In commemoration of the 46th Aradhana of our Founder President and the foremost Apostle of Sri S;ii Baba, Pujyasri Narashimha Swamiji. we take great pleasure in bringing out the greatest of his works - "Life of Sri Sai Baba" all four parts in one composite volume. It is our desire to see that this book reaches the hands of as many Sai Devotees as possible and showers on them the "Sai Bliss". It is a book of all times by going through which you can feel and enjoy God's Presence - the moving guiding hand of Sri Sai Nath showering His Full Grace.

The entire credit goes to a staunch and silent devotee of Sri Sai Baba and H.H. Sri Narashimhaswamiji (whose name he did not want to be revealed) for bringing out this publication by going through the proof correction and the get up of this book. We also have to place on record the benevolence of the donors who met the cost of this book. We pray to Samartha Sadguru Sai Baba and H.H. Sri Narashimhaswamiji to shower their grace and blessings on him and all others for their cooperation in bringing the new edition of this sacred book.

We also wish to place on record our appreciation of the excellent efforts taken by the printers Goteti Graphics who have come forward lo do ihe printing with a spirit of dedication.

C.S. VEERARAGHAVAN President, AISS

Chennai - 4. 20-10-2002

DEDICATION

Of all the books so far published by the All India Sai Sarnaj on the life and teachings of the Wondrous Saint Sri Sai Baba, this book 'The Life of Sai Baba", is the best. Of the vast literature created by H.H. Narasimhaswamiji, this should .take the first place.

According to Sri Swami Sivananda Maharaj, by presenting the Great Master Sri Sai Baba to the world through his intensely dedicated service, Sri Narasimha Swamiji has made himself into a living golden link between the present generation and Sri Sai Baba. Yes, Sri Swamiji is still active from His tomb. He guides millions of devotees to the feet of his Master.

The object of Sri Swamiji was the creation of this book, the detailed and exhaustive study on the Life of Sri Sai Baba. Sri Swamiji was confined to a hospital bed for sixty days due to serious breakage of the thigh bone in October 1953, followed by very serious attack of dysentery which appeared to him to be a total wreck of the physical and mental constitution. In such a state of affairs which continued nearly upto the middle of 1954, to his own wonder, 'he discovered the object also of sufficient remnant of energy, mental and physical, being left to him'. When Swamiji was eighty-years young, his Master got this great work accomplished by him.

When one reads the book, he can have the satisfaction of having tasted the essence of Srimad Bhagavata, Eleventh Skanda in particular. The Jnaneswari, The Bhagavad Gita, The Upanishads, The Guru Gita, Narada Bhakti Sutras, the Skanda Purana and a large mass of other religious literature. The reader is thus enabled to understand the true nature of Sri Sai Baba, the Samartha Sadguru, the unique and great Avatara purusha who appeared on the Earth recently.

Sri Swamiji intended to bring out this book in three parts. Actually, it was brought out in four separate volumes. For a long time, it was felt that it would be useful if all the four volumes, that is the book in its entirety is presented in one composite volume. By the Grace of Sri Sainath and with the blessings of Sri Narasimhaswamiji, the All India Sai Samaj has come out with this wonderful publication.

This is one book which should be possessed by every Sai devotee. It is as effective and as potent as Srimad Bhagavata in cultivating bhakthi. By reading this book over and over again repeatedly, one can have the feeling of having lived with Sri Sai. Material benefits apart, the reader will be guided by the Master in spiritual progress. He will have a feeling that he is still living with Sri Sai, a unique experience.

Jai Sri Sairam.

Foreword to Part I

His Holiness Sri Swami Sivananda

(Divine Life Society, Rishikesh)

Sri Sadguru Sainath Maharajki Jai!

Glory be to the blessed Saint of Shirdi, in whom the Light of Divinity was fully manifest in all resplendence. 'I deem it a great joy and a unique sowbhagya to write something about this great Mahapurusha, who illumined this holy land with His radiant presence and lived a life of Divine absorption, love of mankind and compassion to all creatures (Bhoota-daya), solely for the welfare and benefit of humanity. To think about such great souls, to speak about such great souls, to write about their glories and to remember their lofty lives, this in itself is an act that is purifying and elevating and a devout exercise that draws down upon all their Divine blessings. It is equal to Sravan, Manan and Nidhidhyasan. It will elevate the man of faith and the sincere seeker to sublime heights of joy and spiritual felicity. Blessed indeed is one who narrates such Sant-Lilas and equally blessed are they that listen to such holy narration. Listening to such Lilas and daily reading thereof with true bhav constitute Sravana and Swadhyaya of a very high order. It comprises the supremely efficacious sadhana for self-purification, spiritual awakening and God-realisation.

Samartha Sadguru Sai Baba illumined this earth in the latter part of the last century and the first two decades of the present century[1]. The tiny village of Shirdi was the blessed spot in which He lived His saintly life of tyaga and seva. Sai Baba has sanctified and rendered Shirdi one of the holiest places upon earth and a shrine of devout pilgrimage to countless people by enacting His sublime and mysterious lilas there. By His advent, this great Man of God set in motion a wave of spirituality which is now gradually surging out and spreading into every part of blessed Bharatavarsha. He has created a powerful Centre of Spiritual Awakening and Divine Life in the holy precincts of Dwaraka Mayee and the Samadhi Mandir in Shirdi.

All His life's activities constituted a continuous, lofty 'lokasangraha'. By first conferring temporal benefits, He drew unto Himself countless souls caught up in Samsara and then later opened their eyes to the true meaning of life, infused viveka and vairagya into them and brought about their spiritual awakening. He was a Sadguru who, through His highest Para-vairagya and Maha-Tyaga, made people realise the transitory nature of human life and the worthlessness of earthly objects. He slowly drew them from their deluded pursuit after the merely Preya vastu and induced and inspired them to strive for their Parama-Sreya, i.e., Atma-Sakshatkar. He continued this glorious work until the last moment of the Divine Life that He lived in the sacred hamlet of Shirdi. Though outwardly a mere and sometimes crazy-looking Fakir clad in rags and living upon doles of food collected during his regular daily round of Bhiksha, yet, in fact, He was really a Jivanmuktha Maha Purusha and a Sage in Sahaja Avastha. As such He is in a state of Oneness with God and thus, even after casting aside the outer physical form, Sri Sai Baba continues His sublime work of Lokahita in an invisible form through His Abode at Shirdi.

In Sri Sai Baba you have one of the most glorious exemplars of our country's Sanatana Dharma and the highest ideal of Sadachara. His was a spotless and blameless moral life, which placed before all a wonderful model of ethical perfection. Further, by His personal example, Baba showed Himself to be a great unifying factor and a universalising force. He taught people to overcome meaningless barriers of separation between man and man and made them realise the brotherhood of all humanity. His tolerance, equal vision and universality are a unique and unparalleled phenomenon. He showed people how to recognize the immanence of God in all beings. Very few recognized His true worth. He was rightly described by a contemporary Saint as "a Diamond upon a dung heap". Sai Baba is the one of the finest flowers of Indian Spiritual Idealism and Culture.

The true glory of a God-Man is extremely difficult to recognize and understand. His actions and utterances often appear strange and queer. Only a person of deep devotion, intense faith and inward purity can fathom the nature of such a Mahapurusha. Such a person is most blessed upon earth. Such a person is very close to God. He is like unto a man who discovers a rare and invaluable precious treasure. His Holiness Sri B. V. Narasimhaswamiji Maharaj is verily such a blessed and saintly soul, who has had the immense sowbhagya of being mysteriously drawn to Samartha Sainath Maharaj, who has lovingly revealed unto him His true Divine Swaroopa. The joy of this discovery and revelation has fired Sri B. V. Narasimhaswamiji Maharaj with the intense desire of sharing his blessedness with one and all in this sacred land. Fired with this zealous, pious desire, he has dedicated his entire life and energies to the task of bringing into full light the beautiful Divine Life of this illumined Spiritual Personality. The learned and the holy author has been practically working out his holy Satsankalpa by carrying on a ceaseless and vigorous propagation of the life and teachings of Sri Sai Baba. By his unceasing indefatigable pious efforts, Sri Narasimhaswamiji has successfully made the name of Sai Baba a household word to countless numbers of fortunate people throughout the length and breadth of India. Specially in the South, he has spread the glories of His Divine Sadguru into every nook and corner of the land. This present Volume "LIFE OF SAI BABA" is the latest flower to be offered at the Lotus Feet of Samartha Sadguru Sainath in this inspiring and dynamic Guru puja, which Sri B. V. N. Swamiji has been doing with such intense fervour and faith for the past more than a decade and a half. Such indeed is the worthy and true disciple at the Feet of the Divine Master.

Sri B. V. Narasimha Swamiji Maharaj is truly rendering an unforgettable service to the aspirant-world in particular and to all people of this land in general, in thus bringing to them the life-transforming knowledge of a Sat-Purusha's Divine Lilas and teachings. Innumerable souls have been brought into contact with and helped and elevated by Sri Sai Baba, mainly as a result of this labour of love offered at the altar of Gurubhakti and Guru Seva. Through his intensely dedicated life, His Holiness, the pious author, has made himself into a living golden link between the present generation and

Sri Sai Baba. The people of India are under a deep debt of gratitude to the author for this unique spiritual service of his.

The present book is an invaluable work which brings to light very many remarkable hidden facts of Sai Baba's life and explains the deep inner spiritual significance underlying a number of Baba's traits and mysterious actions. It throws a flood of light upon certain of the important fundamentals of spiritual life, yoga, sadhana and inner evolution. As the author himself has made it quite clear, the object of this book is eminently practical. It is to draw souls into contact with Sai Baba and to enlighten them about this mysterious universe and the puzzling problem of spiritual development. Regarding the value of knowing facts connected with the lives of saints, the author has very rightly observed that it is "not only good for the individual who knows them but is beneficial to society, as in the long run it promotes social unity and ethical, spiritual and religious study and endeavour............. By the study of such lives, basic ignorance and illusion are dispelled. Rajasic and Tamasic qualities such as egoism, hatred and cruelty are checked or suppressed and noble virtues like humility, earnestness, love to all, service of saints, Guru bhakti and Gyana are developed. These, in due course, lead to the goal of God-realisation". Rightly has it been observed that the lives of saints do not merely give information for the brain, but they are food to the heart and the soul and give inner strength to man and facilitate his all-round advancement, temporal as well as spiritual.

Every reader, whatever line of life he is pursuing, is bound to benefit immensely by a perusal of this work. But to spiritual aspirants specially, it is of inestimable worth, for very valuable light is thrown upon a number of vitally important subjects like the spiritual conception of the Guru, the deep inner significance of his deification and worship, the inner Spiritual Laws that operate in the contact of the disciple with his Spiritual Preceptor and the correct conception of the Dharma of a Fakir or true Sanyasi. The chapters like "GURU WORSHIP", "GURU'S QUALIFICATIONS", "SISHYA'S QUALIFICATIONS", "NUMBER & CHANGE OF GURUS" and "GURU SISHYA RELATIONS, RULES" provide a flood of illuminating Upadesh, containing, as they do, peerless words of wisdom upon these matters. The people of Bharatavarsha are indeed eternally grateful to Sri Narasimhaswamiji Maharaj for his noble work of bringing home to all the life and lilas and teachings of one of the greatest Spiritual Luminaries of India in recent times.

I wish this book wide circulation. It will lead to Loka kalyana. It will surely fulfil its glorious task of helping, guiding and transforming countless lives on their onward progress towards Divine Perfection. All glory to Sri B.V. Narasimhaswamiji Maharaj! Glory, supreme glory to Samartha Sadguru Sai Baba! My silent adorations, prostrations and worship at His Lotus feet. May the loving grace and blessings of Sai Baba shower in abundance upon you all! Peace and blessedness be unto you! SRI SAINATH MAHARAJKI JAI!

Preface to Part I

This treatise on Sai Baba is intended to contain as much information as possible of great interest to the devotees and the public. The volume has been growing and is still growing, so that at a very early stage it was discovered that the book would be took big for a single volume. It has been decided to split the book into three parts, the first pan being the preliminary part containing matter which is useful for understanding the latter parts. An account is given of his early life, how he was understood and misunderstood, how he looked insignificant at first and became all important later, and what various and even conflicting views were and are taken of Sai's life. Amongst these, in the first pan, a good portion has been allotted to view Sai Baba as Guru or Samartha Sadguru, especially in dealing with his Ankita children. To some, this devotion of a large number of pages to the subject of Gurus might appear to be unnecessary and may even be displeasing. On the other hand, it is noted thatt those who approach Sai Baba in dead earnest to achieve the highest that life holds for them were and are anxious to view in that light and deal with him in that capacity in which he would be of the greatest use to them for achieving the goal of life. And it is as Guru to all, that persons of all faiths and places can meet at his feet. His worship was first begun by Mahlsapathy and others as he was a supreme saint, a Paramaguru, an advantage to resort to and who is a necessity for one's attainment of moksha and other high aims of life. Mahlsapathy, his friends and the hermits meeting Baba in his earliest days at Shirdi realised what a highly advanced soul he was, how full he was of divine nature and therefore possessed of power to impart that nature or realisation to those seeking it in the proper way and to impart to various people various other benefits which circumstances might warrant. In the Mundaka Upanishad¹ we find the root of what has been expanded later in the Bhagavata. That Upanishad says that a self realiser or person of God-realisation can achieve anything and be in any world that he thinks of.

Yam Yam lokam manasa samvibhati,

Viscuddha satwah Kamayate Yamscha Kaman,

Tamtam lokam jayate,

Taamscha kaman,

Tasmat atmajnanam hyarchayet Bhutikamah.

The Upanishad adds, therefore those who are anxious about their own welfare must resort to such an Atmajnana. That was evidently the feeling of Mahlsapathy though perhaps he might never have heard of the Mundaka Upanishad. Baba's saying Main Allah hum or I am Laxmi Narain² is Atmajnana. The same doctrine is expanded in Srimad Bhagavata³ and other works. The Jnani is compared to Agni.

Bhungte Sarvatra Bhoktrunam

Dahan Prak Uttara Asubham.

that is, 'The Jnani goes on eating what is offered by devotees just as the fire consumes every oblation offered by devotees and completely burns out all the evil karma that may have been committed by them formerly or may be committed thereafter'. This is seldom actively and fully held before the mind of persons going to feed saints. For instance, Bayyaji Bai, when starting the feeding of Sai Baba from his very first entry into Shirdi, and pursuing him into the jungle for feeding him, dimly sensed the glory and appropriateness of feeding such a saint though it is clear that her having been Baba's sister, janma after janma, was the Rinanubandha that, accounted for her anxiety and zeal to feed him. Sai Baba's nature was slowly understood, and Volume I shows how very slow the process was. But at one stage, we might say that Baba had left obscurity behind and came out in full blaze like the noon-day sun upon the public. From about 1910 the blaze had begun, and in 1918 the blaze had advanced, and by 1918 the blaze was so powerful as to strike even comparatively blind people. However, there are such blind people even now whose eyes have to be opened to see the glory of the light of that sun, Baba. Baba's work has begun and is anything but finished. What the future holds seems to be far more important than anything already achieved by him. The object of this book is to help people to realise more and more the great work that is being done by Baba and his essential greatness. Therefore, there was a special necessity to hurry up the publication of this 'book. It was ready in some form even last year. But financial and other difficulties prevented any publication and even now those difficulties permit only the publication of part after part, and that is one special reason why volume I alone is being issued now. In trying to cut up one closely inter-related mass of information about Sai Baba instituting his life, lilas, and teachings, one feels a great difficulty. However much thought is given to the subject of separation of parts, we find it difficult to say which chapter should get into what part. So in a rough way, Part I has to be closed with roughly one-third of the size" of the matter ready for printing, including in it the early history and accounts of Baba and the materials necessary for getting an idea of Baba as a Samartha Sadguru, who will help one to attain the highest in life, while at the same time enabling one to get the other incidential benefits of contact with such a saint. Chapters about Ankita children are the natural corollary of the chapter about 'Baba's Love or Prema' and 'Baba's Samsara in this world, and Baba's Brahma Nishta. Baba said to Nona G. Chandorkar 'You want to escape from samsara. I cannot escape from it myself. As long as there is the body, samsara is there. One cannot be released from samsara by running away to a jungle or by other similar process'. There is in this statement an important question of attitude to life. Several great saints who made great strides in Atma Jnana and God-realisation simply contended themselves with remaining absorbed in Para Brahman or in their Iswara, Personal God, and did not wish to continue any of their lives' activities. Some condemn this attitude. Others applaud it. But we should do neither. In the world, there are various sorts of fruits and views and in Divine Providence any soul may select its own fruit that is the particular attitude to life that suits it best, especially in view of its poorva karma and training. In Sai's life, the above quoted views as to samsara stress the fact that he was never for deserting society in order to be completely drowned in Impersonal or Personal God. On the other hand, he insisted upon being in the thick of life attending to his duties, drawing to him the very large number of persons, who contacted him in previous lives or in the present, all the while with his concentration God, unimpaired by such contact and in stressing the importance of performance of rinanubandha obligations with similar detachment upon his devotees also; he set an example of what he taught. This matter will be dealt with at greater length in the Third Part which contain his teachings. The second volume or part mainly consist of Baba's dealings with various prominent persons showing how they were drawn to him and influenced by him, what progress they made and how they were helped to make it by reason of their contact .with him. This naturally includes teachings, for teachings form an important part of the way in which Baba developed people who came to him, and yet it is not by what we call 'teachings' that Baba moulded several prominent devotees. Therefore whatever is left over after dealing with Baba's prominent devotees in Part II must come into Part III, which as the residuary and final part must include general matter not covered by the previous parts.

The object of this work has been repeatedly declared to be practical. In cutting off a third of the book and sending it immediately before the public, the author is eminently practical. He wants that as many as possible who are hungering and thirsting to contact Sai Baba should have their satisfaction at once, that as many as are anxious to become Baba's ankita children should be immediately enabled to become such, and that those who wish to understand this mysterious universe and the puzzling problems of spiritual development with the aid of what Baba said and did, should be given an immediate chance of picking up as much as possible and proceed with it. Above all, the author feels sure that there is a considerable section of serious minded persons who wish to adopt Sai baba for their Gurudeva and want to be trained by him and taught by him every way in which Baba would consider it fit to teach and .in them. Baba's methods have not been exhaustively studied, but they include what is known as the Dakshinamurthi method.

Chitram Vatatarormule

Vriddhah Scishyah Guruh Yuva

Guruostu Mounam Vyakhyanam

Scishyastu chinna samscayah.

this means, What a wonder! At the foot of the banyan tree, aged, grey bearded disciples are seated at the feet of a Guru, who is young. The Guru keeps silent and talks not a word. The doubts however, of the disciples are all dispelled. One naturally asks, 'How is that possible?' In our present day civilisation, we have only understood conveyance of thought by speech. But with persons of the coming race or the fully developed human being that is represented by Baba, one of the most elementary power is to convey the thought impulse to action without utterance of a single word. 'Radiating thought' is an expression used about several great souls. A person seated before such a Mahatma feels that his whole being is permeated, controlled, communed with and moulded by the Mahatama without the use of a single word and without direction that any book should be studied or any practice should be followed. Fuller details of this will be found in the chapter on Upasani Baba in Part II. Apart from radiating mere ordinary thought, radiating wisdom or bliss and filling the disciple's soul with illumination never before experienced appear to be very grand, perhaps the grandest feat. Narayan Ashram formerly called Mr. Toser⁴ sat by Baba. Narayan Ashram says "He graciously conveyed to me without any words the feeling that differences between various souls were unreal, that the One real thing is that which underlies all."⁵ That means that he completely forgot himself, that, Toser's soul lost the idea that he was a single Toser with joys and sorrows, and limitations, of one body but instead, he perceived absolute bliss within him. As there was nothing else, within that bliss was Toser and he was identified with Sai Baba. And all sense of separateness was gone. This is the momentary conversion of an ordinary Jiva into Satchitananda or something on the verge of it. Baba's powers were similarly extended to G.S. Khaparde and Mrs. Tarabai Sadasiv Tarkhad. This activity of Baba would be very highly esteemed by many a reader who might consider it the privilege of his life, the total achievement of one's life to get into Satchitananda at least for a moment at the feet of Baba. Baba's training, teachings and achievements were of widely different sorts and were suited to the conditions of each who approached him and are suited to the conditions of those who approach him now. Baba is still a Guru, a Divine Personality, not a mere abstraction and can be seized by those who are in dead earnest. Unfortunately for mankind, very few are so earnest. Most stop with raising preliminary questions as to the impossibility of such an experience or its undesirability and the various objections from the standpoint of the learning that they have already acquired. The ifs, the buts, the hows, the whys and the other numerous ways in which they face the problem prevent most readers from having the chance of approaching Baba in the right receptive spirit with full earnestness and getting the highest out of him. If the highest is not possible at the present moment, Baba suitably develops them either in this life or in the life beyond, for Baba has repeatedly undertaken to guide his devotees, life after life, promising to be born with them for that purpose. If this is not a sufficient attraction, it is difficult to find anything more attractive. There are people to whom these are not attractions, but the chance of getting Rs.500 a month, or a fine estate, or success in a particular contest, would be esteemed of far greater interest and importance than any of the things mentioned above. People's ways are peculiar and Baba does not expect every one to come to him fully perfect. Any one with all his defects may try to approach Baba and Baba will mould him, change his view point and his capacity to understand, appreciate and desire. The correct attitude is very important. That in turn depends upon one's view of one's life, one's neighbours and God. If one thinks of oneself to be a mere body, all earthly attractions overwhelm. But Baba by the grace of his Guru Mourshad was, as he said "taken away from the body which was but his house." That is, the Guru showed him that he was the spirit and not the mere body, that his interests were not to be confounded with the thousand and one things of the organism or one's artificial or sentimental personality closely associated with the organism. Baba has in turn developed several of those approaching him, at least partially to shake off the Dehatmabuddhi and obsession that the body is one's self. If a person once realises that he is not this organism and this body, but is something very much wider, which may be the result of Baba's training him to pitch himself into all other's hearts and identify himself with those souls, then the present necessity and the desires and aversions formerly prevailing with oneself, all drop off. The scales fall from one's eyes. All values are different. The world looms as something totally different from what it did. One sets about it and acts in a different way. The results therefore of Sai contact will be of such wide variety and importance that it is not possible to set them out here. The earlier a person seizes upon a book about Baba and makes a careful and voracious study of everything about Baba, and a sincere attempt to absorb all that he can out of it, the better. We are sure that even after a perusal of Part I alone, several would achieve the position of becoming Baba's Ankita children, and there are already a good number of them. Several would definitely fix themselves up as Sai's sishyas anxious with his help to get up step after step in the ladder of spiritual progress. The details of these steps it is neither possible nor desirable to state here and now. One step seen at a time is enough. Baba gives the needed push and sees to the proper progress of everyone according to the circumstances and it does not matter whether one's progress is achieved completely now or later. If complete progress is not achieved in one life,

Bahunan Janmanam Ante,

Jnanavan Maam Prapadyate

that is, The jnani reaches God after many births. There is sure to be appreciable advance in one's position and one's nature as mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita⁶. Thus one feels that he has after all come to the right place, namely, the feet of Sai Baba.

Before closing this preface, acknowledgements have to be made for all the help which have taken shape in the form of this book. The need for a complete biography in English has been felt by the public and by this author for over a dozen years, but something or other prevented the work from being undertaken and carried through. While in that condition, October 1953 brought on a serious breakage of the thigh bone and sixty days' confinement in the hospital, and subsequently a very serious attack of dysentery served to complete what appeared to be a total wreck of the physical and mental constitution. No energy was left to the author to move about, to think out, to look into the authorities or to write out a biography. There was no health or freshness and energy. In such a state of affairs, which continued yearly up to the middle of 1954, it was a wonder to the author himseif that he discovered the object of his life being spared d the object also of sufficient of energy, mental and physical, being left to him. It was clear that the remaining energy and remaining life were intended to be devoted to Baba just as the previous decades of this author's life were. So the matter of this big book within his memory was fairly and easily recallable. With some little effort, he began work and strange to say, though he had no power to sit and write, Baba provided his Ankita child with a stenographer who, out of modesty, wishes to conceal his light under a nom-de-plume R.R. Without the help of a stenographer, it would be impossible to turn out any work either for the book or for the Sai Sudha or for the numerous pamphlets that were being constantly requisitioned by others from this author. But by Baba's provision, this stenographer worked at all the .above matter and spent a large number of days in the year, that is, all the spare time that he could command, by the side of the author doing this work merely out of love for Baba. His work, if it had been charged for according to the prevailing scales, would have involved the author in the expenditure of over a thousand rupees which, of course, were not available. But Baba, like Sri Krishna, always provides Mat parayanas those who are devoted to him entirely, by looking after the affairs of those who assist. Says Bhagavata⁷

Samuddharanti Ye Vipram

Seedantam mat Parayanam

Tan uddharishyeham Achirat

Apatbhyo Nawn Rivarnavat.

that is, Sri Krishna says, 'Those who rescue my entirely devoted bhakta from his troubles, them I shall rescue and help from all troubles and calamities, just as a boat rescues one in the ocean. Baba somehow gives the feeling to the author's helpers that they are being looked after by him.

The author's health being, since October 1953, extremely unreliable, the work would have been impossible but for the due provision of medical help. Here again Baba's help to his Ankita child is remarkable. Baba designated a doctor in a very good position and with excellent knowledge and made him repeatedly attend, without receiving any recompense at all, upon the author and that doctor is still attending upon him. Here also the above mentioned stanza applies. When the work was helped on in this way, the size of the volume grew and grew, and the task of reviewing even the original typed pages was too much for the physically weak author. Sri Dewan Bahadur R.V. Krishna Ayyar, for whom the author has always entertained high regard and love, went through over 500 sheets of typed matter making the necessary corrections. This was in the midst of his official work. So sincere thanks are due to him as also to Miss Indira, professor of English, Government College, Coimbatore, who was kind enough to go through 200 pages of the manuscript. Thanks are also due to the retired Law College Professor of Indore, Sri V.N. Visvanatham, and several others for having taken down notes necessary for dictation of the book. As already stated it looks impossible to publish a big book of 900 or more pages with a depleted cash balance in the All India Sai Samaj. It is Baba's grace alone that made the work see the light of day and also aided in getting the means for publication. The royal present of Rs.5,000 by His Highness The Maharaja of Mysore enabled the Samaj to purchase a Press and types. In the last twelve months, 360 odd pages constituting the first volume have been printed and got ready for publication. Stage after stage, idea after idea, and reference after reference, the remarkable help that ^fj/as suddenly forthcoming was the clearest evidence to the Author that Baba is giving unstinted support for this publication, fact it is not mere modesty but love of truth that makes the author say that the real producer of this book is Baba himself.

There may be numerous others who have helped this author in the course of getting up this book, but it is impossible to name them all here, and the author's apology may be accepted for the omission.

B.V. narasimha swami 1955

One

Who is Sai Baba?

The phenomenal spread, like wild fire of faith in Sri Sai Baba throughout this great country, within the last decade or two and its wonderful hold on the mass mind naturally roused the curiosity of many to put the above question and have necessitated the writing of a full and clear account. Those who know nothing of the personality in whom the faith of many centers, ought to know something of him. Those with prejudices or with wrong or defective views about him must be enabled to cast aside such prejudices and views and to acquire better and more accurate ideas about him. Those who have just a faint or superficial notion of Sai Baba must likewise be enabled to get a deeper, wider and more authentic idea about him, so that they may thereby extend or increase their contact with him.

Correct knowledge of any kind is good. But correct knowledge of facts connected with the lives of saints is not only good for the individual who knows them, but is beneficial to society as in the long run it promotes social unity and ethical, spiritual and religious study and endeavor. Lives of saints give not merely information for the brain of the reader, but food and strength for his heart, and they facilitate the general advancement of the temporal and spiritual interests of mankind. By the study of such lives, basic ignorance and illusions are dispelled. Rajasic and Tamasic qualities such as egotism, pride, hatred, and cruelty are checked or suppressed and noble virtues like humility, earnestness, love to all, service of saints, Guru Bhakti and Jnana are developed. These in due course lead to the goal of God-realisation. Apart from these, even the temporal benefits derived by individuals from appreciation and knowledge of Sri Sai Baba and the acquisition of a real living touch with him are great enough to justify an attempt to place a book like this before the public.

Further, there is even now an important section of readers, however small their number may be, that require something more than mere bread and butter or health, wealth and worldly comforts, whose spiritual longings should be met in some measure by a work which presents something of the facts about a unique and perhaps one of the strangest of known spiritual personalities adorning the earth during recent times.

The task undertaken is however extremely difficult. There exists a mass of information about what Sai Baba said and did during his life time and about the experience of him which people who met him in life had. There is an even greater mass of evidence about the experiences of devotees who have after 1918, that is, after his Mahasamadhi, treated him as their true God or Ishtadevata. The difficulty however is to remove the grain from the chaff, to sift and arrange all the mass of evidence that exists and to present what, after enquiry and investigation, has to be accepted as true beyond reasonable doubt. If the evidence which exists regarding Sai Baba is properly sifted and carefully examined and selected, a trustworthy biography can be written and may form a useful inducement for progress in spiritual matters.

The difficulty of sifting the evidence before us is by no means slight. First, Sai Baba himself left his body more than thirty-six years ago. It is not therefore given to a biographer to go and ask him about the true facts and discover the truth. Very few who met him, or benefitted from him till 1918, made use of their contact with him to collect and record facts about him. Many of them did not understand him at all. For the mere sight of Sai did not enable a man to understand him. The right approach or mentality that is necessary for understanding a saint was wanting in many who met him, and Sai Baba himself once said: "They were coming for water to the supplier of water, but insisted on holding their pots with their mouths down, so unreceptive they were".

To many who saw him, Baba's deeds and sayings were rather confusing or perplexing. For instance, when he said, I am not at Shirdi, but everywhere.⁸

He who thinks Baba is in Shirdi alone has totally failed to see Baba.⁹

You have been with me 18 years. Does Sai mean to you only this 3^1/2’ cubits height of body?¹⁰

I am God, Allah"

such statements appeared to them like eccentric pronouncements of a mad man. In fact his queer unconventional ways, his habit of accommodating himself to all sorts of people including Hindus, Mohammadans and others, and his fearless and unorthodox originality failed to impress many of his visitors. Sectarian prejudices and narrow views led many to think and pronounce all sorts of opinions about him. Even G.G. Narke¹²and Syama¹³ took him at first to be a mad man. Others such as Londa¹⁴ and Megha¹⁵ took him to be a communalist. A few people took him to be a hypnotist¹⁶, a black magician¹⁷ while others even denounced him as an immoral and dangerous man who was ruining Hindus and Hinduism¹⁸. When new comers like Dr. D.M. Mulky tried to go to Shirdi, railway personnel en route stopped several by their abuse and vilification of Baba.

This kind of attitude to Sai Baba is to some extent prevalent even now. Many are the persons who hate Sai, presuming from the name and residence at the mosque that he must have been an iconoclastic Mussalman, while others are indifferent to him, as they have not been fortunate enough to get proper information about him.

There can therefore be no doubt that there is a great need for a book of facts regarding Sai Baba like the present one. The difficulty of the task should not act as a deterrent. One very closely associated devotee of his, now living, still believes that Baba was only a Mohammadan. What can 'only a Mohammadan' mean? It means that even after 25 years of personal experience of him and 36 of his post mortem glories, the devotee treats him as a communalist just as he did when Baba was in the flesh. On the other hand, to Sri. M.B. Rege, a retired High Court Judge, Sai is only God, the Paramatma, and this view he held even in 1914.

Baba wished to convince the devotee, if he was a Hindu, that he was Mahavishnu, Lakshminarayan, etectra and he bade water flow from his feet, as Ganga issued from Mahavishnu's feet. The devotee saw it and praised him as Rama Vara, but as for the water coming from his feet, that devotee simply sprinkled a few drops on his head and would not drink it, coming as it did from a Mohammadan's feet. So great was the prejudice of ages that even one, who thought of him as Vishnu, thought he was a Muslim Vishnu. Prejudices die hard and the devotee wondered how people can believe that Baba was a Brahmin and that his parents were Brahmins when he had lived all his life in a mosque and when he was believed to be a Muslim. It was only a few persons like S.B. Dhumal who saw clearly that Baba was neither Hindu nor Muslim, but above all castes, sects and religions.¹⁹

It is still fewer people that could rise to the level of accepting Baba's supreme claim²⁰ that he was Paramatma in all beings. Such persons naturally worship him as Ishtadevata.

Thus there are vast differences, sometimes poles apart between the various ideas which people have about Sai Baba. These render difficult the task of presenting the real Sai as distinguished from the popular distortions of him. His devotees and strangers alike said that Sai could not be understood and that nobody could know the secrets of Sai Baba. Syama called him Deva, that is God, but did not always behave as he would towards God.²¹

To a Haji who was proud of his Haj, Baba said "You do not know what is here", that is, in the Sai body or personality. A well known song is²²

"More Babaku Mdrma na Janare koyi More" "None knows my Baba's secret".

Till now, there has not been a good biography containing a fair, full and faithful description of his life. In Marathi, the work that can be thought of when facts about Sai Baba are wanted is Hemad Pant's alias Anna Saheb Dabolkar's Sai Satcharitra. This is a brillantly written poetical work extending to 53 chapters and over 1000 pages narrating incidents connected with Sai Baba's life, and written in highly florid and resonant Marathi, serving excellently the purpose of Puranic study and daily parayana. Great as the merits of the book are from the standpoint of a Bkakta, it cannot be called a regular biography. It is rather a chronicle of reminiscences or anecdotes relating to him having no arrangement, not even chronological. There is a good adaptation of this Marathi work in an English garb by Sri Gunaji. Other small sketches or introduction to Baba's life have been published in English and other languages, but these also are too tiny to deserve the name of a biography, sketches of a few early incidents in Baba's life were issued as poetic pieces by Das Ganu Maharaj of Nanded during the life time of Baba in about 1906. He wrote 6 or 7 chapters on the whole about Sai Baba, and he published them as part of big books namely, Bhakta Leelamrutha, Santha Kathamrutha and Bakthi Saramrutha. These 7 chapters are printed in Marathi. H.S. Dixit wrote a short biographical preface to Mrs. & Mr. Tendulkar's Sai Bhajan Mala in 1917.

A very short sketch of Sai Baba's life was issued in Gujarati by Amidoss Mehta. This was also before Baba's Mahasamadhi in 1918. A slightly more ambitious work was the Life of Baba in Tamil written by the present author. Actually only Part I of it appeared, but even that was not a full account. Subsequent to his mahasamadhi, there have appeared a few statements or sketches about Sai Baba, but they are scattered and do not deserve the name of a regular biography. Sai Samasthan itself published Rao Bahadur M.W. Pradhan's book 'A glimpse of Indian spirituality' but it ran upto only about 25 to 30 pages and set out just a handful of facts about Baba²³.

This list practically exhausts all attempts made hitherto to publish a biography of Sai Baba. A faithful and full account of Sai Baba's life based on a careful and critical study of the available material regarding his life and the incidents and anecdotes narrated about him by those who contacted him before and after 1918 is therefore urgently called for and will it is hoped be appreciated by his innumerable devotees.

The author has undertaken this work in a spirit of humility and as a true service of Sai Baba and in the sincere belief that Sai himself has directed him to undertake it. 'Obstacles and difficulties should not frighten us', says Bhartruhari. The most admirable of Sai Baba's charters is 'Why do you fear, when I am here?' This in itself is an answer to those who doubt and fear about the possibility of a successful biography of Sai Baba.

The arrangement of the work requires a few words of explanation. After giving as full and accurate an account of Baba's life, doings and teachings as can be gathered from the available evidence, the author has given a description of the various aspects of Baba and of the various functions which he performed. Further a sketch has been given of the more important disciples who contacted Sai Baba and benefited by such contact and of the circumstances which attracted them to him. It will be seen that these disciples were mostly Hindus, though some of them were Muslims. In writing separate chapters about Sai Baba's doings and teachings and his disciples, it was inevitable that some teachings and incidents connected with the disciples might happen to be repeated more than once, but the author thought that it was better to allow the repetition so that each chapter may be complete and self-sufficient in itself rather than to leave the reader to go through the previous pages for the purpose of finding out references. As it is, the reader can take up any chapter and read it with interest and will not find himself handicapped for want of knowledge of the previous chapter. Further repetition is essential to ensure a deep impression.

God-realisation is a personal experience and cannot be obtained or explained through the written word. Those who are familiar with Hindu thought and in fact with religious thought generally, can realise the importance of a Guru and absolute faith in a Guru for the quickening of spiritual growth. "All things are possible to him that believeth". But faith is founded on experience and confidence is increased by tangible proofs. To create such faith and evoke such confidence. God or a God-man Guru has to confer wished for benefits on the disciple or devotee and the conferring of such benefits is the instrument with which God works. The less care a devotee has about his bodily or material comforts, the more perfectly he can carry out His will and programme. This book proves beyond doubt how Sai Baba took upon his shoulders the responsibility of looking after the maintenance, health and prosperity of his disciples and devotees.

The advent of Sai Baba was for the uplift of man-kind and a study of this work describing it will, shower upon the readers incalculable benefits both spiritual and temporal in this world and beyond.

Two

Babas Earliest Period

The birth and parentage of Sai Baba are wrapped in mystery. We have not come across a single person who has any direct" knowledge of them. Sai attained his fame at Shirdi in the Bombay state by the end of the 19th Century when he was already grey. It is known that he was not a native of Shirdi. He was very young when he first came there. In the beginning he left Shirdi off and on, and returned to it. The date of his first arrival at Shirdi cannot be fixed. A very old lady, the mother of Nana Chopdar, said in 1900 that when she was young she. first saw Sai Baba at Shirdi, when he was a prepossessing and attractive lad without a moustache, probably in his early teens, and of, whom nothing was known. That so little is known aoout his early life proves that even then he was leading a secluded life, a real fakir not hankering after the good things of the world but concentrating his attention on higher aims. He was often in solitude, not infrequently under the well known margosa tree called the Code neeni, meaning that the leaves of one of its two big branches are not so bitter as margosa leaves usually are and as the leaves of the other big branch are. He had no fixed residence - real fakirs have none. He would roam about in the fields and squat at any tree-foot, and had no interest in any worldly matter. One of his later visits to Shirdi, probably the final visit, was on the momentous occasion of Chand Bhai Patel's advent to Shirdi. Chand Bhai Patel was a rich and influential village Patel or Headman, of Dhupkeda village in the Nizam's State not far from Shirdi. His wife's newphew was to be married to a bride at Shirdi, and so in 1872, he came in the evening or night with a huge procession and Sai Baba accompanied him on that occasion from Dhupkeda to Shirdi. After that time except for two months when he was under Jawar Ali Msulana, Sai Baba never left Shirdi but only made a few occasional visits off and on to the neighbouring villages of Rahata or Nimgam, from which he immediately returned to Shirdi. So his final residence was Shirdi from about 1872 till the end of his life in 1918. He discouraged questions on parentage, and gave mostly mystifying answers. On one occasion, he said, his father was Purusha and his mother was Maya or Prakriti, and that in consequence, he came in as the Dehi into this world of phenomena²⁴. At another time he said that his uncle had brought him to Shirdi from Aurangabad²⁵. On one momentous occasion, very late in his life, he revealed to Mahlsapathy²⁶ the interesting fact that his parents were Brahmins of Patri in the Nizam's State. Patri is part of Parvani taluk, near Manwath. Sai Baba added, in explanation of the fact that he was living in a Mosque, that while still a tender child his Brahmin parents handed him over to the care of a fakir who brought him up. This is fairly indisputable testimony, as Mahlsapathy was a person of sterling character noted for his integrity, truthfulness and vairagya. All persons including Sai Baba, H.S. Dixit, and others held him in very high esteem, and none would doubt his veracity. Sai Baba occasionally showed his interest in Patri and Parvani when people from those parts came to him, by questioning them about the residents of those places. This does not take us very far. But this is practically all that we have about the birth and parentage of Sri Sai Baba.

But who ever his parents were it is quite important to remember that from his earliest infancy he had all the associations or dissociation or detachment a true vairagi or jnani should have. Having no parents or kinsmen, and being brought up by a fakir, he easily picked up his foster-father's vairagya and spiritual turn of mind²⁷. Even that fakir passed away within four or five years after taking charge of him. The fakir directed his wife to take the young child, Baba, and leave him in charge of a noted saintly zamindar, Gopal Rao Deshmukh at Selu. The appellation Deshmukh was not meaningless in the case of Gopal Rao but denoted an actual appointment as Deshmukh or Provincial Governor for Jintur Parganna, and the title or sanad of Deshmukh had been conferred on him by the descendants of the Peshwas. The exact date of the title cannot be discovered. There are ballads and some old manuscripts in the possession of Deshmukh's descendants which show that somewhere about the first quarter of the last century, the Peshwas recognised his military capacity which enabled him, Gopal Rao, to bring Jintur Parganna under his control with his own horsemen and other followers. Young Baba, left under the care of this Gopal Rao Deshmukh spent the best and the most impressionable part of his life at Selu which was the centre of that Parganna, and which had a fort and castle wherein the Deshmukh resided. The young boy was very greatly attached to his master, and the master in turn was deeply interested in the boy. Consequently the boy was with the master at all times, whether the latter was in the field or at puja, whether he was in the garden or in the court. Baba seems to have had no education given to him at any time, that is, no book study, and no masters either in the regional language which must have been Marathi or Telugu or in any other language. But real education of the highest sort, he had in plenty. This Deshmukh, unlike many other Deshmukhs or zamindars of his times, was not a dissolute and sensuous person of brutal nature revelling in cruelty and violation of all moral rules or scruples. On the other hand, he was an extremely pious devotee greatly attached to Tirupati Venkatesa whose image he worshipped daily in his own castle. He was rich, and liberal, and patronised learning and piety. Hence an abundance of real education could be picked up by the young child Baba when attending on his master. This Deshmukh's worship of Venkatesa was not of the ordinary sort. He had direct communion with his Ishta Devata, and the guidance of that Ishta Devata in all His affairs made his life a-remarkable spiritual and temporal success. He maintained his political sovereignly against all odds, and the ballads of his time show that his regiment was greatly esteemed by the Peshwas whom he helped and feared by the Muslim Nizam whom he opposed. This Deshmukh, however, spent much of his time in holy pastimes. He went round visiting holy places, and at one of those places a remarkable incident took place showing his nature. He occupied, with his retainers, a haunted house. The original owner of the house had died and become a Brahma-Rakshas, who would appear suddenly at midnight and kill the occupants. But Gopal Rao, the devout worshipper of Venkatesa, was not afraid. He carried on the puja of Venkatesa and Saligram right up to the middle of the night. The evil spirit, dishevelled and hairy all over, appeared and demanded in a terrific voice, 'Who are you? How dare you come to my house?' Then Gopal Rao coolly replied that the statement that the house was his was a mistake when there was nothing in common between him and the materials making up the house. The- spirit, infuriated, tried to approach him, though with some fear. Gopal Rao waited, and when the spirit came within a few yards, he hurled the abhikshekam water on the head of that spirit. At once this effected a marvellous change. The spirit fell down prostrate, and recited its past history and prayed that Gopal Rao should take possession of the vast hoards of wealth which the spirit had made when alive and which it had kept in the house and watched over and to utilise all that; to release it from its Brahma Rakshas state. Gopal Rao agreed, and carried away the treasures to Kasi where he performed the requisite rites for the liberation of the Brahmarakshas.

Another noteworthy incident in his travels²⁸ was at Ahmedabad. There at the tomb of Suvag Shah which he approached, a remarkable incident occured. The tomb actually perspired with joy and spoke to him. It stated that Gopal Rao was formerly Ramananda of Kasi and that now he had become a grihasta and a ruler but all the same, his former devotee Kabir would be coming to him soon. It was after this, that young Baba was brought to him by the fakir's widow, and Gopal Rao recognised him as Kabir.

Amongst the influences that mould the character of young boys, perhaps the strongest is that of the father or the -mother living with them, and shaping their mind from hour to hour. Baba had no mother or father to mould him but he had first a foster father, the fakir and next a master who ultimately became his Diksha Guru. So, the nature and character of Gopal Rao Deshmukh must first be understood to know how Baba's nature and character developed. This Gopal Rao, though a zamindar or rural chieftain of ancient days maintained a character and reputation unattained by any other zamindar of his time. One incident in his life illustrates this point. One evening as he sat on the ramparts of his fort, it was quite dusk, and in that half darkness, a fair damsel of some twenty years came very close to the ramparts on the ground level, and thinking that there was nobody, sat down and exposed her body. Seeing a nude usually provokes lust. Others in his position would have immediately ordered some one to go and carry away the damsel and bring her for their gratification. With Gopal Rao the sinful impulse lasted only for a moment. His conscience rebelled, and he at once thought of Venkatesa and appealed to him for forgiveness. He viewed every woman other than his wife as really in the position of a mother to him. Matruvat Paradarmscha says the niti sloka. That is, no lustful thoughts should be directed to any person other than one's wife. So, treating this lustful thought as an enormous sin, he rapidly went down to his worship room, and there, before his Ishta Devata's image Sri Venkatesa, he repented with bitter tears this momentary lust, and then resolved to punish his eyes for having cast lustful glances at a mother, which is nothing short of incest. He at once seized two sharp needles and poked his eyes with them. Blood issued, and he moaned. His relations soon came up and noting the fact, blamed him for the folly of losing his eyes for such a trivial matter. As his eye sight was absolutely essential for guarding them and the Jintur Parganna from the Muslims, and as they were necessary also for purposes of worship, his Guru asked him to pray to Lord Venkatesa for recovery of sight. Accordingly he prayed and recovered sight. The fame of his purity, nobility of character and ability to draw Venkatesa's power for curing ailments, spread abroad. Blind people and others came to him, and his very touch was curative. To a woman born blind, he applied chillies to her eyes with Venkatesa's name on his lips. This cured her and restored her sight. This incident, therefore, shows the nature and characteristics of Baba's Guru, Gopal Rao Deshmukh. In his highest moments of absorption, Gopal Rao uttered words which were the words of Venkatesa. He became one with Venkatesa at that time. So Baba always referred to his Guru as Venkusa, a contraction of Venkatesa. Perfect chastity, thorough self-control, invariable rectitude, perfect truthfulness, generosity, and serviceability to all which were the leading characteristics of his Guru became -transplanted and took deep root in the disciple, Sri Sai Baba.

We shall next proceed to narrate how the full personality including curative power, descended from the Guru to Baba.

Baba's being favoured by the Master evoked considerable jealousy amongst the Guru's retainers and some of them resolved to kill young Baba by hurling brickbats at him. During a chaturmasya, between August to November, Gopal Rao was in the garden and young Baba was attending upon him. The villains hurled bricks at Baba. One of the bricks came very near Baba's head, but the Guru saw it, and by his order it stood still in mid air unable to proceed further or hit Baba. Another man threw a second brick to hurt Baba. But Gopal Rao got up and got the brick on his head. This led to profuse bleeding. Baba was moved to tears, and he begged his Master to send him away as the Master was getting harmed from his unfortunate company. But the Master declined to send him away. As for the injury, the Master bandaged it with a shred torn from his own cloth, and then suddenly said, "I see that the time has come for me to part with you. To-morrow at 4 p.m. I shall leave this body, not as a result of this injury, but by my own yoga power of Swechcha Marana²⁹. Therefore, I shall now vest my full spiritual personality in you. For that purpose, fetch milk from yonder black cow". Young Baba went to Hulla the lambadi in charge of the cow, who pointed out that the cow was barren, had not calved, and could not, therefore, yield milk. All the same he came with the cow to the chieftain Gopal Rao who just touched it from horns to tail and told the lambadi, 'Now pull at the teats.' The lambadis pull drew out plenty of milk and this milk was given to Baba with Gopal Rao's blessings that the full power and grace of the Guru should pass on to young Baba. This was the Diksha, the investiture of the Guru's personality, which young, Baba underwent. So far as mystic powers were concerned, immediately an opportunity arose for proving the transfer of power Saktinipata. The villain whose brickbat had hit Gopal Rao, the Chieftain, fell down dead, the moment Gopal Rao was hit. His companions were horrified, and they came with repentance to Gopal Rao's feet and prayed for pardon not only for themselves but also for their dead companion whom they requested Gopal Rao to revive. The Chieftain pointed out that the power of revival³⁰ now rested in the young man, and that they should appeal to him. They accordingly appealed, and Baba took some of the dust of his Guru's feet and placed it on the corpse. The dead man arose at once.

The Guru's declaration that he would pass away the next day from this life into the beyond, was fulfilled. After making the fullest preparations for settling all his temporal affairs, Gopal Rao with his full consciousness sat up in the midst of a religious group carrying on puja, bhajan and nama smaran, in the presence of his Ishta Devata Sri Venkatesa and at the solemn hour he had himself fixed for departure, his soul left in perfect peace and happiness like Parikshit in Srimad Bhagavata. Before leaving the body, the Master waved his hand westward to the young boy, and bade him leave Selu and proceed westward to his new abode. Shirdi lies on the banks of the Godavari due west of Selu, and Baba by slow degrees moved on from place to place and arrived at Shirdi and after sometime made it his permanent residence.

Three

Babas Earlier Years at Shirdi

Baba's earliest years at Shirdi were passed in complete obscurity³¹. He was a poor fakir, whose name itself was not known, Sai Baba being merely a term of respect applied to wandering hermits of the Muslim faith. Very few incidents, therefore, of this period of his life are known. But such as are known are all significant as proving that Baba was a real fakir of sterling merit. Baba himself has observed³² that fakirs also are now seldom dispassionate, that is possessed of vairagya, and it is hard to find a good fakir. Baba had no home. Fakirs have none. Hermits are, therefore, to reside either at a tree-foot or chavadi or temple or other public places. When he came into Shirdi, Baba visited Khandoba temple at the outskirts of the village, and noting how solitary and calm a place it was, exclaimed, 'What a nice place this, for ascetics like me to live in.' Mahlsapathy, the man then in charge objected to this observation and said that no Muhammadan would be allowed to put his foot into the Khandoba temple. He was evidently thinking that Baba was a Muslim and that he would break the images and defile the temple. But Baba was just the opposite.

He had the same regard for temples and mosques, always wanted people to carry on their religious faith in their accustomed ways, and would never hurt the religious susceptibilities of any person. Baba, noting Mahlsapathy's attitude, left the place, and went to the gode neem tree which he used as his halting place off and on. He went about the village and the surrounding lands and had no particular arrangements for food. Luckily the village head, Ganapat Rao Patil Kothe and his wife Bayaji Bai, were greatly attracted by Baba's personality, and from the very beginning of his stay there, they undertook to feed him - even when he was running about. Gradually he gave up roaming and then went about the streets, halted at four or five places and from there collected whatever food was brought to him. For his stay and sleep, the dilapidated mosque of the village was the only place, and it soon became his residence. He was never for wholly deserting society and living in mountain caves and deserts.

In his earliest days, even up to 1890,