THE LOV E O F MAS TE R

S.A. Sarnad

e will be celebrating the 76th birth anniversary of our

Master in Bangalore and Master gave his permission for the

celebration. At the commencement of todays programme, when I

announced the celebrations in Bangalore, I should have said that
he gave this permission out of his infinite mercy, however, due to
intense joy I forgot those words.
A similar story from the Mahabharata comes to my memory.
When Lord Krishna goes to Hastinapur to see Duryodhana for
sandhan (peace making), he stays with Vidur. When he enters the
house and is talking with Vidur, Vidurs wife is taking a bath. When
she hears Lord Krishnas voice, she has such intense exhilaration
that she bathes hurriedly and comes out naked to have his darshan.
Lord Krishna immediately puts his angvastra (upper cloth) on her.
Then only she comes to her senses and goes inside and comes after
dressing herself. And when she sits and offers bananas to him,
she peels the rinds and gives them to him, throwing the fruit. Lord
Krishna eats them with great relish. When Vidur sees this, he tells
her, Oh! Fool, what are you doing? You are throwing the fruit and
offering the rinds to the Lord. Then she comes to her senses and
gives him the fruit, throwing the rind. Lord Krishna smiles and says
that the taste that was in the rind is not there in the fruit.
See, when exhilarated, what mistakes man commits! He loses
himself. A similar mistake was made by me, which I realised

during meditation today. I realised that what I said was not at all
appropriate, so I would like to correct it. Therefore, I pray to Master
to forgive the mistake.
Sahaj Marg teaches balance. Harshamarshar bhayodvegaih
Mukto Yassacha Me Priyah. So it is said in the Gita. Lord Krishna
said that one who is free from joy, sorrow, fear and emotion is
dearest to me. To bring this balance in our lives is a bit difficult to
many it is difficult. In the normal course, that stage is far and when
we realise that we have become so attached to worldly affairs, we
should be alert and awake and give more importance to spirituality.
The spiritual side of the balance should be made heavier and our
efforts should be to keep the pans even. So, this is a bit difficult.
Nevertheless, we can all put our efforts and can also succeed. It
is not so difficult if we catch hold of Master firmly and go on doing
everything in his remembrance. It becomes easy and very simple.
So I have not to say much on this occasion. I would like to say
to you only this: I request all of you to go on remembering him
constantly and do all your work. Then advancement will definitely
be there.
I have written an article on Masters Snehasheelata (The love of
Master), which was published in the Kannada magazine Sahaj Deep.
Once he came to Gulbarga, I do not remember when, perhaps in
1980. He stayed at the residence of our friend, who was a doctor
and a preceptor. They were good friends. When I came to know
that bhai saheb (brother) had come in those days he was our
bhai saheb and the General Secretary of the Mission I went to our
friends residence, offered my respects and had talks. He stayed
there for three or four days. One day he called me aside and told
me, You see Sarnad, to whomsoever Babuji Maharaj has given
spiritual elevation, he is dissatisfied with them for one reason or
another, but in your case he always shows satisfaction. I became
speechless. I asked myself what merit I have with which Babuji
Maharaj is very satisfied. Till date I have not got any answer to
that query, and to tell this, he came from Madras to Gulbarga! See,
while he appeared insolent or arrogant to others, his insolence or

ego or whatever you may call it appeared only to them. I could

recognise the softness inside him. This was only a show, a mask.
It is said that Mahakavi Bhavbhuti in his play Uttara Ramcharitra
wrote Vajradapi Kathorani Mrudooni Kusumadapi, to denote the
inner consciousness of mahatmas (great souls). Who can know that
fully? The inner consciousness of mahatmas is harder than adamant
and softer than a flower. Whenever I see Master, I remember
this sloka (verse). He appears hard outside. Now he has become
very soft. (Master smiles) Once I said in the Working Committee
meeting, You have become so soft that others can make you
afraid. So this is the change and the change goes on in individuals.
Praying for forgiveness, I would like to say one more thing
here. When we were sitting in the Working Committee, I could
not accept his softness. I said a bit loudly, How? You do not even
rebuke people. Then I said, Sir, I remember an incident, should
I narrate it? He replied, Okay, what incident is it? Tell me. Then
I said, Babuji Maharaj was in Bangalore at that time and in his
room there were the three of us Babuji, Gurudev and myself.
Babuji said, Parathasarathi, nowadays there is a lot of indiscipline
in the Mission. Tell me, what is the reason? Please find out the
reason. Then revered Master, holding his ears (a gesture seeking
forgiveness) and pointing towards Babuji said, Master, indiscipine
percolates from here. (laughter) Then I got really angry that he
was speaking like this to Babuji Maharaj indiscipline indeed!
However, I tolerated it and Babuji was smiling. When I remembered
this incident in the Working Committee meeting, I reminded him
and said, Sir, now you have become so soft, forgive me. I want to
say the same thing about you. (laughter)
See how time changes a person, and how soft he becomes over
time. Our Master is a living example of this. The hardness and
toughness were visible only to others, but he would immediately be
so moved by other peoples miseries that he would help them. It is
not observed by everybody, only those who can truly see with a real
heart can see this.

There are several incidents like this that I have described in my

article Masters Snehasheelata. I feel that I cannot say more than
this, as I am so happy and delighted about the permission given to
celebrate his 76th birth anniversary at Bangalore that I am tonguetied.
I once again offer my most humble respects to Gurudev and
state prayerfully that he has showered his grace on us, particularly
on the people of Karnataka. Master has had in the past, shall I say,
a slight reservation about Karnataka. May I say that in his heart
he did not have that much of compassion. He accepted this in one
of his talks. Well, it was long ago, but now it is not so. Now he is
always satisfied and happy with us all.
A lot of people have come here, some twenty-five to thirty
thousand, including children. So he is very happy and our efforts
should be to keep him happy.
I remember an example in the life of Sage Yagnavalkya. Many
of you would have heard about the name of Sage Yangnavalkya.
He studied in a gurukula, a gurus residence where he guides his
disciples, when he was a child. He had a lot of inner strength.
One day a rich man came to the guru of Yagnyavalkya. I do not
remember whether he was a rich man or a king, as I read this story
long back. He requested him to perform a puja at his residence,
as he was observing a religious vow. The guru said, Brother, I
cannot come. I shall send somebody else. I shall send this child
Yagnavalkya who is sitting before me. Will it serve your purpose?
Yes, Sir. It does not matter. You may send anybody, said that rich
man. Then the guru said, Yagnavalkya, you go to his house for
puja. Since it was the order of his Guruji Maharaj, Yagnavalkya
accepted it immediately and went to the rich mans residence to
perform the puja.
When there is a puja in the house of Brahmins, afterwards
the householder is blessed with sacred rice held in the hand of
the priest, and the householder salutes him, whether he is an old
man or a child. After the blessing, the sacred rice is thrown on the
householders head. The puja was over and all assembled had their

food. The householder left for his work thinking that Yagnavalkya
was a child and the remaining work would be done by the others.
But the child kept the sacred rice in his hand and waited for the
householder. He called for the householder, but the householder
was not there. Yagnavalkya became very angry. In his anger, he put
the sacred rice on a piece of wood lying in the courtyard, and left
without accepting any dakshina (fee). In due course, as the days
passed, the piece of wood, which was not alive and not growing,
started sprouting. Small shoots and leaves started appearing on
it and the householders sight fell on it. He wondered, How did
this happen? What is this? He enquired in the house. What is
happening? Why has it happened like this? His wife said, Sir, the
child who came that day for puja put the sacred rice on it in anger.
It must be the result of that. The mantra of the blessing is like
this: Amuk Gotrabhi vruddhirastu, meaning, May this particular
clan grow and multiply. Since Yagnavalkya put the sacred rice on
the piece of wood, it started growing.
The same religious vow was to be celebrated the next year in
the rich mans house. He went to the same ashram. He prayed to
the guru, Sir, please send the same young child whom you had
sent last year. The Guru said, There is no problem. He called
Yagnavalkya and said, Yagnyavalkya, you go to his house and
perform the puja this time also. Yagnyavalkya refused, saying, Sir,
he has insulted you, I will not go to his house. An insult to the
guru the householder wondered. He could not understand how
he had insulted the guru. The boy said, You left without taking
ashirwad (blessings). That was an insult not only to me but to my
Guruji Maharaj also. Therefore, I shall not come to your house.
Then there were arguments and counter arguments between the
guru and disciple. The guru pacified him a lot. He told him, Go, I
shall put up with the insult to me but why you are angry? Go. But
Yagnavalkya did not accept. Sir I shall not go. Thats all. I shall
not go to the places of arrogant persons. The guru then said, You
return all the knowledge I have taught you up to now. It is said
that Yagnyavalkya vomited there and left the ashram. The story

goes that the partridges that were there ate the vomit and became
the Taitriya Upanishad.
Then Yagnavalkya performed penance to Surya (the Sun God).
Surya materialised before him and, taking him in his chariot, asked,
Yagnavalkya, what do you want? See, what that young fellow
asked for: Surya Bhagawan, give me that which will make you
happy and will be for the welfare of the world.
The asking of this boon by the young boy from Surya is a lesson
for us. It teaches us a lesson as to what we should ask from our
Gurudev. You ask only that which makes him happy and is for
the welfare of the world. But do we adhere to this? Though in
our prayer we say that our wishes are a bar to our advancement,
but a chain of wishes is formed inside us, one wish after another.
When one wish is over, fulfilled or unfulfilled, it is followed by one
more wish. May we become abhyasis in the real sense and make
this prayer meaningful. Then only, Master will have happiness and
satisfaction. There will be the welfare of all of us and there will be
the welfare of the world.
Thank you.