What is to be offered to god?
Before we go to sleep, as the day closes, we need to offer all our deeds of the day to the Lord. Since we are offering all this to God, we should perform only good deeds that are worthy of offering to Him. This way we are sanctified, and are guided to do only good deeds, and feel sorry for any bad thoughts, words and deeds.
There is a beautiful story from the life of Sant Janabai to illustrate this.
Sant Janabai was a Marathi religious poet in India, who lived in the 13th century. She was born in Gangakhed, Maharashtra. After her mother died, her father took her to Pandharpur. Since her childhood, Janabai worked as a maid servant in the household of Damasheti, who lived in Pandharpur and who was the father of Sant Namdev.
She was an ardent devotee of Lord Panduranga, the Presiding Deity of Pandharpur. She offered all her deeds to her Beloved Lord Panduranga by chanting “Pandurangaarpanam”. As is customary in the villages even today, she used to make cow-dung cakes, dry them and use them as cooking fuel. In order to dry the cow-dung a ball is made and is thrown on the wall so that it becomes a round cake. Janabai threw the cow-dung, saying “Pandurangaarpanam”. Not only that, it is customary in village homes to plaster the floor with cow-dung. She used to throw the left-over cow-dung outside her house chanting, “Pandurangaarpanam”. As she was pure by heart and did this with true devotion, this dung, used to fly and stick to the idol of Lord Panduranga in the temple of the village.
Unaware of all this, when the temple priest noticed that there was cow-dung on the Lord’s idol, he was thrown into a rage seeing this happen daily, and decided to catch the culprit, who was throwing it on the Lord’s idol. So, he went to every house, watching what was happening at every household.
When he came to Janabai’s house, he heard her saying “Pandurangaarpanam” and throwing the dung. He then hit her arm with a stick so hard, that her arm almost broke. But, Janabai did not feel any pain. After this he proceeded to the temple for offering worship to the Lord. When he reached the temple he saw the Lord’s arm broken and fallen on the floor. Immediately he realised the mistake he had committed without understanding what a noble devotee she was, that the Lord had rushed to protect this devotee, and took the blow on Himself, to save her. He ran back to Janabai immediately, and fell at her feet and begged for pardon. He realised that Janabai was a great devotee of Lord Panduranga.
Whenever Janabai made cowdung cakes to dry in the sun, to be sold as fuel, she would repeat the Holy Name “Panduranga”. The result of her constant japa was that the fuel would burn with the sound “Panduranga Panduranga” as they were offered to Lord Panduranga. Hence, the people preferred to buy Janabai’s fuel cakes.
Thus, Sant Janabai sanctified even the lowliest of her tasks to the Lord, offering all her work to the Lord, with no thought of reward.
If we offer it to the Lord this way, even our lives would be sanctified.
[Illustrations by Sai Easwaran, Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas Student]
[Source: Sri Sathya Sai Balvikas Gurus Handbook – Year I]