Fire – Worship

(May 1978)

Three places in Shirdi are of very great importance to all Sai devotees, who visit Shirdi. The Samadhi Mandir is the first place of importance, because it houses the Samadhi of Shri Sai Baha. Big life like marble statue of Shri Sai Baba is also installed in this mandir. Hence for taking darshan of the Samadhi and the statue, every Sai devotee goes to that mandir. In addition to taking darshan, if a devotee has to perform "Abhishek", he again goes to the Samadhi Mandir for that purpose. The devotee next visits "Dwarakamai". This is the place where Shri Sai Baba spent most of His time during His life time. Udi, which is used by the Sai devotees for various purposes, is obtained from the Dhuni which is located in Dwarkamai. The third place of importance is the Chawadi. Shri Sai Baba used, to sleep in the Chawadi every alternate day and thus this place was His dormitory. It will thus be seen that all these three places are closely connected with Shri Sai Baba and are therefore reverved very much by the Sai devotees.

Out of the aforesaid three places, the importance of Dwarkamai is twofold. The permanent burning fire is located in the Dhuni in this building and Shri Sai Baba's Aarati was being performed here during His life time. Hence the present importance of the Samadhi Mandir was given to the Dwarkamai during the life-time of Shri Sai Baba. Though Shri Sai Baba celebrated Ramanavami, Gokul Ashtami and such festivals of other Gods and deities, still He also worshipped the fire by keeping it burning all the year round.

Fire-worship is not now for the human, race. If we look at the life of the aboriginal man on earth we find that he was in the beginning a cave-dweller. All around him, nature was showing its wonders and horrors. The aboriginal man was puzzled by the manifestation of the power of the main five elements of nature viz. the earth, water, heat, wind and the sky or vacuum. The human beings must have seen earthquakes. They must have seen storms as well as heavy floods. They must have seen big fires in the jungles, caused due to rubbing of one tree on another. Thus the original man might be having a sort of a feeling of fear in his mind about these elements. This fear therefore perhaps resulted in his considering them as Gods and worshipping them. Of course, these elements were originally worshipped as deities. There were no idols of these deities in the beginning. It was later on that these deities came to have a form and they manifested themselves into the form of idols. In the vedas we find several hymns composed in praise of these elements of nature.

Though the aboriginal human being did not know how to kindle fire, that knowledge was obtained by him with the growth of civilisation. Though he did not know to cook food and though he used to eat it raw, still later on he used the fire for that purpose, in the -cold season, he obtained warmth from the fire and protected himself from the cold. The use of metals added further use of fire. Some human beings misuse the fire for burning other's houses; but then that is the case with every good thing. The use of a thing depends on the user. A good thing can be used for a good cause if the user wishes to use it for that purpose. The same thing can also be used otherwise, if the user wishes accordingly. Any way considering all the above uses of fire, the human beings started considering it as a revered thing and gave it a place among the Gods.

The Yagnasanstha of the Aryas is based on fire-worship. Fire (31%) was a deity, which was required to be appeased and this was done by offering to him in the sacrifice various objects like ghee, rice and other grains. Fire was also a vehicle or an agent of the Gods; because offerings, required to be made to other Gods, could be accomplished by throwing handfuls of corn or other things in the fire, which was kindled in the sacrificial pit.

During the Vedic period, sacrifices were very common; but then they could not be performed in any manner you like. There were elaborate ceremonies and rituals prescribed for a yagna and all of them were observed to the last letter of the Vedic hymn, Even the brahmins, who could act as priests in the sacrifice, were required to have certain qualifications and accomplishments. Like modern tournaments or Olympics, sacrifices were also planned and their preparation was going on for days on end.

With the rise of Buddha and his preaching against sacrifice on grounds of himsa, the sacrifices got a big set back and this ritual almost came to an end. The worship of the, fire now took a different form. The person, taking this vow of fire-worship, was known to be an Agnihotri. He had to keep the fire in his house, burning all the time. He had to worship the fire every day and on certain auspicious days of the month, he had to perform special ceremonies connected with the worship of fire. The daily worship of the fire in his house, was required to be done by an Agnihotri and hence there were natural restrictions on his movements and his stay out of station. The fire was required to be maintained in a special holy place, which would be away from any sort of polution. It was because of these restrictions that this vow of fire-worshipwas not commonly undertaken by all the learned priests or brahmins living in the society. Only a selected few undertook this vow and observed all the rituals prescribed for that vow in religious books. It is stated in the Sai Satcharita about Shri Baba's stay at Shirdi as follows:- "Shirdi is midway between and equidistant from Rahata on one side (south) and Nimgaon on the other ( north). Baba never went beyond these places during His life time" (Shri Sai Satcharita P. 49, Eighth edition 1978). Shri Baba was a fire-worshiper and because of that vow, He had to remain in Shirdi near the fire and keep it burning. Hence He must have never moved out of Shirdi during the night time. Shri Sai Baba never talked about Himself and hence He must not have referred to His vow of the fire-worship and the reason for which He always stayed at Shirdi by night.

Shri Baba took great care to maintain the fire in the Dwarkamai. An incident of how he broke the ordinance of the panchas of the village, not to allow a fuel cart to come in the village in order to ward off the spread of the Cholera epidemic, and how be brought the fuel cart to the Masjid and unloaded the fuel for keeping his Dhuni aljve has been narrated at length in the Sai Satcharita at page !24 (8th Edition 1978). After narrating the incident the author has further commented, "Like an Agnihotri keeping his sacred fire alive .throughout his life, Baba kept his Dhuni ever burning all day and night; and for this He always stocked fuel". (P. 125, Shri Sai Satcharita 8th edition 1978). The secret of Shri Sai Baba's permanent stay in Shirdi perhaps lies in His fire-worship, as pointed out above by Shri Dabholkar. Two stories, relating to Shri Baba's encounter with fire, have been narrated in Sai Satcharita. The first refers to the taking out of a child out of the blacksmith's furnace (P 42) and the other relates to bringing under control the five elements in the Dhuni in the Masjid, which had all of a sudden started burning brightly and its flames had consequently started reaching the rafters above (P 66 Shri Sai Satcharita, 8th edition 1978) in both these cases, we see that Shri Sai Baba was fearless and confident that the fire would co-operate with Him. Shri Baba perhaps got this confidence in fire and control over it, because He was a fire-worshiper.

Fire-worship is still observed as a religion by a few people in Iran. It was Zorostor, who preached creed. Among the many theories of the spread of the human race on the earth, there is one theory which says that originally the human race was on the north pole. At that time the earth had not cooled as much as it is today. Hence there was no ice on the north pole at that time and it was habitable. By and by the north pole started freezing and the conditions there became noncongenial to the human race. The equitorial region, which was very hot before, also became temparate. Hence the human race started migrating from the north pole to the south. One group went at that time to Iran and settled there; while another migrated to India and settled there. The religious books of the Iranis are written in the Zend and Avestha languages. These languages are very near the Vedic Sanskrit, which was the language of the group, which migrated to India. Zorostor was more or less similar to the Rishies in ancient India and therefore his preaching of the fire-worship is the remnant of the original ways of worship of the human beings, when they were staying on the north pole.

After the aggression of the Mohomedans on Iran, the fire-worshipers became more or less extinct. A few, that still believe in that religion, cannot openly observe it and they have to do fire-worship in hiding. Those, who still believe in old traditions, are no doubt still carrying on the fire-worship secretely. It is said that many of the Hindus, who were converted to Christanity by the Portugese by force, still secretely keep idols of Hindu Gods with them and worship them. The position of the Zorostrians in Iran is more or less like these converted Christians on the west coast of India. It was because of this persecution that a few Zorostrians migrated to India and adopted this country as their motherland; They are at present known as the Parsee community in India and have still maintained their tradition of fire-worship in tact. Their temple is known as Agiary (fife temple). Many Parsee devotees have been attracted towards Shri Sai Baba; because He also happened to be a fire-worshiper.

Flame or torch is the symbol of fire and is still honoured in all the countries of the world. The Hindus always light a lamp at the time of any auspicious occasion. The Christians light candles at the shrine and this flame indicates the sanctity of fire. Even the Olympic games are started by carrying the flame according to old traditions of the Roman people.

It will thus be seen that fire-worship, in some form or the other, is being done all over the world even today, though the form of worship might be slightly different from place to place. To all Sai devotees fire is very sacred, because it is the base of the Dhuni of Shri Sai Baba. The tradition of fire-worship by Shri Sai Baba, will therefore be virtually continued by the Sai devotees by honouring Shri Baba's Dhuni and considering the Udi obtained therefrom as very sacred.