Sai Baba the Master - By E.Bhardawaj

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APPENDIX - VI

Baba’s Antecedents

It was late Sri Das Ganu Maharaj who first wrote the story regarding Baba’

s birth, parentage and discipleship. Later, late Sri B.V. Narasimhaswami

has elaborated it in the first part of ‘Life of Sai Baba’. We have shown in

Chapters II & III of this book that the story could not be true. In fact,

when Sri B.V. Narasimhaswami compiled ‘Devotees Experiences’, Sri Das Ganu

Maharaj, in his account, says that he first wrote ‘Bhaktisaramrit’ chapters

52 and 53 which were approved by Baba. The rest of the story of Baba’s life

contained in that book was published in 1925. The details of the previous

history of Baba which are included in chapter 28 deal with Baba’s story at

Selu. Das Ganu himself admits that the story was partly based on Baba’s

stray references, but mostly it was what he gathered from hearsay from the

natives of that place. The only thing that Baba is said to have mentioned

was that he came from Selu. When Das Ganu was working in the Police

department, he tried to investigate the antecedents of Baba. He admits that

he does not even remember which facts of Baba’s life were conveyed to him

by which native of Selu. All that he could gather was that a hundred years

earlier, there lived an old man in Selu; that a fakir came and stayed with

him; that some people had killed the old mahatma for some grudge which they

had against him; that the fakir had finally escaped.

 

Now let us see if it is proper to identify the fakir in the Selu story

with Sai Baba. When I was gathering information about the life of Hazarat

Tajuddin Baba of Nagpur, one of his disciples told me that a fakir came to

the Baba for instructions, and that he was Sai Baba. I found a similar

claim from the devotees of Sri Swami Samarth of Akkalkot. His devotees

claim that Sai Baba was his disciple. I found that the source of all this

confusion is the custom of referring to fakirs as Sai (a saint). Thus the

Sai’s mentioned in the three stories above are identical only in their

common title. But as the name of Sai Baba of Shirdi became famous,

different people came to identify him with the various fakirs in the life

histories of the three mahatmas mentioned above.

 

Sai Baba told his early devotees of Shirdi that his guru’s tomb was

underneath the local neem tree. He told Swami Sai Sarananandaji, that

Roshan Shah was his guru. On another occasion, he told Hemadpanth that he

met his guru in a forest. All this calls into question the authenticity of

his connection with the guru of Selu. Besides, Das Ganu started his

investigation in 1901. So, the Selu-episode could have taken place prior to

1801, according to his account. That is, if this story were true, Baba’s

age at his arrival at Shirdi ought to be about 50 years. Some say that Baba

appeared at Shirdi in 1872. As per this version, if the Selu - episode was

true, Baba ought to be 70 years old at his first arrival at Shirdi. We thus

find no possibility of the story being true. If Baba’s single statement

that he came from Selu is to be accepted literally, what should we think of

his identifying himself with the Mauliv Saheb of Nanded and with Swami

Samarth of Akkalkot? It is possible that his reference to Selu was just a

cryptic statement implying something totally different.

 

WITH THIS WE COMPLETE THE POSTING OF SAI BABA THE MASTER BY E.BHARDAWAJ, I

THANK YOU ALL FOR GOING THRU THIS BOOK ON BABA.

 

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