Honest Man Hour
Prior to 1921, His Holiness Pujyasri B.V. Narasimha Swamiji was a normal person enjoyed the pride of holding Leader of Bar and remained at the head of legal profession till 1925, Chirman of Salem Co-operative Bank, Chirman of Salem Municipal Council, Member of Legislative Council and also interested in tennis and billiards. When comparing these engagements, most of us too have more or less similar assignments in our society. Despite Swamiji's busiest daily routine, on the stroke of six every evening, he would stop his activities in office or sports yard and go home saying, "the honest man's hour has come, I must go". Friends who were intrigued at this, later found found out that the "honest man" went home at that hour regularly to perform his evening pooja and offer prayers.
The philosophy of "the honest man hour" is meaningful, in this Kali Yuga, it probably very difficult to be very honest in all aspects. We should probably evaluate our own schedule and fix up a rigid "honest man hour" and spend time on our spiritual upliftment. Withdrawal from temporal (samsara) life may not be that much easy. N.G. Chandorkar vexed with this samsara life, bowed to Sai Baba, and said: "Enough of this Samsara for me. Samsara is really nissara i.e., worthless. Break its fetters off from me, Baba. What first seems to be joy here is seen to be but sorrow at the end. Fate leads us a nice dance here and there. I cannot discover even a bit of happiness in this Samsara. I am quite disgusted, I do not wish to touch it, Baba, any further." Baba replied to N.G. Chandorkar: " What crazy and delusive talk is yours! There is some truth in it - mixed with error. As long as the body remains, samsara remains. None escape it. How can you? Even I am caught up in it. Samsara is of various sorts. It is like the surface of the body. Kama (desire) Krodha (anger) etc, and any mixture of these is samsara. All mental and body process are samsara. By going away to a forest, you cannot escape samsara. Your present condition has been brought about by yourself. What is the use of irritation at it? This Deha Prarbdha is the result of the karma done by you in former births. This body was, therefore, born. The jiva takes birth in body to work out former karma. Without suffering the results of Prarbdha Karma, you cannot get rid of it." Baba's words are clear that samsara is an integral part of our present life; no doubt, that our efforts on "honest man hour" will help us to overcome troubles associated in this samsara and overcome our Deha Prarabdha. Bow to Sri Sai - Peace be to all.
(Contributed by N.Sivanandam, Coimbatore, India)