(This story is an excerpt from the book, Just Love 3: The Essence of Everything by Parmahamsa Sri Swami Vishwananda, enjoy!):
Shirdi Sai Baba could have stayed (in his body) longer,
but he took upon himself the illness of one of his devotees. It was one devotee
that he had taken as his son, because he had promised to the mother of Tatya
Patil that he would look after him and nothing bad would happen to him. So, one
day this devotee got tuberculosis and, of course, he would cough blood, all
this.
Everyday people would go to Sai and say “Hey, your nephew is sick. Do
something, you have helped so many people; you have healed so many people. Why
is he still sick? Why don’t you do something?” But the nephew accepted it and
never said one word about it. He never would have said to Sai “Heal me or do
something.” So, Sai said, “I am getting old now. I am an old man. So it’s time for
me to go.”
There was one lady, Laksmi Bai, who used to look after Shirdi Sai
Baba. Just before he died, he gave her nine coins, saying to her “These coins
that I am giving you are the nine forms of bhakti.” Then, knowing that he would
take upon himself the illness of Tatya Patil, he sent everybody and said “Well,
it’s a good time.” Then he transferred all the illness onto his own body. He
could do that through his siddhis (spiritual powers). Then he took Maha Samadhi willingly.
"(Before) I was explaining to somebody about the difference between samadhi and Maha
Samadhi. There are a lot of samadhis, but for saints, they always take Maha
Samadhi when they die, because they say willingly “Yes, I will go.” That is
easy for them. Of course, anybody could say “Yes, I can kill myself and go,”
but one would not go in the same manner. There are so many incidents in Shirdi
Sai Baba´s life that we could talk about. We can see many small things, which
have great meanings, but I guess you all know the story of Shirdi Sai very
well, so I will not go much into detail about that. His life was an example; he
was simple and free. If people offended him, he was neutral, because he had
such a Love for people; everybody was welcome.
Sometimes though, he would
behave in such a strange way, when people would come to him. There were
incidents when people would come to him and he would behave really madly and
push them away. After pushing them away, he would call them back and treat them
as a tender mother with all his care and Love. Of course, people would not
understand “Why did he first push us away and now he is being so kind to us?” Actually,
he was not pushing away the person as a person, but he was pushing away the
negativity of the person; he was pushing it away from that person. Strange was
his ways, because he would never say directly what he was doing. He was always
talking to himself, always looking after the welfare of the Universe like a mad
person. Well, it’s typical for Masters to do that, you know? Otherwise it would
be so easy for people to understand things. Only the clever will understand. I
don´t mean clever with the mind, but clever with the heart, wise.
Once, a man and his gang
planned to kill Shirdi Sai. They knew that he used to walk a certain path, so they
hid themselves behind a stone and as Shirdi Sai was walking by, they planned to
beat him up. As they were going to hit him, he just turned and they saw the
Mecca and the moon and the stars in his eyes and they were transformed. Some of
them ran away, because they got so scared, but the man who had planned to kill him
changed. He fell at Shirdi Sai´s feet and asked for forgiveness.
Shirdi Sai
said to him “Look my dear, in the mind of ignorance one sees the difference,
one sees the limitation, but there is only one God with thousands of Names. You
can call Him Allah, you can call Him Bhagavan or any Divine Name, but it’s the
same God that you are calling. If God would have a limit, He couldn’t be God.
We can’t say “God is just this” or “God is just that.” Then how could He be God?
God is the manifestation of everything. God is this and that! And it is only
the manifestation of Him that seems different.” So, realising this, the man
changed.
This was just one example of how Shirdi Sai used to break all the barriers
of religions that one can put in one´s mind. There was also one other similar
incident. One lady came to Shirdi Sai and asked him “Are you a Muslim or are
you a Hindu? I can’t understand that.” Shirdi Sai went into a rage, tore his
clothes, removed his clothes and, standing completely naked in front of her, said
“What do you see? Am I a Muslim or am I a Hindu?”
You see, we look so much at
the outside; we give limits to the outside. Of course, we have to build up the outside
first, so that gradually we can transcend the outside and move into the
infinite, move from the finite to the infinite, from the limited to the
Unlimited One. You have a mind and you have a body and in this there is
limitation. Learn to handle your humanness first, so that you can then handle
the Divinity.
Shirdi Sai Baba is such a great example, such a great Saint, but
he was always humble. He could have been living in a big palace if he had
wanted. He gave so much to people and he is still giving so much to people.
Even though he died a long time ago, there are so many people who still profit
from him. One of his promises was “Even if I am dead, I shall speak through my
tomb.” He also said “If you look at me, I will look at you.” He has shown this
so many times to so many devotees. Even I have so many experiences with him. Call
Him sincerely.
Tomorrow is the inauguration of the Shirdi Sai Mandir at Shree Peetha Nilaya. You can learn more by visiting:
www.bhaktimarga.org/shirdisaimandir
