Swami
Sharananand states, “My room at Shirdi was adjacent to Radha Krishna Mai’s
home. Once I was reading aloud to her an
Epic about various saints. The life of
one of the saints had a tremendous effect on her and she could not hold back
her tears, and soon she was sobbing uncontrollably. It was dark in her room at that time, when
suddenly a beam of light akin to lightning flashed in front of her. Following this she became calm and fell
asleep.
Mai was an avid
reader and she borrowed books from me
and other devotees and studied them thoroughly.
Her favourite book was ‘Tukaram’s
Gatha’ and she sang abhangs (devotional
songs in a specified meter) from it in a sweet melodious voice. She said, “When I first arrived at Shirdi I
often sang these abhangs before
Baba. He was very fond of them.” She knew a
vast number of abhangs related
to saints, and on compassion and peace.
She sang many of them to the devotees when reading and explaining
Tukaram’s Gatha.
One evening Vamanrao Navarvekar
brought Eknath’s Bhagvat along with
him. Radha Krishna Mai gave a long
discourse on the shloka “Kayena vaca
manasendriyairva”, that is, the total surrender of my body, speech, mind,
senses, intellect and my innate being I offer to you Lord Narayana. She said, “The essence of the Gita lies in
this shloka (verse). Remember this always.” Gopigeet
written by Jaydev was another favourite book of hers; she would sing the same
verse in different ragas. In the evenings she would sing these verses,
and Dr.Pillay would play the sitar in accompaniment. I was fortunate to sit before her while she
read Ramdas Swami’s Das Bodh aloud to
him and she explained it in great detail.
Another book that she liked was Ram Krishna’s Bodhamrit that I would read aloud to her. After a few days Bapusahib Jog came there and
said, “Reading all these great books before Mai will not give you any
knowledge. What you need to do is to
carefully listen to what she says“ so I stopped reading aloud. Mai told me that the book was an excellent
instrument for breaking the circle of maya
(illusory). It teaches us to be content
with life in whatever condition we are in.”
Mai gives us the
key to the treasury through the shloka on how to reach one’s Sadguru.
Ref: Swami Sharananand;
Shri Sai Leela Magazine; Vol.64, No.12, March 1986
{As reproduced from the book Baba’s Divine Symphony by Vinny Chitluri}
