Guest guest Posted December 7, 2005 Report Share Posted December 7, 2005 It was a terrible blow to the countless devotees and the whole village of Shirdi felt like a corpse with its spirit gone. The news spread fast and the whole village rushed to the mosque weeping and crying. Strangely, Tatya recovered very rapidly and could sit up by noon. Devotees felt that Sai made the supreme sacrifice of his life to save Tatya from certain death. For did not Sai say that he would even give his own head to save his devotee? A Controversy Soon the matter of the last rites of Baba became the subject of a great controversy. One section of devotees which included Kushalchand said that the body must be buried in an open plot according to the moslem custom, and the expenses be borne by those who had been benefiting by his daily bounties. The other group could think of no other way than enshrining his body in Booty’s wada as per Baba’s wish. The mamlatdar of Kopergaon who was there decided to gather the signatures of either sections. Those who wanted Baba’s wish to be carried out were in the majority and so it was finally decided that the body should be enshrined in an under-ground cellar beneath the elevated platform in Booty’ s wada. In the place of the idol of Muralidhar, the photograph of Sai Baba was placed which was later replaced by the present marble statue in 1956. The last rites were conducted by Balasaheb Bhate and Upasani Maharaj. One question has remained unexplained. Baba indicated that the proposed shrine of Muralidhar would be his final resting place and said that big people would take care of him there. How did it come to pass? By ‘big people’ Baba can hardly be taken to have meant ‘big’ in a worldly, monetary sense. For he was a fakir to the core who cared two pins for rupees. Even if he did, Booty is not a small man by any standard. A building worth a few lakhs in those times, when Indian money had much greater value than today, was no small matter. Besides, it was not just a matter of rupees. A mansion that was to be a temple of Muralidhar was made the temple of Sadguru Sainath and no greater honour can be conceived for a saint or guru. Source: http://www.saibharadwaja.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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