SHIRADI
SAI BABA – A GREAT SEER OF INDIA
Sai Baba of
Shirdi or Shirdi
Sai Baba (circa 1838
- October
15, 1918), (real
name, birth place, and date of birth unknown), He was a born in a Brahmin family
and was an Indian guru, yogi and fakir, who is
regarded by his Hindu
and Muslim
followers as a saint.
Some of his Hindu followers believe that he was an Avatar of Shiva, Dattatreya,
a satguru and
the next incarnation of Kabir.
In his life and
teachings he tried to embrace and reconcile both faiths: Sai Baba lived in a mosque, was buried
in a Hindu temple,
embraced Hindu and Muslim practices, and taught using words and figures that
drew from both traditions. One of his well known epigrams says of God: "Allah Malik"
("God is King [Lord]").
Sai Baba taught a
moral code of love, forgiveness, helping others, charity, contentment, inner peace,
devotion to God and guru. His philosophy was Advaita
Vedanta and his teachings had elements both of this school as well as of bhakti and Islam.
Some disciples of
Sai of Shirdi have received fame as spiritual figures and saints.
Sai Baba is also
one of the most popular of Indian saints (worshipped mainly in Maharashtra,
southern Gujarat
and Andhra
Pradesh) and revered by several notable Hindu, Sufi and Zoroastrian
religious leaders.
Rising above religion, Shirdi
Sai Baba, the Indian sage preached simple moral and spiritual laws. While his
message appeals to many in this age of complexity, others take refuge in him
because of his promise to help devotees in times of crisis
A fakir in a tattered kafni (long robe) who begged for alms till his
last day. Who founded no religion or sect, developed no trademark spiritual
philosophy or system of practices, started no movement, initiated not a single
disciple, left behind no apostles. Who breathed his last eight long decades ago
and about whom very few had heard till the 1960s.
Today, he has millions of devotees in India and other parts of the world. Shirdi,
the obscure village in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, in India, has become
a pilgrimage destination much as Bethlehem, Jerusalem or Varanasi. The number
of pilgrims go there average 25,000 a day and can climb to over a hundred
thousand on holidays and festival days. They belong to every strata of society
and all religions, and include politicians, film stars and rich businessmen. By
conservative estimates, there are over 2,000 major Sai temples in
different parts of India and 150 abroad in places as far-flung as Canada and
Kenya, Singapore and England.
Significantly, all these temples have been constructed and consecrated by local
initiative. Indeed, the growing Sai phenomenon is not
orchestrated by a central organization, though there is the Sri Sai Baba
Sansthan, which manages the affairs at Shirdi.
The Shirdi phenomenon defies easy explanation. It perhaps owes
itself to the will of Baba himself, who is considered an avatar of no
less than the Almighty.
More specifically, he has been called an incarnation of Shiva and Dattatreya (the triune
Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva deity worshipped in Maharashtra) and is said to appear to
devotees as their deity: Jesus Christ, Rama or Krishna (Vitthala).
Scholars and devotees verily associate him with the Nath tradition of
great yogis as well as poet-saints of the Bhakti movement,
particularly Kabir,
who decried ritualism and preached the transcendence of caste and creed
differences.
In her Ph.D. thesis from the Toronto University, soon to be published as a
book, Marianne Warren argues that Shirdi Sai Baba was an aulia,
Sufi mystic and saint. Meher Baba, Sai Baba's contemporary based near Shirdi,
had given him the Sufi honorific of Hazrat and placed him at the head of a
spiritual hierarchy of five perfect masters on a spiritual mission.
Practically speaking, Sai Baba's appeal lies in the experiences of
innumerable devotees that prayers to him yield tangible worldly results, as
well as in the more esoteric areas of transformation of character and spiritual
benefits. Yet, most people approached the Baba during his lifetime for
material, not spiritual, gain. And Shubha Verma, a Hindi journalist-turned-Baba
devotee, says it remains the case till date.
Baba's mission was, however, to restore belief in god. As he himself said:
"I give people what they want in the hope that they will begin to want
what I want to give them (knowledge of the Ultimate)."
Shirdi Sai Baba in the view
of major world religions
Hinduism
During Sai Baba's
life a Hindu saint - Anandanath of Yewala declared Sai Baba a
"[spiritual] diamond".[29]
Another saint - Gangagir called him a "[spiritual] jewel".[30]
Sri Beedkar Maharaj greatly revered Sai Baba,
and in 1873, when he
met him he bestowed the title Jagatguru upon him.[31][32]
Sai Baba was also greatly respected by Sri Vasudevananda Saraswati (known as Sri Tembye Swami).[33]
Sai of Shirdi was also revered by a group of Shaivic yogis,
to which he belonged, known as the Nath-Panchayat.[34]
Swami Kaleshwar
publicly worships Sai Baba, and treats him as a great saint and his own guru.[35]
Sathya Sai Baba considers him to be an Avatar and his
previous reincarnation.[36]
Other religions
In Islamic culture
the person of Sai Baba appears mainly in Sufism. Meher Baba declared Sai Baba a
Qutub-e-Irshad - the best of the five Qutubs.[37]
Sai Baba is even
worshipped by several Zoroastrian religious leaders. One of them is Nani Palkiwalla. Another notable Zoroastrian Sai
devotee is Homi P. Dadi-Barjor (a scientist). Sai Baba of Shirdi is believed to
be the non-Zoroastrian whose worship attracts most attention of the
Zoroastrians.[38]
Brief
Life Story
Shirdi Sai Baba was born in Pathri village in
Maharasthra State in 1835 or 1838, to a poor Hindu couple. The mother was a
very pious woman who received a boon from a real-life vision of the Goddess
Parvati and her consort Shiva. She was blessed to give birth to a divine child.
His divine birth generated such effulgence and surge of dispassionate into his
parents, they lost all interest in material life. The father intended to leave
the family for his spiritual quest but his wife prepared to follow. In an
extreme [and rather foolish] decision and probably much due to fate, the
newborn was abandoned and left by the roadside. A childless Muslim Fakir and
his wife found the child and took him home as their own. The fakir passed away
in due time and the fakir's wife who had great affection for the child brought
him up. Avataars are revolutionaries and always aware of their mission; the
four year old child created an upstir in the community by praising Allah in the
local Hindu temples and sing Hindi bhajans in mosques. One of Shirdi Sai Baba's
main tasks was to unite the animosity that was common between the Hindu and
Muslim community during his time. He would switch roles between being a Hindu
and a Muslim on many occasions in his life, always causing discussions as to
his real origin. Afraid of the consequences and not wanting to be dragged into
disputes, after four years the child was handed over to a local philosopher in
1839 - Gopal
Rao Deshmukh (Venkusa) - and was brought up under his care for 12 years.
Venkusa was no ordinary person but a great saint.
Shirdi Baba stayed with Venkusa until the age of 16 and
thereafter left to wander. He ended up in Shirdi village, where he began to
live under a particular neem tree. According to some data Shirdi had claimed
that his former guru (from a past birth) was burried under the tree. Baba had
also told devotees much later in life that he had lived as the poet saint Kabir
(15th century).
Shirdi Baba, who was officially nameless until the age of 20-21, suddenly
disappeared from Shirdi for three years. He was brought back to Shirdi by
Chandhubhai Patel in 1858 when Patel was searching for a missing horse
belonging to him. Baba helped Patel to locate the horse through his
supernatural abilities and Patel begged the Baba to accompany him to Shirdi. It
is mainly from Patel's encounter with Shirdi Baba in 1858 onwards that the
recorded reports contained in the Shri Sai Satcharitra begins while little is
known of Shirdi Baba's life prior to that. In modern days there is often an
impression given that the lives of saints like Shirdi Baba was always well
received by the people. This is not fully true. Sri Shirdi Sai Baba was a
temperamental personality and like so many saints throughout history he was
viewed as rather 'mad' by his surrounding until he was more known. He lived as
a very poor mendicant, often walking rounds begging for food and for oil to his
singular small oil-lamp. He was often the source of pranks by those around him
who were unable to see his true nature. Shirdi Sai Baba became accepted as a
great saint on a broad scale after his mahasamadhi and particularly, after the
Shri Sai Satcharita was compiled and the people began to hear stories of his
greatness. His actual divine qualities were recognized by fairly few people
during his own lifetime.
The Shri Sai Satcharita was compiled many years after
Shirdi Sai Baba's passing (Mahasamadhi). According to Sathya Sai Baba some of
the stories are slightly altered because by that time they were written down
from memory. Many of the individuals who had contributed their stories to the
Sai Satcharitra had forgotten finer details of dates and observations as they
kept no diary.
Herein below you find the actual Satcharita in English
chapter-wise:
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SAI-SATCHARITRA |
Note:
This work is an electronic version of Shri Sai Satcharitra by Shri N.V.Gunaji
which was adapted from the Original Marathi Book by Shri Hemadpant. (The book
is titled in english Shri Sai Satcharitra where as the original work is Shri
Sai Satcharita.)
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Reference: http://www.saibaba.org/saisatc.html
Click
here for Golden Words of Sai baba__________________
_______________________The End___________________