SAI BABA - ARDHANARISHWARA

[Guest guest]

Om Sri Sai Ram

ARDHANARISHWARA

By Swami Sai Sharan Anand

It is a common belief in the minds of many devotees of Sri Sathya Sai Baba that

he is a ray from the ultimate Absolute, the Supreme Brahman. But this is a

belief that has no basis in the scriptures. On the contrary, the popular

accepted notion about Avatars is that they are all manifestations of Vishnu or

Narayana who is one of the trine Godhead, the others being Brahma, the creator

and Shiva, the destroyer. Vishnu is the god who is responsible for the

preservation, maintenance and upkeep of the created universe. Whenever virtue

is on decline and vice predominates and is on the ascendant owing to the evil

actions of the children of the earth, Vishnu or Narayana takes upon himself to

restore the balance. For the establishment of the moral order, for sustaining

the good and virtuous men and punishing the wicked and vicious ones, in short,

for establishing the norms

of Sanathana Dharma he incarnates from age to age. Sri Sathya Sai Baba has to

say something very significant about the advent of avatars:

Of the avatars, some are for a definite limited purpose, like Vamana or

Narasimha. They are just manifestations to counter some particular evils. They

are not full-fledged, long-lasting, and expansive like Rama and Krishna.

For this reason, some avatars are born with only the powers requisite for the

task at hand. Others, such as Sri Sathya Sai Baba, are endowed with powers

beyond the immediate need. The Rama avatar manifested some of his powers

through his brothers. However, Krishna was a full avatar, an incarnation with

complete divine powers. Sri Sathya Sai Baba has pointed out the distinction

between partial and full avatars when he says:

That is to say, the avatar might manifest only such part of the divine glory as

was essential for the task which brought the form or it might exceed the

limited purpose for which it came and shine in full grandeur. Rama is a good

example of the first and Krishna of the second.

Elucidating the reason behind his incarnation in the Kaliyuga Sri Sathya Sai Baba says:

The Lord comes as avatar when he is anxiously awaited by saints and sages.

Sadhus prayed and I have come.

Howard Murphet records:

One day, many years ago, I said to Sai Baba, 'Swamiji, the Indian scriptures say

that all major avatars are descents of Lord Vishnu, but people say that you are

an avatar of Lord Shiva. How is that He smiled and replied, 'It's all one;

there is only One.' I knew, by then, that his main teaching was that there is

only one God and He goes by many names and appears in many forms. Yet, there

are three main facets of the many faceted one God. The Indian scriptures name

these as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. So I came to accept the idea that Sai Baba

was an Avatar of the one God, with emphasis on the Shiva aspect.

But there are other evidences that of the recorded annals of Indian cultural and

religious myths and legends as well as the more authentic and irrefutable

admission of Sri Sathya Sai Baba himself that he is the composite manifestation

of both Shiva and his divine consort Shakti, which really means that he is

Ardhanarishwara, the androgynous God, the combination of the masculine power

and executive energy represented by the feminine principle, that is both

Purusha and Prakriti. When the Eternal Absolute incarnates as Rama, Krishna or

Sai, there is Maha Lakshmi and Maha Kali as well. The feminine principle is

also a cosmic force incarnating as Durga or Kali. It is only rarely that Shiva

and Shakti come together and if they do, a terrible beauty is

born. There exists a story in the annals of Aryan culture. Sage Bharadwaj spent

a lifetime in the quest of knowledge and complete and thorough mastery over the

sacred Vedas. But even after a life span of one hundred years, devoted and

consecrated to that thirst for Vedic knowledge, he realized that he was merely

standing at the shore of the ocean only gathering pebbles and the pearls still

lay hidden in the depth of the ocean. Feeling sad and disconsolate and faint on

account of withering old age, he approached Indra, the king of Gods, and prayed

to him for lengthening his life further. The boon of another hundred years was

granted to him and he resumed his quest with additional vigor. Time passed and

the fresh lease of hundred years of life came to an end. But sage Bharadwaj

felt that the ocean of knowledge lay still before him and he was thirsty and

insatiated as ever. The knowledge was limitless and infinite and life too

short. Although he was granted three centuries of

existence, at the end of the period, he stayed on the fringe of Vedic knowledge.

He approached Indra again and renewed his plaint. This time Indra praised him

for his great unquenchable thirst for knowledge and his consistency, and

advised him to organize a Yagna and invite the primeval divine mother Parvati

to preside over the Yagna. Indra assured him that this would crown his effort

and enable him to garner the true and full knowledge of the sacred lore. Sage

Bharadwaj actually did organize a full‑fledged Yagna and traveled to the

snow-capped Mount Kailash, the abode of Lord Shiva and divine mother, Shakti.

Since the divine couple was engaged in their cosmic dance, Sage Bharadwaj

waited for full eight days in intense and freezing cold of

the region. Mother Shakti appeared before him and indicated through her gesture

that she would attend his Yagna; but unfortunately, Bharadwaj failed to

understand her positive sign. Utterly exhausted and disconsolate, the sage

turned around to go back. No sooner than he took a few steps on the frozen

terrain he fell down on the icy ground and his left limbs were paralyzed. Lord

Shiva and Parvati both saw him fall. Shankar, the compassionate Lord, moved

towards the sage and raised him. He sprinkled few drops of water on the body of

the sage from his Kamandulu and spoke to him in soft and sweet words:

'Bharadwaj, Parvati and I will grace your Yagna with our presence and your

desire to gain Vedic knowledge will be crowned with success.'

And he further conferred another important boon by saying that he would

incarnate in Kaliyuga thrice in order to bless his gotra and lineage. Lord

Shiva went on to say: 'In my second manifestation in Kaliyuga when I would be

known as Sathya Sai and would live in that body along with Shakti then this

Shakti would remain immobile and motionless and would suffer a similar inertia,

pain and paralysis as you have suffered here under the frozen cold.' Thus, the

boon vouchsafed to sage Bharadwaj has come to fructify in the Kaliyuga. First,

Lord Shiva manifested himself as Sai Baba of Shirdi in Maharashtra State, and

later at

Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh as Sathya Sai Baba, the composite androgynous God,

Ardhanarishwara, the masculine and feminine aspect of Shiva and Shakti rolled

into one. Sri Sathya Sai Baba has prophesied that the triple Sai incarnation

would take place at Mandya district in Karnataka after he attains Maha Samadhi

at the age of ninety-six years.

The point to note here is that all this is not mere fancy or fairy tale. If we

cast a glance at the advent of Sai Baba of Shirdi, the circumstances of his

birth, his arrival at the Shirdi village and making it his playground for his

Leela and his splendor and majesty, the truth of the matter is revealed.

Besides, we have the account given by Sai Baba himself:

I propose to reveal what has not been known to anyone hitherto. In the former

Nizam's dominions there was a remote village called Pathri. In that village

there was a couple named Ganga Bhavadiva and Devagiriamma. They are grieving

over lack of children. In answer to their prayer, a son was born on September

28th, 1858. That child was Sai Baba ... On Vijayadasami day in 1918, he gave up

the body.

In a detailed and longish account, Sri Sathya Sai Baba says how Parmeshwar and

Parvati appeared before Devagiriamma and told him that they were pleased with

her devotion and that Lord Shiva would take birth as her third child. The

divine blessing fructified and the child was born on the road while the couple

was on way to the forest, renouncing the world and in search of Parmeshwar and

Parvati. The abandoned child was picked up by a Sufi fakir who brought him up.

After the passing away of the fakir, his wife took care of the child. The child

behaved in a strange manner. He went to the Hindu temples and proclaimed that he

was Allah and visited mosques, shouting that Rama was God. Upset by the

troublesome behavior, the widow of the fakir placed him in the ashram of

Venkusa. He left the ashram and reached Shirdi in 1858,

and stayed there for two months. He wandered from place to place until he

reached Shirdi again with marriage party of Chandu Patel's brother's son. He

remained there for sixty years. The divinity of Shirdi Sai Baba was revealed.

Once while playing with marble with a neighbor boy, he swallowed the marble

that was a lingam. The mother of the boy was greatly incensed and rushed to the

place, demanding the sacred Lingam. As Babu, as Shirdi Baba was called, opened

his mouth, the bewildered woman was awestruck as she saw creations and

universes rolling one after the other. She knelt down before the child and knew

that she was face to face with Lord Shiva himself. When asked by his devotees,

Sai Baba predicted that he would come again as a boy of fourteen in the south,

and it so happened that Sri Sathya Sai Baba was born on November 23, 1926 at

Puttaparthi in Andhra

Pradesh, and he declared at the age of fourteen in 1940 that he was Sai Baba.

Furthermore, Sri Sathya Sai Baba has also revealed the events that took place in

the Sathyayuga that testifies to the truth of Lord Shiva's boon conferred on

sage Bharadwaj. In the words of Sri Sathya Sai Baba:

For those who have no refuge, God is the refuge. That is exactly the reason why

I had to take on the disease that one helpless devotee was otherwise to get. He

would have had to suffer this dire illness as well as four heart attacks, which

accompanied it, and he would not have survived. So according to my dharma of

Bhakta samrakshana, I had to rescue him. There is another reason; too, why the

eight-day period had to be observing some thing I have not disclosed so far,

something, which I have been keeping within myself for the last thirty-seven

years. The time has come to announce it.

Thousands of years ago, the great sage Bharadwaj, wishing to master all the

Vedas, was advised by Indra to perform a Yagna. Eager to have Shakti, the

consort of Shiva, to preside over it and receive her blessings Bharadwaj left

for Kailash, the abode of Shiva and Shakti to convey the invitation. Finding

them coupled in the cosmic dance, Bharadwaj waited for eight

days‑apparently ignored by them. Although he had failed to comprehend the

welcoming smile cast at him by Shakti. Unhappy and disappointed, Bharadwaj

decided to return home. But as he began to descend he fell in a stroke, his

left side paralyzed as a result of cold and fatigue. Shiva approached and cured

him completely by sprinkling on him water from the Kamandulu. Consoled by Shiva,

Bharadwaj was granted boons both by Shiva and Shakti, who also were pleased to

attend the Yagna.

Shiva promised the rishi that they would both take human form and be born there

in Bharadwaj lineage or gotra: Shiva alone at Shirdi, as Sai Baba; Shiva and

Shakti together at Puttaparthi as Sathya Sai Baba; then Shakti alone as Prema

Sai. Further in expiation of an illness that Bharadwaj had suffered at Kailash,

Shiva made another promise. This Shakti will suffer a stroke for eight days when

we both take birth as Sathya Sai and on the eighth day I will relieve her from

all signs of the disease by sprinkling water just as I did at Kailash to cure

your illness. The assurance given in the Treta Yuga had to be honored. The

splendor of this avatar will go on increasing day by day.

No wonder that this emphatic and timely declaration by Sri Sathya Sai Baba that

he was truly the embodiment of Shiva and Shakti. Baba says:

Let me tell you. Nothing can impede or halt the work of the Avatar. When I was

upstairs some people foolishly went about saying 'It is all’ over with Sai

Baba' and they turned it. back many who were coming to Puttaparthi. Some said I

was in Samadhi (communion with God) as if I was a sadhaka (Aspirant). Some

feared I was a victim of black magic as if anything can affect me ... The

splendor of this Avatar will go on increasing day by day. Formerly, when the

Govardhangiri was raised aloft by the little boy Krishna, the Gopis and Gopalas

(milkmaids and cowherds) realized that Krishna was the Lord. Now not one

Govardhangiri but a whole range will be lifted you

will see! Have patience, have faith.

When the eternal Absolute and his executive force, Shakti, choose to take human

birth, nothing is beyond realization. And as the poet has said, world's great

age begins anew and the golden years return. The concept of Ardhanarishwara is

ingrained in the imagination of the Indian mind. The power and majesty of the

Shiva Shakti form acquires the Nth dimension and nothing remains unattainable.

As Baba himself states:

This is a human form in which every divine entity, every divine principle, that

is to say, all names and forms ascribed by Man to God are manifest. Do not

allow doubt to distract you; if you install in the altar of your heart steady

faith in my reality as Sarvadevataswarupam you can soon have a vision of my

reality ... Let me draw your attention to another fact. On previous occasions,

when God incarnated on earth the bliss of recognizing him was vouchsafed only

after the physical Embodiment had left the world in spite of plenty of patent

evidence of His grace. The loyalty and devotion they commanded but in this age

of materialism, what is it that brings to it the adoration of millions from all

over the world? The reason is, it is Supra‑world Divinity in human form.

Among the one hundred and eight names attributed to Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the

most important one is that of Shiva, Shankar or Mahesh war, one of the Hindu

Trinity: Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver and Mahesh the destroyer.

Shankar is the doer; it is he who confers happiness and prosperity. Sai Baba of

Shirdi often used to bless his devotees by saying that in the abode of my

devotees there will be no dearth of food and clothing; I will not allow my

devotees to come to harm. As a matter of fact, Baba is the universal provider

who, like Krishna, is responsible for providing yogakshema to all his devotees,

the mother who is more loving than all the mothers of the world. To see him is

to get oneself rid of sin. To touch his feet is to unburden oneself of the load

of karma. Baba floods us with happiness. He has the attribute of Shiva, for

example, application of Vibhutti or ash on the body. His grace is easy to earn.

He has given visions of himself as Shiva. Many devotees have

seen him as Shiva. Sai Baba combines in himself the power of Shiva and Shakti

both. He is Shiva-Shakti born together even as they are at Kailash and he

grants Shivam, bliss, happiness and Shakti, vigor, intelligence. He insists

further, as Mr. N. Kasturi says:

Faith in the Atma within. Om Sri Sarva Shakti Moortaye Namah. Moorti means

image, idol, symbol, and embodiment. Baba is the Moorti of all Shakti

(Sarvashakti). He is Maha Shakti come as Mayashakti. The innovator of the will,

the deed and the thought is He and none else. He is the manifestation of all

Godhead, which is subsumed in the Sathya Sai form and name. For Baba has

granted vision of himself as Shiva-Shakti, as Shakti, as Shiva at Kothanghatta

temple and at Hampi Virupaksha temple, as Krishna, as Rama, as Ganesha and as

Panduranga.

Further Professor Kasturi says:

Om Sri Maheshwar Swaroopaynamah. Maheshwara is another name of Lord Shiva

meaning auspiciousness or profusion of favors. The most meaningful symbol of

Shiva is the oval shaped figure called Lingam ... Baba creates these symbols of

Shiva in himself, on Shivarathri. Shiva is also the third aspect of Divinity,

the Layakaraka, the merciful God who merges all in the universal, reduces all

to the ultimate ash. Maheshwara also means the supreme God ... Baba is

undoubtedly Maheshwara Swaroop.

There is a very interesting incident that took place on the roadside three days

after Baba's birthday on the 26th November 1958. A devotee from Bangalore left

Prashanthi Nilayam by car, taking leave of Baba. This is how Mr. Kasturi

describes the incident:

On the way, his two-year-old daughter was attacked by fits, which became so

serious that the child was asphyxiated and collapsed. Baba knew this and

presented himself before them as a villager with two other villagers whom he

created. He wanted the child to be given to him and the two comrades supported

his demand, 'Give him, he will cure it; he has cured thousands/ they implored.

The villager (Baba) told them, 'I was busy for the last three days; just now

laid myself for rest that a child was seriously ill on the road. So, I ran up.'

He placed the child on his lap and it was cured. He gave it back to the happy

parents. They offered him a rupee and when it was refused they gave him a fruit

from the many that he himself had given them at the Nilayam while leaving...

They asked him his name. He said Jodi Adiapalli Somappa. When asked at the

Nilayam why he chose that name of all others, Baba said, 'I am Somappa Soma

appa (Shiva) Sa Uma Shiva-Shakti twin Prakriti and Purusha.' He reveals his

truth, as Shiva-Shakti.

Thus Jodi Adiapalli Somappaya is Baba's most appropriate epithet, selected by

him, for that profound miracle of grace. Another name for Sathya Sai Baba

relates to the great sage Bharadwaj. Baba announced that he belonged to

Bharadwaj Gotra or lineage and that he was Sai Baba. This dramatic announcement

was made by him at the age of fourteen. And later, in the year 1963 he threw off

the paralysis of a devotee, which he had taken over and announced to the anxious

assembled audience on the Gurupoornima day that he was Shiva-Shakti in human

form. Mr. Kasturi says:

In response to a boon granted to Bharadwaj rishi by Shiva in the past that he

would take human form in his Gotra as Sai Baba of Shirdi and as Sathya Sai

Baba, He will be born in the same gotra as Prema Sai Baba in the future...

Bhardwaja's ashram was at Prayag; he is mentioned in the Ramayana as a sage

with amazing spiritual powers, won by thapas. Baba declared that he was not

Sathyanarayan Raju, as people knew him till then that was only a make-belief,

worn by him until the world could grasp the news of his Divinity. Even his

claim to the Gotra of Bharadwaj is a make-belief, for how can the Divine be

bound by lineage and kin? It follows from this that Sai Baba is the incarnation

of the one supreme God, the manifestation of the Divine principle as Aadi Shakti

and Aadi Purusha.

Mr. Kasturi discusses the implication of all this when he says:

Baba is the Avatar of the age, come to restore Dharma and save man from

downfall. He is the Sanathana Sarathi, the eternal charioteer. One of his acts

as charioteer was at Kurukshetra when he instructed Arjuna in the science of

Liberation ... Baba is Sanathana Sarathi, the primeval Purusha ... This means

he was and is in the past and the present. Aadi means the 'very first'. The

Lord is the very first person, the digit that gives value to the zeros that he

granted a vision of himself as Padmanabh to Swami Purushotamananda at Vashishta

Guha near the Ganga, near Rishikesh.

So we can conclude that Sri Sathya Sai Baba is the avatar of the Supreme

Brahman, the Eternal Absolute in human form. But in another sense, he is the

living configuration of the masculine and feminine aspect of the one God. In

the words of N. Kasturi:

Many devotees experience Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba as their mother. So deep

is his love and his consideration for the comfort and progress of his children!

Baba has himself declared that he is Shiva-Shakti. He often describes Prashanthi

Nilayam to women devotees as 'your own mother's house'. Baba is Aadi Shakti; the

energy aspect of the Aadi Purusha. This energy is believed to be feminine and is

worshipped as such during Navarathri, the festival of the mother, of Aadi Shakti

(prime energy). Baba evinces that he himself is Saraswathi, Durga and Lakshmi.

He has the overpowering love of the Supreme Mother.

No one with equal or more Shakti has appeared on earth, since Lord Krishna

except the Sai Shakti. Sai Baba at Shirdi declared he was Vasudeva. 'I am

Mahalaxmi, I am Vitoba of Pandari, I am Ganapathi, I am Dattatreya, I am

Krishna. This entire universe is me. I am formless and everywhere; all that is

seen is my form...' Sathya Sai Baba, the same Baba who has come again, is as

universal and as omnipotent as the Sai who declared, 'I am the universal

Absolute that is both immanent and transcendent, I am Viswa-Virat-Swarup, I am

Sarva-devata-Swarup...' 'When someone asks you where God is, do not dodge the

question giving a reply in which you have no

faith, namely, 'He is everywhere'. Direct him to Puttaparthi', He has declared.

Professor N. Kasturi says further about Sai Baba:

Baba was sought as a son by his mother Easwaramba through a series of

Sathyanarayan vrathas (worship): so he was named Sathyanarayan and called

Sathya until his fourteenth year, when he judged the time had come to announce

that he was no other than Sai Baba (The real and the genuine Sai Baba).

Millions know him as Sai Baba or Sathya Sai Baba. Sai means Lord, master. It

also means Sa: Sarveshwara, sovereign; Ayi means mother; Baba means father; Sai

means glory in all respect.

It has become common knowledge now that Sri Sathya Sai Baba is the Avatar of the

age comparable in power and splendor to Krishna and Christ, and is worshipped by

millions all over the world. Enlightened spiritual seekers, eminent

intellectuals, scientists and devotees ranging from the highest to the lowest

ranks of society pay their obeisance at the lotus feet of Baba and regard him

with deepest reverence, ardour and sense of self surrender. N. Kasturi, the

eminent biographer of Baba, has absolutely no doubt about the true identity of

Baba and says that Swami has not assumed the form of an ordinary human being.

'He is the three role presentation of cosmic consciousness: Supreme Brahman,

Iswara, the creator and Avatar, the Incarnation.' Professor Kasturi, having

spent thirty

years in all waking consciousness with Sai Baba, affirms the truth of Swami's

concrete, tangible presence as God in human form. Sai Baba has himself said

that the Sai form is the form of all the various names that man uses for the

adoration of the Divine and that no distinction should be made between the

names of Rama, Krishna, Iswara and Sai. Since our concern here in this chapter

is with the Hindu concept of Ardhanarishwara, that is the combined

manifestation of Shiva and Shakti, Purusha and Prakriti we take it that both

the male and female adjuncts of the one God are operative in the Sai form

according to the grand Avataric design known only to God Almighty. The

manifestation of triple Sai avatar seems imminent. Sri Sathya Sai Baba has

himself explained the logic of the successive advents in Kaliyuga to Mr. R.K.

Karanjia, the editor of Blitz magazine. This is

truly revealing and has to be quoted in full:

Q. Why had this task to be divided in three separate incarnations of the Shirdi,

Sathya and Prema Babas?

Baba: They are not separate. I have already mentioned the complete oneness of

the three in the final objective of the mission. I will give you an example.

Take a kilo of gur (a sweet substance). The whole of it tastes sweet. Now break

it in small pieces. Each of it tastes sweet. Finally break them further into

small grains. You find the same sweetness in them. So the difference is one of

quantity and not quality. It is the same with Avatars, Their tasks and powers

requisite to them differ according to the time, the situation and the

environment. But they belong to and derive from the same dharma Swaroop or

divine body.

Let us take the example of fruit. It begins with the seed, which grows into the

tree and from it comes the fruit. Work can be compared to the seed, worship to

the tree, and wisdom to the fruit ... The previous Avatar, Shirdi Baba laid the

base for secular integration and gave mankind the message of duty is work. The

mission of the present Avatar is to make everybody realize that the same God or

divinity resides in everyone. People should respect, love and help each other

irrespective of colour or creed. Thus all work can become a way of worship.

Finally, Prema Sai, the third Avatar will promote the evangel news that not

only does God reside in everybody, but everybody is God. That will be the final

wisdom, which will enable every man and woman to go to God. The three Avatars

carry the triple message of Work, Worship and

Wisdom.

However, the embodiment of Shiva and Shakti together in the figure of Sathya Sai

Baba adds a new and additional dimension to the majesty, glory and grandeur of

this manifestation. When before the Gurupoornima day in 1963, he had suffered a

stroke and a series of four major heart attacks and the doctors diagnosed

tubercular meningitis, Baba refused to take medicines and injections, saying

that he would be all right in four days' time. And actually on the evening

Gurupoornima, Baba descended the circular stairs down to the prayer hall. He

sat on the chair before five thousand, silent and sorrowful people. Then he

gestured for water, drank some, and sprinkled some drops on the paralysed left

hand and stroked the stiff left leg and hand. And then the miracle of all

miracles happened. Swami become immediately normal, cured of all his firmity,

stood up

before the audience and delivered his address in clear, and resonant voice and

continued for an hour. The devotees danced with joy. As prophesied by Lord

Shiva in Treta yuga to sage Bharadwaj Sathya Sai Baba who was born as

Shiva-Shakti in one enacted the miracle of healing his paralysed left limb

(Shakti) by his right hand (Shiva).

As Baba declared in that Gurupoornima address, his divinity had to be announced

by the manifestation of the grand miracle, his taking over the disease of a

forlorn devotee was just incidental.

Finally if we cast a glance at the circumstances and situations before the birth

of Baba on November 23, 1926, we come to know that many strange, inexplicable,

divine phenomena were witnessed. One such strange phenomenon was that the

musical instruments placed in the Raju household, tambura, mridang etc. started

playing by themselves transmitting unearthly music, the significance of which

was difficult to grasp. Venkappa Raju, the father, was deeply concerned about

the event and was, more or less, apprehensive. So he visited as many as six

nearby villages and contacted wise and sacred men about it. One Shastri, in

whom Venkappa Raju had full faith, dispelled his fear and apprehension by

saying that the mysterious music was all for the

good, an auspicious sign, a harbinger of great things to come. Venkappa Raju

testified to the fact that supernatural music was so captivating and bewitching

that he could not find words to describe its beauty. Then Shastri told him that

a divine power was to be born and that the gods were heralding his birth by

playing on the musical instruments to welcome it. On the 23rd November in the

early morning six minutes past five A.M., the advent of the Lord took place. It

was the month of Kartik and Lakshamma, the mistress of the house and wife of

Kodamma Raju, was attending the worship of God Satyanarayan at the house of a

neighbor. She was informed; but she came only after the Pooja was over. She

offered the prasad to Eswaramma and soon afterward she delivered the child. The

child was put by the grandmother on a bed. Seeing the movement, akin to the rise

and fall of the

bed, the family members discovered that a cobra was lying under the bed. This

was an entirely strange and inexplicable event. Although the serpents

frequented the village homes, it was unbelievable that a serpent would enter

the bed-room and station itself under a freshly prepared bed. Surely, that

serpent must have been the Adishesh on which Lord Vishnu was resting.

Biographers and commentators find in this extraordinary and unbelievable

occurrence the evidence of the first great miracle soon after the birth of the

divine child. Another strange event that surprised Eswaramma was the presence

of aura of bright light round the face of the child. Sacred ash or Vibhutti

came out of the body of the divine child establishing his kinship and identity

with Shiva, the supreme God. It all proved beyond doubt that the child was no

other than Lord Shiva himself, the cosmic visitor from the ultimate beyond to

shed his lustre and glory on earth and its inhabitants. Sathyanarayan Raju was

growing like waxing moon in the sky and became the universal favourite of the

village. His grandfather Kodamma Raju was very fond of him. It seemed to him

that his prayer to Venka Avadoot had been answered. When Sathyanarayan started

going to the school at Bukkapatnam, he was admired by his playmates. They

called him Guru and Brahmagyani. The account of Sathyanarayan Raju's earlier

life is recorded in its full detail and texture by Professor N. Kasturi in

Sathyam, Sivam, Sundaram, and the most authentic biography of Sai Baba. One may

say without hesitation that the early phase of Sai Baba's life and career

announces the presence of a power that was destined to move the world and

ensure the advent of a millennium. Sathyanarayan Raju endeared himself to all

alike and established his credentials as a gentle and pleasing personality with

extraordinary charisma, intelligence and great interest in singing, dancing,

feeding the poor and composing religious songs and staging

plays on religious and moral themes. He would often surprise his friends and

classmates by materializing objects like sweets, toffies, Vibhutti, lemon

drops, etc. He also joined a circus party to sing and dance. In one such dance,

he even surpassed a famous dancer of the theatre. No wonder, he was Shiva, the

cosmic dancer. On May 23, 1940, he disclosed to his father and other members of

the family 'I am Sai Baba. I belong to the Apastamba sutra, the school of sage

Apastamba and am of the spiritual lineage of sage Bharadwaj. I am Sai Baba of

Shirdi. I have come to ward off your troubles; keep your houses clean and

pure.'

It was later on October 20, 1940, while he was staying with his elder brother

Seshama Raju at Urvakonda and studying in class VIII at the high school there,

that he cast aside his books and standing at the doorstep of his brother's

house, he declared: 'I am no longer your Sathya. I am Sai.' His sister-in-law

came out of the kitchen and as she looked at the face of Sathyanarayan Raju,

she was almost blinded by the bright aura hovering around the face and she

shrieked. Baba addressed her: 'I am going. I don't belong to you. Illusion has

gone. My devotees are calling me. I have my work. I cannot stay any longer.' As

every step in the career of an Avatar is predetermined, the time had come for

Baba to reveal his true identity. Thus, the assurance given by Sai Baba of

Shirdi to his close disciples Abdul Baba, Kaka Dixit and others, that he would

come again in the

South as a boy of fourteen had come true. Baba was just fourteen years of age at

that time. His parents came from Puttaparthi and made all efforts to persuade

him to return home. All that they could get from him was the assurance that he

would return on the condition that his work should not be hampered and he would

live away from the ancestral home. Thus, he moved to the house of Subamma, who,

like Yasoda, proved to be his foster mother who looked after him and his

devotees who thronged the village in increasing numbers. On the 23rd birthday

of Baba, the devotees constructed the spacious Ashram with a prayer hall about

a mile away from Puttaparthi village and Baba blessed it. It was named

Prashanthi Nilayam, the abode of peace, which now has become a place of

pilgrimage for millions from all the nooks and corners of the world. Like

Lourdes in

Spain, it has become a power substation, the residence of God on earth. Baba has

carried on his mission of Dharma sthapana and Bhakta samrakshana ever since. He

operates on two levels. As human being made of flesh and blood, he meets an

increasing number of people from all parts of the world and works ceaselessly

for their welfare and moral uplift. It is in this sense that his life is his

message. More than this, he operates on the level of a mysterious divine

Spirit, as an omnipotent and omnipresent God and as dispenser of Divine justice

to all his children. He is the Eternal Absolute, a Ray from the primeval Fire,

the single flame that is God, the Ardhanarishwara who unites in himself the

Divine Principle as Idea and executive energy, the masculine and feminine

aspect of creation.

It is not possible for human intelligence to grasp the full implication of

Ardhanarishwara. In the first incarnation we have seen that it was Lord Shiva

himself who walked the earth; in the second, the divine couple Iswara and

Parvati both took human form as Sathya Sai Baba. And Prema Sai is still to

come, presumably in the first quarter of the next century and he will be the

embodiment of Shakti. And then, the triple Sai Incarnation will come full

circle and the divine mission for which the Lord is pleased to take human form

would inevitably be crowned with success.

At the end of this chapter, it may be rewarding to echo the view of the poet,

V.K. Gokak, about the Shiva-Shakti aspect of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. It is the

considered opinion of the present author that obtuse and difficult metaphysical

problems can be viewed by one through the perspective of poetry. It is verily

the poet who gets at the centre of the reality that is. Again it is the poet

who gives a concrete, tangible expression to what may seem to the average men

tenuous, vague and dissolving abstractions. V.K. Gokak in his beautiful poem,

Darshan, sums up the Ardhanarishwara aspect of Sri Sathya Sai Baba in the

following verses:

Have you seen Baba Who sets cities aflame with longing and drenches them with

the delight of existence? You've missed the very meaning of your life If you

haven't seen him and been spoken to by him. He defies the laws of physics and

chemistrythat he might assert the higher laws of spirita lingam materialises

That a million souls may be born. Matter and spirit are Siamese twins That

have an identical body but a different face Only the androgynous

God­Ardhanarishwara­ Purusha and Shakti in one --Can solve the riddle of their

birth and growth.

TO BE CONTINUED…

>From Sai brothers with Sai love

/

Source: http://www.indiangyan.com/books/otherbooks/sai_baba/Index.shtml

 

Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Messenger