Was Shirdi Sai Baba a Sadguru or an Avatar?

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Was Shirdi Sai Baba a Sadguru or an Avatar?

 

Before one should ask whether Shirdi Sai Baba is an Avatar or a Sadguru one must know the difference between the two. A Sadguru is one who dispels ignorance and lights wisdom and guides the devotees towards the Path of God. An Avatar is one (none else but God Himself) who descends in a human body to uplift mankind. He can incarnate as a full Avatar that is, with all the 16 kalas (sixteen types of powers) or as a partial Avatar to establish Dharma (with a few kalas out of this 16). I firmly believe that Shri Shirdi Sai Baba is an Avatar of God. The Lord in His form has descended in order to uplift mankind and re-establish dharma. He always use to act as if He was just a fakir and a servant of God but many a times in front of devotees when He was in a spiritually ecstatic mood, He declared that He was the Lord Himself. The qualities required to call Him an Avatar are Omnipotence, Omnipresence and Omniscience. He had

full control over all the five elements (Panchatattwa). We all know that He controlled the fire and rain as narrated in chapter 11 of "Shri Sai Satcharitra", the life story of Shri Sainath. It is seen that usually a religion or path that is established by an Avatar goes on expanding for hundreds of years ever after His Samadhi. The phenomenal expansion of the Sai movement in India and abroad is a clear indication about the spiritual status of Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi.