Exile from Shirdi

Aum Sairam

Sri Sai all of a sudden asked one of His devotees to go away from Shirdi and not to return for one year to come. What a punishment it is! What penal code, what law He applied no one knows.

So this devotee was asked to go away from Shirdi - not to come back for a year. He cried and cried, and ultimately left the place in obedience to the commandment of Sri Sai. And towards the end of one year of exile, with a day left more to return, he was sitting in a garden and he was crying: “Oh Sai! What a punishment you have given me? This is not the way you should treat your devotees! Is this the reward I get from You my Sai? How do You expect me to be separated from You?”

Suddenly he finds a hand on his shoulder. He feels that gentle touch. He turns behind and to his utter surprise he finds a gigantic personality, 6 feet tall, wearing white dress, with a beautiful, soft expression and gentle and tender in His touch.

Well he couldn’t identify that Sri Sai has come to that garden far away from Shirdi! Then Sri Sai said: “Look here My son; you know why I asked you to get out from Shirdi? You fool! You have been thinking that this physical Form is the Divinity! You just think that I am present in Shirdi only! But I want you to experience Me everywhere! I want you to feel Me everywhere. That I am not limited to this place alone.

Sri Sai is not limited to this physical frame.” That was the message of Shirdi Sri Sai in those days to all His devotee’s.

Those of you who are familiar with this episode will surely be convinced of the fact that whether we are near or far does not matter; because Sri Sai is beyond time and space. Sri Sai is not a person to be near. If anyone claims that he is near and close to Sri Sai, please keep him away from you. All you can do is to admit that person immediately in a mental hospital. Because no one can be close to Sri Sai.

All are close to Sri Sai. It is not any exclusive right of anybody; no, all are close to Him. Sri Sai is not a person to be near. Sri Sai is not an object to be possessed. Sri Sai is not a claim. The experience of Sri Sai is not an achievement. Because some people say that: “I think I advanced spiritually.” He advanced in age – not spiritually.

Nobody can say that: “I advanced”. What is spiritual advancement?. Spiritual advancement cannot be measured in terms of degrees or in terms of number of years that one spends in close proximity with Sri Sai. Spiritual advancement is the realization of the Supreme Self - which is uniform in everyone. The Self is very much the same in every one - that cosmic principle is very much the same in everyone. That is spiritual realization. “Do not try to analyze, it is time to Realize.”

We cannot go on experimenting, we cannot go on expressing. That which is given to expression by word is a limitation Mind cannot comprehend, words cannot express. So, spirituality is not an expression but it is an experience.

Allah Malik