Dr. G.R. Vijayakumar
The Dwarkamai was crowded with devotees from far and wide. Nanavalli and his friends were dressed like monkeys and assembled in the mosque. Nanavalli sat by the feet of Sai Maharaj as Hanuman sitting at the feet of Lord Ramachandra. They were busy exhibiting their pranks.
Dada Kelkar and Hari Vinayak Sathe had already complained to Sai Maharaj about Nanavalli and friends troubling them. But Sai Maharaj did not take their complaint seriously and just remarked – ‘By and by it will be alright’.
Nana Saheb Chandorkar reportedly told a couple of his friends that Nanavalli was “mentally impaired” and “mentally disabled”. There’s more. Nana Saheb also said, “Nanavalli’s associates became mentally impaired…Nanavalli must have been born that way.” Nana Saheb’s track record in hurling personal abuse and offense on others was nothing as he always maintained the highest dignity and decorum. Devotees who listened to Nana Saheb’s remarks were also astonished.
Usually deriding someone’s mental inability is common in society, terms like paagal, nut, loose, locha, crackpot, unhinged, nutcase, and so on are used by friends to rib one another, in a playful manner. Of course, Baba considered it morally and socially incorrect to do so…But never have anyone ever expected a dignified Revenue Officer holding constitutional authority like Nana Saheb Chandorkar to use such terms for a few Sai devotees in the very presence of Sai Parabrahman, in Dwarkamai Masjid.
Even when the context is playful, terms that make fun of one’s mental faculty or physical attributes are not nice and have strong disapproval of Sai Maharaj. It only shows our disdain for those who are battling genuine mental health and physical health issues, sometimes these are beyond their control, and they need medical intervention or counseling. To use the term mental impairment as an abuse is indicative of how low you are willing to lower yourself on your own Sai brothers.
When you say someone is mentally impaired, it does not refer to a literal, specific condition. Because who is mentally stable or unstable are judgments made by those who go by their subjective perceptions through Sai Maharaj their ‘Antaryamin’.
Sai Maharaj sent word in the afternoon to three of them – Hari Vinayak Sathe, Dada Kelkar, and Nana Saheb Chandorkar and took them to the Lendi Baug. At the entrance of the stream, Baba pointed to a bearded man standing in waist-deep water. He was laughing, for no apparent reason, and now and then, he would strike the palms of his hands on the water’s surface so that the water would splash on him, and he would laugh even more. The two men – Hari Vinayak Sathe and Dada Kelkar remarked how mad he looked. “He must be off his rocker,” said Nana Saheb Chandorkar. The others agreed, and added, “He seems to be truly insane.” But Sai Maharaj observed and said, “I don’t think what you are stating is correct. The man you call insane is a realized sage; he is laughing because he knows life and the world are impermanent, and everything is Divine play. The illusory world and all that is in it amuses him no end, therefore he laughs.”
Many evolved spiritual masters smile and laugh a lot, with no apparent reason or provocation, possibly for the same reasons. A very thin line divides what we call sanity and insanity. Who is ‘normal’ and who is ‘abnormal’ is a question that has no ready answers. This is not a black-and-white situation.
Sai Maharaj revealed to them that Nanavalli is a Realized Soul, and his pranks mask his being a sage incognito.
Sai Maharaj continued that our mental state is a spectrum of orders and disorders; one moment we may seem sane, and at another moment, we may seem insane. A little bit of ‘insanity’ is what enables people to take risks and extend themselves out on a limb. You need to loosen up to be able to take on life’s challenges with greater confidence, and fearlessly.
Baba advised all three of them – Hari Vinayak Sathe, Dada Kelkar, and Nana Saheb Chandorkar not to conclude that someone with whom we interact is mentally unstable, but to have ‘Shraddha’ and ‘Saburi’ to analyze whether he contradicts himself routinely, who hurls abuses and indulges in personal attacks, is dishonest, selfish, discourteous, impolite and crass person? Sympathize and help him out to the extent possible.
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