Sai Baba the Master - By E.Bhardawaj

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There is a particular significance in Baba choosing the neem tree. Its sap

is bitter. This signifies the first noble truth of the Buddha which says

that phenomenal existence is conditioned by sorrow. Yet, medicinally, the

neem tree is very valuable. Though this phenomenal creation is a web of

sorrow and impermanence, it is also the only possibility for the human

spirit to work out its karmic store and to heal itself of the disease of

spiritual ignorance. Such a tree of creation has, at its base, the Supreme

Spirit which is joy and freedom. Baba sitting under the tree represents

this spirit, helping the souls to utilize the sorrow of life as a point of

departure for their quest for spiritual wisdom. Further, those who remember

the Spirit that underlies all things, are freed from the sorrows of life.

Such a way of life is represented by the particular branch of the neem tree

under which Baba sat. No wonder that the leaves of that branch were found

to be particularly free from bitterness. If bitterness stands for sorrow,

sweetness, which is its opposite, must stand for joy. The mere absence of

bitterness (and sweetness) stands for the supreme spiritual state which is

above the pairs of relative joy and sorrow which is promised by such a life

of awareness of the omnipresent Spirit. Sri Upasani Baba, in the fourth and

fifth of his sixteen verses in praise of Sai Baba, had hinted at this

symbolic significance. Hindu tradition also describes Lord Dakshinamurthi,

the God of Wisdom, as a youth seated at the foot of the banyan tree (as

Baba was, when he first appeared in 1854). Sri Krishna is described as

standing under the tamala tree. It is significant that Siddhartha attained

Bodhi at the foot of the Bodhi tree.

 

Baba lived by begging at five houses in the village. All the ancient

religions considered the whole creation as made of the five elements. The

Supreme Spirit, when it manifests itself on the material plane as an

avatar, has to draw constantly from these five elements for sustaining its

physical form. Again, mind manifests its five powers of objective perception

in the form of five senses from which it has to draw all its sustenance of

relative experiences of the phenomena. The underlying principle of these

two phenomena is symbolised by Baba’s act of begging (as also by Lord Siva’

s and Lord Dattatreya’s, in Hindu mythology).

 

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