In plain words
Shirdi Bābā was ever close beside those who worshipped with selfless, pure feeling!
In the former body, teaching Jñāna meant this: in everything, holding up to each person his own actions, and teaching Jñāna through them. For example, once Dāmu and Nānā, the two of them, sat serving at His feet. Bābā took some copper coins. He was idly turning them this way and that and looking at them. As though something could be seen and yet not seen, He searched here, searched there, and showed looks and gestures of many kinds. He held no conversation at all, with Dāmu or with Nānā. He went on doing this for about half an hour. At last, unable to hold back, Nānā: ‘Swami! What is this You are doing? You are looking again at the very coin You have looked at. You are testing again the very coin You have tested,’ he asked. Then Bābā said, ‘Arē beṭā! I am doing again what I have done. I am seeing again what I have seen. I am saying again what I have said. Look! That mango tree right in front of us is all in blossom. You cannot even see the leaves. If all that blossom really turned to fruit, could the tree stand? All its branches would bend and break. But that is not what happens. What happens? In the wind the blossom drops away. In the dew some more drops away. When the birds alight, still more drops away. When some of it is forming into fruit, the squirrels all bite it off. The birds too peck at it and drop it to the ground. The monkeys, man's former births, all bite into it and throw it away. In this way, after ninety per cent of the blossom has gone, the tree bears fruit from some ten per cent. Is it not true?’ ‘It is true, Swami!’ said Nānā. ‘In the same way, how many thousands come to Me? Are they all ripening spiritually and becoming fruit? How many fall away midway, I wonder? Many come for their desires. Some come for wealth. Some come for education. Some come for marriage. In this way they come with desires of every kind. Faults are all there is in them. There is no one who wants Me. I have kept what is precious in My treasury without even locking it!