Sai Baba the Master by E.Bharadwaja

[Guest guest]

Another incident happened after five years. A Moslem named Jawahar Ali came

from Ahmedangar to Rahata. He was a great scholar endowed with a sweet

tongue. Soon he brought the natives of that village under his sway and

started to build for the sake of Moslems, a place for praying. But, in the

meanwhile the people, unable to bear with his narrow minded religious view,

drove him away from that village. Ali ran away and took shelter in the

musjid at Shirdi. But he did not leave his narrow mentality. He influenced

the devotees by his good talk and soon started telling that Sai was his

disciple. Baba also started behaving accordingly with patience and

humility. Ali thought of making use of this opportunity and taking Baba he

went to Rahata and started to live there. Both of them used to come now and

then to Shirdi and go back. Unable to bear this situation, devotees went to

Rahata to bring Baba to Shirdi. There Baba met them near the Idga (the wall

before which the Moslems pray on their holy day of Id) and said, "This Ali

will not send me at all. I should not come if he does not send me. He is an

irritable man. Even if he sees you, he will become wild. It will be good if

you return before he comes". By that time he came and on hearing about

their idea, flew into a rage. At last they arrived at an agreement and

brought both the guru and the disciple to Shirdi. Soon, the devotees who

disliked the behavior of Ali, arranged a discussion in vedanta (Hindu

philosophy) between him and Devidas. In that, the old scholar Ali had a

defeat in front of the young Devidas. On the next day he left for Bijapur

without telling anybody. Later on, once he repented for his behavior and

took darshan of Baba with bhakthi and sraddha. Baba had been showing by his

behavior how much humility and patience a sadhu should have. As Ramana

Maharshi has said, "Only a jnani can recognize a jnani".

But it took that long for Ali to realize that. The truth blended with love

and patience only conquered in the end.

One Shankar Narayana Vaidya used to worship the samadhi of a mahatma

called Nanavalli. One day that mahatma gave him darshan in a dream and

ordered him to go to Shirdi. He went to Shirdi. When Sai came, as soon as

he saw him, he recognized him to be a great soul and with great intimacy he

said "Mama, have you come?" As Baba told him not to open his mouth, he did

not tell anybody anything about Baba. Devotees started calling him

Nanavalli. Once he approached Baba who was seated on his gaddi (raised

seat) and asked him in a rude manner, to get up, as he himself wanted to

sit there. Baba at once got up very willingly and Nanavalli sat in that

place. After a few seconds Nanavalli got up and asked Baba to resume his

place and when he sat there, fell at his feet and went away. Evidently

Nanavalli wanted to test whether Baba’s growing fame had made him

possessive and proud. Finding him not in the least displeased at being so

rudely ordered out of his seat, Nanavalli bowed before Baba, meekness

personified. When Baba attained samadhi, he had been lamenting, "Oh, Mama,

I cannot live without you. I will also come!" for thirteen days; and

without taking even food and water, he also took samadhi.

 

 

 

(To be contd....)

 

Source http://www.saibharadwaja.org)