The Wondorous Saint Sai Baba by Pujya Narasimha Swamy

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IV. RAMA AND KRISHNA AS AVATARS

Very little is known of Sai Baba's early life; but he had told several of his

devotees that his guru was a Brahmin, and even mentioned his name—states Prof.

G.G.Narke,recalling his reminiscences of the great saint.

 

Once, as a result of a disputation between Prof. Narke and some fellow-devotees,

a few pointed questions were put to Sai Baba:

 

Q:—Are the Puranas true?

 

A:—Yes; true.

 

Q:—What about Rama and Krishna?

 

A:—They were great souls; gods they were; Avatars.

 

Q:—This Narke will not admit all that; and he say you are not god.

 

A:—What he says is true. But I am your father and you should not speak like

that. You have to get your benefit and everything from me.

 

In certain ecstatic moments, Sal Baba said "I am God'’ Main Allahhum: but his

usual role was that of a devotee, entrusted with vast powers to carry out the

wishes of God (the Fakir).

 

Determinism :

 

Sai Baba was bold in his dealings with persons and occasionally Infused faith in

his devotees by even defiance of sanitary precautions. Prof. Narke has himself

one such experience.

 

"Baba used to get sweetmeat for naivedya from one H. One day in 1916, H lay a

plague-stricken corpse. Plague was raging at Shirdi. Baba asked me to go and get

the sweetmeat from H's shop. I wem and told the wife, who was weeping, of Baba's

order. She pointed to the corpse and said I might take the sweetmeat from the

almirah. I took it trembling with the fear that by this I might catch the

infection and others too. That was given as naivedya. Baba told me, "Do you

think you will live if you are away from Shirdi and that you would die if you

stay at Shirdi? That is not so. Whosoever is to die will die; whosoever is to be

caressed will be caressed."

 

Baba set the example of living amidst society and labouring. He ground grain

into flour. He was not for ascetic desertion of society, nor for begging. Though

he himself begged within limits, it was for a little food only; when he demanded

dakshina that was for a number of reasons, chiefly for clearing rinanubanda. He

wanted the general run of visitors to continue their grahasta lives and did not

advocate Sanyas.

 

Sri Sai Baba's demand for dakshina was explained by him to a visitor. "Do I ask

of every one? I demand only from those whom the Fakir (God) points out to ma."

H« demanded only particular sums and would not accept anything more.

 

 

 

(Adopted from The Wondorous Saint Sai Baba by Pujya Narasimha Swamy, this book

can be downloaded from www.saileelas.org)