"These feet are ageless and holy.
Place your entire faith here and you will achieve your object."
It is said in most of the Indian scriptures that in order to attain the final realization, it is necessary to resort to a guru. The Sufis too attach great reverence to the 'Murshid' (guru), And I believe the same ideas underlines Jesus Christ's words, "No one can come to the Father except through me." The one unfailing solution to the problem was given by great ones like Kabir who says that we need not run in search of the guru, that he would come to us if and when we are ready to receive him. Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi also often told his devotees that though God, Guru and the Self are one, when a seeker needs a guru in the human form, the Lord does appear to him in that form to turn his mind inward. There are very many instances in which Sri Baba played the role of the guru in human form and led the seeker to himself. Sometimes, the seeker was led to him by Baba himself in his own person and sometimes by a deity which the seeker worshipped devoutly. Sometimes another great saint had led the devotees to him. However, it is not to be supposed that every one that is led to the sadguru is bound to become perfect in this life itself. Every one derives benefit according to the ripeness of his soul and in accordance with his inner yearning. Many of them take lives of inner development and in each, the sadguru lifts him on to a higher level. In some, this development may not manifest to themselves. We shall now proceed to note how one of his devotees were drawn to Sri Sai Baba.
M.B. Rege was very devoted to Lord Vishnu from his boyhood. Even from hisyounger days, he used to sit for long in one yogic posture, meditating on his chosen deity. In his twenty-first year (about 1910), he had three successive dream-visions in one night. At first, he experienced his separation from his physical body and before him was the divine form of Lord Vishnu. A second time the same vision recurred but this time there was someone else standing beside Him: Lord Vishnu pointed to that stranger and said, "This Sai Baba of Shirdi is your man; you must resort to him." In the third vision he again left his physical body and drifted in the air to some village. There a stranger told him that it was Shirdi. Then he enquired whether there was a holy man by name Sai Baba in that village. The stranger led him to a mosque where Rege saw Sai Baba seated leaning against its wall with his legs stretched before him. On seeing Rege, Sai Baba got up and said, "Do you take my darshan? I am your debtor, I must take your darshan! And placed his head reverently on Rege's feet. Then the vision ended. Though he saw Sai Baba's picture earlier, he never knew that Sai Baba's most characteristic manner of sitting was with his legs stretched out before him. Shortly after, Rege went to Shirdi to verify whether Baba was his destined guru as the dream seemed to indicate. When he actually saw Baba a doubt arose in his mind whether it would be proper to worship a man like him. At once Baba said, "What, do you worship a man?" The rebuff was keen and to the point. When every other devotee retired to his room, Rege made bold to visit Sai, though it was thought that no one should visit him at that hour, Baba, far from getting angry, beckoned to him. Rege approached him and bowed in reverence. At once Sai Baba hugged him with love and said, "You are my child. When others ( i.e., strangers) are present, we (i.e., saints like me) keep off the children". Thus was the man's dream confirmed.
On another afternoon Baba embraced him and said, "The key of my treasury is now placed in your hands. Ask anything you want." "Then Baba", said shrewd Rege, "I want this: In this and in any future birth that may befall me, you should never part from me. You should always be with me." Baba patted him joyously and said, "Yes, I shall be with you, inside you and outside you, whatever you may be or do".
There is one instance to show how, when Rege's heart was yielding to some other love, Baba asserted his monopoly over it. Many years later, Rege's child died and his wife was disconsolate. With the dead child in his lap, Rege sat on with a grief-stricken heart. Baba at once appeared before him and said, "Do you want me or the dead child? Choose! You cannot have both. If you want me to revive the child, I will; but then you will have me no more with you. If you do not ask for the revival of this one, you will have several children in due course." Then Rege said that he wanted Him only. "Then do not grieve", Baba said and vanished.
Another confirmation that he was Baba's man: Once he visited a great saint in Poona, named Sri Madhavanath. The latter said, "You are Sai Baba's man". In 1912, Rege visited Baba on the holy Guru Purnima day. Seeing other devotees offering garlands and other gifts to Baba he regretted that he did not remember to get any gift. At once Baba said, "All these are yours!", and pointed at the garlands offered by other devotees. Thereby Baba hinted that the heart's loving wish to offer is of greter value than a formal physical offering.
Topic: "These feet are ageless and holy. (Read 718 times)