Do we need to seek Baba's help for small things? Like day to day things, routine activities we always perform and for little obstacles we face in every day life. I have often wondered about this and even told myself that I should not seek his help for small things. That I should be able to perform those small tasks myself. But what I have realised is what I capture in the following few incidents.
October 19, 2005 was a memorable day in my life. It was the day Baba graced me with my first car, a Wagon R. I was to receive the vehicle from the car dealer that evening, so even as I woke up that morning, there was a sense of anticipation in me. There was a similar joy in my wife and my little son who would be 4 years a couple of months hence. My work timings at that time were 12 noon to 9 pm but I had decided to get to work early that day as I wanted to get back by 6 pm in order to be able to pick up the car.
We were going through our morning routine and I was trying to prepare my son for school. His teeth brushed and his morning drink done, i tried to feed him his breakfast but he refused to have it saying that he was not feeling hungry. When i tried to coax him saying that he would be late to school if he did not have his breakfast on time, he told me that he was going to be on leave that day and did not have to go to school. I asked him why he was not going to school and he said he had to go and pick up the car and hence he would not be going to school. "But the car will be ready only this evening", i told him. "No pa, it will be ready this morning. Moreover, my teacher has told me I need not attend school today. She has told me it is sufficient for me to go back to school tomorrow."
Knowing my son to be an irritable little fellow I did not want to make him cry first thing in the morning and so I decided to talk him into going to school. I made him sit on my lap and asked him why he wanted a car. He said he wanted a car to go shopping. I agreed that shopping was fine but where else did he want to take the car. When I relised he had run out of ideas on where he wanted to take the car, I asked whether he wanted to go to school by car and he eagerly nodded. "But you don't want to go to school, so where is the need for the car?", I asked him. "Shall we call Cars India and ask them to cancel the car?" "No", he said. "But I will go to school tomorrow. It is only today that my teacher has asked me not to come."
I knew this was not getting anywhere when my wife threw in a couple of suggestions to him. "Your classmate is going to get you some gifts today. Don't you want to tell your classmates that you are getting a new car today?", she asked him. He thought about it for a moment but his resolve was firm. "No, I don't want to", he said. "I will go with appa to his office", he said.
Both my wife and I knew we had reached a dead end. I suggested to my son that I was going out and asked him if he wanted to join me. My wife understood that this was my decoy to put my son in the autorickshaw and quietly take him to school and she was quick to comment, "What if he starts crying as we leave him there?". My son was very stubborn and was known for throwing tantrums and crying loudly and my wife was obviously worried about it. "Don't worry, Baba is there", I said.
So we got dressed and got ready to leave. It is my practice to spend a couple of seconds in front of the large Baba picture in our livng room just before I step out of my house. As I stood in front of Baba that day, I told him, "Baba, this is beyond my reach and I will certainly need your help in handling this. Please be with us and help this day be memorable for all of us." After praying thus, I wished my mother in my usual way and we left.
The autorickshaw that used to ferry us every day was ready and we boarded it with a heavy heart. My son asked us where we were going and my wife immediately tried to distract him by showing him the cars on the road. "There is a Wagon R", she said. "And there is a Zen". "That's not a Zen, that's an Alto", my son said. "Oh, is it? I don't know how to spot the difference like you do, my dear", she said, and this game went on for about a couple of minutes.
It did not take my son long to realise that we were on the path to school and he immediately switched off from his game with his mother and said, "I don't want to go to school today." This time the voice was shriller and we knew for sure that it would take very less time to turn into a cry. I closed my eyes and remembered Baba, seekng his help, while my wife entered into the next round of negotiations with my son. "If you be a good boy today and go to school, we can take the car in the evening, go to your cousins' place, take them for a ride and we can all have ice cream", she said. No sooner had she said it and he said, "It's alright, I will go to school then".
My eyes were still closed in prayer when the golden words popped out of his mouth and I opened them to realise that we were just turning the corner of his school compound approaching the gate. I immediately thanked Baba for his help. The auto halted, my wife and my son got down and he gave me his usual hi-five before he trotted away into the school compound. He took just a couple of steps before he stopped, turned around and told my wife, "Call Jaffer Uncle, tell him I have gone to school and ask him to keep the car ready at 6pm". My wife, who was stunned by his stopping, breathed a sigh of relief and promised him she would do so. She then joined me in the autorickshaw and off we went to our respective work places.
This was a very small incident in the daily routine of my life and one would wonder whether I needed to invoke Baba's blessings for such a small thing. But one would do well to remember that the most unpredictable and uncontrolable thing sometimes is a child's stubbornness and that particluar morning would have been a very embarassing morning for both of us parents had our son thrown a tantrum at the school gate. Not only would we have had to manage him and force him into his class, we would have also been delayed in the process and would have anyway started the day on a bad note. This is where Baba's grace was essential and he provided us that in that small but significant moment.
Everything went on perfectly that day after that and the car was got home after proper puja at the Ganapati temple. Thanks to Baba.
There are several other small incidents that have happened at different stages in my life, all routine stuff and I shall try and remember as many as possible here.
There have been several times when I have tried to send a text message to others through my mobile phone but received a notification that the messgae sending failed. At these moments I would say, "Baba, help me" and would try and again ony to receive the notifcation, "Message Sent". Initially I used to ask myself, "Is is worth callin upon Baba's help for this silly thing"? In fact lots of times the messages were no more than just casual messages and sometimes even useless chat and I woud really wonder whether I should pull Baba into such useless stuff. But everytime I called out his name and succeeded, I would feel that it does have an impact and in a very short while, this became a habit. If I ever recived a "Message Sending Failed" notification, my lips would automatically chant, "Baba, help me" and lo! the messae would go through. Small again but significant to reinforce his faith in me.
On my first trip to Shirdi, I happened to meet one of my mother's ex colleagues who had also been known well to me. We had met after a long time and felt so fortunate to meet at Shirdi after that long period. We were discussing our respective faiths in Baba over dinner, when I brought up this topic. "I have often wondered whether we should seek his help for small, routine things, I said. "Of course, we should", replied our friend, Mr. Subramanian. "Those are the small reinforcements that make our faith stronger and stronger in him." I agreed with him and told him the sms story.
There are quite a few perspectives to this. First, it is well known fact that we think of God only in times of trouble. It is said even in the Satcharitra that, the grace of the God is so great that by creating these small obstacles in our day to day life, he makes us think more and more of him and draws us towards him. Second of course is that by solving those tiny obstacles, he reinforces our faith in him.
My other strong perspective is that it is certainly right to seek Baba's help for small and seemingly insignificant things because as human beings, we are limited in our abilities and among our biggest drawbacks is that we do not knwo our limitations. It could be in small day to day situations that these limitations are tested and when we pray to Baba seeking his help, we draw from his infinite power. I use the term inifinite power because, there may be readers who may think, like I have at some time thought myself, whether using up Baba's grace for small things would prevent us from getting his help at a more significant and important hour. We are limited and his power is infinite, unlimited and we can draw from him whenver and wherever, as long as our intention is right.
Glory be to Sai. Peace be to all.
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