SHRI SAI THE SUPERMAN - Shri Sai's Mission

[Guest guest]

SHRI SAI THE SUPERMAN

By

Swami Sai Sharan Anand

 

 

SAIBABA'S MISSION

 

"But for Guru, who can show the right path? Millions of Suns, Moons

and stars may simultaneously put forth their best light. And yet the

Darkness, the impenetrable Darkness will be there to block your path,

if you have no Guru."

 

 

"Know Guru to be God, serve him with all your heart; then the fetters

of worldly bonds will fall off and the fruit of absolution will be

yours.Surrender unto the Guru, meditate on God's reality; obtain

release-the all pervading joy" says Bramananda.

 

 

Few seem too have even the faintest ideal of the immense powers of a

perfect man, of a man who has by constant meditation wholly

identified himself with Brahman. Scholars and Pandits. Teachers and

professors of Indian Philosophy particularly of Brahma Sutra know

this full well, but immersed in their own worldly affairs they seldom

care to look up for a person fully answering the description of such

a man.

 

 

The last chapter of this Brahma Sutra clearly states that a realised

soul has the powers to assume any form he likes, that he may not, if

he so wills take any form, that he can by his mere will not only

assume one form but as many as he wants, that he will create and

uncreated his own world, that by his mere will he will have all he

wants, that he can move in the whole of the universe material and

spiritual by that power and wherever he goes he will be adored and

respected by people.

 

 

Sai Baba fully answers to the description of the perfect soul given

by Brahma Sutra and this is and was the reason why He could manifest

Himself in as many forms as he deemed necessary either to satisfy the

loving hearts of His devotees or to show to the real aspirant that he

is the same, in no way different from the God. Whom the aspirant

worshipped. We shall quote a few experiences of the devotees in

illustration of this.

 

 

A Sai devotee Mamlatdar was very friendly with a doctor who was a

staunch devotee of Shri Ramchandraji. In 1909 Christmas the Mamlatdar

informed his doctor friend that he had determined to spend his X' mas

at Shirdi and that he would be very happy to have his company if he

could give it. The Doctor was a Brahmin, strictly adherin to the

Mandates of scriptures and regularly discharged all the duties

enjoined upon Brahimns therein; over and above this, be was staunch

devotee of Shri Ram and would never bow to a Mahomedan. The doctor

therefore said, he may give his company if he so desired but he would

not bow to Baba. The Mamlatdar having assured him that none in

Shirdi, nor Baba Himself would ask him to prostrate himself before

Baba, the Doctor accompanied the Mamlatdar to Shirdi. On reaching

Shirdi both the friends went to Dwarkamayee; the Mamlatdar as usual

prostrated himself before Baba and offered Him fruits etc. The doctor

stood witnessing all this. When lo! In place of Sai Baba the doctor

saw his own deity Shri Ramchandraji. At once he prostrated himself

before Baba; on coming out of Dwarkamayee, when Mamlatdar asked the

doctor, why he had prostrated himself before Baba though none had

asked him to do so, he at once declared that he prostrated because in

place of Sai he saw his own deity Shri Ramchandraji. I was lucky

enough to have my deitie's Darshan and that was the reason why I lay

at the feet of Shri Sai Baba.

 

 

Another man Mule Shastri, a palmist also got a similar experience.

The Shastri was a disciple of one Gholap Swami-a Sanyasi, and he

never bowed to any one else but his master Gholap Swami. During the

Shastri's stay in Shirdi one day Baba called him at the arti (The

Waving of lights) ceremony; fearing pollution he stood at a distance

and threw some flowers on Baba from there; but to his great surprise

he saw in Baba's place is own Guru Gholap Swami in his usual Bhagwa

(redochre) coloured dress; so he at once rushed to Baba and while Sai

devotees were reciting at the time Shri Sai's Arti he recited his

Gholap Swami's Arti; when he finished arti recitation he opened his

eyes and saw Sai Baba seated in his usual place demanding some

Dakshina from his. Mule Shastri prostrated himself before Sai Baba as

if to thank Him for the favour He had shown in procuring for him his

Guru's Darshana after a lapse of many many years.

 

 

Shri Sai Baba convinced one Harichandra Pitale of Bombay that He was

the Swami of Akkalkot, by giving him three rupees at the time of his

departure from Shirdi and asking him to deposit and worship them with

the two rupees He had previously given him. Pitale visiting Baba for

the first time could not understand when the said two rupees were

given to him; but subsequently on enquiring of his mother he learnt

that Swami of Akkalkot had given his father Rs. 2/- spoken of by

Baba. In this way Baba clearly told him, He was none else but the

Swami of Akkalkot.

 

 

For another staunch devotee of Shanker named Megha He assumed the

form of Shanker, Shanker, when that devotee went to a shanker's

temple of his native country and convinced him that He was veritably

his own deity Shanker in the form of Sai Baba.

 

 

The priest of the goddess Sapt Shrangi temple, also was shown that

his goddess and Baba were one. He was directed in a dream by his

goddess to go to "Baba" in reply to his fervent prayer for relief

from worries he suffered on account of worldly calamities.

Misunderstanding the word "Baba" used by the goddess the priest went

to Trambakeshwar and staying there for ten days tried to propitiate

Shanker by constant prayer etc; but he found no improvement in his

harrowed (troubled) mind. Returning home, he rebuked the goddess that

she had sent him to Trambakeshwar without any purpose and again

prayed her for relief. The goddess again appeared in the priest's

dream and said "by `Baba' I meant `Baba of Shirdi,' Why did you run

upto Trambakeshwar in vain?" The priest was altogether ignorant of

the where abouts of Shirdi; nor had he heared of Sai Baba. While he

was in this embarrassed predicament. Baba asked one of his favourite

devotee Madhavrao to go to that Sapt Shrangi temple and fulfil the

vow of giving tow gold teats long since outstanding in respect of his

mother's illness. The priest was very much pleased to see Madhavrao

of Shirdi, for from him he got all the information about Shirdi and

Sai Baba; so when Madhavrao had finished his work of fulfilling the

vow and prepared to return to Shirdi the priest of the Sapt Shrangi

temple accompanied him. So as soon as the priest prostrated himself

before Baba his worries left him; his ruffled mind calmed down; and

he enjoyed peace. Neither the priest spoke nor Baba; mere sight of

Baba sufficed to supply what he wanted; this convinced the priest

that Shri Sai Baba was in charge of Sapt Shrangi's work then.

 

 

Even after he left His body, in response to the earnest prayer of one

Mrs. Kumudben B. Raval (of Bhau's Pole, Ahmedabad Maha Gujarat) Baba

manifested Himself in the form of Goddess Ambika.

 

 

Similarly all such prayers of devotees of Mahomedans and Parsis were

responded to by Baba by manifestations of such forms as the devotees

worshipped. Very lately for a Parsi doctor of Kopergaon (Dist.

Ahmednagar Maharashtra) He assumed the form of his Paygamber

Zarthostra. To another Mahomedan devotee named Gulam Hussein

Jaffarally Surendranagar (Maha Gujarat) He was please to appear as

his Prophet Ali on horse. To native Christians He showed that He had

that heavenly divine power which they believed in. Thus

Chakranarayan, a Police constable, who kept an eye on the income and

outgoings of Baba expressed his wonder saying, "Baba distributed

hundreds of rupees per day and yet very often. He received a much

lesser amount. Really he has got the divine power". A native

Christian nurse yearning to go to Shirdi after His Maha-Samadhi, was

at first refused leave by the head-nurse but on the first one''

constant chanting of Baba'' name, she was able to bring about a

change in the mind of the latter as a result of which she sanctioned

her leave and enabled the first one to fulfil her wish. Another

Christian Miss Meerabai Satyavir, a teacher in Baroda Methodist

school, says that this (the writer's) book inspired in her an

unshakeable faith, and in the course of her reading she had Sai

Baba's vision in the form of a globe of Light and thereafter she has

visited Shirdi more than once; Baba is her only refuge or shelter. He

has been helping her and always saving her from irreparable losses.

It is therefore clear that rendering of help in all matters material,

spiritual to every person irrespective of his caste, creed, race,

merits or demerits has been Sai Baba's daily routine, His very

nature, His joy.

 

 

He knew that amongst the people of the various races, who visited

Him, something like hereditary antipathy subsisted particularly

between two major races, Hindus and Muslims and this very often burst

out in riots, murders, arson. Loot and it seems that if He had

elected to adopt some of both their ways of life and religion, His

object was to draw to Him people of both these races, to provide for

them a common ground for meeting and worship so that all mis-

understandings would vanish and their attention would be drawn and

fixed on the one universal feature of devotion, common to both

religions, that differences between them in the forms and formalities

of the religions of both would not be made much of, would be

tolerated with a liberal mind on both sides, that strifes and feuds

would give place to unity and friendly feelings and relations.

 

 

With this object in view, when therefore the leaders of Shirdi

village Gopalrao Gunde and others approached Baba with a request to

fix a day for holding annual fare at Shirdi, He said, "fix up

Ramnavmi, the birth day (date) of Shri Ramchandra;" for He knew that

it being a Hindu holy day they would surely run upto Shirdi to attend

the fare and as to Mahomedans, they would also come, as this was the

only day fixed for annual fare; the object of their common worship

being Baba in order to please Him at any rate, they would sink all

their differences of non-essentials, methods of worship and meet as

friends or brother-sons of a common father-and for ever forget their

prestine enemosity, hatred, antipathy, In due course this hope was

fulfilled, though at first fanticism of one party took an ugly form

and might have burst out in undesirable feuds and fights or riots but

for Baba's holy and powerful presence. The narration of a few of such

incidents would not be out of place here.

 

 

The difference in the forms of worship of one and the same God

between Hindus and Muslims coupled with ignorance of His real nature

and want of toleration is the root cause of all their dissensions,

disputes, strifes etc.; Liberal minded educated Muslims understand

this and they therefore do not join their orthodx section which

cannot look upon Hindu ways of worship with the equanimity and

toleration of really educated cultured men. In Shirdi as well, the

orthodox Muslims believed that Hindus by their anointing Baba with

sandal pastes, ceremonial worship and the noisy waving of lights

before Him were compelling "the Mahomedan" Baba to commit what they

thought to be a `Sin' according to the tenets of Muslim religion. If

therefore these Hindus were stopped from coming to Baba all this

irreligion would be checked for ever. They therefore many a times

spoke to Baba, tried to persuade Him to prevent Hindus from carrying

out such noisy programmes before Him but Baba seemed to turn a deaf

ear to all that they said. In the year 1894 therefore the ignorant

Shirdi Muslims brought to Shirdi a Kazi (a religious teacher) from

Sangamner (of Ahmednagar) and arming themselves with canes and Lathis

under the leadership of that Kazi, stood at the Masjid entrance to

prevent all Hindus from approaching Baba and worshiping Him with

their materials of worship, such as sandal paste, flower, lamps etc.

As per his daily routine, Mhalasapati came there to offer his worship

to Baba but seeing the mob armed with lethal weapons at the gate of

the Masjid he stood at a distances, mentally offered Him his Pooji

and was just retracing his steps home when Baba Himself called him

and asked him to carry out to finish his daily worship. The muslims

stood aghast; and could do nothing; they then slowly dispersed and

since then never though of obstructing Hindus from worshipping Baba

in their own way.

 

 

Twenty years after, a Pathan fanatic of the same orthodx, ignorant

section came to Shirdi. He hated the Hinuds for the same reason as

above mentioned and so one mid-night when some Hindus were sleeping

by his side in Chawdi, he said to Baba, "If you are being spoilt, it

is because of these sleeping Hindus. I will make short work of them

(kill them) if only you will permit me to do so,' Baba replied, "the

fault, if any, is not theirs but mine; instead of Killing them,

therefore kill me so that all the things you hate would end.'' But

the Pathan could not muster courage to do that and so the sleeping

Hindus were also saved.

 

 

Another Pathan, whom, on account of his bustline shouting prayers and

wild manners people called rohilla, worshipped Baba as his prophet

and adored Him as such. But one day in the fit of his fanticism, he

forgot all this and thinking that he should stop Baba once for all

from going astray in the way that He did by allowing Hindus to anoint

him, worship him in the noisy way, he rushed upon Baba with a big

stick to murder Him. Baba simply cast a glance at him and caught his

wrist. This slight gesture of resistance of Baba rendered him

powerless and he fell to the ground and was able to get up only with

the help of two persons. The wornderful strength that Baba showed in

resisting him fully convinced the Rohilla that Baba was the real

prophet and thereafter let off examining the propriety or impropriety

of Baba's actions.

 

 

A much respected Mahomedan Fakir was in Baba's constant company but

was ignorant of the principles of true religion. One day the thought

of converting Baba's Hindu Devotees to Mahomedanism; so when Baba

went out to Lendi as per His daily routine. He polluted the water

kept ready for Hindu drink by dropping in each tumbler the residue of

the water he had drunk. In his ignorance he thought that the

conversion of the Hindus would be complete so soon as they drink the

residue of the water drunk by him; he never thought that for real

conversion of religion the heart has got to be converted. However

that may be, by His omniscience Baba knew the trick the Fakir had

played to carry out his programmer of conversion of Hindus in a mass;

so on his return from Lendi he became mighty angry and his anger

reached the highest peak; he broke the earthen drinking pot, threw

away all the tumblers filled with polluted water and went on abusing

for a long long time say an hour or two. At last the Fakir's

conspiracy of the conversion of Hindus in a mass leaked out and the

Fakir got ashamed of the childish ignorance he had shown.

 

But the above unpleasant incidents of Muslim fanaticism were not

thereafter repeated at all; for the annual fair of Ramnavmi gave the

Muslims and Hindus an opportunity to meet and to understand one

another and as a result thereof each gave up the disgust and hatred

he had for the other and looked upon each other's way of worship with

eyes of equanimity and toleration. When therefore the Hindus started

celebrating the Ramnavmi Festival by Katha, Kirtan, Arti with Band,

Drums, Cymbals etc.; and Mahomedans took out their sandal procession

the same day and went to the Dwarkamayee, each party joined the other

in their worship of Baba. Thus Hindus joined the sandal procession

and Muslims also took part in the celebration of Ramnavmi-festival.

Particularly when in the evening two big flags were taken in

procession and jointly hailed the putting up of these flags on the

Dwarkamayee. The flags that were and are being so put up annually

seem to be a standing testimony of the Hindu-Muslim unity at least in

Shirdi, and, if we may say so, amongst Baba's devotees of the whole

of India.