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Baba’s Birth and Grown-up:

• Sai Baba (1838-1918) was an Indian spiritual Guru, Yogi, and Fakir, revered as a saint by millions of devotees, both Hindu and Muslim, across the world.
• Sai Baba stated that while still a young child, his parents entrusted him to the care of a fakir. The fakir raised him.
• From this foster father, Baba readily acquired Vairagya (detachment from worldly pleasures and pains) and developed a spiritual mindset.
• That fakir passed away within four or five years after taking charge of him.
• This fakir instructed his wife to take the young Baba and leave him in the care of the renowned saintly zaminder, Gopal Rao Deshmukh (Provincial Governor) in Selu.
• Gopal Rao was an exceedingly devout individual, deeply attached to Tirupati Lord Venkatesa. He was affluent and generous, and he supported education and piety.
• A wealth of true education was available to the young Baba, as he was consistently in attendance on this master.
• Gopal Rao, upon departing from this world peacefully, signaled to the young Baba with a wave of his hand, instructing him to leave Selu and proceed westward to his new abode. (Shirdi is situated along the banks of the Godavari river, directly west of Selu).
• After some time, Chand Bhai Patel, the Headman of Dhoop (Dhukeda) Village in Nizam’s State, arrived in Shirdi with a grand procession. He had come for the marriage of his wife’s nephew at Shirdi, around 1872. Sai Baba accompanied him for this occasion. When the marriage party arrived in Shirdi, they halted at Mhalsapati’s land near the Khandoba temple.
• Bhagat Mhalsapati noticed the young Fakir disembarking from the bullock cart and greeted him with “YA SAI” (Welcome Sai). Others began to address him as Sai, and henceforth he became known as Sai Baba.
• Baba’s final residence was Shirdi, where he lived from 1872 until the end of his life in 1918.

Baba’s Mission:

Baba has not  one mission, but a hundred missions. Divine personalities have specific functions. They protect the good (virtuous). They punish or reform the wicked. They also establish Dharma (Virtue) or its hold on the people. And Baba was performing all these functions.

His mission is to help every one, that means, of course,  everyone capable of benefiting, not persons who come in an unreceptive mood .

Baba’s marga-Path:

Studying  Gitas, one sees that there is no meaning in asking for ‘any one marga (path)‘ expounded by the Divine Person. Saints expound all the margas. They find which marga or combination of margas would suit each approaching devotee. Then they give the same to him.

Thus Baba adopted every marga. In particular, one may note that the predominance in his methods was neither for ritual nor for Vedic study. Instead, it was for living in consonance with the Supreme manifestation of Divinity in himself.

Baba distributes:

Baba quoted occasionally his master’s or Guru’s  behest. “As he had received liberally from his master, he must similarly  distribute liberally amongst those that approached him.”  Baba was distributing not merely wealth, worldly relief and comforts. He was also giving spiritual gifts and spiritual blessings to all and sundry capable of receiving those benefits.

Baba advises :

• ‘Love all creatures.
• Do not fight with  any.
• Do not retaliate nor scandalize any.
• When any one talks ill of you, that is,  against you, pass on unperturbed. His words cannot pierce into your body.  Others’ acts will affect them alone and not you.’

Baba was ever active and never idle and His advice was,  ‘Do not be idle. Work, Utter God’s name. Read scriptures’.

Baba is also advising:

• ‘We should not harbour envy, rivalry, or combative disposition towards others.
• If  others hate us, let us simply take to Nama Japa and avoid their company.
• Hearken to the words of your parents. 
• Help your mother in her tasks.
• Speak the truth and truth alone’.

Baba’s advice was  always simple and capable of being accepted and acted upon by even persons  of the meanest capacity.

Baba’s Powers:

He did not even appear to be  a teacher and was chiefly a granter of wishes. But all the same, he was a  powerful instiller of principles and virtue. He instilled these into the hearts of those capable of receiving such impress.

Other Saints, about Sai Baba:

One Saint, from Puntambe by name Gangagir always frequented Shirdi. When he first saw Sai Baba, carrying pitchers of water in both hands, for watering the garden, he was amazed. And said openly, “Blessed is Shirdi, that it got this precious Jewel. This man is carrying water today; but He is not an ordinary fellow. As this land (Shirdi) was lucky and meritorious, it secured this Jewel.”

So also one famous Saint by name Anandnath of Yewala Math, a disciple of Akkalkot Maharaj came to Shirdi with some Shirdi people. When he saw Sai Baba, he said openly, “This is a precious Diamond in reality. Though he looks like an ordinary man, he is not a ‘gar’ (ordinary stone) but a Diamond. You will realize this in the near future.”

The meaning of the name, ‘Sai Baba’:

‘Sa’ means ‘Divine’; ‘ai’ or ‘ayi’ means ‘mother’ and ‘Baba’ means father. The Name indicates Divine Mother and Father.

Your physical parents exhibit love with a dose of selfishness. But this Sai, ‘Mother and Father’, showers affection or reprimands. This is only for leading you towards victory in the struggle for self-realisation.

Sai Baba/ Sai/ Baba has achieved, the supreme task of:-

• Sai has come to achieve the supreme task of uniting the entire mankind as one family, through the bond of brotherhood of affirming;
• And illumining the Atmic Reality of each. This is done in order to reveal the Divine, which is the basis on which the entire Cosmos rests.
• And also instructing all to recognise the common Divine Heritage that binds man to man. This way, man can rid himself of the animal. He can rise into the Divine, which is his goal.

The most important facts to remember about Baba is that,

• Baba was the embodiment of all virtues,
• Baba did nothing  which he did not preach.
• In Himself, all the virtues were the efflorescence of the  central root in Him, with which he began as a little child, namely:-
• love for the Guru, 
• love that knows no bounds of time, place, or circumstance, and
• love that  sacrifices anything and everything at its altar.
• Gratitude, service, equality, justice, consideration and so many other good qualities that were in him and taught by him were the direct issue of this love. These qualities could not have all been sustained without this love. This is the central point to remember about Baba.

This enables  the sishya (student or Devotee) to get more and more like unto the Guru. By constant meditation  on him, the sishya becomes the soul of the Guru.ie

• The sishya grows in love,
• absorbs the love from the Guru, and
• returns  it with all his soul and body.
• Does not consider himself as anything except as  the lover and the beloved of the Guru.
• Thus he attains –
• moral perfection,
• spiritual  perfection,
• perfection of siddhis and
• perfection of every sort .
• This is the natural  result of Baba’s moral teachings.