Sai Baba the Master by E.Bharadwaja

[Guest guest]

Then he (the guru) took me to a well, tied my legs together with a

rope

and suspended me head downwards from a tree that stood close by. My

head

was three feet above the water, so that I could not reach it. Then he

left

me and returned again after about five hours and asked me how I was

getting on. ‘I am in bliss supreme’, I replied. The guru was much

pleased

with my reply, embraced me, stroking my body with his hand. He

accepted me

as his disciple. I forgot my mother and father and all my desires. I

loved

to gaze on him endlessly. I did not want to go back. I forgot

everything

but the guru. My whole life was concentrated in my sight and my sight

on

him. He was the object of my meditation. In silence I bowed down.” 6

 

However, that Baba had a guru is certain; for he had a brick with him

which he always used as a pillow when he slept, and on which he always

kept his hand when he sat. He said of it, “This brick is my guru’s

gift,

my life’s companion.” Probably the two accounts of his discipleship

supplement each other.

 

Earlier biographers of Sai Baba have taken this episode, especially

his

being suspended head downwards, three feet above the water in a well,

as

being merely symbolic. Though their explanation of the symbolism is

illuminating, the possibility of it being a literal fact cannot be

ruled

out. The earlier writers based their conjecture as to the symbolic

nature

of the episode on the common experience that ‘no one can be at ease

and

feel bliss if he be suspended with a rope – head down and feet up – in

a

well for hours together!” 7 A similar incident took place in the

life of

Hazrat Tajuddin Baba of Nagpur, a contemporary of Sai Baba, which

shows

that the incident could literally have taken place. I shall quote at

length from my unpublished book on the great saint:

 

“The uncanny ways in which he transmitted various spiritual

experiences

are no less striking. One day someone asked Tajuddin Baba, ‘Master,

how

can ‘hal’ (bliss) be experienced’? Baba took off his cap and kept it

on

the ground top downwards. The seeker was suddenly overwhelmed with the

direct experience of hal and in that ecstatic state, stood on his head

and

started dancing on his head and hands! Only after Baba turned the cap

into

the normal position did the visitor get out of the ecstatic mood and

he

stood upright. Then Tajuddin Baba asked him, ‘Have you realized how it

is

to be experienced?’ The question has a deeper significance than is

apparent. He, as a spiritual teacher, out of his grace, has to grant

it to

his disciple and that is the only way of experiencing hal. This

incident

also shows that mystical states of consciousness are not merely

subjective

states which the saint has to experience for himself through

self-conditioning or auto-suggestion, without any objective reality

about

them. He could, at will, communicate it to one who could not obtain

the

experience through his own endeavors. This finds a parallel in Sri

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa giving an experience of ‘God’ to Vivekananda

at

will”.

 

This experience of hal by Tajuddin Baba’s disciple and his experience

of

bliss in an inverted position shows that it is not only possible but

conducive to certain types of spiritual ecstasy conferred upon

disciples

by their gurus.

 

Indeed the hanging of a sadhaka head downwards into a well seems to be

a

specific technique adopted by certain gurus to help their disciples

achieve quick spiritual progress and some saints used the technique

even

for themselves. Baba Farid Ganj Sakkar, the guru of the celebrated

saint

of Delhi, Sheikh Nizamuddin Aulia, hung himself head down into a well

for

forty days. But he administered no such method to his disciples. So it

is

a technique, which was called for by an individual need.

 

 

Once, during the early days of Baba’s arrival at Shirdi, a magician

from

Belapur came to Shirdi. He was the son-in-law of one Moidinbhai. He

had a

quarrel with Sai Baba, and it is said, the two wrestled to settle the

dispute and Baba was defeated. Then Baba left the village and lived in

the

jungle a mile or two away from Shirdi. He starved frequently, taking

no

food and allowed no one to approach him. If people went to him he

would

beat them.

1 Anna Saheb Dhabolkar’s "Sri Sai Satcharitra".

2 Name of Lord Siva’s manifestation; Khandoba is the presiding

deity of

the village and

a shrine to him is seen even today at the village.

3 "Sai Satcharitra" (English) translated by Sri Gunaji.

4 "Sai the Superman".

5 "Sai Satcharitra" and "Sai Baba’s Charters and Sayings".

6 "Sai Baba’s Charters and Sayings" by B.V.Narasimhaswamy.

7 "The Incredible Sai Baba" by Arthur Osborne.

A Sketch of His Life (II)

 

In the early days of his stay at Shirdi, Sai Baba grew his hair long

but

never had it shaved or cut. He dressed himself like an athlete. He

used to

tie a white turban on his head, a dhotar round his waist and wore a

shirt.

He was quiet and calm in his demeanour and showed no craving for any

comforts or luxuries. He never discriminated between the rich and the

poor

in his treatment of the visitors. He was equally indifferent to honour

or

dishonour shown to him by the people. He used to utter the name of

Allah

frequently. He either spent his time alone at the mosque or wandered

about

the village or into the neighbouring jungles.

 

We have already noted how Tatya Kote, Mahalspathy and a few others

respected Sai Baba as a saint. Tatya Kote's mother Bayajabai too was

very

much devoted to him. Whenever baba wandered into the jungles,

Bayajabai

used to go to the woods, carrying food in a basket on her head. She

used

to walk miles on end in search of him, across bushes and shrubs. She

never

gave up her search till she found him out. Often she found Sai Baba

sitting alone, calm and motionless, under some tree, in deep

meditation.

Then she would boldly approach him, spread the leaf plate before him

and

serve the meal. Sometimes Sai Baba was oblivious of all this, immersed

as

he was in dhyana samadhi. At such moments she would mix the food and

feed

him with her own hands as a mother feeds the child. For sometime this

was

almost a regular occurrence and Bayajabai looked upon this as her vow

and

spiritual discipline. After sometime, as though out of compassion for

her,

Sai Baba ceased wandering and mostly confined himself to the mosque.

But

he never forgot the devoted and loving services she had rendered to

him as

long as he was in flesh and blood. He not only treated her with great

affection and love but showered his mercy on her son Tatya Kote also

as

though he were repaying a deep debt of gratitude.

 

(To be contd....)

 

Source http://www.saibharadwaja.org)