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Sai Baba, a personification of
spiritual perfection and an epitome of compassion , lived in the little village
of Shirdi in the state of Maharashtra (India) for sixty years. Like most of the
perfect saints he left no authentic record of his birth and early life before
arriving at Shirdi. In fact, in the face of his spiritual brilliance such
queries do not have much relevance.
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All that we
definitely know of Sai Baba is that his arrival at Shirdi was anonymous. He
was first noticed in the outskirts of the village Shirdi, seated under a
‘neem’ (margosa) tree, about the year 1854. However, even this date is not
definitely noted. Sai Baba of these younger days remained a stranger staying
under the neem tree for some time and then suddenly he left Shirdi to come
back again sometime in 1858, and stayed on there till he left his gross body
in the year 1918.
The second
advent of Baba at Shirdi, around 1858 was interestingly quite different from
the first. This time he accompanied a wedding procession as guest of honor.
On the arrival at Shirdi, he was immediately recognized by someone as the
same anonymous saintly personality who used to be seated under the neem tree
a few years earlier and, greeted Him as "YA SAI" Welcome SAI !
In the early
days of his stay at Shirdi he spent his time either wandering in the
outskirts of village and neighboring thorny jungles or sitting under the
neem tree totally self absorbed. The first set of villagers who regarded
this saintly figure were Mhalsapati,
Tatya Kote,
Bayyaji Bai and few others. Bayyaji Bai felt deeply motivated by this Divine
Saint, and with her motherly instinct she used to walk miles on end into the
jungles in search of him, carrying food in a basket on her head. Often she
found Sai
Baba sitting
under some tree in deep meditation, calm and motionless. She would boldly
approach him, serve the meal and return home.
He donned a
long shirt – ‘Kafni’ and tied a cloth around his head, and twisted it into a
flowing plait like manner behind his left ear.He used a piece of sackcloth
for his seat and slept on it with a brick as his pillow. He always declared
that Fakiri (Holy poverty) was far superior to worldly richness. He was no
ordinary fakir but an ‘Avatar ’ (incarnation) of a very high order. But His
external appearance was of simple, illiterate, moody, emphatic – at times
fiery and abusive and at times full of compassion and love. In the moments
of towering rage people with him thought it was ungovernable rage. But his
anger never prevented his compassion dealing with the devotees. His anger
was evidently directed at unseen forces. He enacted all these simple traits
only to hide His real identity as the God incarnate. Under the cover of
simplicity He silently worked for the spiritual transformation and
liberation of innumerable souls – human beings and animals alike, who were
drawn to Him, by an unseen forces
Baba would
ask for ‘Dakshina’ (money offered with reverence to the ‘Guru’ or the
master) from some of those who came to see him. This was not because he
needed their money but for deeper significance, which the devotees realized
at, an appropriate time.
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Baba used to
freely distribute all the money that was received in the form of Dakshina to the
destitute, poor, sick and needy the very same day. This was one of Baba's
methods for testing out the devotees attachments to worthy things and
willingness to surrender.
He ploughed up the village common
land and raised a flower garden thereon, he watered the plants, carrying pots
full of water on his shoulders. In the later years he spent a few hours in this
Lendi garden which he himself had laid out in the early days.
He was the common man’s God. He
lived with them, he slept and ate with them. Baba had a keen sense of humour. He
shared a ‘chillum’ (clay pipe for smoking) indiscriminately with them to write
off the cast superiority and orthodoxy in their minds.
He had no pretensions of any kind
.He was always very playful in the presence of children. Baba used to feed the
fakirs and devotees and even cook for them.
The Dwarkamai of Sai Baba was
open to all, irrespective of caste, creed and religion. As the days passed
devotees from all walks of life started streaming into Shirdi. The village
Shirdi was fast assuming prominence. As the gifts and presentations flowed in,
the pomp and grandeur of Sai worship also increased. But Baba’s life of a fakir
remained calm, undisturbed, unaltered and there is the Saint’s spiritual glory.
He lived His divine mission
through His pure self in a human embodiment. The immense energy that was
manifest in the body of Sai was moving in a mysterious way, creating and
recreating itself every where beyond the comprehension of time and space.
This fountainhead of unsurpassed
spiritual glory shed His gross body on 15th October 1918. Every limb, every bone
and pore of his body was permeated with divine essence. Baba claimed that though
one day his physical body will not exist his remains will communicate with all
those who seek him with inner yearnings. His self-allotted labour of love in His
physical body was perhaps over. Today He continues to work ever vigorously as
the ‘Sai Spirit’.
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