vow, but he did not have
the discrimination to derive the fruit of that
vow. Like water poured on a dry sand-bed, it did
not add to its fertility. His heart still
remained a dry sand-bed, though the waters of
charity were poured on it every noon. The
viveka-less heart drunk up the charity
and he was the same strict ritualist.
The decrepit
guest was overwhelmed by hunger and so, as soon
as the first dish was served he swallowed a big
morsel without reciting the name of God.
Annoyed at
this atheism, the host cursed the old man and
pushed him out of doors to starve or beg in the
hot sun. That night, the host had a dream where
the Lord chastised him for the cruelty of his
behavior. The Lord said: "For more than a
hundred years, I nourished that man lovingly as
the apple of My Eye, though he never once took a
single one of My many names. My dear man, could
you not have suffered him for a few
minutes?"
96.
Play
Harischandra or Lankadahana - Not
Both
I
shall tell you what happened in a certain
village. One section had specialised in acting
the drama Lankadahana; but the other
section decided to enact the play
Harischandra instead. For the role of
Chandramathi, the queen, they had to
select a person from the Lankadahana
group, because they had no alternative actor at
all. The scenes were following one after the
other. All went well until the prince died of a
snake bite; then the mother refused to weep! The
"son" belonged to the opposite group. So
vengeance was taken on Chandramathi by
Harischandra. He rained blows on her for
being so callous; the drama sped along in
another course, the course of hatred and
faction.
Thereupon,
the Anjaneya (Hanumân) of the
Lankadahana group brought things to a
climax by jumping on the stage in his role with
a tail burning at one end; and he set the
theatre on fire to the delight of his henchmen
and the consternation of his rivals. You must
play either Harischandra or
Lankadahana; it will end in a holocaust
if you play both together on the same stage.
Rather, prefer Harischandra and reject
the playing with fire. Install truth in the
shrine of your hearts and that will engender the
wholesome habit of brotherliness among all
men.
97.
Bhakti
is Above All
Once
Nârada was asked to name the most
noteworthy among the things of the world. He
answered that the Earth was the biggest. But, he
was told Water has occupied three-fourths of the
Earth; it threatens to swallow up the balance
too, bit by bit. So, Water, he had to agree, was
more powerful. However, Water too was drunk up
by the sage Agastya and the oceans were
rendered dry by him, and he, in turn, is now
just a star in the sky! Is the sky the biggest,
then? No, for, it was covered by one single foot
of the Vâmana-avatâra
[S.B.
8:20]
of the Lord. And the Lord? O, He enters the
hearts of the devotees and resides there. So,
Nârada had to conclude that the
hearts of bhaktas are the grandest things
in creation!
98.
Faith
can Compel the Lord to Manifest
Himself
There
was a thief who listened quite accidentally to
the recital of the charms of Lord Krishna
during childhood; he stopped for a moment, but
could not pull himself away. He heard the
description of the ornaments Krishna wore
and got a great desire to rob those precious
treasures. He asked the pundit where
exactly Krishna would be tending the cows
alone or with just His elder brother or with a
handful of comrades. The pundit told him rather
curtly "in Vrindâvana, on the
Yamunâ bank". Planning to catch
Krishna alone and deprive him of the
ornaments, he hurried off to Vrindâvana.
Sure enough, he met the Boy alone next
morning at the head of His herd of cows .... but
how could he take off the ornaments from that
Loveliness? He was afraid that the removal of
even one would reduce the Lustre and his heart
did not allow him to do that. He looked on for
hours, lost in ecstasy, till Krishna
Himself asked him, but he was too ashamed to
mention it. Krishna knew it however. He
gave him all the jewels He wore. The thief was
overcome with shame and joy: he fell at the
Boy's Feet, but when he rose,
Krishna was not to be seen. He came to
his village and consulted the pundit.
"Are these the jewels of Krishna that you
extolled the other day? I went to
Vrindâvana and He gave them to me".
Needless to add, the pundit fell at the robber's
feet. Faith can work wonders; it can compel
the Lord to Manifest Himself and give you what
you believe He will give.
99.
Great
Men Always Spread the Light of their
Wisdom
There
was a king who led his mighty army across the
snowy peaks that bounded his kingdom, into his
neighbor's realm. On the lofty pass thick with
snow, he saw a mendicant or ascetic sitting on a
bare rock, with his head between his knees,
evidently to protect it from the chilly wind
that blew across the gap in the peak, He had no
clothes on his body. The king was overcome with
pity; he took off his own shawl and coat and
offered them to the yogi (ascetic, one who has
mastered the senses and the mind). The yogi
refused to accept them, for, he said, "God has
given enough clothing to guard me against heat
and cold. He gives me all that I need. Please
give these to some one who is poor". The king
was surprised at these words. He asked him where
that clothing was. The yogi replied, "God has
Himself woven it for me; I am wearing it since
birth and will wear it until the grave, here it
is, my skin! Give that coat and shawl to some
mendicant beggar, some poor man". The king
smiled, for, who can be poorer than he, he
thought. He asked him, "but, where can I find a
poor man"? The yogi asked him, where he was
going and why. The king said, "I am going into
the realm of my enemy so that I can add his
kingdom to my own". It was the yogi who smiled
now. He said: "if you are not satisfied with the
kingdom you have, and if you are prepared to
sacrifice your life and lives of these thousands
to get a few more square miles of land,
certainly, you are much poorer than I. So, offer
the clothes to yourself. You need them more than
I do". At this the king was greatly ashamed; he
realised the futility of fame and fortune and
returned to his own capital, thanking the yogi
for opening his eyes to his innate poverty. He
now understood that contentment is the most
precious treasure. Great men spread the light
of their wisdom through every word and deed of
theirs.
100.
Consequence
of keeping Company with the Wild and
Foolish
Once
there was a hunter who had captured a baby bear
and brought it up as his pet with great love and
care. The bear too reciprocated his love and
behaved like a good friend for many years. One
day when he was traversing the jungle with his
pet, who had grown up into a lusty beast, he
felt overcome by sleep, so he laid himself down
on the grass asking the bear to see that he is
not disturbed. The bear kept watch very
vigilantly. It noticed a fly that flew round and
round and settled on the nose of the master. The
fly went off when the bear waved its thick heavy
hand; but it came again, and settled on the
nose. The bear got enraged when repeated waves
of the hand did not teach the fly the lesson
that his master's nose was not the fly's resting
place. At last the bear could not bear the
insolence any longer. His heavy palm came down
with a thump on the nose, a devastating whack!
The master died on the spot! That is the
consequence of keeping company with the wild and
the foolish. However affectionate they are,
their ignorance will land you into
disaster.
101.
The
Discontented Man is as Bad as
Lost
Resist
the temptation to satisfy the senses, to acquire
what the world can give, to accumulate material
gains. Set limits to your wants. There was a
pupil once, in the kingdom of Raghu, who
asked his preceptor at the conclusion of his
studies, what dakshina he will accept
from him. Dakshina means offering made in
gratitude for service rendered. The Guru
told him that he needed no other dakshina than
his gratitude; it was enough if he lived
according to his teachings and brought honor to
his preceptor thereby. But the pupil insisted
that he must indicate his need and tell him some
sum of money or gifts that he would accept. So
just to ward him off and get rid of him, the
Guru named an impossible sum of money: "You
learnt sixteen Vidyâs (knowledge of
soul or of spiritual truth) from me, well, bring
me sixteen lakhs of gold nishkas
(coins)". At this, the pupil went off, to
collect the sum. He went to Emperor
Raghu, and got from him the promise that
he will fulfil his every desire. Then he placed
his petition for sixteen lakhs of gold nishkas
before him. Emperor Raghu was rendered
desperate by the vast sum needed, though an
Emperor, he was too deep in austerity to have
the sum on hand. Still, in order to keep his
plighted word, he invaded the realm of
Kuvera, the God of wealth, and brought
back as booty enormous stocks of gold. "Take all
this, and give your Preceptor what he has asked
for, keep the balance for yourself", the king
said. But, the pupil refused to take a coin more
than what he had to offer as dakshina to
his Guru. "I have brought them for you, it is
all yours, take", insisted Rahgu. But, the young
man resisted the temptation and stood his
ground. That is real heroism. 'Asanthushtah
dvijonashtah' - the discontented man is as
bad as lost. Rely on the Lord and accept
whatever is your lot, He is in you, with you. He
knows best what to give and when. He is full of
Prema.
102.
Sathya
(truth) was the support of Shirdi Sai
Too
I
am reminded now of past events, events in My
previous body. Even then, I had sathya or
truth as My support. A wrestler challenged Me
then for a fight and he was defeated before a
large gathering of villagers. Pained by the
insult, he invited Baba for a second tussle the
next day, so that he might win back his lost
reputation. The man swore that if defeated
again, he would wear a long rough kafni and move
about with his head covered in cloth. He dared
Baba too to swear likewise. Baba was in no mood
to enter the arena again and he was quite
prepared to concede the fellow the victory he
craved. So he accepted defeat and himself donned
the kafni and the kerchief. The wrestler felt
great remorse and his insolence melted away. He
appealed to Baba to resume his usual style of
dress and released him from the obligation. But
Baba stuck to his word. He was Sathya
Itself. He wore the new attire.
103.
Revival
of the Vedas
Durvasa
was a reputed Vedic scholar; he had the
music of the Sâma-Veda
on his tongue and the cinders of anger in his
eye, strange combination, indeed. Seeing this
absurdity, Sarasvatî, the
Goddess of education and scholarship
(eternal companion of Lord Brahmâ),
laughed in derision. The sage was stung to the
quick; he threw a curse on Her and she was born
on earth as the daughter of Atreya. There
was a brother too, a feeble minded chap,
incapable, in spite of the efforts of skilled
teachers, of even pronouncing the Veda
aright. He was beaten with a rod, but that only
made him weep helplessly. Sarasvatî
was moved with great pity. She intervened and
saved him from physical torture. She taught him
the four Vedas and the six
S'âstras and he became a great
master.
Meanwhile,
the Veda had faded from human memory and,
as a result, famine stalked the land.
Rishis were reduced to skeletons. They
yearned for the Veda, for that was the
sustenance on which they lived.
Sarasvata, the brother of
Sarasvatî, prayed to Candra
(demigod representing the order of the moon).
She made the earth sprout forth edible plants or
Sâka, on which the rishis
decided to live. Sarasvata taught
them the sixty different sections of the
Vedas, but so thick was the fog that had
descended on the Vedas that the sages who
learnt them from him were confounded by cynical
critics. Nârada had to assure them
that what they had learnt was the genuine
Veda iself, but even he could not remove
the stain of doubt. They jointly approached Lord
Brahmâ. He said, "You were all able
to get this vision of me as a result of your
vedic study; you can yourself become
Brahmâ‚ when you practise what
you have studied." That was how Sarasvata
Mahârishi revived the Vedas
once in the past.
104.
Respect
or Disrespect which others give has no
Meaning
Respect
or disrespect which others give has no meaning.
These are simply words. There is a small story
to illustrate this. In a village, there were two
individuals. One of them always used a horse for
making his journeys. The second individual would
make all his journeys by walking with a pillow
in his hand. One day, both of them had to start
for the same village at the same time. On that
occasion, the man who was accustomed to carry
the pillow led the way. Behind him was the
person travelling on horseback. On the way,
there was another small village through which
both these persons passed. The villagers looked
at the individual carrying the pillow and
thought that he was a peon, carrying the papers,
ahead of the master coming behind. They looked
at the man on horseback and they thought that he
was the officer. In early days, because there
were no cars, all the officers used to make
their journeys on horseback. That is why the
villagers thought that way. As soon as they
reached the destination, the man with the pillow
went straight into a rest-house and sat in a
comfortable and boastful manner, resting himself
on the pillow. The other was looking around for
a place to tie up his horse. The villagers
looked at both of them and thought that the man
with the pillow was the officer and the man
trying to tie up the horse was the peon. This is
how respect and disrespect take shape in the
world. The person who was thought to be peon in
the former village was thought to be the officer
in the latter village. This is only imagination
on the part of the onlookers and flows from the
minds of people. In this process neither respect
nor disrespect has come to either of them as a
result of intrinsic worth.
105.
A
Steady Mind alone can Understand Matters
relating to the Âtmâ
There
is a small story with regard to Ramakrishna
Paramahamsa. In the midst of giving a
discourse, he found a disciple by name Rani
Rasamani sitting and pretending to listen to
the discourse. He went straight to her and gave
the Rani two slaps. Others who were witnessing
this event were surprised and were thinking that
Ramakrishna dit not have a sound mind.
Rasamani also was surprised at this and was
trying to think if anything was wrong with her
and why the guru was treating her with
disrespect. Truly, if one knows one's own
faults, he will not commit those faults. In
fact, because Rasamani did not know her fault
she was not able to realise what was wrong with
her. Ramakrishna told her that if she came there
to think of her problems of litigation, and not
to listen to the discourse, she might as well do
so in her house. In the same manner, some people
who come and sit here to listen to what is being
said here waver and flutter like the leaves of a
tree. They move about and look around as if they
are crows. They are not able to sit steadily.
They look this side and that side. They are
unconcerned and unaffected by all that happens
here. They can not even sit properly. Unless you
have a steay mind, you cannot understand matters
relating to the âtmâ. They
also set a bad example to others. People who
have a wavering mind cannot be true
yogis, even though they may pass off as
good devotees in external
appearances.
106.
A
Shirdi Event Recalled
There
was a judge who used to come to Shirdi; he asked
his wife and child to stay with Baba and left to
go home for a couiple of days. He said to the
boy when he took leave, "This is God
Himself". After some days the mother left
for Manmad with the boy. There, they fell in
with a
kathak
who was reciting musically some
Purânic story. Within a few
minutes, they heard him revile Sai Baba as a mad
man and a cheat; the child could not stand it
any longer. He tugged at the sari of his mother
and forced her to return to Baba. Next morning,
they approached Baba for His blessings and He
asked them why they had returned. The incident
of the kathak was duly reported. The boy
heard every one addressing Baba as the Lord.
Remembering the harsh words of the
kathak, the boy wept, But Baba pacified
Him humorously, "I am only a man. What the
kathak said is true; I am mad and I am cheating
people of what they consider very valuable, but
what I feel is useless". Then, even as they
were talking, one Mr. Patel came there and
related how Baba had saved his child from a
serious accident. Baba told him, "Yes, I held
him when he fell, with My Four Hands". Patel
shed tears of thankfulness, but the boy cried
out, "Ah, I told you, You are God, You have
four hands like Vishnu". Baba laughed, He
took the boy inside and gave him a vision of
Himself, as having Four Hands.
That
boy stayed on in Shirdi for 26 years
after this and left only after Baba 'left'. He
then took sannyâsa and became a
great sage.
107.
Nârada
Made Wiser by the Gopîs
To
conquer egoism, no rigorous system of exercise
or breath control is necessary. No, not even
complicated scholarship. The gopikas
confirm this truth. They were simple rural folk,
untouched by the conclusions of deep study.
Nârada was once so shocked at their
ignorance of the science of spiritual progress
that he volunteered to go among them and put
them through some lessons in
jñâna. He found, on entry
into Vrindâvana, that the cowherd
girls selling milk or curds in the streets
forgot to shout the names of their ware but
said: "Govinda, Nârâyana",
instead, so immersed were they in
God-consciousness. They did not know that they
had sold off all the milk; they still wandered
on, calling out the names of the Lord for the
dust of Vrindâvana was so sacred
for them. They had no vishaya-vasana, no
wish for sensual pleasure; and so, they had no
a-jñâna. Hence,
Nârada concluded that they had no need
for the lessons he had planned to give. He
prayed to them to teach him the means of getting
that yearning and that vision of the
all-pervading Krishna.
There
was a gopî, for example, called
Saguna, who had no other thought than those
related to Krishna. Now, every evening,
it was the usual routine in
Vrindâvana for every house-wife, to
light the lamp from the flame of the lamp at the
house of Nanda; they believed that
getting light from the flame of the eldest and
highest is auspicious. Saguna went with
the lamp to Nanda's house and when she
reached the house, her mind was lost in the
thrill and joy of seeing the very house, where
Krishna spent His childhood days, to
which His pranks and prattle drew all the
cowherd boys and girls. She stood there with her
unlighted lamp for a long while, near the big
oil lamp illumining the central hall. She was
holding the lamp near the flame, but not near
enough. She had her finger right over the flame.
She was not aware that her finger was being
scorched by the flame; she was too full of
Krishna-consciousness to be aware of the
pain. It was Yas'odâ who saw her
plight and woke her from the reverie, or shall
we say, 'vision'? For, to her, the house was
alive with Krishna wherever her eyes
turned. That is the thanmayathvam or
identification one must achieve. There is no use
if the fledgeling stays in the nest; it should
develop wings and fly into the sky. There is no
use if man grovels in the dust; he should see
the distant goal, clear and grand; he should
take to his wings and fly.
108.
Food
is the Basis of Character
There
are subtle influences that pass into food from
the persons who prepare it and handle it and are
absorbed by those who eat it. Food is the basis
of character. The state of the mind is
conditioned by that of the body. I shall tell
you now of an incident that happened eighty
years ago. There was a great yogi,
Hamsaraj by name, at Badrinath. He
was always immersed in singing the glory of the
Lord. He had a disciple who was equally earnest
and sincere. That young man was pestered by a
dream for a few days which gave him no peace. In
his dream he saw a fair young girl of sixteen
weeping in great agony and calling out
pathetically, can no one save me? The
disciple was amazed at this strange dream; he
could not shake off that doleful figure and that
desperate cry from his mind. He recited his woes
to the Master. Hamsaraj, I can assure you, was a
true Hamsa,
the Bird of Paradise. The bird can discard water
from milk, is it not? Hamsaraj, by his
viveka,
analysed the situation and discovered the cause
of that horrid experience.
He prodded the
young man with such questions as: "What did you
do the first day?" - "Where did you go?" - "What
did you eat?" etc. It was revealed that he had
gone with a friend to a feast and eaten some
puris and chapatis. It was discovered that a
poor brahmin had prepared the feast.
Well, Hamsaraj sent the disciple to find out why
and with what resources that brahmin
arranged the feast for the recluses of
Badrinath. The young man cursed the day
when the dream started haunting him, for he was
now being sent by his Master on purposeless
errands to investigate irrelevant issues; he
wondered how his sâdhana could be
helped by all this.
Nevertheless,
he went and pursued the enquiry about the feast
and its origins and the wherewithal out of which
it was prepared. It came to light that the funds
were supplied by a sixty-year old moneylender to
whom a brahmin had given his daughter in
marriage and received in return a sum of ten
thousand rupees. She was now appealing to the
holy men for a bit of human kindness towards a
forsaken child.
Hamsaraj
thus demonstrated to his disciple that one
should examine the source of the food, the
motives for the gift and passions that surge and
sway the giver before accepting such an intimate
gift as food.
Everyday,
when you take food you are offering eatables to
the fire that God has put in you to digest food.
You have to eat in a prayerful mode, in profound
gratitude. The Gîtâ says that the
fire which cooked the meal is God; the meal is
God; the eater is God; the purpose of eating is
to carry on the work entrusted by God or
pleasing to God; and the fruit of that work is
progress towards God.
-
Bhagavân Sathya Sai Baba
