Sai Baba the Master by E.Bharadwaja

[Guest guest]

I will conclude this chapter with an instance of how Baba has been

actively guiding me in my material life also. Owing to my keen

reflection

on joy and sorrow in life I came to a decision to remain a celebate

all my

life and dedicate all my energies to the spiritual quest. Even my

father

had stopped pressing me to get married. This was before I stayed at

the

ashram.

 

At that time I used to visit a recluse saint at a nearby town,

Chirala. He

was a perfect Avadhuta. One day when I saw him, he gave me an old,

dark

nylon sari with which some generous soul probably covered him the

previous

night to protect him from the winter cold. He told me to cover myself

with

it and to keep it with me. Some friends later remarked that the saint

indicated that I should get married but I was not convinced. After a

year

or so I happened to visit a celebate saint who lived in the thick

forests

of Chinthapalli range who explicitly told me that I should get married

in

view of my karmic ties since a former life and that I had better clear

them off. After he attained niryana (shedding his physical frame) I

had a

doubt. The saint was known to my father and my eldest brother. Could

he

have counselled me to oblige my father? But there was no way of

ascertaining the truth. In 1973, I visited Shirdi to pray for explicit

guidance in the matter. I stayed there for a week, spending all my

time in

circumambulating the samadhi (tomb), devout study of Baba’s life and

prayer. On the seventh day, which happened to be the holy Vijayadasami

(dassera festival) the anniversary of Baba’s mahasamadhi was being

celebrated I finished my chosen routine by midnight and I waited near

Baba’s samadhi for half an hour but I did not receive any message from

Baba.

 

Tired with the day’s routine I relaxed in the nearby park. Within five

minutes a bespectacled gentlemen approached me and said, “ One great

man

is staying with me in my room. He is one Puran Dalayi from Bombay. He

wants you to see him. I am Roy from Calcutta”. I was at first

surprised by

the unsolicited greeting. I even suspected that probably some smuggler

must have mistaken me, from my midnight walk for one of his own tribe

and

thus was seeking to establish contact with me. However, I wished to

see

what it was and I at once went to his room which was nearby. An

elderly

man of about 55 or 60 was standing before a room in which there was no

light. At my approach he entered the room, switched on the light and

turned round. I was amazed to find before me a man who seemed an exact

replica of the forest-dwelling Swami (of Chinthapalli) who was no

more!

Only when this gentleman addressed me in Hindi did I realize that this

was

a different man. He said, “Sai Baba appears before me in my dhyana.

Today

I paid my respects to the samadhi and sat here in our room for

mediation.

Baba appeared before me and said, ‘One of my devotees is doing

pradakshina

(circumambulation) to my samadhi for a message from me’. Convey this,

my

message, to him at once!” Saying thus he gave me a message. I told

Baba

that it was not possible for me to identify the said devotee in that

crowd, and so I said I would go and sit in the nearby park and I would

deliver the message to whosoever comes there within five minutes of my

sitting there. Should no one come, it is not my business. ‘So you

should

impel the said devotee to go over there within that time’. So saying,

I

sat in the park. You came within that time and so I had sent for you

and

came here. Here we can have privacy. Now, young man, what is your

problem

for which you want a message from Baba?” “I am sorry to say so but I

do

not want to share my problem with any one except Baba. If you tell me

the

message which he wished you to convey to me, I shall see whether it is

connected with my problem and, If so, I shall accept it”. The old man

smiled and said, “You wished to know what Baba has to say regarding

the

question of your marriage. Baba wants me to tell you that you should

get

married and that thereby your karmic ties would be worked out.” “Yes,

that

was the issue I had in mind”, I confessed. “After your marriage both

of

you should come to Shirdi and serve Baba for at least a week. That’s

baba’s pleasure,” he added. Accordingly, my marriage took place on the

6th

of March, 1975 and on the 14th of April , my wife and I visited Shirdi

and

stayed in his service for two weeks.

 

 

 

Sri Sai Baba - A Sketch of His Life (I)

 

 

 

Sai Baba, one of the foremost saints of modern India, lived in the

little

village of Shirdi in the State of Maharashtra for sixty years and

elevated

it to the status of a great spiritual center. He never stirred out of

that

village during this long period except for visits to two villages,

Neemgaon and Rahata, three miles on either side of Shirdi. He never

preached, toured, nor discoursed. He never advertised himself. He

rather

shunned and discouraged unnecessary publicity. Yet by the sheer

brilliance

of his spiritual fire he did draw innumerable devotees to him from all

over the country, irrespective of their caste or creed. When he took

samadhi in 1918 (i.e., left off his physical body) he never installed

anyone as a successor to his spiritual throne at Shirdi. Yet his very

power to mould and develop his devotees spiritually is such that even

more

than 50 years after his samadhi, Sai Baba is still a dynamic spiritual

force which countless Indians invoke for their spiritual and material

welfare. No wonder many of the new borns in our country are named

after

this great God-man and hundreds of his shrines have been built and are

being visited by his devotees all over India. Many more are in the

offing.

Many books have been written of him in various Indian languages.

 

What is of special relevance to present day India in Sai Baba’s gospel

and

example is that religious and communal differences are meaningless in

matters of the spirit.

 

Yet surprising as it may sound, a god-man of his stature and fame is

without a name. No one knows his original name, time and place of

birth,

his religion and caste, not even of his parents. He never revealed the

same to anybody. ‘Sai Baba’, the name by which he came to be known, is

what has been used by one of his first devotees to greet him on his

second

arrival at Shirdi. ‘Sai’ means ‘saint’ and ‘Baba’ means ‘father’. The

name

is thus just an expression of love and reverence due to such a

spiritual

giant as he, and is not a personal name. He allowed himself to be

addressed as such, ever since.

 

All that we definitely know of Sai Baba is that his arrival at Shirdi

was

very sudden. One day he appeared as a boy of sixteen or seventeen,

seated

under a neem (or margosa) tree in the outskirts of the village of

Shirdi,

about the year 1854 1. However, even this date is not definitely

noted.

 

 

 

An old woman of Shirdi, mother of one Nana Chopdar described him

thus -

“This young lad, fair, smart and very handsome, was first seen under

the

neem tree, seated in an asana. The people of the village were

wonder-struck to see such a young lad practicing hard penance, not

minding

heat and cold. By day he associated with none, by night he was afraid

of

nobody. People were wondering and asking whence this young chap turned

up.

His form and features were so beautiful that a mere look endeared him

to

all. He went to nobody’s door, but always sat near the neem tree.

Outwardly he looked very young but by his action He was really a great

soul. He was the embodiment of dispassion and was an enigma to all.

One

day it so happened that God Khandoba 2 possessed the body of some

devotee

and people began to ask him “Deva (god), you please tell us what

blessed

father’s son is this lad and whence did he come?” God Khandoba asked

them

to bring a pick-axe and dig in a particular place. When it was dug,

bricks

were found and underneath that, a flat stone. When the stone was

removed,

a corridor was seen in which four samayis (earthen lamps) were

burning.

The corridor led to a cellar where cow-mouth shaped structures, wooden

boards and necklaces were seen. Khandoba said, “ ‘This lad practiced

penance here for 12 years’. Then the people began to question the lad

about this. He put them off the scent by telling them that this was

his

guru’s place, his holy watan (tomb or resting place), and requested

them

to guard it well. The people then closed the corridor as before.” 3

 

“Mahalsapathy was probably the first to introduce himself to Sri Sai

Baba;

he was so much impressed with the conversation he had with Baba that

he

thereafter saw him daily and introduced baba to his friends, Kasinath

the

tailor and Appa Jogle, saying that a fakir Sai Baba had made a sudden

appearance on the outskirts of the village near the debris of the

village

wall, that he is far above the common man, a pure and holy man worth

paying respects to. From that time onwards he came to be known as Sai

Baba. This trio-Mahalspathy, Kasinath and Joge-daily went to Baba,

paid

their respects to him and supplied whatever little requirements he

had.

The news that one Sai Baba had manifested himself near the nimb (neem)

tree on the outskirts of the village reached the ears of the late Appa

Patil Kote and one day he, with his wife, went to Baba to pay his

respects. He (Baba) left his seat, got up and welcomed Appa and told

his

wife that she had been veritably his sister. The lady Bayajibai, on

seeing

Baba, was so much impressed that she there and then resolved never to

take

her food without first feeding Baba.”

 

(To be contd....)

 

Source http://www.saibharadwaja.org)