September 27th, 2002
"I Don't Want Your Money - I Want Your Love"
Well, this happened on the 27th of September, 2002. Swami suddenly came
out with an envelope. Moving it like that, He said, "Hmm, what is in this
envelope?"
"That is only an envelope, Swami. How would I know?"
He opened that envelope. "Count, calculate and tell Me."
I'm very poor in mathematics, so I went on counting.
"You're a big professor, but you don't know! Numbers also you don't
know!"
As I did not want to get it wrong since the boys were there (they may
laugh), so with double care I said, "Swami, two crores of rupees. It is a check
presented by the Italians to Swami for two crores of rupees."
Swami said, "I don't want this. I want your love, not your money. I want
your love."
Immediately He called one Italian by name -- I don't remember the name.
That man came and sat on the veranda. You might have seen him there; but of
course, you have probably forgotten.
"Hmm, what is that check?"
"Two crores, Swami."
"I don't want it. Take it back. I don't want your money. I want you. I
want your love."
My friends, it is amazing. It is unbelievable. It happens only with
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, nobody else! There are so many gurus all over the
world who are money-minded. Here is the 'Guru of gurus', the 'Teacher of
teachers', the Avatar, who doesn't care two hoots for your money. After all,
why? God is wealth. Wealth is God. A beggar should ask for money; man may ask
for money; but God need not ask for money because God is wealth and wealth is
God. He's the very personification of all plenty and prosperity. Why should He
ask anybody?
This is a lesson to everybody. You cannot buy Him. Your fabulous amounts
will never influence Him. He doesn't expect any money from us. He just wants us
to be His children. He wants our love, nothing else. This is very, very
surprising.
"That Little Boy Played the Role of Sathya Sai Baba"
It seems this Italian was given an interview along with his wife. And
there in the interview room was also another boy. That boy acted in a
television serial entitled "Shirdi Sai Parthi Sai". The little boy played the
role of Sathya Sai Baba. Swami called the boy and introduced him to everybody
there in the interview room.
Baba was telling us that at the end of the interview, the wife of this
Italian gentleman was speaking to her husband. What did she say?
"Look here, why can't we adopt this boy? Why don't you go back first to
Italy? I'll stay here for some more time with this boy and come back."
Bhagavan said, "The love for Swami was so deep that, because this boy
played the role of Sathya Sai Baba, they felt like taking him to Italy, thereby
feeling that they were taking Sathya Sai Baba back with them. That is the love
and the intensity of devotion of that Italian couple." That's what Bhagavan has
said.
Two Wives
Then Swami was speaking about a gentleman who had two wives. Of course,
the first wife was no more and somehow he was managing with the second. Now,
Swami started joking, "You know, he has two wives."
"Oh Swami, two wives?"
Then Swami said, "No, no, no, no! First wife is no longer there. She
passed away."
"Oh, Swami."
Then Swami said, "What will happen to a fellow with two wives?"
Then I said, "Swami, man is struggling hard, breathless with one wife,
almost suffocating! With two wives, the deadline is already given -- he's
finished! Only his date of expiry must be given! I don't know how any fellow is
managing with two wives!"
Swami laughed and then He said, "In Puranas, the epics, there is the
story of a king by the name of Uttanapada, who had two wives. One was Suruchi;
the other was Sunithi. One of these wives had a son by the name of Dhruva. The
little boy wanted to sit on his father's lap, but the stepmother would not
permit it.
"You cannot sit there! Get out!"
The boy said, "Mommy, I want to sit here!"
"No, get off!"
That boy left home, telling all this to his mother, "Mother, look here!
My stepmother does not permit me to sit on my father's lap. I cannot bear this
suffering."
The boy went alone to the forest and did penance for a long time. God
incarnated in front of him, granted him all boons and he finally decided to
remain there. He is there today, in the form of a star (known as the Pole Star)
by the name of Dhruva. 'Dhruva' is the name of the star we find there in the
sky right now.
And Bhagavan said, "Because of two wives, the father could not give love
to both of his sons. When one son was enjoying his love, the other son started
crying. Because the other son started receiving the father's love, the
stepmother -- the second wife of the king -- started fighting. This is fate,
you know."
Three Wives
And then He said, "Anil Kumar, do you know the name of the king who had
three wives?"
Shall I say, "I know"? Then He will say, "So, you are collecting the
names of the people with a number of wives!" (Laughter) If I say, "I do not
know", He may say, "Don't you know that much?"
Then Swami immediately said, "Yes, he's Dasaratha, the father of Rama.
Dasaratha had three wives: Kausalya, Sumitra, and Kaikeyi. Because of the
youngest wife, Kaikeyi, Dasaratha had to suffer pain due to pangs of separation
from Rama. Rama had to be sent into the exile because of boons granted to
Kaikeyi. You know this story. Ultimately, the separation led to the death of
Dasaratha. So, the king of three wives had to suffer separation from his son,
and ultimately had to even face death." That's what Bhagavan has said.
Ten Wives = The Ten Senses and
Husband = Mind
And finally, that is not the 'be-all and end-all'! It doesn't end with
the narration or description of a story. Bhagavan is a good storyteller,
sharing a message -- a universal message -- behind every story. He said, "Look
here! All of you, every one of you here has ten wives!" (Laughter)
"Hey, Swami! With two wives that king suffered; with three wives that
king died! With ten wives, how can we manage?"
Then Swami said, "The ten wives are your senses. There are five senses of
action and five senses of perception. Five + five = ten senses. You have ten
wives!"
"Oh! OK, Swami. Am I going to live or die? With ten wives -- my ten
senses -- am I going to live? Who is the husband here managing with these ten
wives?"
Swami said, "Your mind is the master. Your mind is the husband of these
ten senses. So if your mind -- the husband, the master -- has total control
over the senses, he'll have a happy peaceful married life. But if your mind or
husband becomes a slave to his wives, the ten senses, he has to dance to their
tunes, and he'll ultimately become insane.
So the lesson here is that the mind should be the master of the senses.
"Master the mind and be a mastermind" is the punch line, the message, of that
afternoon's conversation with Bhagavan.
"You Should Get 100%"
Swami asked one little boy, "How many points did you get?"
That boy said, "Swami, I got 85%."
"How about the other 15 points? You should have gotten 100 points. You
cannot say, "85." What about the other 15?"
Then Swami said, "You committed 15 mistakes. Feel sorry for the mistakes.
Don't say, 'I got 85% correct,' when there were also 15 incorrect because the
end of culture is perfection. So you should get 100%, not less than that."
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