SHRI SAI THE SUPERMAN - Supernatural Powers

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SHRI SAI THE SUPERMAN

By

Swami Sai Sharan Anand

 

 

SUPERNATURAL POWERS

 

Powers Supernatural

Are God's Gifts

Saints use them

For God's purposes

And Sinners

Use them for their own.

 

Seekers of God rightly suppose that, if they use such supernatural

powers as they have, their spiritual progress would, for ever, be

retarded. Shri Sai Baba stands far above the category of seekers. He

has already reached the goal. Not only He has realised God; He has by

His constant meditation attained oneness with God. The idea that He

is an entity apart from God has entirely left Him. He lives, moves

and acts in God and when any of the super natural powers is being

exercised or used by Him, he never thinks that He has been going

anything extraordinary, the exercise of these powers being so natural

to Him. We shall recount here a few of such incidents for the

enlightenment of our readers.

 

 

Baba had all the eight great powers a Yogi possesses. He can become

small, big, light, heavy assume any form, go and move without

barriers, control, fire, air, earth, water rains, storms etc. Once he

hung up to the worn out Mastoid's ceiling pillars a plank 2 Ft. long

and 1/ 2 Ft. broad with rags. He appeared to be sitting on that plank

with his head bent down or sleeping on it, with lamps burning both

near the head and the feet. No one saw Him Climbing up or going down

this plank and all wondered now He managed to pass His nights

comfortably over that small plank supported only by thread-bare rags.

Seeing that people crowded there to see Him aloft on the plank. He

removed the plank and again started sleeping on the floor.

 

 

Shirdi people first came to know of this mad fakir's super-natural

powers, when shopkeepers untidily refused to dole out oil for his

lamps and He kept the lamps at the Dwarkamayee burning for the whole

night with water in place of oil. The shop-keepers and Shirdi people

stood amaze and this new spread like wild fire in the whole of the

Ahmednagar District.

 

 

Next time when hay stacks in a Shirdi field caught fire and the crops

of Shirdi people, massed in that place, were in danger of being burnt

down, at the earnest entreaties of the Shirdi farmers, Baba went

there and drew round the burning hay-stack a circle of water,

stating, the fire would not then spread beyond that line, the farmers

found that Baba's control of fire was unique for the fire stopped so

soon as they hay stack marked by Baba was burnt down.

 

 

Thereafter people also marked that whenever Baba prepared some

medicinal decoction. He dipped His hand in the burning liquid and

nerve used a spoon for the purpose.

 

 

Another instance of His control over elements occurred when one day

He was taking His meals at the Dwarkamayee and some persons were

sitting by, He bawled out "Stop" and when after finishing His meals

He had all His belongings removed outside the Dwarkamayi the ceiling

cracked and at once came down with a crash, spreading mortar bricks

etc. all over the Dwarkamayi.

 

 

More than once Baba at the request of people or for the safe retreat

home of His devotees stopped the fierce winded ceaseless out-pouring

of rains.

 

 

Thrice were devotees' little girls saved from being drowned in the

waterfull foundations of some Shirdi buildings.

 

 

When Baba gave permission for holding annual Ramnavmi Fair, water

problem was the stiffest for solution and so when the management

committee requested Baba to help them in the matter, He ask them to

take away, after He had finished His meals the leaf-dish used by Him

for His meals and throw the same in the dried up well So soon as that

was done, water streamed into the well and since that day this well

has been serving the needs of the people of Shirdi.

 

 

Hindu metaphysics states that a human body has in it everything that

the universe has; this seems to be true in the case of soul who has

been in unison with Brahman or God. When Das Ganu asked Baba for

permission to go on a pilgrimage to Singaba for a bath in the holy

Godavari, Baba did not permit him saying, "the Godavari is here". But

Das Ganu could not feel so. Hence Baba asked him to draw near and to

hold out his joint palms near His feet. So soon as he did this, water

trickled down Baba's feet and within a few minutes, his palms were

filled oveflowing with water. He was over-joyed, he sprinkled this

water on his head and on the heads of those other who were there, and

composed a song narrating these incidents. This incident clearly

indicates what the body of a realised soul is or contains.

 

 

At times Baba gave to his devotees dreams the veracity of which the

devotee could not doubt. Thus being pleased with the devotion of a

childless woman, Baba appeared in her dream, blessed her and banded

her a coconut saying, "Take this, eat it, and you will have a child".

On waking in the morning, she found the coconut on her bed and was

very pleased to eat it. As per Baba's words she had a son within 12

months thereafter. Another devotee Megha was in his bed one morning

half awake, half asleep, when he saw Baba throwing rice grains on him

and asking him to draw a Trident on the wall of his temple. He was

wondering as to how Baba could have entered his premises when all

doors were closed; but then his eyes caught the rice grains scattered

on his bed. This convinced him that Baba had actually come and

ordered him to draw the Trident in precedence of the Shanker he was

to receive from Baba the next day.

 

 

Baba wanted His old pupil Abdul to come to Him and so He appeared in

his Guru's dream, gave him two mangoes and asked him to send Abdul to

Him immediately. The Guru found the two mangoes on his bed. He

therefore called Abdul to him, delivered the two mangoes and asked

him to go to Baba.

 

 

There are numerous instances of persons having had a comfortable

journey home when they strictly followed Baba's directions when

leaving Shirdi and also of persons who had suffered on account of

their failure to do so. Even in the mater of the Court cases, office

leaves, etc. persons obeying and overstaying the periods fixed by

courts or of leaves and departing from Shirdi on the days fixed by

Him have never suffered.

 

 

Simply through Baba's grace numerous devotees have obtained male

issues though their wives had long since passed child bearing age and

doctors had declared its impossibility. The names of a few out of the

many such devotees are:- Nana Saheb Dengle, Gopalrao Gund, Damodar

Savalram Rasne, Rao Sahed H.V. Sathe, Sakharam Aurangbadker, Narayan

Govind Shinde of Harda, Rao Bahadur Moreshwerrao Pradhan, Saptnekar

Vakil and others.

 

 

But the greatest of all great supernatural powers Baba had was the

one of restoring to life a dead persons He exercised this power in

the case of the late Mrs. Malanbai the late D. R. Joshi Devgaonkar's

daughter and a close relative of V.S. Ratanjanker. She suffered from

T.B. but all medicines having failed, she insisted on her being taken

to Shirdi. When brought to Shirdi Baba asked her to lie down on a

blanket and take nothing but water. She carefully followed these

instructions but after a week or so she died one early morning. Baba

was then in the Chowdi; and for the first time in Shirdi history Baba

did not leave Chowdi though it was past 8 A.M. The daughter's

parents, with heavy hearts were preparing for the funeral when

Malanbai appeared to breathe opened her eyes and looked round about,

as if much frightened. Then she said, "A black person had been

carrying me away; very much frightened, I cried out to Baba for help;

Baba took His staff and gave him good cudegelling, snatched me away

from his hand and carried me to Chowdi." Without seeing Chowdi she

gave a correct description of the Chowdi. Just at this time Baba left

His Chowdi bed bawling out, striking his staff against the ground and

came shouting to Dixit's Vada where the girl had put up. Seeing

Malanbai restored to life there was joy all round.