Sai Baba the Master

December 21, 2005

At the end of three years of his discipleship in July 1914, one night Sri

Upasani Maharaj took silent leave of his Master and left for Nagpur. He

later went to Kharagpur, Varanasi, Allahabad and other places where, crowds

flocked to him. Countless miracles manifested themselves to his devotees.

He visited Baba in the years 1915 and 1916 and, in 1917, he finally settled

at Sakori, a hamlet a few miles from Shirdi. Sakori today is a great

spiritual center. Sri Upasani attained maha samadhi on 24.12.1941. A big

samsthan (or institution) has taken shape there to meet the needs of the

seekers who go there for Light.

Meher Baba

In the blossoming of Sri Upasani Baba we find the best demonstration and

instance of the truth of Sai Baba’s promise to humanity. “This brahman

shall lead lakhs of people to the subhra marga.”

The quickest and perhaps the only feasible way to do so is to make as many

as possible of perfect saints of his own stature so that each would in his

turn, become another center for a similar chain of spiritual evolution of

mankind. While he established Upasani Maharaj as the luminary in the

spiritual firmament, this off-shoot of Sai’s force, in his turn,

established another powerful spiritual center in Sri Meher Baba.

There is prevalent, a misconception that when a Sai Baba has given away

all his spiritual treasure to Upasani Maharaj or Upasani Maharaj to a Meher

Baba, the giver himself loses all his spiritual power and becomes inferior

to the receiver of it. This has created an unhealthy sense of rivalry

between devotees of the Masters which is harmful to whatever spiritual

seedlings have been planted in their hearts by their sadgurus. Nothing can

be far from truth; for spiritual power increases by being given, in

contrast to the material wealth which is lost by giving. The truth is that

when a perfect master like Sai Baba makes another his equal, the two become

one in spirit and the same Universal Power of God can be contacted through

either of them. For instance, if a Hindu visitor to Dwaraka Mai has an

inhibition that Sai Baba was a Moslem and so not worthy of worship, Upasani

Maharaj, even while sitting in the Khandoba temple, feels the pinch of it

and refuses to accept the worship from that devotee till he overcomes that

inhibition and worships Sai Baba freely. The phenomenon operates the other

way too. Sai Baba did order his devotees to go and worship Upasani Baba

also in the Khandoba temple. “That which constitutes I, constitutes you.

There is no difference between you and I”, said Sai Baba to Upasani.

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