Sri Sathya Sai Baba and Swami Sivananda

Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati

Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Sai Baba - Trip to RishikeshOn the twenty-second of July (year 1957) Baba left

New Delhi by car for Rishikesh. When he reached Sivanandanagar at 6:30 that

evening, Swami Sivananda called a special gathering of the disciples of the

Ashram and offered Baba a hearty welcome.Swami Sadananda (one of the senior

disciples) was, prior to his entering the monastery, a professor of history at

the Presidency College, Madras. Saivism, a school of philosophy and worship,

that highlighted the Siva (Shiva) aspect of Godhead, was his favourite subject

of study, and Baba had prodded him to explain the significance of the Linga.

Baba explained that it represented the emergence of the Cosmos from the

formless as well as the mergence of the Cosmos into the formless. "The sun

appears as a huge red disc when it rises and when it sets", said Baba."This is

a revelation to me on my New Year Day," the Sanyasin said."It is now many years

since

you celebrated new Year. You were in the midst of your family then. Now you are

in the Sai Family. So, here, take this.!" Baba said, while waving his palm. An

"Obbattu", a sweet dish traditionally prepared in Tamil homes on New Year Day

was resting on that palm - hot, fragrant with ghee (butter), thick, circular,

with a sprinkle of sugar! My mouth watered, the ascetic Sadananda helt out his

hand. Seeing my plight, Baba waved again, to project a second Obbattu for me

too.Swami Sivananda (founder of the Ashram) was the very embodiment of

equanimity. In the midst of vociferous pleadings and protestations from

visitors and inmates, he was being pushed around by his disciples in a wheeled

chair.Sivanandanagar (the tranquil and holy ashram of Swami Sivananda) nestles

on the lap of the evergreen mountains, banked lovingly by the kindly right arm

of Mother Ganges. The left bank of the river, when it comes into view

occasionally as the curtain of mist is wafted away, is

resplendent with a line of temples and edifices housing three hermitages. More

impressive than these are the forest-clad mountains on every side that seem

like superhuman sages lost in silent contemplation of the Infinite.The Ganges,

daughter of the earth and sky, famed in lore and legend, sought after by

devotees in every Hindu home for thousands of years to sanctify every ritual...

rolls majestically by, reminding everyone of India's message and India's

grandeur. When the students of the hermitage arranged a gathering of devotees

the next day, and requested Baba to give them a message, he referred to the

Ganges, comparing it to a sincere seeker of God speeding to the sea. He said

that every river knows that it has come from the sea and it is prompted by that

knowledge to hurry back toward the sea.Speaking of the things that he is

accustomed to make and give, Sai Baba discounted all spurious explanations and

said that his will is immediately fulfilled. He

materializes things to give joy to his devotees, just as a father gives sweets

to his little ones, not to advertise his generosity or parenthood.He then

materialized by the mere wave of his hand a magnificent Rudraksha garland of

108 beads, a rosary made from a berry. It was of exquisite workmanship, each

bead encased in gold, and all were strung in gold with a five faced king-bead

in the center. He presented it to Swami Sivananda. He also manifested a large

quantity of sacred ash and applied it to the sage's forehead. That evening when

the Swami entered the Satsang Hall wearing the unique garland, everyone was awed

by its luster and workmanship and the miracle that brought it forth.Baba's

speeches and conversation were so full of rare and deep wisdom that the next

day a number of senior monks and neophytes came to see Baba and plied him with

questions designed to clarify their doubts. Swamis Sadananda and Satchidananda

found themselves surrounded by eager inquirers

wanting more and more information about Baba, his life, his glory, and his

Prasanthi Nilayam (abode of great peace) at Puttaparthi. Swami Sadananda told a

young Brahmachari that Baba can roam at will through the regions of the soul,

the supersoul, and the oversoul, and can reveal whatever happens anywhere at

any time. He also said he is all-powerful and had seen Baba converting a grain

of rice into a grain of ivory and transforming that grain of ivory into a

hundred and eight elephant figurines, each one carved and clearly recognizable

by means of a magnifying glass.Swami Sivananda also had hour-long discussions

with Baba every evening and was given fruits and holy ash materialized

specially for improving his health. Day by day the Swami became better and

better. One day Baba took Ganges water in his hand, and lo, it became sweet and

fragrant nectar. He gave it to the Swami to be taken as a cure. It came as a

pleasant surprise to many in the Ashram when they saw, on the day

Baba departed, Swami Sivananda enthusiastically taking Baba around his

hermitage, for on the day Baba reached the Ashram, and for a number of days

thereafter, the Swami had been pushed around in a wheel chair!The twenty-sixth

of July, 1957, was full of pleasant memories for the devotees and the residents

of Sivanandashram, for Baba boarded a bus and proceeded along the bank of the

Ganges to a palace of the Rani of Garhwal for a quiet morning.On the way back

Baba stopped the bus at a place where a thin little iron post carried a

half-distinct nameplate reading "The Cave of Vasishta" (Guru of Rama). He

descended the rather precipitous incline to the river bank as if he had been

there often before, and as if he were aware of a prearranged engagement with

the occupant of the cave. The Ganges curves widely near the cave, and so the

scenery was doubly attractive. The cave bears a hallowed name; it has been

sanctified by the austerities performed therein by many great

recluses and monks in the past. Swami Purushotamananda, a disciple of Swami

Brahamananda of the Ramakrishna order, had been initiated into monastic life by

Mahapurushji, another direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. The Swami had been in

the cave for thirty years. he welcomed Baba as if expecting him. He was more

than seventy years old and had spent the major part of his life in asceticism

of a most rigorous kind and in the study of the scriptures. His face had the

genuine glow of spiritual joy and the slightest mention of the glory of the

Godhead sent him into samadhi, the depths of inner bliss. When a young man of

twenty-seven, Brahamanandaji had read his palm at Kanyakumari and predicted

that he would go into a cave for continuous meditation.Baba repeated the visit

the next evening in spite of a thunderous sky and the grumbling of those who

accompanied him, but both ceased by his grace. Baba sang a number of songs

while at the cave. Hearing that the Swami had been suffering

from chronic stomach-ache for many years, Baba "took" some candy from nowhere

and gave it to him with instructions about diet.More mysterious and significant

was the Vision that he gave to Swami Purushotamananda that evening. As early as

1918, the Swami had written to his Master, "All is false and I cannot rest

satisfied until and unless I come face to face with Truth!" After sending

everyone outside the cave, Baba and the sage went into the inner room. Sri

Subbaramiah, President of the Divine Life Society at Venkatagiri, describes

what he was able to see from outside the cave: "Even now that picture is

imprinted in my memory. I was standing near the entrance to the cave. I could

see what was happening through a chink in the door. Baba placed his head on the

lap of Swami Purushotamananda and lay himself down. Suddenly his entire body was

bathed in divine brilliance. His head and face appeared to me to have increased

very much in size. Rays of splendor emanated from his face.

I was overwhelmed with a strange inexplicable joy." When later asked to divulge

the nature of the vision, Baba informed us that it was a vision of the darshan

of Padmanabha as installed, since childhood, in his heart. "It was

Jyothirpadmanabha". He said Jyothi meaning Light.After a minute or two, Baba

rose and sitting by the side of the septuagenarian, called him by name and

slowly brought him into the consciousness of space and time. Baba sang a song

on Rama, composed by Thyagaraja and when he concluded, he waved his hand and

materialised from the air a rosary of sparkling sphatika beads for

Purushotamananda.Five years later when the Swami left his body behind and

merged in that Truth, Baba announced his departure to me at Puttaparthi

(thousands of miles away). It was a few minutes after the emergence of the

Lingam from Baba's stomach where it grew for days. It was Mahashivarathri; Baba

told me that Swami's body will be buried with the Sphatika Rosary on the chest.

(It was!)The incidents at Vasishtha cave were literally mind-blowing. When we

were allowed in, we hung on every word that Baba uttered and gathered every

signal of adoration that emanated from the aged monk - the rising eye-brow, the

twinkling eye, the smothered gasp, the folded palm, the smile that shone atop

the beard. Baba told him of his early trials at the cave, of his struggles to

light a fire and of his amazement, one morning, to find a package of match

boxes hiding in a corner. Baba confirmed "I placed it there for you". The monk

sat up at this surprising revelation. The attendant monks explained that for

many years they were using fire-stones to get the spark which they would

nourish, feed and foster into flame. They too were aghast at the discovery,

that Baba was aware of their Guru, of his travails and his needs. "He knows

all: He is all" they exclaimed. Man has no means to identify what cannot be

accounted for, explained or measured. He can only sit silent,

dumbfounded in deep dismay.N. Kasturi, 'Sathyam, Shivam, Sundaram (The Life

of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba)', and N. Kasturi, 'Loving God'.

Source:

http://www.saibaba.ws/articles/saibabasivananda.htm

COLLECTION: PREETHAM SAI P.V.

MANGALORE,INDIA.

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