WHO IS SRI SAI BABA OF SHIRDI?
By Shri H.H.NARASIMHASWAMIJI
(Founder)
All India Sai Samaj (Regd.), Madras - 600 004.
SAI BABA OF Shirdi is a name to conjure with. In fact, his name is used as a sacred and powerful mantra by thousands of persons. He is not a non-historic or remote personality, but one who was with us in the flesh till 1918, moving familiarly with tens of thousands and that for decades. A short account of Sri Sai Baba will be interesting and will also prove in many cases the turning point in the lives of numerous readers, as it has done in the past.
2. Of Sai Baba’s birth, parentage, and antecedents, no person that we have met can give any account. But Baba himself gave some hints which have been verified and worked upon. He seems to have been born some time between 1820 and 1850 A.D. in the village Pathri, in the Nizam’s State. His parents were Brahmins who handed him over at a tender age to a fakir. After the fakir’s death, some five years later, the child passed in the care of his Guru Deva, Gopal Rau Deshmukh, a great bhakta of God Venkateswara of Tirupati. After a splendid period of ten years of intense love and devotion towards his Guru-God, the boy obtained the Guru’s grace. As directed by the Guru, he went westward and came to Shirdi in the Bombay Presidency (Ahmednagar District), and after some wanderings, settled and spent the rest of his life there. He passed away on the 15th October, 1918 (3 p.m. Vijaya Dasami Day, after Ekadasi began). The tomb erected over his remains is now the Sai Mandir attracting the devotion of persons from all parts of the country.
3. Nobody dies: least of all, a self realized soul like Sai Baba. Atmagnanis or Jivanmuktas are said to become Vidhehamuktas or nirakara Parabrahmam when the fleshy sheath is cast off. Exceptions to this rule are mentioned in the Brahmasutras. Bhrugu, Narada, and other eminent devotee-gnanis have, instead of merging in the Absolute when they cast off the body, continued to remain in their subtle body (Sukshma sarira, which however could be rendered gross and visible or sthula at will) in order to co-operate with divine leelas, rendering service to humanity. These are styled apantaratmas. Sai Baba is now an apantaratma. Before shuffling off his mortal coil, he said that his devotees need not be sad or frightened at his casting off his fleshy gown (kupni), and that wherever and whenever any devotee should think of him, he would be present and attend to him. This has been found indeed to be true by innumerable persons; and earnest souls can still take Baba at his word and prove its truth from their own experience.
4. Sai Baba, the soul of truth and reality has never spoken untruth. ‘Anrutam noktapurvam me nacha vakshya kadachana’ (Untruth, I have never uttered nor will I utter it at any time), was the remark of Ayodhya Rama as also of this Shirdi Rama.
5. The early decades spent by Baba at Shirdi are almost wholly forgotten. He was first living under a margosa tree leading the life of a perfect ascetic. Next, he removed to a dilapidated mosque in the village, and resided there to the end of his life. He had nothing that he could call ‘mine’. For thirty years and more, he was leading the life of holy poverty, and then his devotees whom he affectionately termed his children, pressed the pomp and show of royalty upon him. For the last ten years of his life, he appeared as a prince though he behaved throughout like a poor fakir, who either owned nothing or everything in the world. His was the life of perfect celibacy (naishtika rahmacharya with astalitha urdhvarethus), a fact which was beaming out of his brilliant tiger like eyes. His virtues were numerous - Ananthakalyanaguna - and would naturally sink into the heart of those coming in contact with him, and thus raise them gradually on the highest. ‘Apana sarika karita tatkal’, is a saying of Tukaram, which means that great souls raise the devotees to their own level; vide Bhagavata, where Lord Krishna says, ‘Though devotees do not wish to be one with me, I pull them unto myself’.
6. Amongst his qualities, the most notable was, of course, love - uniform, all embracing, intense love, showered on all and at all times, without any idea of the extent of sacrifice involved or any idea of recompense - truly maternal love at its highest. God is love and the means to reach God is also love. Baba was nothing but the embodiment of love. This love was perpetually manifesting itself in every act, word, and thought of his, though at times hidden by his ascetic modes of life. In the beginning he would move and talk with none except under strict necessity. However, when there was any suffering in the village, he would run to relieve it and would accept no recompense.
7. ‘Saisangatve nissangatvam’ was the other exception to his rule of asceticism. Where there were saints or holy people, he would be found in their company. Some of these saints like Janaki Das and Devi Das were the first to discover his merits; and in the early eighties of the 19th century, some of them revealed the fact that Baba was like a diamond lying on a dung hill, and that the world would one day discover what a great Rama Bhakta he was. The world has since discovered that fact, and more, has identified him with Rama, Krishna, Maruthi, Datta, etc.
8. At the time of his arrival at Shirdi, Baba appears to have been a thorough adept in the prema marga, the path of love and evidently possessed of all power, which naturally issues from such love. He seldom cared to use his power, but once, a manifestation was wrung out of him. The shopkeepers who supplied him gratis with oil, one day refused the supply, and gathered in a scoffing mood to see what the ‘mad fakir’, as they styled him, would do without oil for his lamps. Baba simply filled up his empty earthen lamps with water, and the wicks inserted in the water were burning all night! This gave a rude shock to the villagers’ notion that Baba was negligible and mad fakir.
9. Baba however was never negligible. From the very beginning, he was always helping humanity at first by dispensing medicines and later by dispensing ‘udhi’ i.e., vibuthi or ashes from the fire that he always kept burning by him. Udhi has played a very important part in the grace shown by Baba to people all these years, and it is still being sought and used by people all over the country. But, as Baba explained, it is not the Udhi itself that works the wonder. {“What can the udhi do? Nevertheless, take the udhi as it is wanted”, said Baba to G.G.Narke} The devotees’ bhakti (faith and devotion), for instance, has always to take its part in the good results produced by the udhi. The udhi was generally the material with which His blessings were issued. The udhi is the cup enshrining the really valuable blessings of Baba. But these blessings often came and do come without the udhi.
10. When people came to him, he would give them the udhi and say ‘Allah bale karege’ (i.e. God will bless) and everything he uttered proved effective. Once he said ‘I go on speaking things here, and things happen there.’ Baba’s words were words of authority. When he said that there should be water on a waterless rock, water was found there.{Charter 350}. When he addressed the elements they obeyed him. Fire, water, and air were seen by several devotees to obey his orders. He ordered high flames to sink down and they did. He ordered the rain and storm to cease and they ceased. He willed a cool breeze to blow near the fire on a blazing summer day and cool breeze blew there.{Charters 341.4} The dead were revived. The heart of every one present or absent, he knew without effort and he could control it. He was realized to be a sarvantharyami. He himself declared,
‘Aham Atma hi Chandorkar
Sarva bhutasaya sthitah’
i.e. ‘O, Chandorkar, I am in the hearts of all creatures’.
11. Of the many ‘miracles’ performed by Baba and witnessed by many eminently respectable persons (many of them still living), it is sufficient to give but a few instances to show how and why they were resorted to. Baba identifying himself with God and gods declared that there was never any miracle performed by him. Really, there are no ‘miracles’ in the universe if ‘miracles’ mean the violation of the laws of Nature or of God. People begin to generalize about the laws of Nature from the few facts known to them and when a strange phenomenon suddenly appears in apparent contradiction of their artificial ‘law of Nature’, it is declared to be ‘miracle’ - a violation of the so called law. A truly scientific mind would rather add the new fact to the old facts and try to remould the old law so as to include the new fact observed. Mankind is not omniscient. One day, the science of the future will give scientific explanations for the so-called ‘miracles’ of all times.
12. But beyond the miracles of Baba, there is one bright, marvelous fact, worthy of people’s adoration and that is, his golden heart of love with its message of universal love. Baba loved all - Hindus, Moslems, Christians, and Buddhists, the learned and the illiterate, the poor and the rich, the priest and the criminal - alike. His message to all his devotees is ‘Love ye, one another, as I love you all’.
13. Baba declared that if people hated one another, his heart was smarting with pain and sorrow and if persons forgave enemies and endured the ill-treatment, he was highly please. This is the most valuable lesson for this day and for all time. A story is told in Bhagavatha of the world going as a cow to Brahma, groaning under the weight of the cruel Asuras harassing innocent people. That is just the spectacle all over the world to day. Hatred, destruction, plunder, and absolute disregard for truth and virtue, are the predominant features in the daily history of the world to-day. Man’s claws and teeth are red with the gore of brother man; and the criminal is not apologetic but blatant. Civilisation is in imminent danger of being submerged in pools of human blood and devastating fire leaving the human form a fossil to be discovered within some rocks by some later race. The only thing that can avert this doom is love, a revival of the very ancient message to Asuras from God ‘Dayadhwam’ i.e., ‘Be merciful’.
14. Baba’s whole life was an illustration of how this divine message could be carried out in life, and the more Baba’s message is heeded, circulated, and preached, the greater is the hope for humanity avoiding the threatened catastrophe. Incidentally, it may be noted that while the Kshtriyabalam of Akbar failed, the Brahmatejobalam of Baba is steadily achieving the benefit of the people. ‘Dikbalam Kshatriyabalam Brahmatejobalam balam’ - Fie upon Kshatriya’s power, Spiritual power alone is power’, was said by the Kind Viswamitra when he found that all the arrows showered by him upon Vasishta were of no avail, by reason of the Brahmadanda which Vasishta had placed by his side as a protection. ’Ekena brahmadandena astrah sarvah vinishkrtah’.
15. One species of miraculous achievements wrought by Baba for the benefit of his devotees is the blessing given for issue. Whenever Baba blessed anybody and said that there would be issue, invariably the lady brought forth the child, either male or female, in twelve months, exactly as stated by Baba. Here are a few examples: Damodar S. Rasane had two wives, but no issue. His horoscope showed a papi or cruel planet in the putrasthana and astrologers declared that he would have no issue in this birth. But Baba gave him four mango fruits and directed him to give them to his junior wife. Baba assured him that he was going to have eight children through that wife, the first two being males. The lady ate the fruits and had just eight children, with their sexes as mentioned by Baba. This would remind one of the issue less monarch Dasaratha, consulting his Kulaguru Vasishta. According to the directions of this Guru, Aswamedha and Puthrakameshti yagas were celebrated on a grand scale (even though it was not stated that there was any papi in the putrasthana of Dasaratha) and four sons were brought forth by his queens. In Rasane’s case, there was no Vasishta nor were any yagas. Evidently, Vasishta, Vamadeva, Risyasringa, Bhrugu, Puthrakameshti and Aswamedha were all inside Sai Baba who declared that the devotee would have eight children.
16. Another case is more interesting. One Scindhe had seven daughters and no sons. He went up to the temple of Dattatreya at Gangapur, 200 miles away from Shirdi, and prayed there for male issue. He vowed that if he were granted a son within twelve months, he would bring the child to Gangapur and make his offerings. He had his prayers answered and obtained a son in twelve months. But, for about six years, he did not go to Gangapur at all. Then he came to Shirdi. Baba looked at him and spoke fiercely, ‘Are you so conceited and stiff-necked? Where was there any male progeny in your prarabdhakarma? I tore up this body (pointing to his own body) and gave you a male child in answer to your prayer’. This was not only occasion when Baba declared that he had overridden the workings of prarabdhakarma. A third case is interesting from another standpoint. A pleader of Akkalkote had reviled and mocked at Baba in his student days and had subsequently lost his only son. Fancying that the loss was the result of his irreverence towards Baba, he came to Shirdi. Baba blessed him and declared that he (Baba) himself would fetch the soul of the deceased son and place him within the womb of the Vakil’s wife. In twelve months thereafter, she was delivered of a male child.
17. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that it was the blessings for issue more than anything else that made the educated, especially from towns, to go to Baba. One Gopal Rao Gundu, A Revenue Inspector, who had two wives but no issue, sought and obtained Baba’s blessings and the fruit of those blessings, a son. He broadcast the kindness of Baba and his wonderful powers abroad, and a large number of educated people including Deputy Collectors, Collectors, and political leaders like Lokamanya Tilak, flocked to Shirdi.
18. In 1886, Baba died his first death. One day when sitting along with his devotee Mahisapathy in the Dwaraka Mayi (as his mosque was named by him), Baba said that he was going to Allah and that consequently for three days his body was to be looked after for, after that period, he might return to the body, and that in case he did not do so, the body should be interred near the mosque. Presently Baba’s body became a corpse. An inquest was held over the same and the officer holding the inquest insisted on Mahlsapathy burying the body. But Mahlsapathy vehemently opposed the proposal and succeeded in preventing the internment. On the fourth day, Baba’s body revived and for thirty-two years thereafter, Baba worked through that living fleshy case and finally left it on the 15th October, 1981, with the same prescience and clear control over all the circumstances which he showed in 1886. This leaving of the body at will and returning to it at pleasure is an art, a siddhi, described in the Yoga Sastras; and Baba’s exercise of such powers convinced and would convince many of the truth of the Sastras. ‘Dharmasamsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge’ (i.e. ‘I am born in each age for establishing Dharma’) said Krishna of Dwapara Yuga to Arjuna. And this divinity of the twentieth century A.D. in Kaliyuga, like other men of God (Devatmas) of the same period, has frequently by his conduct proved the truth of, and confirmed, the belief in Dharma and Sastras.
19. One noticeable feature of Baba’s life after his return to the body was that he began to encourage the arrival of bhaktas to his feet. Evidently the object of his return to his body was to carry out his mission more fully and for a longer period on earth, especially with reference to the devotees and others bound to him by former ties, rinanubandha. This is well illustrated by his call to Narayana Govind Chandorkar, B.A., Personal Assistant to the Collector of Ahmednagar, to come to his feet.
20. When N.G.Chandorkar or ‘Nana’ as Baba affectionately called him, was halting at Kopergaon, Baba sent word to him repeatedly to come to Shirdi for a visit. Nana after much hesitation came up to Shirdi and asked Baba why he was sent for. Baba replied that for four previous births, Nana had been intimate with Baba and that therefore in this life also, he should get into similar close contact. Again Nana hesitated. But Baba, by the exercise of his wonderful powers and his kindness especially, filled Nana’s heart with faith and gratitude for numerous miraculous favours showered upon him. On one occasion when Chandorkar was stranded on a hot day on a waterless hill (Harischndra Hill) unable to climb up or get down, he suddenly exclaimed; ‘If Baba were here, he would give me water’. Baba who was then at Shirdi, forty miles away, mentioned to the people there that Nana was thirsty and should be provided with a palmful of water. At that time, a Bhil appeared on that hill and pointed out a palmful of water to Chandorkar, under the very rock over which the latter was seated. Later when Nana visited Shirdi, Baba informed him that it was ;he who provided water on the waterless rock. Similarly, on another occasion, when the thirsty Chandorkar prayed to Baba in the midst of a forest for tea being given him after he should emerge from the forest, tea was suddenly provided in the middle of the night in a forlorn place. Again when Nana’s daughter was undergoing the tortures of prolonged parturition, Baba sent a gosavi from Shirdi with udhi to be used for easing the parturition. The gosavi wanted to know how he could go to Jamnere, which was N.G.C’s camp, across thirty miles of country road from the railway without funds, Baba simply answered that everything would be provided. At the station, the gosavi found a tonga and a liveried peon waiting for him, professing to have been sent by Sri Chandorkar. When the gosavi went up in that tonga and delivered the udhi, its use was quickly followed by safe and comfortable delivery. Then he mentioned the tonga, the horse and the liveried peon to Chandorkar, who wondered, as he had not sent any of these and nobody else could have sent these. Both the gosavi and NGC wondered at Baba’s power to provide everything he wanted at any place and at any time and at the depth of Baba’s love for his devotees.
21. Nana had innumerable proofs of Baba’s vast, nay, unlimited powers, his perpetual watch over his beloved devotees, his invariable kindness towards all that approached him, and summed them all up in the phrase that Baba was omnipotent, omniscient and universally kind. No word aptly expresses the sum total of these attributes except ‘God’. Chandorkar was convinced that Baba was God and worshipped him as God; and by reason of Chandorkar’s vast influence, Baba’s greatness and glory became known to all in various parts of Maharashtra.
22. One Ganpat Rao Sahasrabuddhe, a constable attending on NGC was similarly turned in to a devout Bhakta and made to quit Government service (in 1905) substituting therefore the service of God or Baba. Sri Sahasrabuddhe has thence forward been known as Dass Ganu Maharaj and as a Kirtankar-devotee of Baba all through these forty years. By his powerful Harikathas and his talents, he has carried Baba to the homes of tens of thousands in Maharashtra. His works on Baba are the earliest authorities on the life of Baba. The above mentioned two gentlemen with others like H.S.Dixit and Anna Dabolkar, may be regarded as Baba’s apostles who carried the faith in Baba to the length and breadth of Maharashtra.
23. Baba’s own miraculous personality surviving his release from his physical body has however been the principal reason for the success of all this propaganda. His power is still working and by reason of that along, myriads in Madras and other Presidencies have become firm adherents to, and worshippers of, Baba. The faith is well grounded in the experience showered upon them now as liberally and miraculously, as they were showered before Baba’s passing away. Baba’s figure is occasionally seen by, and his wondrous powers are manifested to, those that have the necessary faith, at any place, as Baba has no partiality and his grace cannot be the monopoly of any person or place. Wonders are being worked by him today at various places and therefore Sai Mandirs have sprung up in many of them.
24. Baba, however, is not a mere worker of miracles. He is a Samartha Sadguru. He applies miracles or miraculous means to fill with faith and gratitude the hearts of devotees. Gratitude soon turns into love and then Baba’s real work is seen. Baba purifies the hearts of all of the dross of low attachments and their consequences, and gradually raises the devotees’ souls to loftier and still loftier states of being, till they finally merge into himself. People begin with the notion that Baba is a kind provider of all that they need and in fact resort to him to have their temporal needs satisfied. But they discover (at least many do) that Baba is after all their Ishtamurthi, their own Rama or Siva, the God of their fathers who has now taken a new shape to carry out the ancient divine plan of the Universe, and that ‘God fulfils himself in many ways lest one good custom should corrupt the world’.
25. The question is often asked whether Baba was a Hindu or Moslem. The first remark to make about this question is that the cause for this question should be looked into before it is answered. There is a strong feeling on the part of the Hindus that they should not go near a Moslem whose views run counter to their cherished ideas, and who would destroy their religious emblems and idols. Similar is the repugnance on the part of the Moslems to accept purely Hindu traditions which they consider too idolatrous and unholy. When we come to take an impartial view, we find, whether we are Hindus or Moslems, that the above question is irrelevant or of very little importance. First about the irrelevancy. The Sufi and the Orthodox Hindu, both agree that when a person has reached perfection, i.e., the level of Brahman, the question of caste does not arise at all. Caste (or ‘Jathi’ as it is called in vernacular) refers to that which has born and that which has ‘janma’. The self-realiser who is identical with God is not born though his body was born. But the body is not ‘he’ and there is no need to go into the question as to whether the body arose from parents who were Hindus or Moslems, or was trained and brought up among 3ither of them. Sri Sankara’s well-known phrase about the realized soul is ‘Jati Niti Kula Gotra duuragam’ - that it is far above questions of caste, family clan, etc., and Sankara’s Manisha Panchaka repeatedly closes with the line, ‘Chandaalostu Dwijostu sadgururityeshau manaishaa mama’ - ‘Let him be a chandala or Brahmin, he (the realized soul) is my Guru’. What does it matter whether the Kohinoor is lying on a dung hill or in a palace! The Sufis too have exactly the same view as regards these distinctions. However, the reason for raising the question is a strong feeling regarding the necessity of protecting one’s own religious sentiments adequately from being harassed violently by a person of an opposite sect. On this matter, it may be pointed out that whether Baba was a Hindu or a Moslem, he allowed every sect to keep to its own method of approaching God. To Hindus, he said: ‘Continue your Rama worship, and worship the stones which your forefathers worshipped’. He even presented some lingams, silver padukas, pictures and coins for worship by Hindus. To Moslems, he never gave any of these but allowed them to follow their nirakara (formless) form of worship as far as it is possible. So the real cause for raising the question about one being a Hindu or Moslem does not arise in this case on account of the extreme catholicity of Baba’s views and practice. But prejudices die hard and in spite of all that is said, persons still hanker to know whether Baba was a Hindu or a Moslem. It may be pointed out that though his original antecedents were unknown, his continued residence for about 50 years in a mosque was considered a sufficient reason for most people to consider him to be a Moslem. There is a Tamil proverb that if one drinks anything, even milk, under a Palmyra tree, he will be taken to have drunk toddy.
26. Let us examine the real facts. Baba’s antecedents as mentioned already were revealed by himself. Even after they are fully considered, still the question must be deemed doubtful whether he was a Hindu or a Moslem. But (Janma or Jathi) by actual birth, he was of Brahmin parents, and hence by a very large number of persons, he is considered to be a Brahmin. But according to Baba’s own statement, he was handed over in his very infancy to a fakir who brought him up for about five years according to Islamic faith. After the death of the fakir, Baba was handed over to a Brahmin Guru by name Sri Gopal Rao Deshmukh of ‘Venkusa’. The stay of ten years under this Guru and the marvelous initiation into divinity by the Guru’s purna kripa, ought to clear all doubts, and establish that Baba was Brahmin or at least a Brahmin. But as fate would have it, the Guru after conferring upon Baba his purnakripa and raising him to divinity, directed him to go westwards and Baba had to spend the rest of his life in a mosque moving with all alike as an ativarnasrami, i.e., one beyond all caste rules. We do not know what an expert lawyer would conclude as to Baba’s caste in these circumstances. But whatever that may be, to those who considered him a Moslem, he responded as a Moslem and to those who cared to treat him as a Hindu, he responded as a Hindu; and he expounded the Koran to the former and the Sastras to the latter. By the Hindus, he has been worshipped as Ramavatara or Sriman Narayana for so many decades while others treated him as merely human. This reminds us of an incident about Krishna. When Sri Krishna went with Balarama and others to a yagasala and wanted food, the Brahmins were wondering whether they could offer the food prepared for gods to Krishna, who appeared to have been born in a Kshatriya family but brought up among (Vysias) cowherds. He was regarded as God by many, but the Brahmins were doubtful about his caste. By reason of their ignorance (ajanna) they offered no food at all to Krishna. Then Sri Krishna sent word to the ladies, who ran up all at once with great devotion and gave up all that they had prepared for the Gods to him whom they considered as the God of Gods. Exactly the same thing happens now. Persons whose pious leanings render they easily attracted to such great souls as Baba run up to Baba and never bother their heads over questions of his Jathi or caste, and like the Brahmin ladies, deserved and obtain the highest blessings while many doubting Thomasses (samscyatmas) even of the highest castes, go on debating endlessly about the question of the caste to which a holy man belongs and lose their chance of benefiting themselves here and hereafter. It depends a great deal upon once’s poorva sambanda or rinanubhanda whether one is attracted by Sri Krishna or Sri Sai; it may be noted that persons wish to discuss this question of caste only when their feelings have not been roused. But when one is in intense pain or great trouble, his heart leaps out with the request, ‘Baba, help me’, never minding a brass pin as to where Baba was born or how he was brought up; and once he receives innumerable and miraculous benefits, he gets perfectly convinced that Baba is God to him, whatever he may be to others and he cares not for discussions as to the legal position regarding Baba’s caste. Baba himself used to say at times to such Hindus as considered him a Moslem: “I am a Moslem, don’t come to me” and to persons who regarded him as Sad Guru or Guru-God: ‘I am a Brahmin. Give me dakshina. This place wherein I am sitting is not a mosque; it is a Brahmin’s mosque; it is Dwaraka Mayee’. He was everything to everyone.{Ye yatha maam prapadyante, thaamsthathaiva bhajaamyaham’ - Gita}.
27. Apart from Baba’s caste, some persons raise the question whether he was a Brahmagnani and if so how he happened to perform miracles. Persons who raise such curious doubts would do well to analyse their own question and find out its implications. Can it be very seriously contended that he who performs miracles must be an agnani? Will Sri Krishna and Sankara be labeled agnanis by these people? If these people analyse their own minds, they will discover the reason fro their doubts. Spiritual aspirants (sadhakas) are often decidedly to lose by attending to the thaumaturgic powers or siddhis derived from their sadhana and many Gurus have warned their devotees from hankering after siddhis. It is also pointed out by such gurus that there is a waste of accumulated powers in the exhibition of siddhis and the performance of siddhis is generally attended with the danger of increasing one’s passions especially the rajas and tamas, which are embedded in one’s nature. But can these objections ever arise in the case of one like Sai Baba? The differences between miracle-mongers and souls like Sri Krishna and Sai Baba are these. Firstly, in the case of the latter, power arises not by the repetition of mantras or by the adoption of tantras, but simply as part and parcel of their divine nature. Secondly, these high souls have no hankering for the results of the siddhis. They do not ask for recompense, nor do they try to attain ulterior aims of their by having recourse to siddhis. Thirdly, the siddhi power, being part of their nature, does not exhaust itself by any number of miracles. Fourthly, they are prompted by pure love, karuna and their employment of powers is a means for achieving the highest temporal or spiritual ends for themselves and others. None of these statements will apply to miracle mongers.
28. In this short introduction we cannot possibly give even a very rough outline of the various activities of Baba. It is enough to say that he was a Pramagnani and Samartha sadguru. A guru is one that teaches; a sadguru is one that teaches and draws one to God; a samartha Sadguru is one who draws people to God employing all his siddhis and other high powers for the purpose. It is not all gnanis who have realized God that perform these miracles or chamatkars. It is not the dehaprarabdha of several gnanis to exhibit any such power or to assume the role of samartha sadguru, while it is the dehaprarabdha of others to serve humanity as such samartha sadgurus and exhibit such powers. No comparison ought to be made about these two sets of gnanis. Baba ought not to be compared with any other guru. Comparisons are always odious and hardly necessary for the benefit of any aspirant. If any person feels drawn to Baba by learning about Baba’s qualities and activities either from one’s own experience or of others well -known to him, he may at once proceed to have further contact with Baba and get the fullest benefit of such contact. There is no need for him to worry as to how Baba is to be classed - as an Avatar or Avalia, Devatatma or Alwar, etc. One may simply feel the taste of sugar and use it without raising the questions to whether it is derived from beetroot, sugarcane or Palmyra juice. No wise men ever worry about such matters. They do not attempt to classify various gnanis. We must all be always humble in our approach to God and divine persons. Any other attitude will simply thwart our endeavors to reach divinity or to attain the highest benefit by spiritual exercise.
29. We may very well close this short pamphlet with the practical question (1) what are the benefits that Baba can confer? And (2) what has one to do in order to obtain these benefits? The first may be met by a counter question. What benefits does one expect when he is approaching Baba? Are they temporal or spiritual? Whatever they may be, there is no benefit that is beyond the power of Baba to confer. He is worshipped every day with phrases like ‘All-powerful’ (sarva sakthi murthaye namah) etc., and the experience of devotees proves that he is able to confer benefits of every sort - curing disease, both physical and mental, giving relief to departing and departed spirits and to those who are suffering from obsessions or infirmities, removing domestic troubles, etc.
30. One more word about these labels and comparisons. People are sometimes unconsciously assuming to themselves ability to judge of all grades of spiritual nature and power and say that Krishna is superior to Rama, Budda is superior to Chaitanya, etc., and cause irritation to others and confusion in their own minds. If we find the water in one creek or bay saltish, should we say this creek or bay is superior or inferior to the ocean? God is one. Divinity manifests itself in innumerable places and ways and according to the needs of the times, and each god-man does the work of alleviating man’s miseries and raising him upward. When the question is asked, why should one give up his Siva or Rama worship and go to Sai, the answer is that there is no need. If one feels Sai is different from Rama or other Ishta Devata and that the latter serves all the purposes of the Devotees, if one is thus satisfied and contented, Sai Baba has never asked and does not ask such a person to change his position. Baba is highly conservative and wants each man to stick to his religion, caste, guru. Ishta Devata, Idol, mantras and sampradaya. It is only if one feels that he is still left with a desire for further benefits which his customary contact with his Ishtamurthi, guru, mantras, etc., does not acquire for him, and if he is disposed to place faith in Baba’s powers to grant these or other benefits, that Baba allows or directs him to come to his feet. Baba does not interfere with his loyalties. Faith in Baba is added on to the old loyalties. That faith works miraculous benefits and tends to strengthen itself. Gratitude and love follow faith and the resultant benefits. Through these, Baba purifies the heart and draws the devotee higher and higher up the spiritual ladder. That man who came for worldly goods finds his desires purified, his mentality changed and thinks more and better of Baba till at last, finding that Baba is only one of the numerous names and forms assumed by God, resigns himself to Baba. He then realizes the absurdity of instituting comparisons between Sai and other names or forms and of asking why one should go to Sai. It is only those who are specially blessed by poorvakarma that can be drawn by each of these personalities, and when so drawn no question arises, and all doubts are driven off. One huge wave of faith, love and knowledge drowns the soul and draws it to the feet of God, in Sai form and in all forms.
31. What are we to do to obtain our desired ends with the help of Baba? There are some who raise questions even preliminary to this. Is it not better not to desire at all? Is it not degrading to go on praying or asking for this or that? To persons who really care for nothing i.e., to advanced Viraktas, this question really will not arise. They are not compelled or induced to go to Sai Baba. See Bhagavatha - ‘Nirgrantinopi.. Iththam bhutha guno Harih’ - i.e., viraktas are attracted by the nishkamya leelas of the Lord. Sai Baba’s leelas were purely unmotivated by desire. His whole life in the flesh was one continuous self-sacrifice for the sake of humanity. In serving Man, he was serving God; and he advised his devotees to do the same.
32. Undoubtedly it is better not to desire than to have desires and to seek their gratification through the help of Sai Baba etc. But how many are there who can calmly reason thus and find power to crush the roots of desire in their hearts? If there are any such among the readers, they are not asked to seek Baba’s help or God’s help, if that is different, to attain any objects. Even the desire for mukti - liberation - is a desire; and even to attain that, people pray and seek the aid of experts, i.e., sages who know the way to liberation and who are gracious enough to extend their help to those who seek help.
33. The vast majority want benefits, temporal and spiritual, temporal first and then spiritual. The body and its adjuncts, a family. Etc., have to be maintained with sufficient provision for health and some degree of comfort before people can think of spiritual things. Sai Baba may be approached by all who feel the need for this urgent help. The more impassioned their appeal, the more faith they have in Baba, the quicker will be the results, other things being the same. To these we may suggest the ways and means of contacting Baba.
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