SHRI SAI THE SUPERMAN - Reform and Regeneration

[Guest guest]

SHRI SAI THE SUPERMAN

By

Swami Sai Sharan Anand

 

 

REFORM AND REGENERATION

 

Change in out look

On human life, life values

Reform and Regeneration,

For life Divine,

Is major portion

Of the life work

Of a Real Superman

 

 

 Many and mysterious are the ways a superman adopts for the

regeneration, reform and amelioration of this world. It is proposed

to describe a few of the many such methods of Sai Baba known to the

devotees; for it must be admitted that it is not possible for any one

to clam a perfect Knowledge of all of these.

 

 

 It is rightly said that an ounce of action is better than tons of

speeches. Shri Sainath seems to have strictly followed the truth

inculcated in this adage. He made no speeches but he led a life,

which in itself was a lesson to the many who had the eyes to see and

study. One Mrs. Chhotubai Pradhan once remarked, "If we minutely

observe Baba we would find as if he had two personalities; the one

was completely merged as it were in God ever chanting his name while

the other personality at the same time seemed to be busy looking

after the devotees welfare speaking to them and moving about like

ordinary man." Whatever that may be his daily routine in itself was a

sufficient lesson and guide to all sincere aspirants of God. His life

teaches one great lesson-namely, that not a minute, nay not even a

second should be allowed to pass without the remembrance of the all

kind, all-powerful God. He once said to Shri Mhalasapati, His night

attendant to keep his hand on his heart and to wake him up so soon as

he ceased hearing the name of God being chanted there. Then there are

accounts of how Baba, Mhalasapati and Tatya Patil rested at the

Dwarkamayi for the night and how Baba would not allow any one of them

to go to sleep. What in fact he wanted to preach thereby was that

sleep should be avoided as far as possible and that the time

unnecessarily spent in it should be utilised in prayers and

remembrance of God. There are devotees who rightly believe that he

never had any sleep at night. His daily routine was equally

instructive. He left his bed of gunny bag and coarse cloth pieces

with a bed sheet over it of the same cloth at about 5 a.m. After

easing himself and washing his mouth, he sat leaning against a Dhuni

Pillar meditating for nearly two hours. Then coming out of the

Dwarkamayi with slow steps he went upto the Chowdi and thence upto

the back door or Navalkar's wade (guru Paduka Temple), saying

prayers; He then returned to the Dwarkamayi in the same manner

muttering prayers. Occupying his usual seat for a while taking a

Chillam puff with his leprous servant at about 8 a.m., He would wash

his face and hands upto the elbow with tender care fearing least he

should in that act displace or tear off his skin-hair and then with a

Dhoti dangling down his shoulders and with a tumbler in hand he would

go to the five houses. He had fixed upon for alms. He would receive

the Jwari breads in his dhoti and vegetables and all, liquids in the

tumbler. Returning to the Dwarkamayi he would offer a part of his

bread alms to the holy fire as oblation and then have his breakfast.

After breakfast and meeting his devotees and speaking to them at

times in parables he would leave for Lendi, (which later on he

developed into Mr. Pradhan's garden) accompanied by his leper

servant. The leper servant carried a tumber of water in his hand and

in later life he had on each side a devotee holding his arms to

assist Him. He spent about an hour or more there and them returned to

the Dwarkamayi where till twelve noon he received all the devotees

allowing them to pay their respects to him in their own way, without

allowing any one else to disturb them in this-their worship. Then

followed the arti-the waving of lights. After distributing the

several dishes of food received from devotees, He would spend some

time with the devotees and then bade them adieu giving to each his

holy ashes, applying the same to their fore had and blessing them

keeping his hand on the head of each. Thereafter He again came out,

went upto the Chowdi and thence to Guru Paduka temple muttering

prayers as in the morning. Later in life he also went to Lendi in the

noon at about 2.00 p.m. in the same way as in the morning, and

returned at about 3.00 or 3.30 p.m. He closed the day by going up to

the Chowdi thence to Guru Paduka Mandir muttering prayers as in the

morning, with this difference that returning from Guru Paduka Mandir,

He would stand facing west to receive the respects of all the

devotees there; and when that was over he would stand at the compound

wall asking people to go with a wave of His hand. Baba took

particular care to see that the holy fire he had started kept burning

without a break and at times he therefore asked the devotees to

provide faggots for the same.

 

 

 He strictly followed the above routine without a break till almost

the last day of his worldly existence. It is said that only during

the last two or three days owing to his failing health he omitted

going to Lendi, Now let us ponder a while and see what this routine

of His wants to teach. A person of perfect realisation as he was, he

had nothing to gain or lose by carrying on these religious practices

and yet he carried them on to set a lesson to others (B. Gita III-22

To 25). His Dhuni-Holy fire-that he kept ceaselessly burning reminds

the Hindus of a pure Brahmin's Agnihotra and the Parsis of their Fire-

temple. Both these keep the fire ever burning. He meditated prayed,

offered oblations to fire, went in seclusion at Lendi for about 2

hours a day and not only that but he has asked some of His devotees

to offer such oblations before taking food. This part of his routine

seems to show that he wanted his devotees to adopt all the three ways

of Gnan, Bhakti and Karma (Knowledge, devotion and action) for

attaining Godhood or the Realisation of Soul. A fortnight before He

left his body He got a devotee to read out to him Ram Vijay (a holy

book of Hindus) for 12 days showing how a person should die.

 

 

 Besides the example that he set to others by his own life, He had

for the devotees welfare a most potent and effective weapon in the

form of the holy ashes of the ceaselessly burning fire. He had

kindled. In his light mood he sang,: The sportive Ram has descended

on earth bringing with Him sacks filled with holy ashes." What he

sang was found to be verbatim true from the experiences that His

devotees had of these holy ashes. Lunacy, cramps, paralysis, Cholera,

Dropsy, Typhoid, Eczema, Hair lice, Boils, Bladder Stones. Small pox,

Appendicitis, intestine troubles, insomnia, serpent and scorpion

poisoning and all sorts of other diseases left their prey so soon as

these ashes were administered to the sufferers. Not only human beings

but also animals such as cows and buffaloes of devotees were cured of

their diseases by these ashes. These ashes have proved successful

even in knotty cases of pregnancy and delivery. Even though Shri has

left his body, the holy ashes of the fire that He had lighted and has

been kept burning as yet endow the same cure and benefits to His

devotees as they did when he was in body. Another such weapon that he

used for his devotees welfare was his demand of money gifts. By such

demands, sometimes he merely indicated the benefits that the devotee

had received or was to receive. Thus Baba once demanded a sum of Rs.

50/- each from the late R. B. H. V. Sathe and Shri Daji H. Lele when

each had received a promotion of Rs. 50/- in his salary. I another

case he demanded the exact sum of the promotion the Gazette had

announced.

 

 

 Another time when one Narvekar was laid up with fever he sent his

son Vamanrao to Baba with a sum of Rs. 500/-. Oh Baba's receiving the

said sum Baba was laid up with that fever and Narvekar got rid of

that fever. Seeing this Vamanrao felt uneasy about Baba's health when

Baba solaced him saying, "He would soon get over the fever." Very

soon Baba's temperature became normal to the agreeable surprise of

Vamanrao

 

 

 It may be noted however that Baba did not demand money from all

those who visited him. Very often he would decline the money offered.

If the money sum demanded was not given or refused, he would not on

that account change his usual kind and parental treatment of that

devotee. Again very often he strictly followed the rule prohibiting

hoarding. Very often he received very very large sum of money but by

evening he would defray the whole of that amount reserving nothing

for the next day. He gave away all that he had obtained during the

day to fit and deserving persons and at times even got some religious

ceremonies performed for the benefits of the donors of those sums

without letting the donors know how He was defraying their amounts.

The police constable on the spot wondered, how Baba did not fail to

make his minimum daily disbursements of about Rs. 80/- (eighty)

eventhough he did not at times receive that amount and though every

evening he had nothings left with Him for the morrow.

 

 

 To draw the attention of a devotee to a certain religious principle

of truth Baba would repeatedly demand the same sum from a devotee

every time that he visited Him, nothing less, nothing more. This

would set the devotee a thinking and lead him to ask Baba what He

meant to convey. Baba would then say what actually he wanted to teach

him.

 

 

 Every time Raghuvir Bhasker Purandare visited Baba; he demanded

only two Rupees from him. He could not understand why Baba asked for

that fixed sum; so one day he requested Baba to explain to him what

he meant by the rupees two he had been ever demanding from him. Baba

at once replied, "I do not want these coins, I want the first rupee

of absolute FAITH and a Rupees of PATIENCE." Purandare at once said,

"Baba, I have already given these to you.No you have not done so;

your faith has been wavering; henceforth stick to truth. Be always

truthful. If only you act upto this principle in life, rest assured I

shall ever be with you."

 

 

 From another devotee the late Shri Narke he had been always

demanding a sum of Rs. 15/- every time he went to Baba at Shirdi.

Narke had then just returned from Europe and was at Shirdi, without a

job for about a year and still Baba asked him to donate fifteen

Rupees every day. So one day Narke humbly said to Baba, "Baba you

know I am here so many months without a job, entirely dependent on my

father-in-law Shrimant Booty; you have been seeing the worn-out

almost tattered clothes I have been pulling on with. In these

circumstances how do you expect me to give you such a sum of Rupees

Fifteen?" Baba told him in reply, "I know your condition thoroughly

well, but you are at present reading Yog Vasisth Maha Ramayana. I

want from you that you should fix in your mind the great principles

there in propounded; live upto them, though living in this world you

should no get entangled in the world and worldly objects. Ever be non-

attached."

 

 

 A third devotee Uddhavesh of Dehnu, also had a lesson taught to him

under circumstances of a different type. We have seen how his purse

with all his money and steamer tickets had slipped down from his

hands into the mid-ocean while he was on his way to Dwarka, with a

party of friends. His mind was greatly ruffled, so to restore it to

equanimity he thereafter took out his Kunte's Dnyaneshwari and

started reading it; he however was not able to understand it at all;

so he closed the book and took a vow that unless Baba asked him to

read Dnyaneshwari he would not read it. Though on return from Dwarka

he went to Shirdi to pay his respects to Baba, Baba said nothing to

him about it at the time. Later on however Baba called him to pay him

rupees eleven. Uddhavesh went on paying the said sum for ten days;

when on the eleventh day Baba again asked him to pay eleven rupees he

said, "I have already dedicated to you my eleven senses (five senses

of knowledge, Five of action and one mind)." Baba replied, "Who are

you go give me these, they are already mine. Baba now saw that

Uddhavesh had his mind then drawn away from material tings to his own

self; so he asked him to fetch from Bapu Saheb Jog, Eknathi Bhagwat

and when the said book was brought to him he turned over a few pages,

opened the book at the eleventh Chapter thereof and asked him to read

the book daily saying, it was a Brindaban Book wherein he himself was

talking to him (Uddhav) etc.

 

 

 Once while Shri Dixit was reading with a few devotees a well known

verse on the dedication of senses from Eknathi Bhagwat to draw

Dixit's attention to the one more internal sense of human body

mentioned by Eknath in his commentary, He sent Shrimant Booty to Shri

Dixit to fetch from him Rupees sixteen and a half. Dixit at once

understood that Baba did not want from him the material coins but

that he was drawing his attention to the several senses mentioned in

the verse he was reading. Counting up these senses however the total

he arrived at was fifteen and a half, at first in this way; Body-1,

speech-1, mind-1, senses-10, Intellect-1, Egoism-1 and Prakriti one's

own nature-1/2=15 1/2. These were all that were mentioned in the

verse; so Kaka Dixit was at a loss to understand why instead of 15

1/2 rupees Baba had demanded 16 1/2; so he got up. Stood before

Baba's photo he had and prayed for the solution of his difficulty; at

once it occurred to him that Eknath's commentary should be referred

to for this purpose; doing so, he found that Eknath had mentioned one

more sense viz. Chitta, the sense of thinking though there was no

mention of the same in the verse itself; adding this to the 15 1/2

above mentioned, Shri Dixit found to his joy the propriety of Baba's

demand for 16 1/2 Rupees.

 

 

 Another time Baba asked Kaka Saheb Dixit to pay Rs. 100/- when Kaka

Saheb was a bit puzzled on reading illustrations of these two types

in Vedantic texts: (1) The world is described as a mirage on a desert

land; also it is said-it is like the deceptive appearance of a

serpent in a string. (2) Name and form should not be given any

importance; it is the matter-Substratum that matters; that is the

most important thing to look at, not the forms and names Kaka Saheb

said though ornaments and their various names may be discarded, gold

does exist; earthen pots may be disregarded and yet earth is there;

so in one form or another matter does exist; how can it be supposed

then, the world is a mirage? On praying to Baba before the photo he

had, he hit upon the right solution of his difficulties. It was this:-

Vedantic texts do not mean to say that the world does not exist at

all; is simply says it does exist in a sense, it is ever-changing,

assuming limitless numberless forms and names but the substratum, the

thing-in itself Reality, does not vanish, does not change; its

support, its absolutely necessary for this changing phenomenal world;

the phenomena cannot exist without-this noumena. This noumena is the

real one that runs through the whole universe. While the phenomenal

world of forms and names being ever changing has not that existence

which Reality has. Vedantic texts therefore declare that this ever

changing phenomenal world of names does not exit at all. Whatever

does not exist is as good as a zero. The phenomenal world of names

does not exit at all. Whatever does not exist is as good as a zero.

The phenomenal world mainal consists of two such zeros of names and

forms. Thus reality and phenomenal world of names and forms=00 make

up Rs. 100/- the sum that Baba had asked for. Kaka Saheb was mightily

pleased when this truth dawned upon him on Baba's significant demand

for Rs.100/-.