One day an old lady told her sleepy 4 year old grand daughter to sit straight and shout out baba, baba with a rose in her hand. The grand daughter obediently screamed her lungs out and caught Baba’s attention, but sadly he did not come to her to accept the rose. The grand daughter was sad, but her granny was elated that Swami gave a glance towards the little grand daughter.
A year later, the same granny taught a beautiful bhajan called ‘prema mudita manase kaho rama rama ram, rama rama ram, rama rama ram, sri rama rama ram’ (which roughly means calling out Lord Rama’s name with love in heart) to her now 5 year old grand daughter. She taught many such bhajans, which made the small girl pretty popular in the bhajan group.
The small girl, with constant guidance from her devoted granny and family had deep faith in Sathya Sai Baba.
But as she grew, she started getting distanced from him.
The first crack developed when she saw some corrupt politicians sitting besides him; giving fake speeches. She could not understand the reason why baba was allowing them to share the podium with him.
The crack deepened when she witnessed politics within the bhajan group. Everyone wanted to hog the limelight and show their importance. She could not understand why Baba was not telling them to be good disciples.
Finally, the crack became irreparable when she lost her beloved granny to an illness and when she saw her father’s health turning from bad to worse. Every time that she heard about a miracle, she would go away to another room. She almost started hating the devotees’ double standards. For instance, the same devotees who would say all good things about baba and his teachings would not think twice before hurting a poor lady in the bhajan group.
But despite all this, she still respected him for the good service that he had done to the mankind. For her, he was a saint; a karmayogi. Just think which hospital on this earth would provide you with free, world class medical treatments or which political party has provided the basic water facilities to arid lands? Have you ever done your higher education free of cost? I know you cannot think of any hospital or educational institute offering world class services to people.
Irrespective of who says what, one cannot deny the fact that Sri Sathya Sai Baba has turned the small town of Puttaparthi
While, we may be curious about his 40,000 crore empire or his successor or whether he is divine or not; let us not sideline his great preaching: ‘Love all, Serve all’ and ‘Help Ever, Hurt Never’ in the process. These teachings should be the guiding principles of life. We cannot create another world class village like Puttaparthi but atleast as responsible, educated individuals we should ensure that we do not harm the society through any selfish or harmful deeds.
Today, as thousands and lakhs of devotees throng Puttaparthi to pay their last respects; the little girl now a grown up woman wept silently because she knew that with one less karmayogi amidst the swarm of selfish and greedy human beings; the balance between good and grey individuals has yet again been affected.
P.S: Here’s an irony: Jesus Christ came back to life two days after his crucification on a Sunday- famously known as Easter Sunday all over the world; while baba left for heavenly abode on this very same day.
