BABA IS MANIFESTATION OF DATTATREYA

[Guest guest]

Baba is not only saint but also manifestation of Lord Dattatreya.

 

Sometimes before I came to Vidyanagar (i.e. when I was at the ashram

of a mother) I happened to go to Naimisaranya to take darshan of Sri

Ma Anandamayi who was conducting a Bhagawata saptaha there. The

Swamiji who was giving the exposition, in the course of his talk one

day Sai that only a living sage can lead us to Enlightenment or

liberation and that one who had shed his body, however great, can at

best bless us with material welfare only. This raised a question

regarding the efficacy of my devotion to Sri Sai though I did not

give it up.

 

Sometime after my arrival at Vidyanagar, an old student of mine in

Hyderabad visited me and invited me to his house in Pune on my next

visit to Shirdi. I casually agreed. I subsequently visited Shirdi

with the idea of staying there for a week. But from the second day of

my stay at Shirdi, all my mind was strongly driving me to visit Pune.

Finding it useless to confine my body at Shirdi any longer, I at last

arrived there. My friend was away at his office and I resolved to go

round the city before he returned home. On the way the sight of a

flower shop made me inquire whether there was any great saint in

Pune. A gentleman told me that there was Gulavani Maharaj, a disciple

of Sri Vasudevananda Saraswathi (alias Sri Tembe Swamy). I at once

visited him with a simple offering. When he saw me prostrating, he

addressed me, "Oh! You are the child of Sai Baba." Thrilled at this

uncanny knowledge, I expressed my doubts about the efficacy of my

devotion to Sri Sai, a saint who had shed his physical body more than

half century ago. He said that Sri Sai Baba is not a mere saint but a

manifestation of Lord Dattatreya, that he has been guiding seekers

spiritually even after his mahasamadhi and even manifesting himself

physically before some; that I was, on the right path and that I need

no other guide.

 

Sometime later, a saint of about 55 years appeared in my dream.

Though his form was quite different, I had the vivid feeling that he

was Sai Baba. He embraced me and said thrice, "Why worry that you

don't have a guru? I am here!"

 

Written by: Sri Pujya Acharya E. Bharadwaja in `Sai Baba The Master"