ShirdiSaiBaba

8.9 – Guru Worship

Story of Namdev

Namdev was an ardent worshipper of Vittal. He had frequent Sakshatkara of
Vittal and Vittal even spoke to him. So Namdev was under the impression

that

a) he had achieved complete God-realization and self–realization,

and

b)there was nothing to achieve further in the spiritual field.

When he had such wrong notions in his mind, he once visited an assembly of saints. There was Gora Kumbhar, another saint. He wanted to test which of the saints present were ripe or pucca and which were unripe or kaccha. The pucca pot is fully baked one. When struck with a mallet, it produces highly musical sound different from the thud. On the contrary, an unbaked or half-baked pot will crack.

Gora Kumbhar went round with his small mallet in hand and struck the head of one saint after another and said, pucca, pucca that is ‘ripe,ripe’. When he came near Namdev, Namdev got afraid and did not wish to face the mallet stroke. So he got up and went away. Then Gora Kumbhar said unripe,unripe’, and ‘kaccha,kaccha’. The whole assembly held Namdev to be an unripe one,because he had no Guru.

Then Namdev went up to Vittal and complained. Vital said that he was really unripe,kaccha. Namdev thought that Vittal’s sakshatkara to him was sufficient. But Vittal answered, ‘No’, and that he must go to a Guru to realize God in full. At the time he was only realizing God in Vittal and not in other forms. He was not able to see God in every form of life. Then God Vittal told him to go the Guru Visoba Kesar.

Namedev challenged Vittal to appear in any form and he would recognize him in any form. Vital then appeared first in the form of a Harijan who was baking buffalo, recently cut, in a pot. Next Vittal appeared as his own child.

Namdev not realizing Vittal in that Harijan form came to Vittal and said that he had not kept his promise of coming to test him. Vital said that he was the Harijan. Namdev was horrified and wanted another test. Next Namdev was told to sit under a tree near a well and go on with his worship, and then Vittal would appear. Namdev was waiting Vittal’s appearance. But he saw a Mohammadan riding on a horse breaking his images. On the second day, Namdev went to Vittal and complained that he had not come. Then Vittal said that the Mohhamadan who broke his images was Vittal. ‘Can you break images?’ was the wondering query of Namdev. Vittal answered ‘Yes”.

To realize God in all forms, he asked Namdev to go to Visoba Kesar. And when Namdev went there, he saw an old man, and that is Kesar. He was placing his feet with shoes over a stone lingam, which was worshipped by people. Namdev was aghast and told Kesar to place his foot elsewhere. When the old man requested Namdev himself to lift his
emaciated legs and lift them up and leave them where there was no lingam. Namdev immediately lifted up the old man’s shod feet
and placed them two or three feet off. On the place where Namdev placed the old man’s feet, a lingam shot up. Again when Namdev shifted those feet, to another place, there also a lingam
shot up. Namdev was greatly surprised, and then Kesar told him,
‘You think my shoe is unworthy and that the lingam alone is God. To get over this prejudice and wrong notion, you are sent here’. After serving this Vishoba Keasar for some time, Namdev went back, and then his pucca God-realization was proved by Vittal’s test.