Spiritual Gems from Sri Sai Satcharitra - Part 1

[Guest guest]

Sai Ram. I am offering at the lotus feet of Sai Baba, the first chapter of

Spiritual Gems from Sri Satcharitra. The original text of Sri Sai Satcharitra is

presented in blue colored text and the Spiritual Gems are presented in red

italicized text. Sai devotees desirous of doing Satcharitra parayana may skip

the red colored text and stick to the blue text. If you cannot see the colors

etc. here, pl. see the blog link given below.

 

 

http://sai-spiritualgems.blogspot.com/

 

Regards

 

His servant.

 

Shri Sai Satcharitra

Chapter I

Salutations -- The Story of Grinding Wheat and Its Philosophical Significance

According to the ancient and revered custom, Hemadpant begins the work, Sai

Satcharitra, with various salutations.

 

First, he makes obeisance to the God Ganesha to remove all obstacles and make

the work a success and says that Shri Sai is the God Ganesha.

 

Then, to the Goddess Saraswati to inspire him to write out the work and says

that Shri Sai is one with this Goddess and that He is Himself singing His own

life.

 

Then, to the Gods; Brahma, Vishnu and Shankar - the Creating, Preserving and

Destroying Deities respectively; and says that Sainath is one with them and He

as the great Teacher, will carry us across the River of Worldly Existence.

 

Then, to his tutelary Deity Narayan Adinath who manifested himself in Konkan -

the land reclaimed by Parashurama, (Rama in the Hindi version) from the sea; and

to the Aadi (Original) Purusha of the family.

 

Then, to the Bharadwaja Muni, into whose gotra (clan) he was born and also to

various Rishis, Yagyavalakya, Bhrigu, Parashara, Narad, Veda Vyasa, Sanak,

Sanandan, Sanatkumar, Shuka, Shounak, Vishwamitra, Vasistha, Valmiki, Vamadeva,

Jaimini, Vaishampayan, Nava Yogindra etc, and also modern Saints such as

Nivritti, Jnanadev, Sopan, Muktabai, Janardan, Ekanath, Namdev, Tukaram, Kanha,

and Narahari etc.

 

Then, to his grandfather Sadashiv, father Raghunath, his mother, who left him in

his infancy, to his paternal aunt, who brought him up, and to his loving elder

brother.

 

Then, to the readers and prays them to give their whole and undivided attention

to his work.

 

And lastly, to his Guru Shri Sainath - an Incarnation of Shri Dattatreya, Who is

his sole Refuge and Who will make him realize that Brahman is the Reality and

the world an illusion; and incidentally, to all the Beings in whom the Lord God

dwells.

 

 

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Sai Ram. The author (Hemadpant) makes salutations to various Gods while

asserting that Sai is One with all of them. Then why bow to all of them? Why not

to Sai alone? Bowing in obeisance comes from a feeling of Dwaita, i.e. the

feeling of separateness from the other person or Deity. Since most of us

including the author are presently in that Dwaita state, it is proper to bow in

worship to all the different Deities. Since Sai is our Sadguru and since the

Shastras assert that Guru is Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, in fact Para Brahma and since

all Deities are manifestations of the same Para Brahma- Para Shakti, it is also

correct to say that Sai our Sadguru is one with all of them. 'Sarva Deva

Namaskarah Kesava Pratigacchati' - all namaskars reach Kesava, Sai Who is Para

Brahma. Sai Ram.

 

--\

---

 

After describing in brief the various modes of devotion according to Parashara,

Vyasa and Shandilya etc., the author goes on to relate the following story:

 

" It was sometime after 1910 AD that I went, one fine morning, to the Masjid in

Shirdi for getting a Darshan of Sai Baba. I was wonder-struck to see the

following phenomenon. After washing His mouth and face, Sai Baba began to make

preparations for grinding wheat. He spread a sack on the floor; and thereon set

a hand-mill. He took some quantity of wheat in a winnowing fan, and then drawing

up the sleeves of His Kafni (robe); and taking hold of the peg of the hand-mill,

started grinding the wheat by putting a few handfuls of wheat in the upper

opening of the mill and rotated it. I thought ‘what business Baba had with the

grinding of wheat, when He possessed nothing and stored nothing, and as He lived

on alms!’ Some people who had come there thought likewise, but none had the

courage to ask Baba what He was doing.

 

 

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Sai Ram. Coming to the story of the chapter, grinding of wheat, the author

thought, " What business Baba had with the grinding of wheat, when He possessed

nothing and stored nothing, and as He lived on alms! " Every act need not have a

selfish motive and can be for universal welfare. Baba had no earthly business.

His business (Busy ness!) was spiritual, to bring all of us to the path of the

spirit. His grinding of wheat represented the grinding of our egos and thus

freeing the inner spirit in each of us, just as the useful flour is released

from the external seed by grinding. Sai Ram.

 

--\

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Immediately, this news of Baba's grinding wheat spread into the village, and at

once men and women ran to the Masjid and flocked there to see Baba's act. Four

bold women, from the crowd, forced their way up and pushing Baba aside, took

forcibly the peg or handle into their hands, and, singing Baba's Leelas, started

grinding.

 

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Sai Ram. Were the women the four directions of the village? Were the bodies of

four ordinary simple devoted village women taken over momentarily by the Grama

Devatas, the Village ruling deities? Who but Sai will know? Sai Ram.

 

--\

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At first Baba was enraged, but on seeing the women's love and devotion, He was

much pleased and began to smile.

 

 

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Sai Ram. He was smiling because He knew the past, present and the future and

since He knew very shortly how the drama was going to unfold. Sai Ram.

 

--\

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While they were grinding, they began to think that Baba had no house, no

property, no children, none to look after, and He lived on alms, He did not

require any wheat-flour for making bread or roti, what will He do with this big

quantity of flour?

 

 

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Sai Ram. True, in the worldly sense, but the whole Universe was His house, His

property and all the living and non-living beings were His children. He had the

whole world to look after! Sai Ram.

 

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Perhaps as Baba is very kind, He will distribute the flour amongst us. Thinking

in this way while singing, they finished the grinding and after putting the

hand-mill aside, they divided the flour into four portions and began to remove

them one per head. Baba, Who was calm and quiet up till now, got wild and

started abusing them saying, " Ladies, are you gone mad? Whose father's property

are you looting away? Have I borrowed any wheat from you, so that you can safely

take the flour? Now please do this. Take the flour and throw it on the village

border limits. " On hearing this, the women felt abashed and whispering amongst

themselves, went away to the outskirts of the village and spread the flour as

directed by Baba.

 

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Sai Ram. Looked at from the ordinary human point of view, this episode brings

home the truth that even while doing good karmas, we get attached to the fruits

or the result of the karma, action. Sai has rightly rebuked them and us and

advised us to work without any expectation of the results for the work which we

do. This is perfectly accordance with Sri Krishna's teaching to Sri Arjuna in

Srimad Bhagavad Gita that one should do ones' duty but without attachment to the

result. " Ladies, are you gone mad? " Yes, those ladies and all of us who hanker

after reward for actions are 'mad' with ajnan. Greed is the root cause of

madness. " Have I borrowed any wheat from you, so that you can safely take the

flour? " If we try to take what is not rightly ours, we get into karmic debt,

which we have to repay with interest in the present or future lives. Thus Sai,

our Krishna is teaching us His Gita. Sai Ram.

 

--\

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I asked the Shirdi people - " What was this that Baba did? " They replied that as

the Cholera Epidemic was spreading in the village and this was Baba's remedy

against the same; it was not wheat that was ground but the Cholera itself was

ground to pieces and pushed out of the village. From this time onward, the

Cholera Epidemic subsided and the people of the village were happy. I was much

pleased to know all this; but at the same time my curiosity was also aroused. I

began to ask myself - What earthly connection was there between wheat flour and

Cholera? What was the causal relation between the two and how to reconcile them?

The incident seems to be inexplicable. I should write something on this and sing

to my heart's content Baba's sweet Leelas. Thinking in this way about this

Leela, my heart was filled with joy and I was thus inspired to write Baba's Life

- The Satcharita.

 

And as we know, with Baba's grace and blessing this work was successfully

accomplished.

 

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Sai Ram. The most extraordinary things start in very ordinary way. The

masterpiece Sri Sai Satcharitra began thus from a very simple incident. " Cholera

itself was ground... " not only cholera, but the desire to covet what is not

ours, that was ground. " What earthly connection was there... " nothing. But in

the astral planes, it becomes clear to those gifted with 'divine eyesight' that

disease/illness is linked to our disharmony with nature and our transgression of

dharma. So Baba used a magical ritual (white magic), which the simple village

people did not understand consciously or intellectually but could feel in their

auras and spiritual vibrations. Simple souls would just wonder, pray and accept.

They don't question or look for logical explanations. But the educated need

intellectual curiosity to be satisfied. Hence explanations come when we

surrender our ego and our intellect so that intuition can come forth and our

faith can grow side by side with

logic and discriminating intellect. Sai Ram.

 

--\

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Philosophical Significance of Grinding

 

Apart from the meaning, which the people of Shirdi put on this incident of

grinding wheat, there is, we think, a philosophical significance too. Sai Baba

lived in Shirdi for about sixty years and during this long period, He did the

business of grinding almost every day - not, however, the wheat alone; but the

sins, the mental and physical afflictions and the miseries of His innumerable

devotees. The two stones of His mill consisted of Karma and Bhakti, the former

being the lower and the latter the upper one. The handle with which Baba worked

the mill consisted of Jnana. It was the firm conviction of Baba that Knowledge

or Self-realization is not possible, unless there is the prior act of grinding

of all our impulses, desires, sins; and of the three gunas, viz. Satwa, Raja and

Tama; and the Ahamkara, which is so subtle and therefore so difficult to be got

rid of.

 

This reminds us of a similar story of Kabir who seeing a woman grinding corn

said to his Guru, Nipathiranjana, " I am weeping because I feel the agony of

being crushed in this wheel of worldly existence like the corn in the

hand-mill. " Nipathiranjana replied, " Do not be afraid; hold fast to the handle

of knowledge of this mill, as I do, and do not wander far away from the same but

turn inward to the Center, and you are sure to be saved. "

 

 

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Sai Ram. “and the Ahankar, which is so subtle and therefore, so difficult to

be got rid of. " In extraction of metals, the raw materials that are in the form

of ores, minerals need to be ground before they can be processed further. The

law of comminution states that the finer something is, the more energy is needed

to grind it to a finer state (check any scientific book on mineral dressing).

Only Bhakti can provide that infinite energy to grind the subtle Ahankar and

dissipate it into the five elments, pancha bhutas! The grinding of corn: The

corn may feel the pain while being ground, but as flour, it is useful, to

appease the hunger, as food for ants etc., and as roti or bread, to other

animals including humans. Similarly, we should not mind the troubles coming to

us because we, like the corn get refined or transformed into flour and thus

serve the purpose of our being created in this world. Sri Nipatiranjan, Kabir's

guru, is advising him, not to

wander from the path of knowledge, and to remain introverted. For the disciple,

Guru is the axis, so if he does not wander far from Him, he need not fear being

crushed by the wheel of Karma, which crushes only those who out of their

spiritual ignorance, ajnan, are troubled by Kama, Moha etc., but does not touch

those who know their true nature. Sai Ram.

--\

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Bow to Shri Sai -- Peace be to all