Significance of Babas Mahasamadhi - I by B.V.Narasimhaswami

[Guest guest]

It is most appropriate that in the Dusserah month we should refer not only

to the actual Mahasamadhi of Sri Sai Baba but to the general question of the

meaning and importance of death. Death is a term which frightens many and

few people care to be addressed on the subject of death. They consider it

Amangalam and wish to avoid the very thought of it and heartily dislike any

discussion about it; but if they can face the question, then death far from

being a terror become a necessary part of their culture and their heritage.

They discover that death and life are two sides of a lens. They are

component parts of one machine, i.e. progress of all life consist of the

preceding form and birth of the succeeding one. Change is the essence of all

existence; and change is but another name for death; and once persons face

this death as a form of change, they grow bolder and wiser and discover that

every animal, every person, every creature and every particle of every

living animal or vegetable is undergoing change. This change is a matter of

joy to every creature and every vegetable. Once it is realised that change

is ordained by nature to bring about the great denouncement, then change

becomes a matter of great pride and braces up every one for the necessary

effort to face life. This will become clearer if we examine how Sai Baba

spoke about it not only as the universal Spirit inherent in all bodies but

also as a personal ego connected with the individual body called by people

Sai Baba. He sported with that ego and utilised it for carrying out his

lilas which changed every one who came in contact with it immediately or

after a long time. It is said that Sri Sankara kept up sufficient ego for

the purpose of becoming a world teacher impressing the entire world with

the lofty truths that he had absorbed in himself and was well fitted

to deliver to the world. Similarly Sai Baba kept up an ego for the

purpose of carrying out his obligations to the thousands that were connected

with him by pre-natal obligations spoken of by him as 'Rinanubandha'.

The very idea of Rinanubandha imports that he considered himself as a

person dealing with a number of limited jivas receiving from them and

returning to them various obligations etc. Now Sai Baba entered upon his

worldly life for that very purpose and came at the age of 16 to Shirdi to

draw to himself the thousands that were to benefit by his contact in this

birth again, after their previous contacts in previous janmas. In 1886

i.e., about 32 years before he passed away, Sai Baba said to

Mahalasapathi his true and most worthy disciple that he was going to have

Bheti of Allah and added that he might be away from the body for 3

days for that purpose and that in case he did not return to the body,

he might be buried near the ghod neem (sweet margosa) and that in case he

returned, he would look after his body himself. For 3 days Sai Baba's

body was a corpse in the Shirdi Mosque. After that he did return and by

re-entering his body carried on his lilas of activities through that body

for 32 years. We are faced in this connection with two questions.

First, what is this process of the soul leaving the body and returning to

it after a considerable length of time like 3 days? In the case of

Shankaracharya, it is said, that he returned to his dead body after 30

days. The question then arises as to the nature of this processs whether

it is actual death or not. That was the very matter discussed when Baba

left his body in 1886, Officers opined that he was dead and wrote the

inquest report making mention of that as an established fact.

But even then the official decision in that report was found to be

incorrect, as Baba was temporarily dead and did come back to life. In what

state the soul is after it parts from the body, is an interesting puzzle.

Referring to Lazarus being revived by Jesus 4 days after his death, his

sister asked "Where wert thou brother, those 4 days?" for which there was no

recorded reply. But Sai Baba gives his reply that he was at the feet of

Allah. In case of souls having wonderful powers like Sai Baba, they leave

their bodies and enter into new bodies or simply merge in the above.

Bhishma had this power of death at will and he chose the time when he should

quit his body, namely, after Maharasankranti. Rarely do we find a person

that can regulate his death and fix the time at which he would give up his

body. But there are such persons who are by no means true Avatkars or

distinguished amsas of God. They are pious and well-developed at the time of

death, and they can fix or discern the time at which they can depart, and

they develop the power of will, with which they hold on to life up to the

moment fixed by them for departure.

In the case of such an exalted personage like Sai Baba, it goes without

saying that he can regulate the time at which he can leave his body. He had

the power, when his physical body was seen at Shirdi, to take up other

bodies, and proceed to carry on his lilas in various places with those

bodies. This is a wonderful phenomenon, which will naturally make us think

and ponder over the meaning of the change from one body to another in the

process called death. If during life, we can pass from one body to another,

can that also not be called death? And if Sai Baba was doing thus a dozen

times, he had, we may say, births and deaths in various places by appearing

in and withdrawing from various forms. For example, when Mahalsapathi went

to Jejuri with his kavadi procession, he was horrified to find the whole

place under a deluge of cholera. Baba suddenly appealed before him at

Jejuri, producing his persona form before the eyes of Mahlsapathi. Jejuri is

about 150 miles from Shirdi. Mahlsapathi, recognised at once the form of Sai

Baba and got emboldened. When the mother is near, the child has then no

fear. He went on with his kavadi and came back safe without catching cholera

infection. Scenes like this have come within the experiences of numerous

Bhaktas.

For instance, at Harda, Sadhubhayya and three or four of his friends were

walking on; and suddenly in front of them and coming against them was seen

the figure of Sai Baba. They were greatly surprised. Baba came right upto

them and thrust his hand into the hand of Sadubhayya, passed behind him and

disappeared. One of the group was sceptic and asked the others 'What is it

you have seen?' Sadhubhayya retorted •Whether you consider it a delusion or

a fact, there is one thing which nobody can deny. When I came along with

you, I had nothing in my hand. After Baba put his hand into mine, you see

here I have pot a toothpick, which Baba thrust into my hand.' Then, said the

sceptic 'This must be capable of verification,' and they wrote to Shirdi and

asked whether Baba really came to Harda and gave a tooth-pick to Sadubhayya.

The letter came and Shama put the query to Baba. Baba in reply directed

Shama to reply and ask Sadubhayya to come up in person. Sadubhayya then went

in person and narrated the facts. As directed by Baba, he narrated the facts

before Bade Baba and others. Every one was convinced that Baba did really

appear at Harda, and Bade Baba was weeping tears and tears at the thought

that Baba could produce forms by will and withdraw from those forms, i.e.,

to use the ordinary language, Baba was born and dead within a few minutes.

Are these births and deaths, if we may term them so, matters for exultation

and weeping? If they are not, then there is no greater reason for one's

taking seriously to heart the appearance of Baba on earth and disappearance

there from. Baba himself gave his Bhaktas the strong faith that his actual

death was really no death.

Mrs. M. W. Pradhan at the time of Baba's passing away had a dream in which

she saw Baba passing away, and she said "Hallo, Baba is dead." Baba at once

corrected her in the dream and said that saints are not dying. The term to

use in their case is that they attain Samadhi. Saints never die. Several

devotees were frightened at the idea of Baba leaving them to themselves by

leaving his body. Baba told one of them, a Bombay lady, "Mother I do not

die. Wherever you are, if you think of me, lam there at any time you please

(whether I am in the body or out of it), and Damodar Rasane was given the

same assurance. The latter informed B. V. N Swami that after Mahasamadhi of

1918, Sri Rasane saw physical, living and moving body of Sai Baba with his

own (Rasane's) eyes any number of times and talked and moved with that body.

If this is not proof of Baba's survival, it is difficult to conceive what

can be termed proof. It is not only persons like Rasane who had physically

met Baba before 1918 that have seen and moved with Baba's figure, but also

persons born long afterwards.

Infants fit Madras have seen Baba and had udhi smeared on their foreheads

to cure them of their fever. An elderly Vaishya lady at Madras who heard of

him only recently sees him frequently. These are only a few out of many

which prove that Baba is not dead. Alt this argument is necessary only in

the case of those who are not perfectly convinced that life survives beyond

the process termed death, that life is ever life and never extinguished,

i.e., in other terms that souls do never die.

Long ages back in Sanath Sujathiya, Sanathkumar said that there is no such

thing as death i.e., extinction of the living jiva. This ancient truth as

generally been disregarded by people, and that is why vast masses are

dreading the approach of death for themselves or for those that they love.

The life of ordinary human beings is so little understood that this has

always been a very important question amongst the thinkers and philosophers.

In the Brahadaranyaka Upanishad, Yagnavalkya invited questions and undertook

to answer all of them. One question put to him by Artbabhaga was "What

becomes of the soul when death overtakes the body? Yagnavalkya instead of

answering it openly took him aside for a secret talk and then told him that

this was a matter very ill-understood and was therefore a matter for

secrecy. Re added that souls passed beyond the physical life and good souls

were rewarded for their good deeds and wicked souls were punished for their

wickedness in their after life.

Similarly at the time of Katopanishad, embodying the Nachiketas traditions,

Nachiketas went to Yama and received from him the right to ask for 3 boons.

The highest and most important boon that h« asked for was that Yama (God of

death) should reveal to him what was beyond death i.e., in effect, the

nature of the procees called death or extinction—whether it extinguished

life or whether life survived beyond the grave and if so, in what form? Yama

requested Nachiketas not to press this question as even gods had no clear

information on the subject and as it was a very intricate and mysterious

one. Nachiketas insisted on reply being given by Yama. Yama declared then

that he had only tested the earnestness of the pupil Nachiketas; Finding him

sufficiently earnest and deserving of a reply, Yama informed him that the

question was tantamount to the other great problem, namely, whether all

phenomena which appear and reappear are permanent or whether they were

transient and if so, whether they left any reality behind or beyond them. In

the second place the question, he added, may be treated as a question

relating to the phenomenon of bodily death and wanting information as to the

state or phenomenon pertaining to the soul after experiencing death. He

answered both the aspects are parts of the question. In the first place he

said that all phenomena are fleeting and that death (meaning change)

inevitably overtakes everything that appears or comes to life, and that the

only thing that does not die and is perpetual is Brahman which is present in

the hearts of persons as in all the phenomena experienced outside the

persons. He then answered the meaning of the phenomenon, death i.e., what we

ordinarily call death. He said souls after their experience of death pass on

to other states where they receive good as their reward for good deeds and

punishment for their evil deeds, the punishment necessitating their taking

up lower forms as beasts and reptiles.