Reminiscences

ShriMaharaj casually asked one teacher, ' Is there a shrine of a Muslim saint near your school?' The teacher said, ' Yes.' ShriMaharaj further said, " Balwantrao Ghanekar, who had studied at the same institution, was once asked the same question. His answer was, ' I do not know'' ' But, 1 said, ' everybody says so.' Balwantrao re­plied, ' Maybe it's so, but I used to go straight to the class,and when school was over, I returned home. I never rambled idly nor aimlessly.' I liked this reply, for the reason that it shows how single - mindedly one should                            pursue one's Sadhana ."

Reminiscences

One doctor asked, "The mental perturbation of every person that visits him becomes known to a saint. How does it happen ?' ShriMaharaj replied, "For this to hap­pen one's mind has to become holy and subtle. You know by using a thermometer what temperature a patient has. But a thermometer never gets a temperature. Likewise saints have passed beyond being perturbed, and so they come to know correctly the perturbation of another

Reminiscences

The Importance Of Discourse.

ShriMaharaj usually gave a daily discourse, of which the subject-matter invariably was some aspect of namasmarana . Many of those who attended spent an hour or more in coming and returning. One day one in the audi­ence raised the question whether, having once been con­vinced of the importance of namasmarana, it would not be more profitable to spend the entire two hours in namasmarana at home. ShriMaharaj immediately aquiesced, with the proviso that the ardour of the convic­tion continues unabated despite the cessation of the daily repetition, and does not get diverted to some other pur­pose. "The more important question,¹ he said,' is how the remaining chunk of the day's time (twenty-two hours ) is spent. If that much time is spent without chanting nama, it would be sheer waste. On the other hand, if, while lis­tening to the discourse, rather than listen as a matter of routine or entertainment, one listens with care, and with the object that love for God springs and endures in the mind, one may chant nama with genuine pleasure and reap the benefit. The very purpose of the discourse is that the mind should incline more and more to chanting of nama. Remember that it is not easy to create such a lik­ing for nama.

Reminiscences

ShriMaharaj was in Sajjangad to pay respects to Shri Samartha. A well-to-do but childless landlord who had his manor and farms in the shadow of the hill approached ShriMaharaj with a supplication that he may be blessed with a son to inherit the handsome estate. The following conversation took place:

ShriMaharaj ——You live right in the jurisdiction of Shri Samartha, and it is therefore proper that you ad­dress your supplication to Shri Samartha himself. Don't you think he has the power to grant it if he mean to Supplicant ———I agree.

ShriMaharaj -—— Then this is what I suggest: You and your wife should visit this Samadhi every day after the daily ablution, for a year. Stand before Shri Samartha with folded hands and pray thus:' We are happy and prosper­ous, by your grace; all that we want to complete our hap­piness is a son to inherit this estate. Please bless us, we pray, with a son if it is in our ultimate interest.' Do this daily for a year. If, during the year to follow, you are blessed with a son, treat him as the gift of Shri Samartha. If oth­erwise, your may conclude that it is not in your interest to have one, In either case, you will have a peaceful mind ready to accept either result calmly and cheerfully.

As luck would have it, the pair was eventually blessed with a son.

Reminiscences

A headmaster was a disciple of Kumbharaswami. He used to observe the practice of worship with great punctiliousness. Every day he used to get up well before daybreak, and completing his ablution etc., exactly at sun­rise he used to perform his guru's aarati. Observance of this practice went on year after year. Once he had fever. The temperature rose to 104 °F (40° c ). His family pressed him to perform aarati without performing the daily ablu­tion. But he would not listen. Immediately there after he covered himself and lay in bed. He fell asleep, there was a great deal of sweating, and his fever completely disap­peared. After this he happened to meet ShriMaharaj.

Complimenting him on his determination to observe the practice at all costs, ShriMaharaj said, "The disciplinary practices for the body are contingent upon the body's con­dition. Worship is mainly an affair of the mind. The pur­pose of a disciplinary practice is to mould and discipline the body and the mind. Till today you have observed the restrictions on the body. Now it is essential not to be bound down by the restrictions, and to go beyond them. It affects one vitally to break a practice one has preserved at all costs, but the root of this is in the subtle pride dwelling within. The subtle pride is, 'I have done this till today', therefore one feels bad that, 'I cannot do it now'. As a mat­ter of fact, whatever was done till today could succeed only because the sadguru got it done; the true doership is that of the sadguru. It is a mistake to take to oneself the credit of doership. One should exercise caution that some­thing does not fail to be done out of laziness, but if some­thing cannot be done because of the body becoming inca­pable, one should not be adamant about doing it. There should be total surrender. One should put an end to one's separate existence. By saying, 'whether it is done or not, either of it is his will', one also retains an awareness of him." After telling him this much, ShriMaharaj said, to him, "Do not forget that I am telling you all this in the name of your guru.'

Reminiscences

A person chanting nama complained to ShriMaharaj that he had a headache whenever he sat down to do it. ShriMaharaj expressed surprise, because actually namasmarana should bring calm to even a disturbed mind, and asked if nama was chanted as advised by the initiator. ' No,' said the person; ' he had asked me just to chant nama; but evidently it couldn't be so simple, so, as I had read in some books, I adopted the padmasana pose and fixed my gaze on the tip of the nose.' ShriMaharaj advised him to do nothing beyond what the initiator had asked him to. Very soon his headache stopped. ShriMaharaj explained this by saying that the initiator knows the disciple's capacity, to which he adapts his in­struction; so one should do neither more nor less.

Reminiscences

A gentleman had extreme fondness for meeting saints and Sadhakas. His luck too was such that he came to meet several saintly men, and he also obtained the benefit of close companionship of some of them. He also used to meet ShriMaharaj very often. During one such visit he narrated which saintly men he had met, and how and when, and how they took him under their fold. On listening to it ShriMaharaj calmly said, 'In that case you must have ob­tained initiation from one of these saintly persons !' The gentleman replied in the negative. Then ShriMaharaj said, expressing astonishment, 'It means that you have been to many weddings, but have not yet stepped upon the al­tar yourself ! So, I feel that you should get initiation of nama from some good person and get settled somewhere.' He was convinced by ShriMaharaj' s words, and he went to Alandi and secured initiation .