A common thing about great saints like Sai Baba, Swami Nityanand Swami and rest alike is that when they were alive, only a few could understand their greatness and truly serve “them’. It is not until much later after their deaths that they were truly revered and celebrated. In the initial years, the villagers of Shirdi poked fun and insulted Baba by calling him “Mad man” before he was truly accepted as God incarnate by them and later by the whole world. Swami Nityanand had stones thrown at him by people who thought that ‘He” was a queer fellow who roamed around naked. It was later when stories of his miracles were publicized and his ‘bhaktas” spread the word around that “He” began to be worshipped. Ditto for other saints who suffered the time they were alive. Have you wondered why these saints were “treated” the way they were as mentioned above? The answer is very simple and to explain it in today’s parlance “They did not brand themselves” i.e these saints never went around marketing themselves proclaiming their healing powers nor did they present themselves in fancy clothing with paraphernalia. It is ironical that while they blessed people with prosperity, good health & relationships, they donned the robes of a fakir and lived like poor people shunning all riches. They were truly committed to reforming and loving people. People in those times refused to believe that these souls walking around as beggars were re incarnations of God. For them, the typical Brahmin priest in saffron attire chanting mantras was someone they would worship and serve. Nothing much has changed since them. “Brands” still hold our attention and we tend to worship them. “Sai Baba” has become a brand today for people and we worship the miracle creating, larger than life image of Baba than what “He actually stood” for all his life. Similarly for Swami Nityanand and other saints, after they were glorified, their powers and stories have assumed greater significance than before.
Do you relate to this? How often have we found ourselves judging a trainer/facilitator based on how he/she looks or where is he/she conducting a workshop? We are more interested in details like “Is it being organized in an air conditioned posh venue, are they serving veg/non veg food during breaks?” than the healing itself. We associate fancy paraphernalia with powerful healing whereas it can happen anywhere. Irrespective of whether we have truly gained anything from the same, the experience of being taught in an air conditioned room compensates for the lack of it. “Simple’ is out of fashion. “Anthony Robbins” is more happening than yoga. On the contrary, your neighbor say a frail old lady may have wealth of experience and expertise in healing but you look at her and think “She looks as if she can barely manage herself. If she could heal, why isn’t she fit herself”. This kind of reasoning is truly hilarious.
For us, a healer/therapist is someone who “looks”, “sounds” & “behaves” like a therapist i.e glowing, beautiful, coolly dressed, using fancy healing jargon having a air of “higher being” around him/her. A good looking, well dressed person will definitely make a good healer and you don’t mind spending thousands of rupees for your healing rather than pay attention to your friend who has brought a cutting of a home made remedy for you.
This tendency suits our mind very well because you are constantly seeking. If you are disappointed with one hi fi “therapist, you move on to another ‘brand”. There’s never an end to this chasing and seeking.
The moment we cease to have a glorified image of everything be it of “‘yourself, your own healing”, the God you worship, your career, the partner you seek or the overtly hyped up brand that sells like hot cakes today “Sex”, we start enjoying life. It doesn’t come as a surprise that most of us are not happy with ourselves. We fall in love, with a heavy pre-conditioned image of the same that when we are faced with reality, real situations, it fizzes out and all other couples look ideal and romantic except yours. As they say “grass always looks greener on the other side”. Once struck by reality, this applies to us in all aspects of our life.
We find “simple” unattractive, the present ‘boring’, we want to live in our mind induced utopian world. Once you start being truthful to yourself, you seek and relate to the truth outside. You are then centered and life is no longer a suffering.
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