The value of true wealth: Sai’s Golden Test
A story from the book of Virendra Tarkhad, in which he narrates the experiences of his father Jyotindra Tarkhad with Sai Baba
Our normal life cycle is such that we first put on the mantle of family hood and then come across all the sweet and bitter experiences of life. On going through them we get attracted towards spirituality for final peace of mind. But this cycle was exactly reversed in case of Jyotindra. He first went through all holy experiences and then had to grind the axe of tough family life. One thing was clear that because of his association with Sai Baba he had possibly learnt the art of facing any eventuality. The path of Bhakti is such that when one starts practicing it, he gets better equipped to face any kind of fear in life.
By now Jyotindra had visited Shirdi ample number of times and was sufficiently rich with divine experiences to his credit. The time had come for him to face some twisting moments. Those were the winter days when days are shorter and the nights are longer.
One such day when it was dusk and twinkling stars could be seen in the sky, Baba told Jyotindra to accompany him. It was an out of the blue invitation because Baba would never leave Dwarkamai at that time of the day. He walked towards the Lendi garden and then passing through it they came to the bank of the rivulet on the outskirts of Shirdi. By then it was quite dark and the moon had risen in the sky.
Then Baba told Jyotindra: ‘Hey Bhau, I am going to show you some fun and that is the reason I have brought you here’. Jyotindra was very pleased because he was anyway getting some special personal attention. Then they sat down and Baba started moving the soft soil with his own hand. He then asked Jyotindra: ‘Look in the soil if you can see anything.’ Jyotindra looked, but couldn’t see anything. Baba then moved the soil again and Jyotindra looked at the place for the second time and said that he can only see the soil. Then Baba repeated the act for the third time and this time he hit the back of Jyotindra’s head with his hand and told him to look carefully.
When Jyotindra looked at the place he saw some shining metal over there and it was glittering even more because of the moonlight. Baba asked Jyotindra again if he could see anything. Jyotindra then replied that it is some metallic object and it is shining. Then Baba told him: ’Bhau, that metal is nothing but gold and you can take as much as you want.’ But Jyotindra replied: ‘Baba, I do not want this. With your blessings we have everything and I do not come to Shirdi with the intention of getting such materialistic returns from you!’
Then Baba cautioned him and said: ‘Bhau, this is the Goddess Lakshmi. She is pleased with you and once you decline her boon she will never ever come back to you, at least not in this birth. So please think again!’ Then Jyotindra answered him: “Baba, you are putting me to some acid test and I will not fall prey to this Maya, and once your blessings are there with me then I can live a peacefully comfortable life without this illusion of Maya.’ Then Baba moved the mud back in its place and they both returned to Dwarkamai.
One interesting thing happened at that time: one of the natives of Shirdi had seen what was happening at the bank of the rivulet and guessed that Sai Baba had shown some buried treasure to Jyotindra over there. He decided to visit that place late at night and dig there to unearth the treasure. Accordingly he got up at midnight to venture for the treasure hunt. But alas! No sooner had he laid his hands to pick up the crowbar than a scorpion stung him on his fingers and he was uncomfortable throughout the night.
By morning the pain was unbearable, so wisely he decided to go to Sai Baba and pleaded guilty. He had realized that he couldn’t disclose his last nights plan of treasure hunt to any one other than Baba. When he entered Dwarkamai he was in severe pain. Jyotindra was present there and saw the native who was pleading to Baba with guilt and was saying that he will never ever commit such a sin again, requesting Baba to relieve him from the agonizing pain due to the scorpion sting.
Baba then told him that the one who was destined to have the treasure declined to take it, which does not mean that any other person can get it. In this world the Lord has made a rule that each one will get according to his own karma and if one tries to break this rule then he is bound to get punished from the Lord.
Jyotindra understood the conversation. Baba then applied his sacred ‘Udi’ to the scorpion-stung finger of that native and told him not to misbehave in future. He blessed him that Lord will relieve him out of this agonizing pain.
So such was the ‘Golden Test’ Jyotindra was put through to at Shirdi and he apparently was successful in this, because he did not fall a prey to maya. But one thing was certain: in his future career he could not accumulate wealth. Goddess Lakshmi had refrained from going to him and his financial status never abundant. His spiritual state, however, was quite the opposite
