By : Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji
When I was with Sri Narasimha Swamiji at Madras in the early nineteen forties, a devotee came to him and confessed that she resented a prominent devotee of All India Sai Samaj. Sri Narasimha Swamiji said to her, “Go to her immediately. Don’t try to justify yourself. Tell her that you have had unkind thoughts about her. Be humble and ask for forgiveness.”
The woman said, “I can’t forget the hurt she had inflicted on me.” But Sri Narasimha Swamiji told her that she holds a grudge against her and there is a danger of hurt leading to hatred which makes her miserable. Sai Baba has stated that the ‘Divine’ has assumed different names and forms and has manifested in realized persons so that
they could guide sincere seekers on the path of transcendence. Some great spiritual experiences bestowed upon disciples through their Guru may not be even known to the Guru. This is because Divine Consciousness is utilizing the form of the physical Guru as an instrument to help genuine seekers in their evolution. Thus, all Gurus, avatars and prophets put together represent ‘One Reality’. This Divine Consciousness is timeless and omniscient. ‘Dakshinamurthy’ is the teacher of all teachers.
When we surrender ourselves before the Divine, this seed of omniscience is positioned in us and in due course of time it sprouts and flourishes, thereby dissolving all falsehoods. Whenever a seeker has the sincere aspiration to progress, Divine Consciousness graciously appears on the scene either in its original formless state or by assuming a form to guide the person. There are some seekers who keep on searching for an ideal Guru! What is required is deep faith. Do not bother about external attributes or practices.
Sai Baba is close behind our thoughts as an avatar of Divine Consciousness. His devotees do not require mantra, tantra, pothi, pilgrimage, fasting, rituals and study of love because He himself is the final destination to be sought (Satchidananda). He is love, truth, ananda.
Sri Narasimha Swamiji told the devotee that had approached him the story of Sai Baba serving a common fakir Jawahar Ali who visited Shirdi sometime in 1870 and claimed to be the Guru of Sai Baba. He knew Koran by heart. He was a good conversationist. Besides Koran, he had studied Ramayana, Gita, Bhagavatha etc., from which he used to quote profusely and had won arguments with many scholars. This had made him very proud! He started scheming a plan! He thought that Sai Baba was an ordinary and immature fakir and as such could be easily controlled!
Many devotees came and touched Baba’s feet. He also treated a few patients with his herbal medicines. Jawahar Ali watched all this. He moved through Baba’s devotees, enquiring them about Baba. Then he began to believe that Baba knew some witchcraft. His mind began to think that he should learn this witchcraft from Baba! To achieve his own end Jawahar Ali had planned to separate Baba from his devotees in Shirdi.
Both went to Rahata. Sai Baba was serving Jawahar Ali like a menial servant. It was intolerable. At last Shirdi villagers were able to bring back both Baba and Jawahar Ali. Devidas was happy that Sai Baba had come back to Shirdi. However, he did not like the idea of Jawahar Ali staying with Sai Baba and calling himself the Guru of a divine personality! He decided to put an end to this.
Destiny also desired it! Janakidas arrived in Shirdi after four days. He was also a great saint like Devidas. While in Shirdi, Devidas stayed in Maruthi temple and Janakidas stayed in Mahadev temple.
With the arrival of Janakidas in Shirdi, Devidas thought out a plan. For four days, Devidas had watched Sai Baba serving Jawahar Ali like an ordinary menial. Jawahar Ali’s arrogance had come down, but his boasting had increased. He would never miss an opportunity to exhibit his learning of the Hindu and Muslim scriptures. Devidas
decided to put Jawahar Ali’s knowledge to test. He invited Jawahar Ali to take part in a debate between Janakidas and himself on spirituality. Devidas invited villagers from Rahata and other places to attend it. The open place outside Chawadi was selected as the venue. Jawahar Ali, whose knowledge was only limited to vain boastings was confident of winning over Devidas and Janakidas. The ground in front of the Chawadi was filled on debate day to capacity with crowd from different places apart from the local public.
Jawahar Ali was given the first opportunity to speak. He was an eloquent speaker, quoted profusely from Koran, Gita, Ramayana and other classics and tried to prove the superiority of Islam religion and Koran above all. The audience was spellbound by Jawahar Ali’s lecture and people wondered as to how Devidas would defend!
Devidas challenged Jawahar Ali in the beginning itself. He said, “One who has not understood his own religion has no right to meddle with other religions and their scriptures!” Jawahar Ali was furious! He shouted – “What? You want to talk about our holy Koran?” “Yes, about Koran and Islam! I want to clearly point out as to how you have misunderstood your own religion.” It was an open accusation by Devidas. “That is fine! I want you to teach me Koran now so that I understand it!” Jawahar Ali spoke to ridicule him.
One after the other, Devidas quoted from Koran in Persian language and interpreted in an impressive manner. He compared them with references to Gita, similar thoughts in Buddhist scriptures and hymns from the Bible.
In a very simple and lucid style, Devidas explained the tenets of Islam in a very convincing manner. For the first time, the rustic villagers were exposed to an intimate knowledge of various religions. The Hindus among the audience learnt about Islam and realized as to how they had misunderstood their Muslim brothers. Similarly, the Muslims felt elevated to learn the noble principles of their religion from a Hindu saint and also had a clear insight about Hinduism.
Devidas spoke for two hours. He was shining with a divine luster. People were deeply immersed in his discourse. They came to reality only when Devidas completed his speech. Everyone turned to see how Jawahar Ali would defend himself. To their surprise, he was not there. He had already sneaked away! This is indeed a lesson to shed arrogance.
Leave a Reply