Sai Baba and Handwritten manuscripts

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Dear Sai Janas, (Message in Shirdi Sai Baba Divine Group...click link below...

Shirdi_Sai_Baba_Divine_Group/)Iam thankful to Sri Gaurav Agarwalji, a Sai-Baba-Bhakth, for showing me this article in an online site. A stone’s throw from the bustling shrine of Sai Baba in Shirdi, 200 km from Mumbai,

priceless chronicles detailing the life and sayings of the Sufi saint are crumbling to bits.More than 200 pages of hand-written manuscripts written by Haji Abdul Baba between 1895 and 1918 -- the year Sai Baba passed away -- are lying at his former cottage which has been turned into a shrine by his descendants. Abdul Baba“Abdul Baba used to write down the utterances of Sai Baba that dealt with the unity of the Hindu and Muslim faiths,” says his grandson Hameed who manages the shrine. The text of Abdul Baba’s manuscripts draws parallels between the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and the Hindu legends associated with Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma.Sai Baba’s discourses, as

chronicled by Abdul Baba, also dealt with the prevalent Sufi traditions of the time, in parts of Deccan Maharashtra and northern India. According to Hameed, his ancestor’s notes are a blend of Deccani Urdu and the now-extinct Modi script that was widely used in Maharashtra until the mid-1950s. With little assistance from the Shirdi Sansthan, Maharashtra’s richest shrine, which has annual revenues touching Rs 100 crore, Hameed has been forced to dump the precious notes into a cupboard along with the tattered effects of Abdul Baba. “It would help if the authorities helped preserve these documents,” he says, showing the papers encased in ordinary polythene bags.Only a small fraction of Sai Baba’s devotees who throng the magnificent shrine next door make their way to the

still-humble cottage of Abdul Baba. But Hameed dutifully allows everyone to handle the parchment and other effects of his ancestor, regardless of the resulting wear-and-tear. The managers of the Shirdi Sansthan are disinterested in Sai Baba’s chronicles. “It is the private property of his descendants,” says Bhausaheb Watchure, government-appointed administrator of the shrine. His tone betrays his embarassment at being reminded of Baba's Muslim origins.Hameed himself is reluctant to hand over the manuscripts to the trust, saying he is worried about their safety. “It would help if private bodies came forward to preserve these papers,” he says.Delhi-based researcher Yoginder Sikand, who has studied the evolving worship of Sai Baba, warns that Maharashtra’s politicians who

control the shrine are uncomfortable with the saint’s Muslim origins, as depicted in the chronicles. “The Sai Baba shrine is completely Brahminised and all traces of Islam are being erased from here,” Sikand says.For instance, says Sikand, the trust has abandoned the practice, started by Sai Baba, of celebrating Moharrum along with Ram Navami. Now only Ram Navami is celebrated in Shirdi though the trust’s museum clearly documents the two festivals being celebrated together here.As he emerges from the little mosque, 85-year-old Ghulam Habib Abdul Rehman Pathan seems an unlikely candidate to sing paeans to Bollywood. A devout Muslim sporting a luxurious beard, Pathan remembers a time when Sai Baba’s shrine at Shirdi was humbler and devotees came in tongas and bullock carts to pray.“After Manoj Kumar made his movie on Sai Baba, life changed entirely here,” says Pathan. The cult film of the 1970s has paid rich dividends to Shirdi’s residents.

With pilgrims flocking from across the country, the simple mud huts of Sai Baba’s early devotees have transformed into brick-and-mortar structures housing small businesses. Even the dilapidated mosque that Sai Baba made his home has given way to an elaborately carved stone structure. “The mosque gradually crumbled and the place got several facelifts in subsequent decades,” recollects the wizened Pathan who, as a boy, earned Rs 1.50 a month as a watchman.Working on a project for the National Foundation for India, I am eager to find traces of the legendary amity that saw groups of Hindus and Muslims worshipping side-by-side here. Instead, I find middle-class India swaying to tunes from tinsel town. “You will identify the Muslims in the queue as they usually donate a chador at the

mazaar,” says Razzaq Shaikh, a local leader. (Rare photo of Lakshmi Bai with her "Nine coins" given by Sai Baba when He passed away into Mahasamadhi.) On the face of it there is little discernible difference between the worshippers clad uniformly in western-style shirts and trousers for the men, and churidars for the women.Locals say, the number of Muslims showing up at Sai Baba's shrine is declining anyway. Alongside the Hinduisation of the Sai Baba cult is the growth of

Islamic fundamentalism. Influenced by the Wahabbis of Saudi Arabia, the fundamentalists ridicule Muslims who follow the Sufi tradition as grave worshippers. With large-scale inflow of funds from the Middle East, backward caste Muslims too are finding regular mosques to go to instead of finding solace at the mazaars of pirs unlike in the old days. One cannot but help notice the influence of Bollywood here as well. Images of Sai Baba touched up with Eastman Colour sell the most at wayside stalls. “Few people buy photographs of the real Sai Baba clad

in tattered robes leaning against the walls of his mud hut,” admits the owner of a local photo studio. “People have forgotten that Sai Baba lived a simple life,” says Shivaji Bhaskarrao Shinde, an employee of the Shirdi Trust. His family heirlooms include coins, notes and photographs of his great grandmother Laxmibai with the Sufi saint. Old-timers say Sai Baba used to hold langars, or community kitchens, where Hindus and Muslims were served food out of the same pot. “Baba himself used to serve non-vegetarian food to his devotees,” says Shinde. Now, the Maharashtra government has banned the sale of meat near the shrine, to the consternation of local Muslims and dalits. Even the Moharrum procession at Shirdi has been abandoned, in sharp contrast to the

opulent Ram Navami celebrations, even though Sai Baba himself insisted on observing the rituals of both communities.The Maharashtra government’s move to placate the rich mercantile Hindu castes has paid off, with the Shirdi Trust earning Rs 90 crore last year. With money flowing in the politicians who control the Shirdi shrine come up with more grandiose ideas by the day. A proposal to replace the giant silver idol of Baba with a 250 kg gold murthi had to be shelved at the last minute because of an uproar by Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray. The trust proposed to meet the bill of Rs 20 crores from its own coffers.As murmurs of discontent grow in Shirdi, the trust has come up with a brainwave. “We have enough land in this town to recreate a model of old Shirdi to educate and entertain pilgrims,” says Bhausaheb Watchure, the bureaucrat who manages the Shirdi Trust. May Saibaba show true light to all. Om Sai Ram Shyamakarana

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YOUR OBSERVATION IS SO VERY TRUE. i have just returned from shirdi yesterday..i am from maharashtra and has heard in the folklore and also read in sai charitra taht it was ..bhagat mahalsapati..the pujari of the lord khandoba temple..who first saw sai in shirdi.sai had come there as part of a BARAAT.....marriage procession....mahalsapati had just finished doin aarti of lord khandoba and took the aarti thali out for the people who had assembled for aarti and he saw sai standing there.....(sai was very fair...sai in marathi means the cream..or malai on top of the milk)...and spontaneously he just uttered..AAO SAI...(means come or welcome sai) and from that day onwars sai made shirdi his home ...till the day he gave up his mortal coil. i made it a point to go to the khandoba temple..its around 100mts away..its obn the main road...near the bus stand..if you ask anyone anyone will guide u ..its very close by. MAHALSAPATIS DESCENDANTS SITLL HUMBLY MANAGE THE SHOW AT THIS TEMPL..IT BELONGS O THEM.mahalsapatis...grandson...who is around 92yrs old is thare..very weak thin and feeble ..but goes to the darshan of khandoba at the regular intervals with the help ogf his family members. mahalsapatis greatgranson is there also and will show you the original black and white photografs of his father reating in sais arms. he scorns at the present day developments...goin on in shirdi at the behest of the politicians who are spoiling the atmosphere of shirdi. do make it a point to visit this place.ull enrich your exp..with the master with the person who has actually been handled loved and fondled by sai just like a child jitendraShyamakarana_Group_Owner <shyamakarana wrote: Dear Sai Janas, (Message in Shirdi Sai Baba Divine Group...click link below... Shirdi_Sai_Baba_Divine_Group/)Iam thankful to Sri Gaurav Agarwalji, a Sai-Baba-Bhakth, for showing me this article in an online site. A stone’s throw from the bustling shrine of Sai Baba in Shirdi, 200 km from Mumbai, priceless chronicles detailing the life and sayings of the Sufi saint are crumbling to bits.More than 200 pages of hand-written manuscripts written by Haji Abdul Baba between 1895 and 1918 -- the year Sai Baba passed away -- are lying at his former cottage which has been turned into a shrine by his descendants. Abdul Baba“Abdul Baba used to write down the utterances of Sai Baba that dealt with the unity of the Hindu and Muslim faiths,” says his grandson Hameed who manages the shrine. The text of Abdul Baba’s manuscripts draws parallels between the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and the Hindu legends associated with Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma.Sai Baba’s discourses, as chronicled by Abdul Baba, also dealt with the prevalent Sufi traditions of the time, in parts of Deccan Maharashtra and northern India. According to Hameed, his ancestor’s notes are a blend of Deccani Urdu and the now-extinct Modi script that was widely used in Maharashtra until the mid-1950s. With

little assistance from the Shirdi Sansthan, Maharashtra’s richest shrine, which has annual revenues touching Rs 100 crore, Hameed has been forced to dump the precious notes into a cupboard along with the tattered effects of Abdul Baba. “It would help if the authorities helped preserve these documents,” he says, showing the papers encased in ordinary polythene bags.Only a small fraction of Sai Baba’s devotees who throng the magnificent shrine next door make their way to the still-humble cottage of Abdul Baba. But Hameed dutifully allows everyone to handle the parchment and other effects of his ancestor, regardless of the resulting wear-and-tear. The managers of the Shirdi Sansthan are disinterested in Sai Baba’s chronicles. “It is the private property of his descendants,” says

Bhausaheb Watchure, government-appointed administrator of the shrine. His tone betrays his embarassment at being reminded of Baba's Muslim origins.Hameed himself is reluctant to hand over the manuscripts to the trust, saying he is worried about their safety. “It would help if private bodies came forward to preserve these papers,” he says.Delhi-based researcher Yoginder Sikand, who has studied the evolving worship of Sai Baba, warns that Maharashtra’s politicians who control the shrine are uncomfortable with the saint’s Muslim origins, as depicted in the chronicles. “The Sai Baba shrine is completely Brahminised and all traces of Islam are being erased from here,” Sikand says.For instance, says Sikand, the trust has abandoned the practice, started by Sai Baba, of celebrating Moharrum along with Ram Navami. Now only Ram Navami is celebrated in Shirdi though the trust’s museum clearly documents the two festivals being celebrated together

here.As he emerges from the little mosque, 85-year-old Ghulam Habib Abdul Rehman Pathan seems an unlikely candidate to sing paeans to Bollywood. A devout Muslim sporting a luxurious beard, Pathan remembers a time when Sai Baba’s shrine at Shirdi was humbler and devotees came in tongas and bullock carts to pray.“After Manoj Kumar made his movie on Sai Baba, life changed entirely here,” says Pathan. The cult film of the 1970s has paid rich dividends to Shirdi’s residents. With pilgrims flocking from across the country, the simple mud huts of Sai Baba’s early devotees have transformed into brick-and-mortar structures housing small businesses. Even the dilapidated mosque that Sai Baba made his home has given way to an elaborately carved stone structure. “The mosque

gradually crumbled and the place got several facelifts in subsequent decades,” recollects the wizened Pathan who, as a boy, earned Rs 1.50 a month as a watchman.Working on a project for the National Foundation for India, I am eager to find traces of the legendary amity that saw groups of Hindus and Muslims worshipping side-by-side here. Instead, I find middle-class India swaying to tunes from tinsel town. “You will identify the Muslims in the queue as they usually donate a chador at the mazaar,” says Razzaq Shaikh, a local leader. (Rare photo of Lakshmi Bai with her "Nine coins" given by Sai Baba when He passed away into

Mahasamadhi.) On the face of it there is little discernible difference between the worshippers clad uniformly in western-style shirts and trousers for the men, and churidars for the women.Locals say, the number of Muslims showing up at Sai Baba's shrine is declining anyway. Alongside the Hinduisation of the Sai Baba cult is the growth of Islamic fundamentalism. Influenced by the Wahabbis of Saudi Arabia, the fundamentalists ridicule Muslims who follow the Sufi tradition as grave worshippers. With large-scale inflow of funds from the Middle East, backward caste Muslims too are finding regular mosques to go to instead of finding solace at the mazaars of pirs unlike in the old days. One cannot but help notice the influence of Bollywood here as well. Images of Sai Baba touched up with Eastman Colour sell the most at wayside stalls. “Few people buy photographs of the real Sai Baba clad in tattered robes leaning against the walls of his mud hut,” admits the owner of a local photo studio. “People have forgotten that Sai Baba lived a simple life,” says Shivaji Bhaskarrao Shinde, an employee of the Shirdi Trust. His family heirlooms include coins, notes and photographs of his great grandmother Laxmibai with the Sufi saint. Old-timers say Sai Baba used to hold langars, or community kitchens, where Hindus and Muslims were served food out of the same pot. “Baba himself used to serve non-vegetarian food to his devotees,” says Shinde. Now, the Maharashtra government has banned the sale of meat near the shrine, to the consternation of local Muslims and dalits. Even the Moharrum procession at Shirdi has been abandoned, in sharp contrast to the opulent Ram Navami celebrations, even though Sai Baba himself insisted on observing the rituals of both communities.The Maharashtra government’s move to placate the rich mercantile Hindu castes has paid off, with the Shirdi Trust earning Rs 90 crore last year. With money flowing in the politicians who control the Shirdi shrine come up with more grandiose ideas by the day. A proposal to replace the giant silver idol of Baba with a

250 kg gold murthi had to be shelved at the last minute because of an uproar by Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray. The trust proposed to meet the bill of Rs 20 crores from its own coffers.As murmurs of discontent grow in Shirdi, the trust has come up with a brainwave. “We have enough land in this town to recreate a model of old Shirdi to educate and entertain pilgrims,” says Bhausaheb Watchure, the bureaucrat who manages the Shirdi Trust. May Saibaba show true light to all. Om Sai Ram Shyamakarana Tired of spam? Mail has the

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