Sai Baba the Master by E.Bharadwaja

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Then he (the guru) took me to a well, tied my legs together with a

rope

and suspended me head downwards from a tree that stood close by. My

head

was three feet above the water, so that I could not reach it. Then he

left

me and returned again after about five hours and asked me how I was

getting on. ‘I am in bliss supreme’, I replied. The guru was much

pleased

with my reply, embraced me, stroking my body with his hand. He

accepted me

as his disciple. I forgot my mother and father and all my desires. I

loved

to gaze on him endlessly. I did not want to go back. I forgot

everything

but the guru. My whole life was concentrated in my sight and my sight

on

him. He was the object of my meditation. In silence I bowed down.” 6

 

However, that Baba had a guru is certain; for he had a brick with him

which he always used as a pillow when he slept, and on which he always

kept his hand when he sat. He said of it, “This brick is my guru’s

gift,

my life’s companion.” Probably the two accounts of his discipleship

supplement each other.

 

Earlier biographers of Sai Baba have taken this episode, especially

his

being suspended head downwards, three feet above the water in a well,

as

being merely symbolic. Though their explanation of the symbolism is

illuminating, the possibility of it being a literal fact cannot be

ruled

out. The earlier writers based their conjecture as to the symbolic

nature

of the episode on the common experience that ‘no one can be at ease

and

feel bliss if he be suspended with a rope – head down and feet up – in

a

well for hours together!” 7 A similar incident took place in the

life of

Hazrat Tajuddin Baba of Nagpur, a contemporary of Sai Baba, which

shows

that the incident could literally have taken place. I shall quote at

length from my unpublished book on the great saint:

 

(To be contd....)

 

Source http://www.saibharadwaja.org)