Dr. Pillai was in unbearable pain. He had been suffering patiently for a few a few days and without any complaint. Despite being in Shirdi and next to his savior, he chose to bear the pain patiently. At one point, it became unbearable and he pleaded to Sai saying that he would rather die than to continue with the pain. He sent H.S. Dixit, another devotee to Sai baba to let him die and distribute the pain for another ten lives. He felt the pain was due to his bad karma and he didn’t want baba to magically erase from him and instead let him bear those in future lives.
Baba upon hearing this story was moved. He felt love for the sincerity of Pillai and remarked that once someone enters the Dwarakamai, the masjid their pain and sufferings end and that he would remove the pain within ten days instead of ten lives. He instructed Dr.Pillai to be brought to the masjid (mosque) and put him near baba. Once Pillai reached there, baba told him to remove the bandage and then wait for a crow to come and remove his disease. He was suffering from a swelling of the leg and the pain was unbearable. Abdullah, a servant of Baba was cleaning the mosque and accidentally stepped on the foot of Pillai and that caused the swelling to break out and there came out a bunch of guinea worms that were causing the pain. For a few minutes, Dr. Pillai was in unbearable pain and after that he felt tremendous relief. After sometime, he asked Baba when would the crow come to remove the pain and then Baba remarked that there was no crow and Abdullah was the crow.
This story is one of the favorite stories of mine. I like it because it explains the methods that Baba uses to remove the sufferings of his devotees. Baba does everything without too much explanation and too much paraphrenalia. He rarely talks about how he is going to solve the problems and instead uses allegories to make his devotees distracted and then quietly solve the problems. He also doesn’t want his devotees to push their karma’s to future lives. He believes in their upliftment and in helping them burning their karma in this life itself. This means that Baba is not looking at avoiding pain or not having troubles altogether. He tells his devotees to repeatedly have patience and faith and then let the lord take care of your troubles. Which means that devotees shouldn’t be worrying about the turbulences and the commotions that happen in their lives and instead use those opportunities to deepen their relationship with baba. Its easier said than done and the only recourse is to believe that everything that’s happening for us is because of God’s intention and that he was only going to give us situations where he is confident of us bearing them. And if not, train your mind to put trust in your guru and to confide to your guru about your troubles and then let him take care of those.
Omsairam!
