Sai Baba the Master by E.Bharadwaja

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Devidas was practicing medicine in the surrounding villages. One day Baba

reproached him saying "Sadhus should be at a long distance from ladies".

Nobody knew the reason for that reproach. After some days a rich woman

brought him under her sway by threatening to spread bad rumour about him.

Then he understood the meaning of Sai’s words and went away leaving that

place. But Janakidas used to follow the warnings of Sai scrupulously. At

last when he was leaving Shirdi, devotees gave him a grand send-off. At

that times his divine brilliance merged in the idol of Maruthi, in the form

of a light.

The Call of The Guru

It is said in most of the Indian scriptures that in order to attain the

final realization, it is necessary to resort to a guru. The Sufis too

attach great reverence to the ‘Murshid’ (guru), And I believe the same

ideas underlines Jesus Christ’s words, “No one can come to the Father

except through me”. This is a truth which represents a particular angle of

vision. Those who are not ripe enough to understand the truth implied

herein have a doubt as to how one could be sure whether a particular holy

man is a worthy guide or not. The one unfailing solution to the problem was

given by great ones like Kabir who says that we need not run in search of

the guru, that he would come to us if and when we are ready to receive him.

Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi also often told his devotees that though God, Guru

and the Self are one, when a seeker needs a guru in the human form, the

Lord does appear to him in that form to turn his mind inward.

 

There are very many instances in which Sri Baba played the role of the

guru in human form and led the seeker to himself. Sometimes, the seeker was

led to him by Baba himself in his own person and sometimes by a deity which

the seeker worshipped devoutly. Sometimes another great saint had led the

devotees to him. However, it is not to be supposed that every one that is

led to the sadguru is bound to become perfect in this life itself. Every

one derives benefit according to the ripeness of his soul and in accordance

with his inner yearning. Many of them take lives of inner development and

in each, the sadguru lifts him on to a higher level. In some, this

development may not manifest to themselves. We shall now proceed to note

how several of his devotees were drawn to Sri Sai Baba.

M.G. Pradhan, a clerk of Bombay had lost his seven year-old son and was

much upset. He heard of Sai Baba from one of his friends, One night he had

a dream in which he saw five sadhus seated together. He asked them, “Which

of you is Sai Baba?” One of them pointed to Sai Baba who was seated among

the other four sadhus. Later, when he visited Shirdi, he was surprised to

see that Sai Baba looked exactly as he did in his dream. He even revealed

that, he knew Pradhan quite well by describing his house in Bombay, his

garden and the number of Ramaphal and Sitaphal trees in it very accurately.

He then said to some of the devotees present at the musjid about Pradhan,

“Why does the fool go on lamenting the death of a son? It is merely going

to the earth. Why go on lamenting that?”

 

(To be contd....)

 

Source http://www.saibharadwaja.org)