Sai Baba -The Saint of Shirdi

(Adopted from the Book “Scribbling’s of A Shirdi Sai Devotee”
by Suresh Chandra Gupta)

"Sri Sai Baba is the master of Existence, the Sat Guru, the bosom of Bliss, the ocean of Peace, the store-house of Power, the revealer of Truth, the master-being sporting the hearts of all beings mobile and immobile................ Take refuge in His oceanic compassion and be at perfect ease, leading care-free life. Remember the words of Sai who scattered the bread of Grace even to the poor, the wretched, the lowliest and the lost.

'Why should you fear whenlam here. Cast all your burdens upon me and I shall bear them"'.

- Swami Sivananda Saraswati.

Sai Baba is not a myth or a non-historic personality. The Saint lived with us in flesh and blood till 15 Oct. 1918 - the Vijai Dashmi Day on which He took His Mahasamadhi. He has been and still is the all pervading living force that moulds and transforms the lives of million of His devotees regardless of their religion-Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians and Parsees alike.

Who was Sai Baba? What was He? What did He live for?

In fact Baba had no name. Mahalsapati, a devout Brahmin, when first saw Him, accosted Him as 'Sai' - a name by which he came to be known. His origin is unknown. As a young man about sixteen, He came to the village of Shirdi in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra near about 1854 and made His abode under a Neem Tree. Day in and day out people saw Him sitting on a rock talking little, meditating much. To many of the simple folk who passed that way, He appeared to be mad. It was not given to them to recognise His greatness, let alone divinity when they saw it. All the same, in the simple ways of villagers, they tried to give Him alms; He neither refused nor did He accept them.

He lived within Himself. There was not much give and take between Him and the villagers. He did go out amongst them to take what was given, but never asked for more. Many times He came back empty handed. He held communion only with Himself and with God.

The first realisation that He was something out of the ordinary came when a miracle was seen. A few shepherd boys were playing near the 'Neem' tree under which He was sitting, and suddenly they saw a fullgrown cobra with raised hood, moving from the under-bush towards one of their playmates. There was pandemonium, each child trying to get away from the danger spot except the one for whom the cobra was making a bee-line; he was too paralysed with fear to move or to cry. Shri Sai saw the danger and in a split second before the cobra could strike, He gently unbraided the snake for trying to harm an innocent child. "Why do you want to harm an innocent child? Please go back," He told the snake. Poised to strike, the snake turned in its track and moved to where Shri Sai was sitting, touched His feet with its head and penitently moved away. These children and one or two elderly shepherds who had seen the whole incident, quite naturally went and spread the tale round the village.

While there was no marked change after this in the general attitude towards Him, the villagers now looked upon Him with new respect, as one who was somewhat different from them. By ones and twos they came to Him, sometimes with wonder in their hearts but mostly out of curiosity. The Neem tree no longer gave Him the seclusion that He wanted and so Shri Sai moved into the quiet corner of a dilapidated old mosque which He called "Dwarkamai". He lived amongst its crumbling walls with only snakes, bats and owls as company. From one of the worm-eaten rafters He suspended a plank six feet above the ground where He used to sleep.: How He got up on the plank unaided remained a mystery, as much of a mystery- as how the torn rags with which He suspended it could hold His weight. But, all the same, He could still be seen sitting under the 'Neem' where-under he said, was enshrined His Guru's place. When dug up, two rooms with lights burning were found under the tree.

One day, He went into the village and as usual asked for a little oil to burn lamps at His 'Dwarkamai'. But the shopkeepers had by then got tired of giving oil free to Him and after conferring with one another finally decided not to oblige Him any more. Empty handed but quite unperturbed, Sai Baba went back to His dilapidated old abode, to His snakes, and His owls and His bats, followed at a respectful distance by a few people of the village. They saw Him put some water in the lamps, place cotton wicks in them and set aflame and lo, not only were the lamps lit but they remained alight spreading a heavenly glow throughout the night.

It was then that realisation dawned on the people that here was not an ordinary mortal, nor a saint or fakir but some one divine, who had come to sanctify their village. From then onwards, like the fragrance of spring flowers, His fame wafted round and spread in the village, in the taluka, in the district and then in the entire region.

Baba never preached any religion. He never even interfered in the religious practices of His devotees. Whatever religion they belonged to, it was all the same to Him. Caste, creed, colour or status of His devotees never mattered to Him, He only believed in the divine law of love and the attainment of Godliness through faith and love. He did not, therefore, found a new creed or a new sect. His 'Dwarkamai' was a meeting place of all religions. He gave His blessings in the form of 'Udi' (ashes) from the Sacred fire burning in the 'Dwarkamai' accompanied by the vocal blessing 'Allah Bhala Karega'. To Him the rich and poor, the high and the low, the learned and the ignorant, the Brahmins and the Sudras, the sick and the healthy were all alike. He was the embodiment of the concept of universal love of God, given by Bhagwan Krishna in Gita -

I am the same to all beings. To Me there is none hateful nor dear. But those who worship Me with devotion, are in Me, and I too am in them.

Sai Baba was a 'Siddha Purusha'. He had command not only over the bodies and minds of people but even over the five elements. Once some people who had come to see Him were prevented from catching the night train for Bombay by a terrific storm which was raging. Without being told, Baba, who knew their difficulties, looked up towards the sky and said "Hey : enough of that, stop it now; My children have to go back". The storm abated.

Sai Baba taught His devotees the value of truth, the value of faith and the value of love for attaining eternal salvation. He did perform miracles, not because He wanted to impress the people with His powers, but because He sometimes found it was the simplest way to lead a non-believer to become a believer in God and His powers. He showed miracles, so that 'those who came to scoff may remain to pray". He showed them favours. He fulfilled their desires. He showered His blessings on all those who came to Him beaten and battered by life's buffets; so that through Him and His actions they could see the love and mercy of God. Outwardly Baba bestowed temporal benefits on His devotees but inwardly these were designed to lead them on to the path of spiritual progress. The sick were healed, the childless couples were blessed with children, the doubting acquired faith, the blind got eyes through His Grace.

There was only a single thread running through all His actions, all His decisions, all His words; His efforts to help His devotees to rise above their ephemeral lives and to bathe in the immortal consciousness of the Inner Divine.

Sai Baba neither wrote books nor read them. Yet time and again, He was found giving expositions of the Sanskrit and Arabic verses to His devotees. Despite this, He expressed His view point that theoretical knowledge did not help in the understanding of spiritual values. Divine knowledge had to be self-realised and could not be just imparted. To one of His devotees, He said, "In these books they want to find 'Brahman' (God). There is, however, only 'bhram' (delusion or confusion) in them. You are all right as you are. Do not read books but only keep me in your heart, and if you harmonise the head and the heart, it is enough".

He spoke in parables and His teachings were symbolic. He taught in action and not in words. There was nothing secret or mysterious in His ways. Once when a rich man went to Baba and requested Him to give him 'Brahamjnan' (ultimate realisation of God), Baba spoke a few words to him on the need for god-realisation and suddenly broke off to call a boy and send him to a local shop-keeper to borrow five rupees. The boy came back as the shop-keeper was not at home. Baba sent the boy to another person and yet another, but without success. Meanwhile the visitor was becoming impatient and asked Baba about Brahamjnan. Shri Sai said to him, "I have been trying to give you Brahmajnan all this while, I want five rupees. That means, I want five things to be surrendered - (a) The five pranas or life forces, (b) The five senses, (c) The mind, (d) The intellect and (e) The ego. Unless you surrender these five, you cannot tread the hard road to Brahmjnan. No one who is attached to things earthly can attain divine knowledge". Shri Sai told him that though he had Rs. 250/- in his pocket and knew that Baba wanted five rupees, he would not part with this small sum. He wanted the invaluable gift of Brahmajnan free and gratis. His attachment to earthly things stood in his way.

Shri Sai would appear to His devotees in the form worshipped by them. Once a Brahmin doctor, a devotee of Rama, was persuaded to go to Shirdi but he warned his companions that he would not do obeisance to Shri Sai as the latter was a Muslim. When he reached 'Dwarkamai' he was surprised to see Hindu rituals being performed inside. The doctor who had earlier declined to bow to the 'Muslim' was suddenly found rushing in and falling at Baba's feet Asked later to explain his conduct, he said that he did not see Baba but only the form of Rama.

Baba flouted the accepted concept of a saint and asked for Dakshina from His devotees. He started as a pauper in the morning. All day long wealth flowed to Him. But He distributed it all to His devotees and finished up as a pauper again in the evening. He would go begging for His food every morning and did not give up His begging bowl even upto the end. Baba accepted Dakshina to teach His devotees the lesson of charity and to remove their attachment to money and thus to purify their minds.

Baba had an unaccountable and marvellous knowledge of things and events far removed from Him in time and space. Equally remarkable was His power to foretell coming events. He was both Trikal Jnani and Antar Jnani. He could tell all events of the past, present and future and also read the innermost secret thoughts of His devotees.

His approach to the Great Reality was simple and unsophisticated. He preached no rituals in God Realisation. He said, "If you always say 'Sai Sai', I shall take you over the seven seas; have faith in these words. I do not want any paraphernalia of worship".

He came to this world to bear the burden of all those whose burdens were unbearable to them. He was sent to give God Realisation to those that wanted it. "Why should you fear, when I am here; cast all your burdens upon Me and I shall bear them." He said.

It is only given to divine Prophets of all ages to pass the supreme test of divinity- resurrection. In 1886, Sai Baba left the mortal body but He left words with His pet disciple an friend that His body was not to be buried for three days He was going to Allah and might return. In spite of the insistence of the officer holding the inquest, His body not allowed to be interred. On the fourth day the "corpse"! came back to life. '

Evidently, Sai Baba had returned to fulfil the mission for which He had been sent to this world. Before His first Samadhi, He preferred seclusion; but after his resurrection He encouraged disciples to flock round Him and He went on with His divine mission of spreading the word of God for thirty-two more years.

Even in death He lives. In His last moments on earth He assured His devotees, "My Samadhi will answer your prayers when I myself am no more in flesh and blood." And to-day the ever growing number of millions of His devotees know and experience the efficacy of His words. He lives with them every moment as their friend, guide and protector.

On 15^th October 1918, He attained Mahasamadhi. Today He is stronger in Nirvana than He was in mortal life.

Om Tat Sat Bow to Sri Sai Baba - Peace and Plenty be to all

This brief sketch of the life and leelas of Shri Sai Baba was written by the author and circulated by the then functioning 'Delhi Sri Sai Samaj' on Vijai Dashmi, 1961, with the object of spreading awareness amongst the public of Delhi about the Sage of Shirdi.