Suppose you are assailed by anger, lust, and greed or any undesirable emotion or feeling. This is maya's work. But suppose you feel hungry, thirsty, or sleepy, which is due to sanskaras. If you eat, drink, and sleep, it doesn't matter because these are essential to life. But anger, lust, and greed are to be driven away the moment they enter your mind. Say, "Maya, get out! I don't want you!"
During this explanation, Shankarnath entered.1
Baba joked, "Shankar, turn into kankar [stone] so that you may remain unaffected by the wiles of that witch Maya!"
Baba then added, "A stone may be worshiped with flowers or it may be smeared with refuse, but it remains unaffected. Remember, the real yogi is he whom nothing of the world can touch; he remains unconcerned and unaffected in all surroundings and circumstances."
1 July 1926 was a Thursday and as usual the floor of the mandali's quarters was smeared with fresh cowdung. One year had almost passed since the Master had begun his silence and the mandali had hopes that Baba would start speaking again that day, but instead he indicated that he would observe silence until February 1927.
In explaining the difference between the state of a majzoob, Perfect Master, and an ordinary man, Baba gave this metaphor:
For example, there is a man sailing in a boat on the ocean. He is enjoying the sea breezes and being out on the water. But if the man himself turns into the ocean, what is the use of the boat? When the man was without knowledge of the ocean and its greatness, it was necessary for him to use the boat as a means of enjoying the pleasures of boating. But what care does he have for the boat when he himself becomes the ocean? This is the state of a majzoob, who does not care for the boat [body], which now drifts here and there at the mercy of the waters.
The Sadguru, however, does care and make use of the boat. He can move and carry it whenever and wherever he likes, by catching hold of it from the bottom from under the water. Whereas, mankind is drifting here and there, without advancing at all towards the Goal. Such is the difference between the states of a majzoob, Sadguru, and an ordinary human being. But this difference, though apparently quite trivial, is actually tremendous, beyond imagination.
Footnotes
- 1.Shankarnath was a Harijan from Ahmednagar who had moved to Meherabad.