Chapter 4 - Vinny Ma's Commentary
Baba is all pervasive, everlasting and immortal.

Leela Number One

Baba said "My Guru has taken me away from this", pointing to His body, that is, His Guru helped him to say that the body was not He. But He was the One-Force that was responsible for manifesting itself as everything in the universe. If you're not your body, and I'm not my body, it is easy to infer that you and I are the same. The difference being caused only by our bodies and not by our real nature. Baba taught him some portion of the truth.

Kashinath Upasani Baba was cooking food at the Khandoba temple and naturally wanted to take the food to his Guru and get back some part of it as Prasad. While he was cooking the food, a black dog was watching and even when he took the food towards the Masjid, it followed him part of the way and suddenly disappeared. When first, the dog was present and anxiously looking at the food, Upasani thought it would be absurd to give a low creature, a dog any food before offering it to God and before men ate, so he did not give the food to the dog. But when he went in the hot sun at noon with his food to Sai Baba, Baba asked him, "What have you come for?" Kashinath said "To bring you my Naivaidya." Baba said, "Why did you come all the way here in the hot sun? I was there." Then Kashinath said "There was none but a black dog there." Baba said "I was that dog. So as you refuse to give me food that I'm not going to take the food." The next day he was determined to avoid the mistake. So when he was cooking his food, he looked for the black dog and found none. He noticed a sickly Shudra was standing against the wall and watching the cooking. To his orthodox mind, it was Drishti Dosha and improper for a Shudra to look when a Brahmin was cooking. So he said "Get away" and accordingly the Shudra left. When that date Kashinath came with the food, Baba was very angry. He said "Yesterday you did not give me food and today you told me to go away." "Where were you Baba" asked Kashinath. Baba said "I was leaning against the wall." Kashinath said, "Could you be the sickly Shudra?" Baba said, "Yes, I am in everything and beyond."

Baba spoke what was written in the Purusha Sukta. The Purusha or God having pervaded all the world exceeded it and went 10 inches beyond.The advice given by Baba to Upasani and all of us is "See me in all creatures." Though it looks absurd in the beginning to believe that everything is really God. Still by impressing it upon yourself with humility and faith, you can begin to feel and see every object that is around you as Sai Baba, and that you must treat it with the reverence, affection and sympathy, as much as you can.

Leela Number Two- Narayan Govind Chandorkar

Baba said "I am not in Shirdi alone. I'm in all creatures." Intellectually this was understood, but Nana did not realize it. Baba wanted him to realize it more vividly, as that was a very important step for his higher spiritual progress. So on one occasion when Nana came to Shirdi, Baba asked him to prepare eight Puran Polis for Naivaidya and then have his food. When Nana placed the Pooran Polis before Baba, Baba did not touch them, but flies sat upon them. Then Baba said "Nana take away the Prasad." Nana insisted that Baba should eat some. Baba said that he had eaten it. "When did you eat them? All the eight Pooran Polis are here." said Nana. Baba said he had eaten it at some time. Then Nana got vexed and went to the Chavadi. When Baba sent for him, the same conversation was repeated. Finally Baba said "You have been living with me for 18 years now. Is this all your appraisal of me? Does Baba mean to you only the three and a half cubics height of this body? Am I not in the fly and the ant that settled upon the Polis?" Nana said he knew that, but he could not realize it. If Baba would make him realize it, Nana said he would eat the Polis as Prasad. Then Baba lifted His hand and made a gesture. He thereby revealed a secret, which Nana was hiding very deep in his heart. Nana discovered that Baba knew the secret, but how. The only explanation was that Baba was Antaryami in his heart. If Baba was Antaryami, He must be the Antaryami of the fly and ant also. So he agreed to eight the Pooran Polis as Prasad and was satisfied. This is a lesson for all of us, as it was for Nana. Leela number one and two were taken from the life of Sai Baba, written by Shri Narsihn Swami Ji

Leela Number Three

Once a sickly bitch came to Mhalsapati wagging her tail. She looked very ill and was drooling from the mouth. He threw a stone and drove her away. She ran away yelping. Later, when he went for Baba's darshan, Baba turned to him and said, "I went with a great deal of hope to you Bhagat, hoping for a piece of Bhakri, but all I got was a stone thrown at me." Two hours after Baba had said this, Kaka and his friends were sitting near the Vada. A dog came and sat on the steps nearby. He drove it away. The dog ...