Month: September 2020

Once a devotee asked Sai the meaning of ” मन नीवा मत उची “. Sai explained that _mann niva_ means humility for the mind and _matt uchi_ means high thinking. Sai said this applies both to a Saint and a commoner. Earlier the Saints used to live a carefree life, but now with new times and circumstances, they are influenced by wealth and other worldly things. Sai gave an instance when a bhandara was organised by Darbar Sahib at Budha Pushkar. Apart from Saints from Akhil Bhartiya Sindhi Samaj, a Minister too had come on behalf of the Government, as he was undertaking to get the work of renovation done at Budha Pushkar. There were other Saints too present on the dias. Sai softly advised a Saint, who had got shawls to honour the minister, not to do so, but he refused. Sai again cautioned him, but he got up to offer the shawl and the minister refused to accept it saying that he had promised the Chief Minister that he will not accept any reward or gift from anyone till the work is fully completed. The Saint again insisted saying that this was in the form of blessing only, still the minister being a lawyer too, refused again saying whether blessing or otherwise, he will not accept.
Sai asks, is it the people who should honour and respect a Saint or is it that Saints must honour or garland devotees or a politician?
Whether a Saint and a politician should share the same dias, Sai replied in the negative, saying that a Saint represents “मन साचा मुख साचा” and politicians differ in what they say and do. Even when there is any official work with any authorities, Sai never goes personally, instead entrusts the work to a able devotee.
Sai always says that one should deal with people of one’s own standard and this is the high esteem in which Sai holds the holy Saints community!

Once Sai saw one Saint reciting Ardas with hands kept open. A person who came from behind, put some money in his hand and asked the Saint to do Ardas for his son to get his Dubai visa, which the Saint repeated in the same words in the Ardas. As soon as this was over, another man came forward, put a currency note in the Saint’s hand and this way the Saint did 25 Ardases, which took 20 minutes!
Sai said, “I finish my Ardas in 2 minutes with full concentration, in bliss and with faith. At the time of Ardas, no one should put his hand in his pocket or put any money in the Saint’s hand as concentration of both is disturbed.” On this the Saint said, “If we don’t do it the way we are doing, who will give us any money?” Sai replied, “Why should we Saints be bothered about money? The Lord gives us enough to spend.” The Saint said, “That much faith in the Lord is required.”
Sai asked, “Of what use is the Katha, Kirtan that we do in which we advise our followers to have faith and we ourselves lack in it? We must strictly follow the path of truth and undeterred faith.”

Sai says that our religious scriptures like Shastras, etc propagate strong faith in the Lord. If the devotee keeps strong faith, he is bound to get an answer in the form of blessings!
Once Sai organised Bhagwat Katha by a saint in Ajmer. The narrator explained that we must never get entangled in maya (illusion) and always remain content with whatever we get with ease. Everyone heard the katha attentively and with interest. After it got over, a person from the saint’s team got up and started distributing empty envelopes amongst those present, with the intention that they would fill it up with whatever offering they wished to and return it.
Sai did not approve of this and told the saint, “What is this that you are doing? Just now you have given the discourse asking everyone to remain away from maya and wealth, if you do not follow what you say, how do you expect others to follow?”
Sai always says, we must first practice, what we preach!

Once when a bhandara was organised, a Saint came to Sai and praised the arrangements, the discipline amongst sevadharis and said that the food too was well prepared and tasty. He admitted that it was not possible for him to organise a bhandara at this scale and with this perfection.
Sai told him that Saints should never imitate or copy what others do, as imitating is a trait of worldly people. We Saints must only do what we can and not by looking at what others are doing. Earlier when resources were limited, we never even thought of doing this at such a scale. There were times at the time of Baba Gobinddas Sahib when we would eat very simple meals consisting of only dal and chapati and be very content with that too.
There is a mention in the history book of Darbar Sahib Halani of the times when the Saints would eat chana ( _bhugda_) , drink water and feel satiated, play the conch shell to announce the conclusion of the meal! Never has any Saint of our Darbar asked for anything from anyone. They have always followed the rule strictly of spreading the feet as per the length of the mattress. If we spread them beyond that, we are bound to land up in trouble.
So, we must only do as per what we have and this will certainly result in everlasting happiness!