Dasganu Maharaj’s Confusion On Isha Upnishad

Sri Sai Guru Charitra is a biography on the life of Sai Baba of Shirdi, written by Sant Kavi Das Ganu Maharaj. Sant Kavi Das Ganu wrote three books on different saints, in which he devoted four chapters to Sai Baba. These books are called 'Bhakta Leelamrita', 'Bhakti Saramrita' and 'Sant Kathamrita'. The four chapters have been combined into one book, under the title of "Shri Sai Gurucharitra", and were translated into English in 1949.

Stories About Dasganu Maharaj Translated from the book Sai Sarovar, shared previously

1. Police Turned Into Poise
2. How Dasganu Served As A Saint In Ram Mandir
3. Dasganu Maharaj – A Dedicated Police Officer
4. How Dasganu Maharaj Composed Shirdi Maze Pandharpur
5. Dasganu Maharaj’s Kirtan Brings Laxmichand To Shirdi

In our last post, we read about how Laxmichand came to Shirdi after the encounter with the old woman. Let us see how Sai Baba blesses him.

The next day Laxmichand had a craving for Sheera (a sweet dish made of semolina – Rava, sugar, and ghee). At the same time, his lower back pain started to pain. Sai Baba with His intuition sensed the pain and craving. In His Own Characteristic way said, “Lala! It’s good that you are hungry. You want medicine for the lower back pain, right? The pain will go away with the medicine of Sheera”. A few minutes later a devotee came with a dish for offering to Baba, which contained Sheera almost dipped in ghee. Baba gave him a plate full of Sheera and his lower back pain subsided. The Sheera acted as a medicine on the pain and Laxmichand was relieved instantly he returned home much pleased with the reception he got at Shirdi.

After this incident, the financial condition of Laxmichand began to progress. Next time, he went with garland, flowers, and Naivedya for darshan of Baba to Shirdi. Kakasaheb Dixit, Nanasaheb Chandorkar, and other devotees were present at that time. He thought it will be good if he offer the garland and Naivedya via another great devotee to Baba. When he took out the garland while such thoughts hover in his mind, Baba said to him point-blank, “You are a great man, you only put the garland on Me”.

Baba spontaneously used to give Updesh to His devotees whenever a situation arose. In the above case, Baba by His intuition got what was going on in Laxmichand’s mind. He considered himself inferior to other great devotees who were present there. Just for the small act of offering garland and Naivedya, he was hesitant. The levels of devotion may be different in devotees, but ParaBrahm – Our Baba sees all equally and loves all. Baba did not differentiate between His bhaktas irrespective of the fact how many times they visited Shirdi, now and then. Dear devotee readers, hope you all agree with us that none is inferior. We are inferior because of our own thoughts of considering others superior. Many times (to be precise always) we compare our own characteristics with others and invite overthinking and stress. We always want to be better than someone else. Why it is necessary to be so? God has created us in a unique way, why are we degrading His unique creation in this way? We should learn to value ourselves and the creation of the creator. We should always keep in mind that we are His best creation. There is no need to compare ourselves with others. We end up creating chaos in us considering the superiority of materialistic possessions. If we are really intent on comparing ourselves, we should try to become smart humans turning away negative emotions. We should see how well a person is doing in spirituality, what efforts is he putting in to reach the goal. Such positive comparison can lead us in the right direction and develop in us love and value for ourselves. We must always be active to differentiate between Swa-dharma and selfishness. Let us know in the comments section below if you want us to write a detailed post about the difference between Swa-dharma and selfishness.

Returning to the story from the life of Dasganu Maharaj from Sai Sarovar book, Sai Baba’s grace when descended on Dasganu Maharaj, who had a deep interest in drama and Lavani, Goddess Saraswati also graced him with wisdom that converted him into a great scholar. He became very famous day by day. A lot of people started gathering to listen to his discourses and bhajans.

Dasganu Maharaj’s Commentary On IshaVaasya

A dharmshala (lodging for pilgrims) was located in Shirdi then. There was a Vitthal temple located in a small house opposite the lodging. Dasganu Maharaj was writing a commentary on the deep verses of IshaVaasya sitting in that small construction.

ईशावास्यमिदं सर्वं यत्किञ्च जगत्यां जगत् ।

तेन त्यक्तेन भुञ्जीथा मा गृधः कस्य स्विद्धनम् ॥ १ ॥

īśāvāsyamidaṃ sarvaṃ yatkiñca jagatyāṃ jagat

tena tyaktena bhuñjīthā mā gṛdhaḥ kasya sviddhanam || 1 ||

Meaning: Ishaa (Feminine form of Ishwar i.e. Shiva which means Shakti Herself) dwells inside and out of the moving world in this Universe. Hold on to the truth of Cosmic Consciousness (renunciation). Stick to Brahm Gyan and refrain yourself from being gobbled with Maya.

Meaning of all the words individually of the Shloka

Sanskrit	English Translation	Meaning in English
ॐ	OM	The primordial sound (Parabrahm’s manifestation as matter)
ईशा	Ishaa	Shiva / Eswara Chaitanya or Cosmic Consciousness
वास्यं	Vaasyam	Dwell inside or to enclose (Vaas means to Dwell, Vas means to clothe. Both in and out)
इदम	Idam	Here
सर्वं	Sarvam	Everything, everywhere
यत किञ्चा	Yat Kincha	Whatever
जगत्यां	Jagatyaam	Universe
जगत	Jagat	Moving world
तेन त्यक्तेन	Tena Tyaktena	by such renunciation
भुंजिता	Bhunjeethaa	Protect (stick to the Brahma jnana)
मा	Maa	Do not
गृधः	Grudhah	Hold on or grab
कस्य-स्वीत	Kasya-Svit	Other’s
धनं	Dhanam	Wealth

Here Kasyasvit Dhanam means maya or that which is not self or true nature. The simple meaning is Isha is the self, if you stick to it you will never bother (or hold to) about duality or the maya.

Let us proceed with the story.

Shri Krishna in this Shloka advises to sacrifice on one hand and on the other advises to enjoy it. So sacrificing and enjoying the subject cannot exist at the same time.

Dasganu knew the fact that whatever Shri Krishna wasn’t off His head, though He will utter contradicting words in His statement, whatever He said was The Truth. There can be a deviation in the understanding of a human, but God’s words cannot be an Illusion. So he was now confused and he could not continue writing further. He was hopeful that Sai Baba, Who is sitting in Dwarkamai, is full of real knowledge, He Himself is Lord Krishna, the Composer of Isha Vaasya and Goddess Saraswati is standing with folded hands to Him, so His confusion will be cleared soon. He went to Dwarkamai pausing his work of writing the commentary. He folded his hands and put forward his query to Baba.

Baba replied, “Oh, what’s there to think so much in this matter? Even the helper of Kakasaheb knows this fact. When you happen to visit Mumbai go to her and get the clarification”.

Here Baba again is imparting very deep teaching to us. We always overthink our actions. We are not satisfied with what we have done, comparing again to others, we start feeling we have not done the thing in a perfect manner. The word perfect has different definitions for all. What may be perfect for me may not be for someone else. What I consider as imperfect may make perfect sense to the other. We should carry the sense of satisfaction consciously. We should try to make it a practice to do things to the best of our knowledge and wisdom and leave the judgment of perfection to Baba to decide. When things confuse us, we should pray to Baba to clear the clutter from our minds and show us the path just as the way Dasganu did. When this is done, we should keep our minds open and receptive to the messages that Baba conveys to us. He always responds even to the normal talks, but we fail to realize owing to our pre-defined notions on miracles. For a sincere devotee of Baba, there is no need for a miracle, he is in constant communication with Baba.

No one had doubt on the words of Sai Baba, but everyone who was present in Dwarkamai was astonished and could not understand what He meant. Pretty natural, simple jivas will find difficulty in understanding simple words carrying deeper meaning. But when Baba guides at every step what difficulty was there for Dasganu Maharaj and even us to grasp it.

We shall continue with the story in our next post.

Source: Translated from Gujarati Book Sai Sarovar

---

List of Devotees of Sai Baba of Shirdi

© Shirdi Sai Baba Life Teachings and Stories – Member of SaiYugNetwork.com