Be careful what you ask a Perfect Master for...

Manu, Meherwan and I were sitting on the verandah at Meherazad last evening and talking about what is happening in the world today. Manu said that Baba once told them "Such things will happen in this world, you will be left holding your fingers between your teeth." This is a colloquial Gujerati saying "Daat maa anglaa pakdee rahee jasso." She said that she would never have believed that a man could change his sex and become a woman, but I had just told her the night before of my friend's son who had done just that.

Meherwan commented that this was because of unspent sanskaras of the opposite gender being carried forward to this lifetime. I asked him about "hijras" or hermaphrodites who are common in India because they actually adopt any child born with hermaphrodite characteristics. At that Meherwan mentioned that there was a Perfect Master who was a hijra. Baba had told the Mandali the story and Eruch used to tell it sometimes. I hadn't heard the story so I asked Meherwan to repeat it. Here is what he said..

There was a Perfect Master in Ajmer (which is the town where there is the tomb of the Sufi Master Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti) who was a hijra. Though he was of a community much shunned, because of Who he was, people started to come to him. Eruch used to say that just like the fragrance of a rose garden is impossible to conceal so is the fragrance of a Perfect One. People followed him in large numbers. However, he did have his sceptics and detractors who used to follow him around and make fun of him.

One day a few young men decided to test the Master and so one dressed up as a woman and another pretended to be her husband. They went to where the Master was giving an audience and when it was their turn to bow to him, they asked him for the boon of a child to bless their marriage. The Master looked at them both long and hard and asked them to reconsider. "Are you sure that this is what you want?" he asked them. When they insisted, he gave them his blessings. Off they went, and no sooner were they out of his sight, they fell about laughing. How they had fooled that so-called Master!!
And they spread the story about and people who had previously respected the Master began doubting him. There was much ridicule going on, but the Master took no notice. To him it was all the same. He neither wanted their worship nor cared if he was ridiculed.

After three months, the young man who had dressed up as a woman started noticing that his stomach was becoming distended, and his breasts were getting fuller. He really was expecting a baby!! Soon the condition could not be hidden from the townspeople and they began to say how powerful the Master was that he could make a man bear a child. The Master remained untouched by the new-found faith in his powers just as he had been untouched by the jeers and criticisms. The young men realized whom they had messed with and tried to go to the Master to apologise and ask him to reverse his blessing. However, the Master now avoided them all, until one day the young men finally saw him, begged his forgiveness and he relented and took the child away..

Not really related to the expiation of male/female sanskaras, but as Meherwan said, a Perfect Master can be anyone, and sometimes they will choose an incarnation like that one, to help these gender-confused souls.