Philosophical Significance of Grinding

Apart from the meaning which the people of Shirdi put on this
incident of grinding wheat, there is, we think, a philosophical significance
too. Sai Baba lived in Shirdi for about sixty years and during this
long period, He did the business of grinding almost every day - not,
however, the wheat alone; but the sins, the mental and physical afflications
and the miseries of His innumerable devotees. The two stones of His
mill consisted of Karma and Bhakti, the former being the lower and the
latter the upper one. The handle with which Baba worked the mill consisted
of Jnana. It was the firm conviction of Baba that Knowledge or
Self-realization is not possible, unless there is the prior act of grinding
of all our impulses, desires, sins; and of the three gunas, viz. Sattva,
Raja and Tama; and the Ahamkara, which is so subtle and therefore so
difficult to be got rid of.
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