My Grandfather, Shri
Devi Das Mehta, (1867-1940) who later came to be called HH Shri Babaji Maharaj,
was a millionaire who gave away all his wealth to the poor at a very young age,
and rejoiced in this renunciation. He came to be revered as a very holy
personality in whom people experienced the light of God. Multitudes thronged to
him to get peace of mind from him and to be relieved of their sorrows and
sufferings.
Quite naturally after
giving away all his wealth, he had to make a living and he obtained a job in
the Recruitment Office of the British Government at the time in the Himalayan
city of Simla.
However he was always
in the greatest of cheer and openly declared that he had a storehouse of
infinite wealth with him!
This led people to be
surprised. Once a Pandit, a priest, came to him and asked him:
"Sire, you have
given away all your wealth and everything you owned including your many homes
and mansions to the poor- so how can you still claim that an infinite
storehouse of wealth is yours?"
Babaji said:
"Listen, God is my Father. And whatever He owns belongs to me also
spontaneously as his son! And look at his wealth -- the entire wealth in the
world and indeed in the Universe belongs to him. So it belongs to me also as a
hereditary right! And since He is infinite his wealth must also be infinite!
And therefore I am very right when I say that infinite wealth is mine!!"
The priest said:
" But Babaji! You are not the only one who is the son of God. All the
people upon earth are his sons, they are all sons and daughters of God -- so
that infinite wealth must also belong to them as well !! How can it belong only
to you?"
Shri Babaji said:
" You are right, everyone in the world is his son or his daughter and His
wealth must belong to them also. But look around you at the people of the world
-- each one has staked his claim to a portion of the wealth laid out by god. Each
one lives in a world of his own with his own sphere of wealth. So having staked
their claim to a portion of God's wealth they cannot claim that His entire
wealth belongs to them. Everyone has taken a portion out of it, and only that
portion belongs to him.
"But I have not
staked my claim to any portion of His wealth laid out anywhere. Therefore all
that belongs to my Father belongs to me!! All that is His, is mine. I have no
need to stake a separate claim to any of the wealth laid out by him in the
world. I am that son who is wholly and solely dependent upon Him and He
provides me with everything that I need. Since His wealth is Infinite I am
never in need of anything and dont even have to ask Him for anything. He goes
on giving of His own accord because He knows I have no one in the world except
Him!"
"Those who have
staked a claim to portions of his Infinite Wealth do not know how great a loss
they have incurred. They have obtained infinitesimally small quantities of
wealth in contrast to the infinite storehouse of wealth which belongs to Him!
And which He had kept for the people of the world!"
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