One God, Many Sadgurus, One Energy, One Experience

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One God, Many Sadgurus, One Energy, One Experience

Shri Shirdi Sai Nath has no name. ‘Shirdi’ is the name of a place; ‘Sai’ is how God is addressed, in many languages and ‘Nath’ is the name of a tradition, cult or a Panth. ‘Sai’ is not the name given to him by his parents. No one knows His real name, His real pedigree, and His real identity. For everyone He is ‘My Loving Baba’ or simply ‘Baba’. He is our beloved ‘Sai Baba of Shirdi’. All of us have felt the fatherly love and compassion emanating from Him and so the spontaneous utterance of ‘Baba’ and ‘Sai’ follows. We all know Him only through the feelings in our heart and experiences generated through his grace.

When one analyses the experiences of various people with their respective Guru, Saint, Deity or God, cutting across all religions, one finds a common cord - of a feeling of love, compassion, devotion and grace - running through these respective group of devotees, touching each one of them equally. Different experiences seem to melt away and merge into what is universally felt as the same kind of energy or a cosmic force functioning through varied personified forms.

It does not seem to matter at all, which Sadguru, Saint, deity or God one is following as the darshan of any Saint gives the same realisation. Darshan is in itself a very powerful learning tool for the one who approaches a Sadguru with an open heart and mind. Darshan very clearly brings forth the awareness of a Meeting of the Spirit.

Some of the experiences of devotees with Neem Karoli Baba are narrated below to illustrate the presence of the Universal Energy Force that operates through various channels and forms. Shri Ram Dass who was a Professor at Harvard University, in his book ‘Miracles of Love’, speaks of Him as ‘my guru’, or very simply as ‘Maharajji’. Like Shirdi Sai, no one knows the real name of Baba Neem Karoli. He got this name because He was initially seen in a village - Neeb Karori in Uttar Pradesh.

Read slowly and remember to listen to the silence in which the stories are set, for the true meeting with Baba lies between the lines and behind the words.

Darshan: A Meeting of the Spirit

Not everyone who met Maharajji was "awakened" at the initial visit. Many came, enjoyed a pleasant visit, and left apparently unaffected. They seemed to have "no business" with Maharajji, that is, they were either unready to be touched so deeply, or the vehicle of the guru or this particular guru was not their way.

Then there were those who while experiencing no dramatic "zap," yet responded to some subtle thread that drew them back to Maharajji again and again. I was astonished at the way in which tough people would melt as they stayed around Maharajji. True, many wanted something worldly from the "miracle Baba," but beyond that they wanted once again to taste of the nectar of being with him.

At one moment we saw ourselves and the other devotees and seekers as so many vultures around a piece of raw meat or like flies crawling over a piece of sugar. At those times we tried to protect him, and often we held ourselves back so as not to contribute to the scene.

But at other times we would realize how totally Maharajji had control of the situation. When he felt that people were, as he put it, "eating his head," he would simply go into a backroom and close the door, or send everyone away, or get in a car and leave without a backward glance. Once, after traveling many months to see Maharajji, we at last found him at a devotee's home in Delhi. We were allowed into the backroom with him for a few minutes and then were sent out to have tea with many others. About fifteen minutes later Maharajji walked out of the inner room and right by us, not more than two feet from our faces, with not the least turn of the head or signal of recognition. He went to a car in which a driver was waiting. He got in, and the car left for a destination unknown. Such a person was clearly not at our mercy!

Many Levels – Many Changes

One day he came out and all he said all day long was "Thul-Thul, Nan-Nan," repeating these words to himself like a mantra. Days went by like this and somebody finally said, "Maharajji, what are you saying?" And it turned out to be an old Behari dialect and all it meant was "Too big, too big, too little, too little. When he was finally asked why he was saying this, he said, "Oh, all you people, you all live in Thul-Thul, Nan-Nan; you live in the world of judgement. It's always too big or too little.

You can never know, as you sit before Maharajji, who it is that he is working with in the course of a darshan. He may be talking with one person while another is being deeply moved in some special way. You yourself can't know what you are receiving from him. We took our cue in this respect from one of Maharajji's long-term, trusted devotees, called "Dada," who served Maharajji with a singleness of purpose that awed us. When Maharajji would compliment him, Dada would say, "Ha, Baba," meaning, "Yes, Baba," and when Maharajji would shout insults at him, sometimes upbraiding him from morning till night, he would reply, in exactly, the same tone," Ha, Baba!" Obviously, fame and shame were one to him, at least when Maharajji was the source. No longer, could Maharajji get Dada angry or guilty; over the years, it had all been burned out. For Dada, it was all grace.

There was the sport of watching the newcomers arrive, skeptical, with questions, and then seeing their hearts gently open and their soft, flowerlike quality emerge under the tender care of the master gardener.

Timeless Darshan

The minute you meet him, if you are ready, he will plant himself within you. And time is nothing. You would forget everything when you were with him. There would be nothing but Maharajji—total, effortless worship. That's the real puja. Sometimes we would sit up so late at night in Kainchi, talking with Maharajji, that we would lose all sense of time until we would hear someone taking their morning bath, and we would realize that the whole night was gone. It was one of those darshans where you think somebody must have put LSD in the tea. We would bask in His radiance.

Actually you can be more truly with Maharajji when you are away from his form. At a distance you can concentrate on him undisturbed.

Darshan of Intimacy

Maharajji reached each person's heart in a way special to that person. Everyone's experience with him was different. You cannot explain what it is like to be with him. It is a thing to be felt in your heart. He was so gentle that you weren't afraid of him at all. But sometimes you'd think that there must be a lion in there. Maharajji was sitting on the tucket and he leaned over and kissed Kabir on the head. That kiss affected everyone who was there. It made people feel really warm inside. Every time Maharajji would hug somebody, everybody in the room would go, "Ahhhhh.

Darshans of Love

All the love and affection and kindness that came from Maharajji—you cannot get these from man. You never have met one so lovable, so kind, so sweet. How could you not love him? You almost wanted to give up your breath to him if you could.

A devotee asked me if I had ever been caught by Maharajji's glance in a way that, as he briefly looked at me, I forgot everything but knew only Maharajji's love. The devotee said it is a wonderful and rare thing when he looks at you in that way, and you are very fortunate if you can hold his gaze in that state. He could go through your heart with just a look or a movement. The slightest thing could feel as if it were piercing you.

Talking at Darshans

He was always rattling on like a child, talking about this and that, most of which wasn't translated. It was like seeing a fine foreign movie where you don't really need the subtitles! In some instances he would say a thing only once. If you didn't catch it, it was gone.

When you were with Maharajji you talked about what he wanted to talk about. If you started your topic, Maharajji would ignore it or change it. There was no conversation around Maharajji other than with him. Maharajji would talk to one and be hitting another and only the one who was supposed to would understand.

Maharajji showed great interest in everything, just like an ordinary man. He had no pretensions, yet nobody could deceive him.

Touching His Feet

“Touching, holding, rubbing the guru's feet has always had profound significance in the Hindu tradition. To touch the feet of such a being is not only to receive this grace, but it is an act of submission, of surrender to God, for that is what the guru represents on earth.

How vividly I recall, after my first meeting with Maharajji, how all my disregard and arrogance disappeared before an almost overwhelming desire literally to be at his feet. On the second or third meeting, I was watching the man next to me, who was rubbing Maharajji’s feet. The expression on his face suggested that he was experiencing waves of ecstasy, and as I watched him out of the corner of my eye, I felt jealous. Before us, sitting on the table cross-legged was Maharajji, well wrapped in a bright plaid blanket, so that only his head showed above the blanket and a bare foot stuck out beneath. It was this foot that was the source of both the bliss and the jealousy, for the man was massaging the foot with great tenderness and love, and I was yearning to be in his place. How bizarre to find myself sitting in a tiny Hindu temple halfway around the world, jealous because I could not rub an old man's foot!

“As I reflected on this strange turn of events, Maharajji talked to people gathered in the small room at the back of the temple compound, but he seemed to be asking one a question, scolding another, joking with a third, and giving instructions to a fourth. In the midst of these conversations, I saw him move ever so slightly, and his other foot appeared beneath the blanket just beside me.

“I suspected that only people who had been around him for some time were allowed to massage his feet—and I was the newest comer—but I decided I couldn't be faulted for trying. So slowly, my hands went up, touched the foot, and began to massage. But instead of waves of bliss, my mind was full of the sharp edges of doubt and confusion as to whether I should use my fingers or my palms. Just as suddenly as the foot appeared, it was withdrawn back under the blanket. My mind was filled with self-pity about my own impurity wondering if I was pure enough to be doing this.

“As the visit went on, Maharajji took me more and more out of my self-consciousness and into a space that had no familiar boundaries. I experienced waves of confusion, bordering on madness. And that was the moment the foot reappeared before me. And again, I reached for it. But this time my mind was too overwhelmed to analyze procedure. I just clung to the foot as a drowning man would to a life preserver.

Sita would always sit on my right, and being a greedy, obnoxious Leo, I'd push my way up front and grab Maharajji's foot. Sita would always want the same foot, so I would have a shoving match with her. She would say, "Get away from here. You don't belong here. "And she'd throw her shoulder down to block me. Sometimes Maharajji would give his foot to me and sometimes to her.

Have you felt that you are not reading about Baba Neem Karoli but your own Guru? Haven’t we all experienced such events before or heard about them, happening with someone else in the company of our Baba. Isn’t Sai Satcharitra full of such narrations? We all have experienced the presence of the same form of energy with our Guru and God, as devotees felt with Baba Neem Karoli. All are One and All are connected to each other. That is why Shirdi Sai never encouraged anyone from disrespecting or leaving one’s own Guru for His sake or for anyone else.

What was it about the Darshan that captivated us? Was it the many levels and changes, or the moments of timelessness, or perhaps the intimacy and love? Or was it the talking and kidding and humor, or maybe the purity? Then, of course, perhaps it was the touching of the feet. Or was it all of them? Or none of them? Was the connection perhaps a subjective one, beyond our dualistic experiencing? Maharajji, who are You? Baba, who are You?

There is no Name. No Religion. No Caste. No region. Are you other than our very selves as you are felt within us only? That is why Shirdi Sai has no Name. That is how all Gods exist, not in mythology but in the hearts of people, who experience them. There is a need to make and preserve Setu between us and Sai Ram, through our hearts and not otherwise.

There are no words. There is no answer. There is no question, really. There is just darshan, which is grace. The First Step rightly taken. Sagun disappears, Nirgun appears and there is Light.