THE PROGENITOR OF THE FORMAL WORSHIP OF SRI SAI BABA: SRI TATYA SAHEB NOOLKAR

[Guest guest]

Baba's Grace rains down upon Noolkar

Baba would never allow anyone to worship him. He would not allow any devotee

to even garland him. The great good fortune of being the first to formally

worship fell to Sri Noolkar upon a Guru Poornima day. One day Sri Tatya

Saheb Noolkar went to the masjid and saluted Baba. As he did so, Baba

pointed to the pillar besides the dhuni and said "You worship that pillar

tomorrow." Noolkar could not understand why Baba had said so. When he

returned to the Wada he conveyed Baba's instructions to Shama and asked him

as to what Baba's intentions were in ordering him thus. Even Shama could not

fathom why Baba had asked them to worship the pillar next day. He went to

the masjid to inquire of Baba but Baba merely reiterated his earlier

instructions. Later Baba repeated the same instructions to Tatya Kote Patil

and Dada Kelkar too. The next day happened to be a Saturday. As Noolkar

awoke from sleep he suddenly remembered that it was Guru Poornima. He

conveyed this to Shama and the other devotees. They got the almanac to check

and it was confirmed that it was indeed so. That day was Guru Poornima. They

now understood the meaning of Baba's words when he told them to worship the

pillar. They were all very happy that Baba had finally permitted them to

worship him. They all went to the masjid and begged Baba to allow them to

perform the worship of their guru. Baba merely told them again to worship

the pillar. "Oh our God! Why should we worship the pillar when we have you,

a God, in front of us? We will worship only you." Baba did not agree to be

worshipped by the devotees. The devotees stuck firmly to their resolve. At

last Baba had to acquiesce to the wishes of his devotees and allow them to

worship him. Baba always surrenders to the feelings of love and faith of his

devotee. He said, "All right" at last, and the happiness of his devotees

knew no bounds.

They immediately started preparing for the worship of the Guru. They decided

to worship Baba after he returned from his round of alms and informed him

thus. Baba, with utmost kindness, not only agreed but also permitted them to

worship him using the sixteen articles of formal worship. Baba sent word to

Radhakrishna Ayi and Dada Kelkar. She sent the various ingredients used in

worship to the masjid and Dada Kelkar also reached the masjid with the

various articles used in worship. All the devotees present did

congregational worship of Baba. Baba returned all the dakshina offered to

him back to the devotees. Arati was offered after the worship. Thus the

first Guru Poornima worship was performed at Shirdi. Later this worship

became an enduring tradition and it was performed with great pomp every Guru

Poornima day at Shirdi. Tatya Saheb Noolkar who saw the arati performed that

day felt that it would be mete if such an arati was performed to Baba every

day. Radhakrishna Ayi also felt the same. Thus was sown the seed of regular

arati to Sri Sai Baba at Shirdi. Even though the thought behind the arati

was Radhakrishna Ayi's, the work of actually bringing this worship in to

practice fell to Noolkar. He used to conduct arati for Sri Sai Baba every

day. Only the afternoon arati would take place in the masjid while Baba was

in the body. The Sej Arati and the Kakad Arati (evening and morning) would

be performed in the Chavadi. The regular aratis to Sri Sai Baba were done by

Noolkar until his last days when his ill health prevented him from coming to

the masjid or Chavadi. The privilege went later to Megha. After the demise

of Megha in 1912 Bapu Saheb Jog conducted the aratis until Baba entered

Mahasamadhi.

 

(To be continued)....

 

Source (source www.saipatham.org) Saipatham August 2002 Magazine