Gyani Baile & Dolly Baile

on restraining one's desires. The sixth is renunciation or detachment,
and the seventh is nonviolence. All of these principles of right living
have been laid down for the protection of the individual and for the well
being of the society; collectively they are referred to as Dharma or
righteousness."
Shirdi Baba had asked Dolly for seventeen virtues while this book
described only seven. Many months later through a friend we learned
that Bhagavad Gita expounds on twenty four virtues. A closer look
helped us see that the number of virtues was not an important factor
because it only varied in consolidation or segmentation of the definitions
and degree of detail.
Some of the virtues that Baba emphasized in his book "Sandeha
Nivarini" were as follows: "Be always on the alert against the four sins
which the tongue is prone to commit: 1) Speaking falsehood 2) Speaking
ill of others 3) Back - biting and 4) Talking too much. It is best to
attempt to control these tendencies."
Through books we learned that the yoga scriptures insist that in order
to control the mind, aspirants must practice the disciplines of yama (nonkilling,
truthfulness, non-stealing, continence, and not receiving of gifts
are called yama in Yoga sutras of Patanjali II, 30) and niyama (external
and internal purification, contentment, mortification, study of scriptures,
and worship of God are the niyama). We saw a lot of similarity in these
statements and what actually had happened to her through these Inner
Experiences. On these lines one note worthy point is that one day in
August 97, out of the blue, she decided that she was not going to eat
meat anymore because she read in Baba's book that "if supporting your
habit requires killing then you must give up that habit". Friends and
family could not believe that this was the same person who loved
cooking and eating all sorts of gourmet foods, and had no objection to
partaking anything from seafood to steaks. This was not a self control
discipline but she actually lost the desire.
We cannot remember the book or the author who made this profound
statement on the importance of virtue, love, and devotion.
114