BHAGAWAN SATYA SAI BABA- ARDHANARISHWARA

[Guest guest]

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, long­lasting, 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

Ptirusha 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 Bhardwaj 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 vigour. Time passed and the fresh

lease of hundred years of life came to an end. But sage Bhardwaj 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

Bhardwaj actually did organize a full‑fledged yagna and travelled to the

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

Since the divine couple were engaged in their cosmic dance, Sage Bhardwaj

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, Bhardwaj 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 : 'Bhardwaj, 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 Bhardwaj 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 splendour 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 Vijayadashmi 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

were 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 behaviour, 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 neighbour 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 Bhardwaj. 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 bhaktha 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 Bhardwaj, 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

Bhardwaj left for Kailash, the abode of Shiva and Shakti to convey the

invitation. Finding them coupled in the cosmic dance, Bhardwaj waited for eight

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

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

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

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

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

Bhardwaj 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

Bhardwaj 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 Bhardwaj 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 Tretha Yuga had to be honored. The

splendour 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 splendour 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 Gopals (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, Sankar 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 vibhuti 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, vigour, 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, embodiment. Baba is the Moorti of all

Shakti (Sarvashakti). He is Mahashakti 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

favours. The most meaningful symbol of Shiva is the oval­shaped figure called

Lingam ... Baba creates these symbols of Shiva in himself, on Shivaratri. 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

Prasanthi 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 Bhardwaja. Baba announced that he belonged to

Bhardwaja 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 Bhardwaja 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 Bhardwaja 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

sanatana sarathi, the eternal charioteer. One of his acts as charioteer was at

Kurukshetra when he instructed Arjuna in the science of Liberation ... Baba is

sanatana 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 Bhagwan 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 Prasanthi Nilayarn to women devotees as 'your own mother's house'.

Baba is Aadi Shakti; the energy aspect of the Aadi purush. This energy is

believed to be feminine and is worshipped as such during

Navratri, the festival of the mother, of Aadi Shakti (prime energy). Baba

evinces that he himself is Saraswati, 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 Basudeva. 'I am Mahalaxmi, I am Vinoba of Pandari, I am Ganpati,

I am Dattatreya, I am Krishna. All this 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

splendour 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 swarup 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 Bhardwaja 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 themself 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 neighbour. 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

vibhuti 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, vibhuti, 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 Bhardwaja. 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 Yashoda, 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.

Blab-away for as little as 1¢/min. Make PC-to-Phone Calls using Messenger with Voice.