"I draw to Me, My man from far off or even across the seven Seas to Shirdi, like a sparrow with a string fastened to its feet"-Shirdi Sai Baba, Indian Spiritual Guru-God
Earnest readers, who are anxious to study the history of Sai Baba (who realised in himself the perfection of Godhead by attaining Purnalaya)
–concentrating his mind always on God with intense love from his earliest period of life; and
–thereby attained Aikya (merge with God),
–so that he could say Mainm Allahum, that is Aham Brahmasm and
–could exhibit all the powers of God
Sai identified himself with Krishna and with every other form of God. As the object of everyone should be to please God in Sai form or in any other form, one may note how in point of historical fact, from this biography (LoSB), numbers of people were drawn to Sai Baba and achieved the love of Sai Baba, and thereby achieved every object of human existence.
The devout reader would like to have a further sketch of the nature and the works of devotion at this stage . So, we may refer to Sri Adi Sankaracharaya who, describes what Bhakti is as the
i) seeds of the or plant are re-grasped by the parent tree,
ii) parent magnetic block attracts needles one behind another,
iii) Chaste wife clasps her husband,
iv) tendril (creeper) clings to the adjoining tree and mounts upward and upward,
v) waters of the rivers are for ever drawn downward and downward, till they reach the ocean and get inextricably and indistinguishably lost in it,
similarly the heart of the devotee longs after the Divine feet of Pasupati, God Siva to be ever there. This is called Bhakti.
Each illustration takes bhakti one stage further up.
I. Ankolam– even vegetables is to get back to the original source and get reabsorbed in it. Similarly, we are parts/ sparks from God, must reach the original source of all creation, namely, God.
II. Magnetic stone -a string of even seven needles might be found attached one behind another to a big magnet. Similarly every growing bhakta tends to attract others and impart his devotion to them; and through them to others ad infinitum.
III. Chaste wife longs for her husband, and even his slightest absence for even a short period makes her full of unrest, (EVEN now, wife calling husband frequently and asking Where are you? When are you coming? etc.). Similarly The Bhagavata treats all devotees as females, Gopis, and the only male in the Universe is Krishna.
iv) The creeper– go further and further upward and upward till the top of the tree is reached, to get more light from the Sun, more of air and more of freedom and safety from animals. Similarly, devotee tends to mount up higher and higher in his spiritual levels to achieve nobler and nobler objects; and to transform himself into more and more of the like-ness of God, till he reaches full Sarupyam, Sameepyam and Sayujyam (Bliss)
v) Rivers – The waters of the rivers were originally part of the ocean, and after being held up in the form of water vapour, cloud and rain, they take the shape of a river. Similarly Purnalaya is the end of the devotion and that is obtained by the Jivas surrendering themselves, that is, making Atma-nivedana, which is the ninth mode mentioned in the Navavidha bhakti.
That is both devotion and also absorption. After that there is nothing further to reach. Thus the various stages, attitudes, and relations of a bhakta can be very well dwelt upon and learnt by studying the above illustrations and applying them to oneself.
Loving bhaktas/ Important Devotees:
The Names of a number of loving bhaktas; so that they may ever remain in one’s heart and show how bhakti achieves its ends. The end of bhakti is not achieved by the offer of money to God or by mere learning or by age or beauty of a person, God does not want any of these. “God wants only your heart, that is, your self”,
As ,
1. For the hunter Kannappa, what Achara or religious course of conduct had he?
2. For Dhruva, what was his age? (At the age of 5, God appeared before him. Also His name is given to Pole Star)
3. For the elephant Gajendra, what education or degrees and titles had he?
4. Had Vidura (favourite of Krishna) any qualification in respect of caste? He was the son of a slave dancing girl.
5. For the king of Yadavas called Ugrasena,who was favoured by Krishna what manliness had he? He was a great coward
6. For Kubja also was favoured by Krishna, had she any great beauty? She was deformed in person.
9. For Sudhama, known as Kuchela ( favoured by Krishna), had he any wealth?
God is pleased by bhakti/Devotion alone and bhakti can capture Him. This contains the essence of the doctrine of bhakti or devotion
So far we have been dealing mainly with the externals of worship, and it is to be feared that some highly refined and sensitive souls might have been displeased there by.
These worthy persons wish to have the kernel, the very essence of the fruit of worship, without having to deal with any shell or bark, skin or other outer coverings.
If one do puja (offer flowers, water, food, scents; and praise to a person or an image of a divine being) and upasana, simultaneously using speech and thought; he utters words, mostly mantras and slokas and his mind turns to their meanings for most of the time.
Occasionally he may be merging himself in the object of worship mentally – attaining Poorna laya, or feeling perfect bliss and forgetting all ideas of his self being the actor.
The ordinary man has to remember that his gentle plant of devotion has to be grown; Bhajanas and other ceremonies must be followed for a long time before attaining full fruition of Bhakti.
Very late in his life, Baba revealed to Mahlsapathy an interesting fact. He disclosed that his parents were from Patri in the Nizam’s State, India. Patri is part of Parvani taluk, near Manwath. Sai Baba added that when he was still a tender child, his parents handed him over to a fakir. The fakir brought him up. Sai Baba occasionally showed his interest in Patri and Parvani when people from those parts came to him, by questioning them about the residents of those places. This is practically all that, we have about the birth and parentage of Sri Sai Baba.
Stage -2
But who ever his parents were, it is quite important to remember that from his earliest infancy, he experienced a true vairagi or jnani detachment. He had all the associations or dissociation needed for this. Having no parents or kinsmen, and being brought up by a fakir, he easily picked up his foster-father’s vairagya and spiritual turn of mind.
Even that fakir passed away within four or five years after taking charge of him. The fakir directed his wife to take the young Baba, and leave him in charge of a noted saintly zamindar, Gopal Rao Deshmukh at Selu.
Stage -3
Young Baba was left under the care of Gopal Rao Deshmukh. He spent the best and most impressionable part of his life at Selu. Selu had a fort and castle, where the Deshmukh resided.
The young boy was very greatly attached to his master, and the master in turn was deeply interested in the boy. The boy stayed with the master at all times. He was present, whether the master was in the field or at puja, and whether he was in the garden or in the Court.
Education:
Baba seems to have had no formal education given to him at any time. He had no book study. There were no masters, either in the regional language (which must have been Marathi or Telugu) or in any other language.
But real education of the highest sort, he had in plenty. This Deshmukh, was an extremely pious devotee greatly attached to Tirupati Venkatesa, whose image he worshipped daily in his own castle. He was rich, liberal, and patronised learning and piety. Hence an abundance of real education could be picked up by the young child Baba, when attending on his master.
Perfect chastity and thorough self-control were the leading characteristics of his Guru. Invariable rectitude and perfect truthfulness also defined him. Generosity and serviceability to all became transplanted and took deep root in the disciple, Sai Baba.
Stage- 4
Sai was very young, when he first came Shirdi. In the beginning he left Shirdi off and on, and returned to it. The date of his first arrival at Shirdi cannot be fixed.
On one of his later visit to Shirdi, possibly the final one, Baba arrived on the momentous occasion of Chand Bhai Patel’s advent to Shirdi.
Chand Bhai Patel was a rich and influential village Patel or Headman, of Dhupkeda village in the Nizam’s State, not far from Shirdi. His wife’s nephew was to be married to a bride at Shirdi. In 1872, he arrived with a huge marriage procession. Sai Baba accompanied Patel on that occasion from Dhupkeda to Shirdi. Sai Baba stayed there until Mahasamathi.
After that time, except for two months when he was under Jawar Ali Maulana, Sai Baba never left Shirdi but only made a few occasional visits off and on to the neighbouring villages of Rahata or Nimgam, from which he immediately returned to Shirdi.
So His final residence was Shirdi, from about 1872 till the end of his life in 1918.
Baba began from 1908 to ask for dakshinas (Donations). Formerly, he would refuse offer of rupees to him, saying that he had no need for them.
But from the time that this new tide began, he began to ask his visitors for payments of (even large) sums. Some he would ask for Rs.5, some for Rs.25, and some others for Rs.250.
Baba would not ask for any funds except where he was going to recompense or where the visitor had already been blessed by Dana or Vittal and was bound to pay whom or those God pointed out.
Many sent “vowed Sums” of their own accord, even Rs.6000 . Therefore, Baba easily succeeded in getting as dakshinas in the course of each day varying sums, that totaled up in the evening sometimes to Rs.300 and sometimes to thousands.
In addition to the large crowd of persons who offered Naivedyas [food] of eatables to Baba, it was possible for 200 beggars to be fed everyday by Baba’s bounty and doles. Thus the appearance of a very prosperous durbar was presented at Shirdi from 1909 up to 1918.
It served a purpose, namely, the widening of Baba worship, which had a great purpose behind it. That is why Baba allowed all this to develop his worship.
Till then Baba avoided pomp. He would not even sit on a chair or lie on a cot, but sat and slept upon a sack cloth (gunny mattress) placed on the floor. He would not put on his head the crown or regal dress, when the devotees wanting him to look like a Maharaja/ King brought these for him. Nor would he accept or allow other royal insignia upon his person.
Baba had no possessions, and all these regal paraphernalia mentioned above were kept with Ramakrishna Ayi, and on her death, were held by an association; and finally vested in the Sai Sansthan, formed by the “order of the Ahmednagar District Court in the year 1922“.
When Baba left the body, he had only Rs.16 in his hand and no other property. Hence the Raja upacharas, which would have puffed up or affected other persons, did not affect him. In refusing to own properties or have a palace, he set an excellent example.
To make the congregational worship more advanced and attractive, there was an enthusiastic set gathering at Shirdi.
One Ramakrishna Ayi, a young widow, being highly accomplished, was intent upon using all her gifts and cleverness for developing Sai Baba’s worship. She drew a large number of people to herself and made them more enthusiastic in the cause of Sai Worship
Ramakrishna Ayi introduced silver whisks, silver maces, silver umbrellas, silver candelabras, moons, and artificial gardens to deck the chavadi, where Baba was worshipped on alternate nights. A (ratha) car, a palanquin with silver appurtenances, a horse, and other regal paraphernalia were furnished on her insistence and the insistence of other devotees to make Baba worship run exactly like Vittal worship or the worship of great Acharyas in their mutts.
The next step was from individual worship to congregational worship. It was in 1908 that the change was started. Congregational worship implied that there would be some one to officiate as the pujari (Priest) and that he would be available at various periods of worship viz. Matins, vespers, night artis and noon artis etc.
For this purpose, Hari Vinayak Sathe, a Settlement Officer, (who in 1905 was blessed by Baba, with the promise of a son in case he married, and who got married in consequence) sent up one Megha-shyam called Megha to Shirdi. So that he might officiate as the pujari and carry on congregational worship.
Megha usually went out five miles to fetch Godavari water for the daily worship, and three or four miles to fetch bel leaves which are said to be specially appropriate for Siva (=Sai, for Megha) worship (Eka Bilvam Sivarpanam that is one bel leaf even is sufficient offering to Siva). When the very orthodox Megha thus became an ardent devotee of Baba, others followed suit and joined in the congregational worship.
The benefits attending Baba-worship were quickly seen and hence Devotees from outside the Shirdi village, that is, from the immediate neighbourhood were drawn to the worship. This spread gradually from place to place and people from even remote parts were attracted to the worship.
Individual worship itself was first not systematic, nor organised. But K.G. Bhishma, a good Kirtankar and a great adherent of Vittal-worship at Pandharpur, drew up the ritual for Sai-Baba-worship on practically the same lines as the Pandharpur-worship.
He brought a set of artis that is ritualistic; verses for use by individuals at Shirdi, (and these were sent up by Baba to Nana Saheb Chandorkar at Jamnere) were approved of by HIM.
All the things that we see in the universe are nothing but a play of Maya (cosmic illusion)- the creative power of the Lord. These things do not really exist. What really exists is the Real Absolute. Just as we mistake a rope of a garland or a stick for a serpent on account of darkness, we always see the phenomena, i.e. things as they outwardly appear, and not the Noumenon (Thing-in-itself ) which underlies all the visible things. Only the Sad-guru opens the eyes of our understanding. He enables us to see things in their true light and not as they appear. Let us, therefore, worship the Sad-guru and pray to him to give us the true vision, which is nothing but God-vision.
Novel Form of Worship
Hemadpant has given us a novel form of worship.
Let us, he says, use hot water in the form of tears of joy to wash the Sad-guru’s feet.
Let us besmear, His body with sandalwood-paste of pure love.
Let us cover His body with the cloth of true faith.
Let us offer eight lotuses as our eight Sattwik emotions.
Let us present fruit as our concentrated mind.
Let us apply to His head bukka (black-powder) in the form of devotion. Let us tie the waistband of Bhakti and place our head on his toes.
After decorating the Sad-guru with all jewelry in this way,
let us offer everything to Him.
We wave the chamar of devotion to ward off heat.
After such blissful worship, let us pray thus:- “Introvert our mind.
Turn it inward.
Give us discrimination between the Unreal and the Real.
Grant us non-attachment for all worldly things.
Thus enable us to get Self-realisation.
We surrender ourselves, body and soul (body-consciousness and ego).
Make our eyes Yours, so that we should never feel pleasure and pain.
The second impediment is more interesting. Baba had both Hindu and Muslim features in his body and in his actions and practice, and, HIS mission in life was to unify Hindus and Muslims into one compact mass with common religious, spiritual and worldly interests.
As he had a Hindu Guru, namely, Gopal Rao Deshmukh alias Venkatesa or Venkusa, he was considered fitted to guide his Hindu followers.
In order to guide his Muslim followers, initiation into Islamic scripture by a Maulana was essential according to public opinion. So, his destiny had to be fulfilled by his getting a second Guru, a Muslim. Jawar Ali Maulana was a distinguished Maulana of the last century, residing for some time at Rahata. He had extraordinary ability and learning, but had disagreed with his Rahata followers.
He came to Shirdi and noted that Baba had a large Hindu following who worshipped him at the Mosque. He called upon Baba to come out of the Mosque and asked him whether he knew the Koran and the Shariat. Baba had learnt neither.
So Jawar Ali Maulana ordered him to accompany him to Rahata and there Baba was living with this Guru for about two months. The Guru initiated him into the mysteries of Islamic spiritual literature.
Baba did humble seva to this Guru, carrying water pots, fetching faggots, lighting up fire, doing hard physical work, which others would complain of. But in the case of Baba, he accepted his position as the sishya of Jawar Ali with perfect sincerity and underwent with sweet complacency, all the ordeal and the course of training given to him.
The villagers of Shirdi, headed by Mahlsapathy who were very anxious to have Baba back again permanently settled at Shirdi, requested the Maulana to allow them to take Sai Baba with them. This was agreed to by the Maulana on the condition that with Baba he also should be taken to Shirdi, and that both he and Baba should be fed and supported by the villagers of Shirdi. So both came and lived at the Shirdi Mosque.
Some time later, Jawar Ali was drawn purposely into a dispute with Devadas, a noted Hindu saint living in a chavadi at Shirdi, and Devadas’s questions cornered Jawar Ali. The latter had to make so many admissions that the surrounding spectators were moved to laughter. Jawar Ali resenting this humiliation left Shirdi and did not return there for long years to come.
Baba’s worship at the Shirdi Mosque went on and gathered strength. What appeared as the second impediment tended only to increase the devotees’ attachment through Viraha and admiration and helped Baba’s mission. It must be noted here that the worship mentioned here is individual worship, each one going to Baba and placing flowers on his feet and treating him as God, Avatar or Guru.
Welcome to https://ShirdiSaiBaba.InterNational 