Gods favourite (February 1976)

All ancient writers and poets in India were believers in God. They have described God in various ways. Some have gone to the extent of saving that the only best use of speech and pen is to praise God and sing about his qualities. One of the epithets of God is “Bhaktavatsala” (fondler of the devotees). The 'parents are-supposed to fondel their children. They are expected to be partial towards their offsprings. Similarly God is also partial towards his devotees. In one saying God says that he is present wherever his devotees are singing about him. For his devotees God has taken a lot of pains. He has taken the form of a messenger for some devotee He has helped a devotee like Janabai in grinding the corn. He has come to the help of Gajendra, the elephant king, who was in the jaws of a crocodile. Similar instances can be quoted in any number from our mythology; but can we know why the God liked these devotees 1 Is there any test laid down by God for being his favourite ?

In order to find out a reply to the above question, we have to refer to the twelfth canto of the Bhagawadgeeta. In this canto Lord Krishna explains Bhaktiyog to Arjuna. fn the course of the narration the Lord explains what sort of a person is liked by him as follows .-

The first criterion is that the person should not irritate others. In our daily life we constantly come in contact with a number of people. Our contact with our near relatives is very close; but there are many people against whom their relatives also complain bitterly that they do not know how to behave, with other people. Such people naturally irritate the persons with whom they come in contact.

On bus stops, on stations, in railway trains. offices, cinema theatres-and markets we come in contact with various • types of people. It we are not composed and cool-headed, then I we are bound to irritate others. We often see the quarrels that 'such persons who cannot keep their heads cool, are picking up with others. The case of the persons who are leaders of a group or a nation is slightly different. People at various levels have got some work or the other with them. The benefit, of course, is reaped by the visitors. They almost encircle him all the time; but in spite of that the leader cannot afford to displease them. He has got to give a patient hearing to all of them. If on the other hand be gets upset very often and thus annoys or vexes the people, who come to him, then his leadership will start dwindling. Lord Krishna, who was himself a leader of the cowherds and had enough experience of leadership, therefore lays down this as the second criterion of his favourite that he should under no circumstances get annoyed or vexed by other people who might come in his contact.

For becoming God's favourite, only the aforesaid -two qualities are not enough. Lord Krishna has laid down further that he who wants to become his favourite, should not be ruffled by mirth, anger and fear -The human mind is like an ocean. Even the slight-test breeze gives rise to ripples on the sea, similarly feelings of j joy, anger or fear are bound to affect the minds of all ordinary human beings. These emotions are therefore, bound to ruffle the the people, but a man with a balanced mind and steady intellect remains composed and does not allow himself to fall a prey to these emotional outbursts and he is therefore, dear to God.

It will thus be seen that though everyone wants to become a favourite of the god, the way that leads to that goal is full of obstacles. It is not only uneven and full of ups and downs, but it is also full of many dangerous spots. Only a person! with full control over his organs and senses can therefore try to travel on this path. It therefore appears that before trying to follow this path we have to practise Yoya and get perfect control over ourselves, both bodily and mentally.

The main aim of Lord Krishna was to drive out the doubt and fear in the mind of Arjuna. For that purpose he has advised Arjuna in various ways. In the second canto, he has '.described Sthitapradna while describing the Sankhyayog. This person is described as a man with stable intellect. He is described as a person who has no longing for pleasure and joy. He has been depicted as a person with full control over his organs and senses (2/56 ).

In the third canto Lord Krishna explains Karmayog to Arjuna. While explaining the proper way of doing our actions in this world, Lord Krishna explains that nobody ever remains in this world for even a moment without doing something (3/5) and adds later on that the person who controls his organs by his mind and does all the actions without keeping an eye over the fruit is a person who can be called a Karmayogi (3/7). So here also under the garb of explaining Karmayoga the control over the sense organs has been emphasised.

In the fourth canto Karmabrahmarpanayog has been explained by Lord Krishna. In this canto the Lord explains that those, who have discarded attachment, fear and anger and have taken recourse to him have become one with him. (4/10) Later on in the same canto while explaining the ; behaviour of a learned person, Lord Krishna states that he does all the deeds without expecting any fruit therefrom and ; therefore, all his actions are purified by the fire in the form of the knowledge of the self. (4/19)

The fifth canto of the Bhagawadgeeta is dedicated to the Karmasanyasayog. In the beginning Lord Krishna states that karmasanyas and karmayoga both to Moksha and adds that out of these two ‘Karmayoga’ is superior to ‘Karmasanyasi’ (5/2). As in the fourth canto, the Lord again tries to define the ‘pandit’ as a person with stable intellect who looks with the same kind of gaze on a learned Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a Chandala 5/18). so we will find that the stable intellect and an impartial sight is stressed by Lord Krishna constantly in the Bhagawadgeeta

In the sixth canto, while explaining the ‘Abhyasayog’, Lord Krishna states that unless a person discards all his attachments, he cannot become a real ‘Karmayogi’ (6/2)- He further states that when a Yogi gets full control over his mind, he has a quite neutral outlook on such duels as hot and cold, pleasure and sorrow and honour and dishonour. (6/7)

It will thus be seen that in the five cantoes from the second to the sixth, Lord Krishna has under different names referred again and again to the person of the same temperament. The person referred to is one who has full control on his organs and senses and who is neutral to all the emotions, so very common to the living beings. In the nineth and the twelfth cantoes, Lord Krishna has explained the bent of mind of a devotee and in the fifteenth canto, he has explained the ideal man but still we find that nothing new has been told by Lord Krishna in the twelve cantos from the seventh to the eighteenth. He has more or less commented further on his earlier philosophy or explained the same further in these cantoes. Because of these facts some scholars and ardent students of the Bhagawadgeeta have propounded the theory that the original Bhagawadgeeta must have been only of six cantoes. It might have been expanded later on up to eighteen cantoes by repeating or reorganising the philosphy explained in the earlier cantoes of the Geeta. Anyway we may accept or reject the above theory; but we have to accept this fact that in the opinion of Lord Krishna the ideal person has got to have full control over his organs and senses and he has got to be neutral towards all the emotions which baffle the human beings and cause various storms in their minds. Though Lord Krishna has given various names as ‘Karmayogi’ ‘Pandit’ ‘Uttampursh’ ‘Sanyasi’ or ‘Bhakta’ to such persons, the qualities that we see in him are more on less the same. This was, therefore, the person liked by Lord Krishna. God's favourite was therefore, a person who-had I all the qualities explained above. •-

When we start looking on the life of Shri Sai Baba, we first of all note that he never called himself a god.' Some devotees, however, consider him to be god himself; but the very fact that he often said “Allah Malik” show that he never considered himself to be the god. Next if we look to his behaviour in his life we find that he, of his own accord never vexed others. The people that came in his contact never got annoyed by his company. The flow of visitors to Shirdi was perennial. Some visitors only came for mere darshan of Shri Sai Baba; but most of them came with an idea of getting some relief from some personal ailment or from some family troubles. However Baba remained composed and he dealt with all of them quite sympathetically. As explained by Lord Krishna in the shloka quoted earlier in this article, Baba never annoyed the persons that came to him, neither he got annoyed with anyone among them. The other qualities of a devotee viz. not being ruffled by mirth, anger or fear were also present in him. From some incidents in his life, people may think that he was irritable and used to fall a prey to anger; but it is not correct. It was only in the cases of certain persons who came to him with a suspicious mind or with slippery faith -that Shri Sai Baba showed apparent anger; but it was not the emotion which we show in our daily life for insignificant things, which results in permanent enmity for the whole of the life. The apparent anger was meant only for the correction of the person approaching him.

Moksha and god are the ideals of human life and for that purpose every one likes to be a favourite of the God; but as explained above it is not very easy to become a favorite of the God. For becoming his favourite some acid tests have been prescribed by him; but the devotees of Shri Sai Baba will pass those tests very easily, if they follow Shri Baba's foot steps closely. Would you then not like to walk briskly on that path Ihich leads you to become a god's favourite ?