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| Neem Karoli Baba and Dada Mukherji |
(from "By His grace: a devotee's story" by Dada Mukherji):
The money came from many quarters, but Baba was very selective. He would often say that money came to Hanumanji - it belonged to him. If you used it properly and avoided all misuse and wastage, there would always be enough. We would see him accept money from a devotee who loved to give with no other motive. If there were strings attached, he would reject it outright.
Back in 1966, there was a small wooden bridge over the river in Kainchi, not the big bridge that is there now. He would sometimes go and sit there in the afternoon and take his food. A few days before the June fifteenth bhandara [festival] he was sitting there when a devotee from Bareilly came in a truck. He had brought some supplies for the bhandara - a basket of clay cups and two or three packets of leaf plates. He came and sat before Baba and said to me, "Dada, tell me what else is needed?" "Nothing." We went on pestering me, "What else? What else?"
Then I said, "All right, if you want to send something, then send another two baskets of those clay cups." Those cups are not easily available in the hills.
Maharajji cried, "What? What are you going to do with them? You have got so many. You are very greedy. Whenever somebody offers you something, you jump for it." I kept quiet.
When the man had taken prasad and was about to leave, he took a hundred rupee note and put it before Babaji, "What is this?"
He said, "Babaji, it is for the bhandara." Babaji took the note, tore it into pieces, and threw it into the river. The man gasped but had no words to say. He went away very sad and disappointed.
Babaji said to me, "You didn't understand? You should never accept money or eat the food offered by a miser. You can never digest that! That man has so much money, but he never gives anything in charity or feeds anybody. I know him well."
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| Kanchi Ashram |
One day Baba was giving darshan to some high dignitaries and big businessmen. There was lots of talk about what Nixon was doing, the Indian prime minister, and the stock market. While discussing the price of gold, Babaji said the price would start falling because Russia would stop purchasing gold on the international market.
A month or so later, an impressive, middle-aged man in a silk kurta (shirt) and a white jacket was sitting with some people in Babaji's room.
He had been given prasad but was still sitting, and it seemed to me that he was waiting for an opportunity to talk to Babaji alone. When the others had left, he took out a large number of currency notes and put them on Babaji's tucket.
"What is this?"
"This is for you to use for your bhandara. You have saved me from such a big loss. I am a bullion merchant. I was purchasing gold when the prices were rising. I was actually taking out a loan from the bank to purchase more, but I was here when you said that the price would fall. I sold some of my stock and made a large gain."
Maharajji said, "Accha? Accha? as if he didn't know anything of such matters. Then, "Dadam do you need money?" "No, Baba." "I don't need money; Dada does not need money. What shall we do with the money?" The man said, "Baba, please take it."
But Babaji would not do so. After the man went away he said, "Dada, you must be regretting the loss of such money." I said I was so. "Dada, what can you take from human beings? What have they got to give you? It is God who gives. God has everything. You did not understand why he was giving the money. That was not an offering to me, but my purchase price. If I had accepted it, then he would have come every time he was making a big deal to get tips from me. He would have thought that he had a claim on me."
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