Living with a Saint

Saints have always been ordinary men. External glitters never mattered to a true saint. The halo in the picture is a reflection of the viewer’s mind. In real life, we hardly see any halo. When Shirdi Baba lived, some people considered him to be mentally unstable. He used to talk to entities invisible to human eyes. He used to behave in strange manners. He was living the larger truth. Who can understand that? Only those who dare to rise up to his stature.
Saints who chose to operate in the market place have always run the risk of ending up in mental asylums. Many never understood them. Many underestimated them. The extraordinary powers that we read about, create mental images. People live within those images and when they chose to live with a saint, the whole glass house started to crack and eventually fall. Truth is one. One who lives in truth also is one with the truth. Everything else is an illusion for him. He does not need to pretend. He cares not for ordinary glories, which we are usually victim to. There is nothing to prove. There is nothing to see. Look through my eyes, you will see the truth. Truth is as stark as the blazing sun. You chose the dark glasses. That was your choice. Truth is always stark and non-dual.
When you chose the company of a saint, you chose uncertainties also. That’s actually the essence of life. Saints live impermanence externally and experience permanence internally. This is the irony. They enjoy the growth and decay of cells, and do nothing about it, even if they had the power to change, reverse or recreate anything. When you are with the truth, you also possess the power of the supreme truth. That becomes part of your existence. Yet, you will do nothing for yourself. That’s the way true Masters are. They need nothing. No favors nor sacrifices. They live as moving monuments of selflessness. As signposts of liberation. If you read the life story of Shirdi Sai Baba carefully, you will understand what this text is all about. We need to see through His image to know the Master. A great Master has to be the most ordinary. Empty pots are noisy. Filled up pots maintain deep, pregnant silence.

When they die, we see them in pictures. Monks sitting naked with a big halo around their head. We bow to them. We revere them. We meditate on them. This is all fine because we do not have their physical proximity. Physical proximity is the problem. They eat and drink. They use the toilet. They sweat. They display human emotions. They love and they abuse too. Sometimes they even display seeming cruelty. It is bound to shatter all our concepts and mental images. It shatters expectations. Only through dissolution is re-creation possible. You have to empty first to fill in again. This is the bottom-line.
So, as the saying goes, do not get too close to a saint. Ha ha. Accept and enjoy his teachings, if you may. This is important if you want to maintain your mental picture of the saint. If that is what you choose. Getting closer to fire will burn you. Getting close to a saint will burn your expectations and even certain inherent traits. Beware!!!
God bless all
M