Jai Sai Master !

Dear Saibandhus, I am new to this forum. I will like to discuss something.

Mastergaru says in His books that its good that we were not there when Baba was there since its human tendency to concentrate on the physical form of Baba rather than His spiritual greatness which is the essence of it.

What I und by this is that if I was there with Baba, I might have had some expectations from Him. I would have felt that Baba shd not use abusive words, he shd be "good" (as per my def.) etc etc. What happens then is that Baba shd be the way I presume Him to be and since I dont und the workings of Mahatma, my interpretation of Baba would have been flawed. So what happens is that I judge BAba and criticize him without proper understanding of what He is and hence there is no actual use of me being with him, in his sannidhi (Divine Company).

Now when i read a book on Him, there is better chance of me understanding Him because I see more objectively. I can understand why He is angry, why He is scolding etc better. So overall my understanding of Him improves. I can now see the spirituality behind all His actions and hence my faith in Him prospers.

But what abt those who were with Mastergaru!! Or those who are close to Ammagaru, Babugaru and Vedammagaru ?

What shd those people do ? In case of Mastergaru, there must be those who could not see His divinity!! If we go by what Mastergaru has wrote, is it not that one should try not to be close to Mastergaru because the chance of interpreting Him wrongly are more ! And then what happens to that statement of Mastergaru where He says that coming to Mahatmas is one of the best ways of improving oneself!

It seems like a double edged sword.

Any views ??

Jai Sai Master !

Jai Sai Master, Babu garu..
Jai Sai Master, Sai Bandhus..

Dear WhyMaster, Jai Sai Master!

It is a great question and I wonder myself about it. In a way, you answered it too. It, infact, is a double-edged sword.

But looking back to both the scenarios closely, it is the divine injunction of THE MASTER that we should take into account and not the situation.

At one place, we are fearing that we might misunderstand Master when we are near Him. At the other end of the spectrum, Master says we should utilize the oppurtunity of being near a Mahatma to the best of our ability.

So, if Mastergaru deems it necessary, then He will advise us to go away from His Physical presence. Even Baba sends a devotee to Matsyendragadh and then appears there physically and says to that devotee "you are think Baba is only at Shirdi, I came here to show you that I am everywhere". But at the same time, Mahalsapathy, Shama and other close devotees did not venture out of Shirdi for most of their lives. They just served Baba

So, our first and important option (rather it's not an option but somehow our luck if it happens that way) is to stay with Mahatma no matter what. If they advise us to go away, then we should do so. Only after that, if somehow, you wanted to stay but your situation and your life did not allow it under present circumstances, then we should try our best to take their holy feet's impression in our heart and try to follow life as specified by them.

Regarding our interpretation of our Mahatmas, definitely I agree, it is our formation of opinion that we give importance to, about a Mahatma. Thanks to Sri Matergaru, we can never ever repay HIM for showing us how to identify a Mahatma and not form our own opinions, how to stay with THEM, and how to behave before THEM.

With these scenarios in mind, please correct me if I am wrong. But for Master's introduction to Mahatmas, we would misunderstand them whether we are near THEM or far away from THEM. Don't you hink so??


The exact same thing! Because we are introduced into the Guru tatwa by none other than Datta Swaroopa Master garu, Sri Chaitanya Swamy taught us all that we should see Amma garu, Babu garu, and Vedamma garu as the extension of Sri Master, meaning, THEY ARE MASTER!!

So, if it falls into our great good fortune to be with them physically, that is the best opurtunity, to serve THEM to the best of our ability. If, let's say, Babu garu asks you to go away from that place, inspite of you having the oppurtunity to stay there, only then go. Otherwise, all you have to do is pray to Master/Baba to give you the proper training to utilize that oppurtunity when you are with the Divine family.

Please correct me if any of my views seem wrong.

Regards to all,
Jai Sai Master!

Ananth

Jai Sai Master, Babu garu..
Jai Sai Master, Sai Bandhus..

Jai Sai Master, WhyMaster garu..

Sorry, I think I missed your question, but only partially. Let me revisit the points again.

yes..

yes..

yes..

....this is where I wanted to add something.

I remember something to this effect..."In the presence of Mahatmas, we being humans, our bad thoughts come out even faster and with more intensity". This was equated to the light bugs getting attracted to the fire, the so called "moth to a flame". So, in a way, those bad thoughts are burned off by being near a Mahatma. Even our simple goals and day-to-day thoughts will be effected by Mahatmas's presence.

So, in my view, irrespective of anything at all, being near a Mahatma is 1000 fold better. As an example, let me explain. I go to a Mahatma, I stay nice for some days, and then my ugly side of it will rear its head I will start fault finding. Eventually, I end up blaming that Mahatma. Inspite of this worst scenario, the initial punya gained is several times better than not going to the Mahatma, staying away and being nice. Both ways you will gain punya but we have more chances of higher punya, better punya, and ultimate punya when we are near a Mahatma. Example with this scenario is in Sri Guru Charitra, Rishabha Yogi blesses a nama-matra brahmin, being born in the next life as a prince and dying at a young age and eventually getting rescued by the Yogi.

But I agree with you WhyMaster garu...that out of 10,000 people, perhaps one took the oppurtunity of serving Master and listening to Him truly. These views are only coming out of me because of various examples, where devotees coming into contact may or not not turn bad, but the punya they gain is mani-fold and spread over several lives. That's what I wanted to say.

Regards,
Jai Sai Master!

Ananth

PS: Now, I will read those 2 pages you mentioned. It's been a long time. I have to read it. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. Another exciting aspect is our Jan/Feb parayana which gives us so much fresh perspective every year.

Jai Sai Master, Babu garu..
Jai Sai Master, Sai Bandhus..
Jai Sai Master, WhyMaster garu..

Your last para in your last post, I completely agree. I am only trying to point to the other side of it.


Frankly speaking, my answer is a little "yes". Especially if given a chance to be near a Mahatma. But like I said, I completely agree, in all probability we might misuse it and definitely we are not above Kaka Dixit. But it is worth trying to follow how they followed. If not in this life, somewhere down the line, after 10,000 lives, we can be a Kaka Dixit.

All in all, there is nothing that I am disagreeing with you. I am pointing to the other side of it, or should I say, I am leaning towards the other side of it. 

As for the proof of our bad thoughts coming out more in front of Mahatmas, there are lots of examples WhyMaster garu. I will try to post them in my further posts because of lack of time, but the best example is, it happened to myself many times. If it can happen to a lowly person like me, it can happen to anybody.

Regards,
Jai Sai Master!

Ananth

Jai Sai Master!

Mastergaru mentions something to this effect in "Sri Anandmayi Amma" ??

Jai Sai Master !