By: S.C. Gupta
Bapu Saheb Booty brought a person named Ram Lal from Nagpur. When he sat before Sai Maharaj, Baba gazed at him with marvel at the dexterity of his small hands. With his omnipresence Baba proclaimed the visitor to be a professional magician, working with an audience at close quarters, it was as though he was gifted with a separate brain in the nimble fingers of his ambidextrous hands.
The visitor accepted Baba’s statement and showed some tricks like materializing sweets to children. Baba explained that humans are homo faber, creators of objects, made possible because of the opposable thumb, quite different from other primates. We can grasp tools firmly, sew tiny stitches, and even sign between narrow dotted lines. Baba called the hand a ‘tool of tools.’ Nana Saheb added that manual work requires handling simple accepted tasks. Technical tasks work with the hands and the brain, while an artist, and a sign language interpreter, combine the fingers, brain, and emotion to communicate.
Baba asked the visitor to return to the place where they originally belonged. Baba advised him to use his magic in the service of the poor. Materializing objects only transfers from one place and amounts to stealing and depriving someone’s hard-earned money.
When we returned to Dixit Wada, we felt that despite thousands of daily tasks, very few of us look closely at our own or others’ hands. Women are better at this, especially when wearing jewelry and manicuring. Dixit stated that ‘Man’ in ‘manicure’, comes from the Latin ‘manus’, hand, with derivatives manual, manufacture, manuscript, and manipulate. The Greek word for ‘hand’ is ‘kheiro’, chiro as seen in chirography – handwriting.
The digital age has led to more uses, typing, and sending messages. ‘Digital’ originates from the Latin ‘digitus,’ a finger, traditionally used for counting. Hands and lips are the most sensitive parts of our anatomy. They are sensitive to texture, temperature sensing, touching, and reading, as in Braille.
Positive relational connotations include – handshake, army salute, waving, affectional hands holding, and comforting hand on the shoulder of a grieving person. Negative uses are rude and obscene finger gestures, threatening finger-pointing, and making a fist to cause harm. Psychologically, handling refers to problem-solving, and managing conflicting or stressful emotional situations to avoid impulsive reactions such as ‘flying off the handle.’ Hand movements can reveal emotional states – fidgeting, sweating, and shaking.
In many religious and spiritual symbols, we have Hamsa, open hand, known as the Hand of Fatima in Islam, and the Hand or eye of Miriam in Judaism, as a defense against the evil eye. Hamsa, Arabic Khamsa, five, in Indian tradition refers to the five senses. Referring to the divine, our finger points upward ‘All is in her hands.’ While praying, our open or folded palms indicate receptivity to blessings.
One devotee whom Baba transformed by performing magic tricks is worthy of mention here.
Kusha Bhau alias Krishnaji Kashinath Joshi came to Sai Baba in 1908. He had learned black magic from a ‘Mantrik’ and used to wear an iron bangle. At Shirdi, he impressed devotees by pulling eatables out of ‘thin air’ and making money. When Baba learned about him, he sent word to him and impressed him that it was stealing as he was transferring the material from another place. Baba asked him to beg for his food. Kusha Bhau repented and broke his iron bangle. He started reading ‘Bodhamrit of Samarth Ramdas’ and doing 108 parayans of ‘Guru Charitra’. When Kusha Bhau reformed, Baba conferred a boon to him the ability to produce ‘Udi’ in his palm. He distributed this Udi to devotees and became a renowned Sai Pracharak.
Kusha Bhau led a saintly life and passed away on 19th February 1944. His associates have built a memorial at Mirajgaon. Sri Narasimha Swamiji met Kusha Bhau in 1936 and received Udi materialized by Kusha Bhau.
In conclusion, it is good to remember that hands are not just a physical assemblage of bones, muscles, and nerves but conveyors of thoughts, emotions, and deep significance. In Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam painting, a divine finger reaches out to infuse prana, the breath of life, into the man’s finger. In being grateful for the gift of life, our commitment needs to be harm avoidance and to reach out with healing hands and intention to all in need physically or otherwise.
We do not hold the world’s solution in our hands, but we do have our hands to work towards solving the world’s problems. When we meet Sai Maharaj, pointed out Sri Narasimha Swamiji, “He will look at our hands.”
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