WONDEROUS SAINT SRI SAIBABA-PART 20

BY PUJYA SRI NARASIMHASWAMY JI

FLIES AND ANTS AS GOOD AS MEN
GUESTS FOR THE DEVOUT

Nana Saheb was very orthodox and pious. He daily offered the Vaiswadeva sacrifice (i.e., cooked lice) to the domestic fire and went out to see if any guest (Athithi) was available to partake of the food. This is enjoined on the householder by Scripture. Nana Saheb never found any guest coming to him at such times.
Could the Scripture enjoin such a useless duty as to go out and look for guests - when none in fact came? He went one day to Baba hoping to ask him about it. But before he opened his mouth Baba taunted him with the words "Yes, the Guests? The devil, they will come to you". Nana understood that Baba was trying to solve his difficulty as to whether Vedas could prescribe a futile observance. Baba retorted that the scripture were not fatuous nor faulty, and that the fault was in the narrow interpretation of Nana.
He asked Nana why he took the woid Athithi to mean" a human being, 3 cubits high, with a pair of arms and a Brahmin at that. Thousands of hungry guests were daily passing his way at the time of his Vaiswadeva offerings but he took no note of them. They were the ants, flies, crows, dogs, cats cattle and other creatures that were ever ready and constantly approaching him to satisfy their hunger. So Baba's advice was to take the cooked food and leave it at any place outside his house and all guests would gladly partake of the same, at their own time and God would be pleased with the sacrifice.

A Sudden Demand :
One day Nana arrived at Shirdi about 12 noon, without any cook or family. Baba told him "Prepare pooran poli (Poli - a flat cake made of lentil, coconut, wheat and sugar), I would like to taste it. Nana objected that the hour was late and that he had none to cook. Baba persisted and so Nana felt sure that some Brahmin would be available in the village to prepare that and other dishes. He took these to Baba at the mosque and requested him to taste them. Without touching them, Baba said, -'Good, Take back the plates'. Nana Saheb was dissatisfied and said, "How is it you ask me to take back the plates without even touching them? If you did not want to eat anything, why ask me to prepare? Unless you partake of something, I will not take away the plates nor eat anything myself".
Baba : I have eaten the poli. Go and take the plates away and have your meal.
Nana : You took the poli! When ? What was brought on the plates remains just as it was. Unless you eat I will not.

Won't Budge :
Saying so Nana felt chagrined and went away to the chavadi, leaving the plates behind. Baba's heart could not endure his 'children' starving and he sent for Nana and bade him to take the food saying, "Some time (back) I have taken your poli. Do not be obstinate. Take the plates away and have your breakfast.
Nana: "No. Not unless you take a bit at least". Nana went back to the chavadi.
Baba sent for him a second time and said in a tone of irritation: "What Nana! You have been with me these 18 years, and is this all your appraisal of me? Does 'Baba' denote to you only this Three-and-a-half cubits body and nothing more? Hallo!
Where the ant eats, there eat I. Where the fly sips, there sip I.
I take any form I like and eat with any form. I have eaten your poli long ago. Do not be unreasonably obstinate".

Moral Stressed :
Nana saw that the logic of Baba was unanswerable. Baba was God in his view, and therefore immanent in all creatures including the flies and ants that settled on the polis as he presented it to Baba. Yet that faith was a weak watery faith that did not support fuller action on its basis'
Nana: Even though you say this, I realise nothing What am I to do?
Baba then made Nana's faith glow, by revelation of his All-Knowingness. There was some secret of Nana, which he never expected any outsider to know. But Baba made a gesture revealing his knowledge of that secret also Nana was convinced thereby that Baba was residing in his heart of all, watching everything; and as Nana gladly took away the plates, Baba told him: "As you see this sign that I make, you will see that I can take food (through other mouths)". This helped Nana better to realise the teaching, "He who sees me within all creatures and is thus devoted to me as the one, the centre, dwells in me, whatever he might be doing".