Satsang I carry on your burden - Baba By Chakor Ajgaonkar

Satsang I carry on your burden - Baba By Chakor Ajgaonkar

I carry on your burden - Baba
By Chakor Ajgaonkar (Former Editor of 'Sai Leela]

"Do you love dolls?" a little girl asked the guest "Yes, I do", he replied.

At once she ran and brought a heap of dolls. The guest asked her, "Which one do you love the most?"

"Promise not to laugh at it I tell you?" He said, "I promise".

She picked a doll whose hair had come off, with a broken nose, scratched cheek, one leg and one arm missing.

"This one"

"Why?” asked the visitor.

"Because", she answered, "If I don't love this one, no body else would!"

What a great lesson from a child! God loves the broken ones, those no one else loves!

In Gita, Lord Krishna has given express assurance that those who are totally dedicated to Him with implicit faith and those who worship Him incessantly are helped and protected by Him. Sai Baba has given a similar promise to His devotees. His symbolic discourse with Shyama fully reflects his divine assurance to devotees who place unflinching faith in his protection as guardian Godfather.

Shyama was a school teacher. He became the first knowledgeable and conscious follower, devotee and propagator of Sai Baba's glory among the incoming educated and elite persons who visited Shirdi occasionally during olden days.

At first Shyama considered Sai Baba as a crazy fakhir. He was attracted to Baba as he was fond of tobacco and Baba used to give him sips of chili. After having a close company of Baba, the intelligence and education of Shyama brought home the understanding to him, that the strange behavior of the Master has some scheme behind it. He used to select good and pious persons for blessing and granting udhi with boons, whereas Baba at once found out the black sheep and wicked persons in society and remonstrated them. Thus Shyama who used to treat Baba as a mad fakhir and came only to enjoy and relish tobacco smoking, came to realise that Baba was the wisest among men and greatest among the sadhus of contemporary decades. Slowly he became the introducer, mediator and follower of Baba and used his affinity as a media to incoming devotees.

Once Baba gave a book of Vishnu Sahasra Namam taken by Him form the bundle of a Ramadasi, Shyama refused to accept it. Instead he requested Baba to protect him, remove his worries directly without the mediation of book or name. Baba then assured (in the words of Sai Geetayan) as follows:-

"O! Shyama is it necessary for me to repeat this to you every time that I carry the burden of my devotees for ever. I swear by the sacred flames burning in the Dhuni. There will be nothing short in the house of my devotee. He will be never destitute of food and clothing. Those who forget their body consciousness in my memory are blessed by me. I carry their burden. Those who will climb the footsteps of this mosque will be lifted up from the mire of this magic and transitory samsara. I will carry them on my shoulders to the yonder bank of peace, tranquility and deliverance. These devotees are dearer to me than my own soul because they forget themselves in the recitation of my name and meditation of my form. Shyama - I carry their burdens. I have repeated this a million times to you".

Baba has not left the world of devotees although he has left his human body. He is beside, before, behind and accompanying his devout followers. All burdens are to be placed at his feet by the devotees and behave in the world with 'Shraddha' and 'Saburi'. In fact this is the summing up of what Baba did and said during his lifetime. Shyama is the first and foremost comrade devotee assured in straight and direct terms.

(source Shri Saipadananda Special Magazine