EDITORIAL

Saints - Their Stories and Company

Every country makes a mention about their saints very reverently. Saints have born at all times in all the countries. Every country can always show a chain of saints, who were born in their country from time to time. Our country has also a long tradition of saints and we can name our saints from the ancient Vedic time upto today.

Some devotees consider the saints as the Gods on earth. Every religion has got the concept of some supernatural power, that controls the universe and regulates it. The Hindus call this power as God and from the qualities attributed to each God, they have considered Him to have a particular form which is more or less the personification of the qualities attributed to Him. In view of the mythological stories, told about each God in the Puranas, He happened to have suitable weapons and thus the idols of the Gods came into being. Other religions also have some sort of conception of God and their prophets and saints are the representatives of God.

Thus there may be a close relation between the God and the saints; but still there is a marked difference between the relation of the saints with the devotees. From the biographies of the saints we come to know that there have been a few illustrious saints, who had the good fortune to meet God in person and have a direct talk with Him_; but this good fortune has not come to the lot of all saints. How then is it possible for the ordinary devotees of God to have His darshan and to get the opportunity to have a direct talk with Him? But is that the condition of the Gods on earth (saints)? No, not at all! On the other hand the saints are eager to have a talk with the devotees of God. In fact the saints are the incarnations of God, that come on the earth in order to lift up the people from this mundane life and raise them to the higher level. We, the devotees of God, have just to know His message from the scriptures, but we are not able to bear it directly from His lips. However, that is not the case with saints. Their advice, their teaching can be heard directly from their mouth and in their own voice. Thus we may say that in a way we are nearer to the saints than God and we are able to attain God through the saints.

It will thus be seen that there is a very close relation between the God, the saints and the ordinary man, who is a devotee of God. It is because of this close relation that we find the praise of saints in all religious books and the ordinary people are hence advised to listen to their stories and be in their company. In chapter ten of the Sai Satcharita, we find a similar advice. In that chapter while explaining the mode of Shri Baba's life, His sleeping board, His teachings and His humility, Shri Hemadpant states that listening to the stories of the saints and being in the their company is the easiest path to attain moksha, which is the sole aim of human life. Hemadpant writes, "Hearing the stories of the saints is not so difficult as the other Sadhanas mentioned above (sitting between five fires, sacrifices, chantings, eight fold yoga etc.) They (stories) remove all fear of this samsar (wordly existence) and take you on to the spiritual path. So listen to these stories, meditate on them, and assimilate them. If this is done, not only the Brahmins but women and lower classes will get pure and holy. You may attend to your wordly duties, but give your mind to Sai and His stories, and then, He is sure to bless you. This is the easiest path, but why do all not take to it? The reason is that without God's grace we do not get the desire to listen to the stories of saints. With God's grace everything is smooth and easy. Hearing the stories of the saints, is, in a way keeping their company. The importance of the company of the saints is very great. It removes our body-consciousness and egoism, destroys completely the chain of our birth and death, cuts asunder all the knots of the heart, and takes us to God, who is pure Consciousness. It certainly increases our non-attachment to sense-objects and makes us quite indifferent to pleasure and pains, and leads us on the spiritual path. If you have no other sadhana such as chanting God's name, worship or devotion etc., but if you take refuge in them (saints) whole heartedly, they will carry you safely across the ocean of worldly existence. It is for this reason that the saints manifest themselves in this world. Even sacred rivers such as the Ganges, Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri etc., which wash away the sins of the world, desire that the saints should come to them for a bath and purify them. Such is the grandeur of the saints. It is on account of the store of merit in past births that we have attained the feet of Sai Baba (P 62 Sai Satcharita, 8th Edition 1978).

In the above extract from the Sai Satcharitra, Shri Hemadpant explains in detail the benefits of listening to the stories of saints and keeping their company and adds in the end, "such is the grandeur of the saints." Shri Sai Leela magazine is devoted to the the spread of the Sai cult and the teachings of Shri Sai Baba. Shri Sai Baba the great saint of Shirdi and we Sai devotees no doubt take great pleasure in listening to the stories of Shri Sai Baba; but from the Sai Satcharita we know that Shri Baba was in communion with His contemporary saints and praised them and honoured them. Hence all saints are revered by the Sai devotees in the same manner, in which they honour Shri Sai Baba.

Though a specific mention of Shri Gajanan Maharaj is not to be found in the Sai Satcharita, as is found in the case of Shri Vasudevanand Saraswati (Shri Tembyeswami), still he was also a contemporary of Shri Sai Baba and as such we Sai devotees should like to listen to the stories from his life. With this view, his life is being published seriatim in this magazine from April '77 and this month the last canto is published elsewhere in this issue. Shri Gajanan Maharaj was a Mahayogi like Shri Sai Baba and like Shri Baba he also appeared at Shegaon in Vidarbha all of a sudden for the first time on the 23th of February 1878. Like Shri Baba his past life also is not known to anybody and he also never told anybody about it. He entered into Samadhi on 8th Sep. 1910 and thus, he lived in Shegaon for about 32 years. From the description of the young Maharaj, it appears that he must be about 18 to 20 years of age at the time of his appearance at Shegaon. So his life span appears to be about 50 to 52 years; but the saints are gifted persons. They achieve great things within a small span of their life. From the life of Shri Gajanan Maharaj published in this magazine, our readers must have come to know the miracles shown by Shri Gajanan Maharaj during his life time and they must have thought that they are very much akin to the leelas of Shri Sai Baba. Shri Das Ganu Maharaj, who was a great devotee of Shri Sai Baba, composed in ovi form in Marathi, the life of Shri Gajanan Maharaj under the caption “Shri Gajanan Vijay” in 21 chapters, which was summarised in English by Shri Huddar for the benefit of our readers, who do not know the Marathi language. Shri Gajanan Maharaj has a big following in Vidarbha, Nagpur, Khandesh and Marathwada. As Sai Satcharita is being read regularly by the Sai devotees, similarly the Gajanan Vijay is also being read regularly, with devotion, by the devotees of Shri Gajanan Maharaj. This popular volume is now in its 12th edition and more than 1,25,000 copies of this book have been sold from 1939 to 1972. Our readers have thus got the company of this great saint of Shegaon, whose Samadhi is at the same place, for the last two years or so and they were fortunate to listen to the stories of this great saint for all these days. Shri Hemadpant has expressed in detail the benefits of the company of the saints and the benefit of listening to their stories. May this great saint of Shegaon bless all the Sai devotees and let them obtain Moksha by listening to his stories and thus remaining in his company for so long a period.