By: Ramaswamy Seshadri
A fakir by the name of Javar Ali came to Shirdi and boasted himself as Sai Baba’s preceptor; Baba knew his worth and pretended to be Javar Ali’s disciple and served him. Sai Baba desired his devotees to follow one more lesson.
French Philosopher Albert Camus has stated – “the need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind” – and this has profound relevance in all situations and circumstances in life. The morbid insistence on being right all the time makes one rigid, ossified, and monomaniac. The magnanimous acceptance that you can be wrong more than you can be right in your whole lifetime, makes you a thoughtful human. Life’s so intricate and egalitarian in the sense that it also offers your opponents to be right at times. This is what Baba desired.
There was a debate between Devidas and Javar Ali to decide the Master-Pupil status. In the process, Shirdi residents were exposed to Hinduism and Islam in clear terms.
Our life is a saga of mixed emotions, paradoxes, upheavals, and all shades of colors. Urdu poetess Parveen Shakir put it succinctly, “Tumhara ye israar ke main hi sahi hoon/ Humare rishte ko talkh kar gaya” – Your insistence that you’re right/ Embittered our relationship. She further wrote, “Har baar toh koi sahi ho nahin sakta/ Kabhi agle ko bhi mauqa do sahi hone ka” – One cannot be right all the time/ Let other people be right sometimes. When we let others be right, we accept and validate different and new perspectives.
In a philosophical debate around 815 AD at Saharsa in 
present-day Bihar, Mandan Mishra was reluctant to concede defeat at the hands of Adi Shankara, who was young enough to be Mandan’s son. Mandan Mishra’s wife Ubhaya Bharati, who was a mediator, politely told her husband that he lost the debate to Adi Shankara. She admonished her husband, the delusion that he could never be wrong had made him reluctant to accept that Shankara was right. The right to be right doesn’t make one upright and ethical. It fills you with arrogance.
Sai Baba’s insistence on serving Javar Ali as not being right has a greater and deeper significance. In his book ‘The Life of Sai Baba’ Sri Narasimha Swamiji, has written that a genuine Sai devotee cannot succeed in his rebellious ways unless he accepts his brother devotees’ rights occasionally because then only could he fight with them on an even keel. “Giving equal opportunities to all is a sign of Sai brotherhood. He’s a man of principles. So, he doesn’t insist on being right every time.,” wrote Sri Narasimha Swamiji.
He also believed that a Sai devotee is never judgmental. Only those who are judgmental, don’t allow others to be right. Just like retreat is a strategy in warfare, accepting that one is not right at a specific time or moment is also a sign of evolution. It helps one rejig his strategies and assess the strengths and weaknesses of others. Acceptance of being wrong is symptomatic of a healthy mind and a broad outlook.
Vidura told Dhritarashtra that the battle of Kurukshetra broke out because not just Kauravas, but even Pandavas insisted on being right and were never ready to accept their weaknesses and wrongs. If either of them forfeited the ‘right’ to be right every time, such destruction could have been averted. Accepting that you can be wrong ennobles and enlightens you. Walt Whitman said, “I’m conscientious and not condescending because I’m least bothered about being right and infallible, for, I’m a human.”
Leave a Reply