Drop the Concept Doer-ship in Every Action

By : C. S. Dinesh

Baba an avatar purush came on this earth to uplift humanity. He led a life of a Fakir demanding only devotion from devotees and lived a very simple life, begging from five houses. He neither had a cash box or bank account nor had some means to store the donations. Till he breathed his last he did not keep any money with him and on the last day he gave away nine silver coins he had with him to Laxmi bai Shinde.

He did not study any scripture nor gave any discourses. But he always advised people to take the name of Allah or your Ishta Devata. He advocated chanting of Vishnu Sahasranaam or read Bhagvata, Adhyatma Ramayana or such texts. He was aware of all those scriptures.

To Pundalik, Baba advised to do yatra of Rameshwar Madurai  Tirupati and Vishakapatnam. He instructed that he should meet a Dutta Avadhuta, Thembe Swamy also known as Swamy  Vasudevananda who was a Siddapurush at Vishakapatnam. There were many contemporary Mahatmas whom Baba had not met but all of them knew about each other on day to day basis.

A group of devotees with Pundalik went on this yatra and visited Vishakapatnam as the last point.  They could not locate the saint. But when they visited the sea shore they came across Swamy Vasudevananda as suggested by Baba who was doing Sandhya in the evening hours .These devotees prostrated to the Sidda Purush who asked them whether his elder brother from Shirdi has sent them here .These devotees were surprised at this and said yes. Both Swamiji and these devotees conversed for some time and Pundalik mentioned that next day they are leaving for Shirdi. Swami gave them a coconut and asked them to hand it over to Baba. They took his blessings and left for Shirdi

Those days journey to Shirdi by train would take three days as they had to change trains at several junctions and trains would halt for longer times in each station. They had some ‘Chivda’ bought in Andhra Pradesh which was very hot for any non-local person. When they were hungry, they ate chivda and the chillie was unbearable and they did not have any water. In those days water available at stations would be muddy water which was used for steam engines. So, they took out the coconut and quenched their burning throat.

On arriving at Shirdi they went to take blessings of Baba. After chatting for a while Baba asked of what was given by Swami at Vishakapatnam and it was only then they realized their blunder. They had consumed the same coconut given to them which was to be given to Baba. They started pleading guilty and they said sorry by heart but assured Baba that they would give him ten coconuts. Baba was really annoyed at them. Even if you bring thousand coconuts it would not match one given by Thembe Swamy. You are not able to comply simple responsibility and you are not ashamed to come here and cry. The devotees felt very bad at that time and left for their lodge and did not know how to settle the matter even on the next day. They were repenting and were not taking any food. How can Baba keep quite when the dear ones are disturbed this way.

Baba decided to close the issue by giving them one lesson. Baba told them that it was his plan that he sent them to tour, asked them to meet  Swami and he was the one who made swami to give coconut and he was the one who made them eat chivda and that had hot chillie which made them eat the coconut .

Was there any reason to feel guilty? Baba told them that anybody functioning with doer-ship spirit would feel guilty. Why did I ask you to go to yatra. It is for you people to drop all materialistic thinking and do everything in the name of God. But still you don’t take his name by heart and travel with ego and with your doer-ship attitude you are bound to cry like this.

By this leela Baba had given them a lesson not to do anything without taking name of God and also one should accept the outcome as prasad whether it is pleasure or pain. This was not lesson just for Pundalik but for every Sai devotee to drop DOER-SHIP while doing any work .Such leelas are not meant only for the concerned person but for entire humanity like the way Bhagavan Krishna preached Geeta for Arjuna was not meant exclusively for ARJUNA but for whole humanity for all time when he says “MAYYARPITA MANO BUDDI”