Sai Baba the Master - By E.Bhardawaj

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Baba’s second advent at Shirdi along with Chand Patil is interesting. Baba

restored the run-away horse to him and thereby made himself known for what

he is, a sadguru. This indeed is rich with symbolism. Mind is the horse or

the carrier of man to his goal of perfection. But when he loses control

over it, it is lost in the wilderness of phenomenal existence. When such a

man is earnest in his search for it, he is sure to be brought in touch with

a Perfect Master who restores the lost means of his spiritual journey. The

twelve ox-herding pictures of Buddhism represent the same truth. In one of

his parables, Baba says that a man had a horse which refused to go in pair.

A wise man advises him to take it back to the place from which it was

brought. This makes the horse obedient. I have explained the significance

of the parable in an earlier chapter. We have a parallel to this in Sri

Swami Samarth of Akkalkot restoring the royal elephant which ran amock, to

the prince. So did Sri Gajanan Maharaj of Shegoan tame the unruly horse of

a devotee, Takhlikar.

 

After his second and final advent at Shirdi, Baba raised a flower garden

on a piece of waste land. The significance of this act is hinted at in the

relevant chapter in this book. We have also noted that one of Baba’s

parables also refers to it with the same significance.

 

The next significant event in the life of Baba is his stay at the mosque.

His arrival there, we have noted, marked his recognition by the people as a

sadguru. His first appearance under the neem tree was, so to say, a period

of incubation, a working at the roots, so that the mighty spiritual tree

might unfold itself to the world in its next phase. But henceforth, he is

the gateway to the Spirit. True spirituality is above the narrow formalism

of religions. As Vivekananda says, religions are the kindergartens of the

Spirit. Baba is the Way and the Truth beyond religions. It is significant

that he named the mosque as ‘Dwaraka mayi’. The significance of the name as

explained by the Skandapurana, is already mentioned in the book. Once Baba,

the Truth, comes to dwell in it, it cannot be either a mosque or a temple.

It can only be both or none. Besides, it is a particular symbol of Baba’s

physical frame. Baba was a Pir to the Moslem, a wali, an aulia. He was all

the gods to the Hindus and therefore, the guru. So was Dwarakamayi, a mosque

to moslems and a temple to Hindus and Parsees. Both the saint and the place

were ever open to the devotees. To both of them Allah, is the Malik. When

Baba left his physical body, he appeared to some of his devotees in dreams

and told them that the musjid was fallen. When one of the devotees was

making holes in the musjid – walls in order to raise a shed for the silver

palanquin, Baba described the act as a child injuring the mother’s leg.

Whenever he received dakshina from the devotees, he used to say that musjid

ayi or mother musjid received it and that she would bless them. It is not

like any other mosque. Only those whom Allah permitted were allowed inside.

How real this symbolic identity between Baba’s physical existence and the

musjid can be seen from the fact that the Samsthan at Shirdi is inspired by

Baba to maintain the place as it was, with its dhuni and lamps, just as

Baba’s physical frame continues to manifest itself before many of his

devotees even today.

 

(Source : http://www.saibharadwaja.org)