The Combination of Many Virtuosities

Saint Baba Maharaj Arvikar would come to Mumbai at least 3-4 times every year, and stay for about a month each time. The community of Baba’s disciples is quite large in Mumbai. Baba would stay at Kakuma’s home in Dadar whenever he visited. 

Every day, many people would come to Kakuma’s place to meet Baba. It is certainly not an easy thing to manage so many people coming home every day, and so sometimes, Kakuma would also be stressed/overwhelmed. But she had not held back, she had surrendered everything to Baba—body, mind, and wealth. 

Sometimes she had to face situations contrary to her wishes. But because of the love she had for Baba, she would take the appropriate lesson from those situations and kept climbing the staircase to the ultimate truth, one step at a time. 

Once, when Baba was visiting Kakuma, after dinner was over, Kakuma had cleaned up the kitchen and went to get ready to sleep. Baba was walking around on the veranda, when he suddenly noticed a group of sanyasis walking on the street. He clapped to get their attention and asked them to come up. Baba spoke to the sanyasis for a while after they came up, and then told Kakuma to make some food for them.

Kakuma, following her sadguru’s command, immediately made a full meal for them, quite late at night, and prepared place settings. When he invited them to eat, Baba noted that the sanyasis didn’t eat off of plates or leaves, but instead directly from food served on the ground. As soon as Baba mentioned this to Kakuma, she cleaned up the floors, then served all of the sanyasis. They were all very pleased/content and they would have definitely given Kakuma many blessings.

This story is a clear illustration of a lesson that Saint Baba Maharaj Arvikar wrote in Divyamritdhara. Baba says that, “Bahut sukrutachi jodi, mhanun hi Vitthal hi avadi” (loosely translated, this means ‘the combination of many virtuous deeds, that is why there is a liking for Vitthal’) is a beautiful description of Gauni and Para (stages of bhakti). The words, ‘sukrutachi jodi,’ (loosely translated as the combination of virtuous deeds), suggests the dharma-karma of attaining spiritual merit (punya) within the dharma (worship) or upsasna. And the words, ‘Vitthal hi avadi,’ (loosely translated as a liking for Vitthal) put forth the naturalness of a liking for Vitthal. Deep contemplation on Hari (Hari chintan), remembrance of Hari (Hari smaran), steadfast devotion (sat-nishtha), spiritual company (satsang), serving saints and other devoted spiritual seekers (sadhu-seva), righteous behavior (sadvartan), along with pure and noble bhav (sat bhav); when all of these things are brought together in life, that becomes the combination of many virtuous deeds. Through the acquisition of merit (punya), eventually a liking for Vitthal most certainly manifests. On this path, with the purification of the chitta, and growth of virtuous qualities, the devotee qualifies for the grace of god. And once that grace is given, understand it to be the beginning of supreme devotion.