Shirdi SAInatha

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Shirdi sai Shiva Avatar!

 

A long time ago, at the beginning of eighteenth century a young bearded man

with

sparkling eyes took shelter in a mosque, in Shirdi Village (of Maharshtra State,

In

India) . Nobody knew from where this stranger had come who hardly spoke a word

and stayed

there.

 

Gradually the curious villagers started offering food to the man, but he never

asked

anything from them. Sometimes he shared his food with the animals. Soon the

young fakir,

as he was started to be addressed, started expressing his view points with few

elderly

villagers. His simple language of expresssion and his special power of solving

the

problems of poor needy and destitutes soon made this less known fakir, known as

Shri Sai

Baba. As the days passed, devotees started streaming into Shirdi in ever growing

numbers.

The village was fast becoming a centre of pilgrimage. As gifts and presentations

flowed

in, the pomp and ceremony of Sai worship were evolving. Everyday Sai Baba would

be a

pauper having distributed all among the needy and the poor. But Sai Baba's life

of a

Fakir remained calm, undisturbed, unaltered and therein is the saint's Spiritual

glory.

 

People also realised that this " Baba " was no ordinary person but a person with

extraordinary godly powers. Such powers are not known or present in normal human

beings.

Baba preached his principle of love and faith in humanity to all his disciples.

He always

felt anguished over the fact that all those who came to him were more for their

own

personal problems and not for attaining the ultimate goal of reaching God which

he felt

could be attained only by true servicing of humanity.

 

Sai baba strongly believed in uniformity of religion and he never distinguished

anyone on

the basis of caste, creed or religion. He always made it a point not to return

empty

handed those who had come to him in their hour of need and grief. He performed

miracles

to alleviate the suffering of poor people. On one occasion he restored the eyes

of a

blind elderly and in another occasion he lighted a lantern with water when there

was no

oil to burn it.

 

As all good things have to end ultimately " Baba " also left his body on his own

will on

15th Oct. 1918, leaving his millions of believers and followers crying. His body

was laid

in the Samadhi Mandir called " Booty " , which he had asked his disciple to built

before his

death.

 

Sai Baba was Unique, in that, he lived his message through the Essence of his

Being. His

life and relationship with the common man was his teaching. The lmmense Energy

that was

manifest in the body of Sai was moving and is still moving in a mysterious way,

creating

and recreating itself everywhere, beyond the comprehension of time and

space.Yet, he

lived with the common folk as a penniless fakir, wearing a torn kafni, sleeping

over a

mat while resting his head on a brick, begging for his food. He radiated a

mysterious

smile and a deep inward look, of a peace that passeth all understanding. He was

always

and ever aware of what transpired within the hearts and minds of everyone,

whether they

be, His devotees or not. This Omnipresent and Omniscient Sri Sai Baba who left

his mortal

body in 1918, is the living spiritual force that is drawing people from all

walks of

life, from all parts of the world, into his fold, today.Sri Sai Baba lived,

acted and

behaved as only a " God descended on Earth " can. He came to serve mankind, to

free them

from the clutches of fear.

 

His most concise message for one and all alike was " Why fear when I am here " . To

take

refuge in Sai, is to enter into ajourney to reach the Divine Oasis of Love and

drink deep

from the Fountain of Life, the source of all Spiritual Energy.Wherever the

devotee is,

Baba makes him recognize within himself his highest aspirations and goal and at

one

stroke, his conduct and the attitude to fellow beings is touched with the

awareness of

love, understanding, patience and faith. This is the promise that Sri Sai Baba

holds out

to all who come to Him. Sri Sai Baba was beyond the limitations of Time and

Space and

thus caste, creed, position dogmas and doctrines were fundamentally unimportant

to him.

Nobody really knew his parentage, where he came from or which religion he

practised. He

claimed no possessions nor accepted any disciples or gave any specific teaching.

 

This anonymity lent a strange facet to his interaction with the people who came

to him

for guidance. To the Hindus he was an orthodox Brahmin, with a sacred fire,

enjoining the

worship of many gods and the devout study of various Hindu scriptures. He lived

in a

mosque but always referred to it as " Dwarkamay! " (Lord Krishna's birth place is

Dwaraka).

To the Moslems he was a fakir living in a mosque observing the disciplines of

Islam,

uttering " Allah Malik " (God is the master) guiding Muslim seekers along the

lines of

their own religion. To the Parsis he was the sacred rire worshipper. His life

was a

living manifestation of the Sermon of the Christ and of the Eight-fold path of

the

Buddha.

 

Sai Baba's attraction and appeal lie in this fact that he was a perfect model of

the

harmony of all religions, for whom this world - with all its sectarian and

religious

antagonism, had been waiting. Sai Baba lived to awaken and lead mankind to the

varities

of spiritual life. He set in motion a wave of spirituality, which is now

spreading all

over the globe. All his life's activities constituted the upliftment of mankind.

By first

conferring temporal benefits, he drew unto himself countless souls caught up in

ignorance

(darkness) and opened their eyes to the true meaning of life. The miracles which

manifested through Sai Baba were just such as were needed to create faith in the

people

and to make his devotees ethically and spiritually better evolved. Baba did not

purposefully perform miracles to show his powers. The very strength of his

perfect

realisation, in its interaction with nature, caused " the miracle " to take place.

Thus he

drew people from their deluded pursuits after earthly objects of a transitory

nature and

induced and inspired them to strive for self-realisation. He continued this

glorious work

until the last moment of his human embodiment in Shirdi.

 

Amazingly, there are a phenomenally large number of Instances in which Sai Baba

has been

literally physically appearing before his devotees, even decades after his

passing out of

the physical body. Sai Baba is constantly and simultaneously proving that he Is

alive in

spirit and responds to our sincere prayers. He Is the One Spirit of all

existence. which

is God in all the forms of God, in all the saints, in all the men and in all the

creatures. All those who sincerely take to a life of inner development, Sai Baba

lifts

him to a higher level. Every one derives benefit according to the ripeness o f

his soul

and in accordance with his inner yearning.Baba assured his devotees by his

saying " I am

at Shirdi and everywhere. Whatever you do, wherever you may be, ever bear this

in mind,

that I am always aware of everything " . Sai Baba does not belong to any single

tradition

but to all mankind on the path of goodness, love and understanding. (concluded)

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