Text of the video:
Om Sri Sai Ram
“Hello! Please come. Is this your first visit? As I see you all, I understand that you have come here with your family. I can also understand that you must have had a very long journey. Please take rest here. Do you need water? Take some water there and give it your children too. Please sit. Take some rest for some time. And Swami will be giving His Darshan at 4:00 o’clock this evening. It is enough if you sit there by that time.”
These are the words spoken to me by a very senior elderly gentleman, the most respected, popular person by name, Sri N. Kasturi.
I was really fortunate to have met him for the first time. I would rather say that he is the first man whom I met here in Prasanthi Nilayam, during my first visit to this place. Accordingly I had darshan, and after two days, I came to know that the person whom I met was Kasturiji himself.
Well, I must have . . . I must have thanked my stars and I was feeling very much blessed indeed. In the later years, I used to visit Sri. N. Kasturi every time, every time and spend some time with him, because spending some time with him is education.
THE DISCIPLE OF KASTURI
I was quite new at that time, not known to many people, come here, stay in veranda or in some shed, attend Swami discourses, spend some time with Kasturi and return home. That was the schedule in those days. Then it so happened I was just going on the road after bhajan session, and I noticed Swami is coming in His car and I also saw Kasturi over there.
Later, Kasturi sent me a word to meet him. I went to him and he said, “Anil Kumar! Swami wanted me to give this badge to you. Do you know what He said in the car? He noticed you walking along the road, and told me, ‘See Kasturi, your sishya, your disciple is going that way. Poor fellow! Give him this badge. He will attend the entire session and he will share what all that he has heard here. Give him the badge!’”
This I am telling because I feel proud of myself to have been called by Bhagavan as the disciple of Kasturi! Very good! What more do I want? I was very proud of it, even now, because I don’t find any parallel to Sri. Kasturi.
THE THREE STAGES OF MAN’S EVOLUTION
And let me recall some of the incidents, certain of the incidents that I witnessed and experienced. Once, Kasturi was asked to speak in the Poornachandra auditorium. I will tell you the summary of his speech. He said, “Three names are important: one - Chatterjee, second - Banerjee and third - Mukherjee.”
The first - Chatterjee means chattering, go on speaking. All devotees in the beginning stages - they go on speaking, narrating how they came to Swami, how He appeared in their dream, how He performed a number of miracles that they experienced. Chattering, continuously speaking - Chatterjee state!
And then (5:17 - 5:19) Swami said, this chattering stops after some time and this man becomes a member of Sai Organisation, wears a badge and then starts working for the Organisation, and the badge is the banner for his identity, that is ‘Banerjee state’. So, from chattering to carrying the banner - ‘Banerjee state.’
And the third state is, after having participated in so many service activities for a considerable number of years, this man becomes silent all of a sudden because he takes to meditation, he turns inward - ‘mooka’ meaning silent, that is Mukherjee. So Kasturiji says that these are the three stages of evolution - Chatterjee evolving into Banerjee, Banerjee leading to the state of Mukherjee. Everybody laughed and there is thunderous applause in the auditorium.
More......... www.saiwisdom....
www.saiwisdom.com