http://www.lordmeher.org/index.jsp?pageBase=page.jsp&nextPage=62SAI BABA, THE FAKIR OF ALLAH
This ascetic beggar was most often referred to as "fakir." Once, a naked child stood before this fakir, who innocently asked the mother, "Daughter, is it a boy or a girl?" Such was this fakir's innocence, he would often appear quite ignorant of such things.
This fakir's behavior was not normal, to say the least. It was considered hypocrisy and slanderous for a fakir to extract money from people. However, people did not mind giving their money to this particular fakir who gave it all to the poor. They had faith in him and gave him whatever he asked, and they considered themselves blessed if he asked for something from them.
People would hear him say, "I only ask those whom the Fakir points out. In exchange I have to give them ten times what they give me." The Fakir he spoke of was none other than Almighty God.
Why would people journey hundreds of miles from all over the Indian subcontinent to see him? It was because of his eyes! The eyes of this fakir were said to be light! Some would say, "Those eyes! ... His eyes shine with more brilliance than the sun! ... They are magnetic! ... His eyes must be made of light!" However one described them, it was those eyes that eventually attracted thousands to him. Upon looking into his eyes one would bow in worship at his feet.
Hidden in this extraordinary fakir was the Qutub-e-Irshad of the past age. This fakir was the head of the spiritual hierarchy and the leading Perfect Master of his time. He who held the key to all worlds and universes in his very hands appeared as a ragged beggar in a small village called Shirdi. In this beggar's hands the conflicting forces of the world's turmoil and the throes of the universes were kept balanced! It may be difficult for a worldly-minded materialist to believe this, but it is a spiritual fact. If people were told this peculiar holy man was responsible for conducting or controlling the First World War, they would say it was ridiculous. But in the inner realms of spiritual realities, the Qutubs or Sadgurus are the Masters of the universe and nothing ever happens without their divine ordinance.
The beggar's appearance was most deceiving. He was the mightiest king in heaven or on earth, but he did not care if people saw him merely as a beggar. Now the sun of his divinity has shed its light. He has done his duty; one must do his. To understand him one must care to know – he who cares gains because of knowing him.
Without becoming a fakir, one can never fathom such a Master's life. Whatever he reveals to the world is just a few rays of his light. And so the true story of every Perfect One cannot be known in detail. That fakir, of whom the world has come to know, never even allowed his fellow man to know his family or childhood name. Our age has named him "Sai," which means "the Lord," or "the Holy One."
Nothing is definitely known about his birth. Some believe that Sai was born into a Brahmin family, that his parents died and he was then raised by a Muslim ascetic. Some believe, however, that he was born in a Mohammedan family, and most biographers agree with this belief. Whatever the circumstances of his birth and childhood, they are lost as facts. One must concern oneself with Sai the Master, not the man, in whose eyes all are one.
It is said that Sai was born in 1838 in Sailu village in the Jintur district of India. But other, more recent evidence points to his birthplace as being in Pathri village in the Parbhani district, and also it is said that his childhood was spent near Aurangabad in Maharashtra. One known fact, however, is that his parents were very, very poor. After his father's death when he was still a young child, his mother was forced by circumstances to resort to begging for their maintenance.
One might well wonder what sort of drama this was. He who was destined to be the Lord of the universe had to spend his childhood among the destitute, the homeless, begging on the streets. What an unfathomable design by God! The man through whom the world's destiny was to be guided was brought up in most pitiable destitution.
Our Age heard the young boy cry, "Mother walk slowly. I cannot go faster ... I cannot go on." And the mother lifted the boy in her arms with tears in her eyes. "Mother, I am hungry ... When will someone kind give us food?"
And his mother whispered, "Son, have patience. God is merciful. There is a village not far away where we will find bread."
Sensing his mother's plight, the boy said, "Mother, I do not feel hungry anymore ... I feel like walking now." He slipped down from her grasp and, though tired and weak, slowly walked behind her.
In this manner, for five years mother and son wandered from door to door, from village to village. With his sweet conversation, the boy kept his mother cheerfully distracted. Never again did the boy ask his mother for food or comfort. Blisters painfully tormented the soles of his feet until they toughened like leather, as they walked on and on. The mother did not know where they were going. They begged, they moved on to survive.
Mercy is always hidden in the apparent terribleness of God. Fate is a paradoxical mystery: the cruelty of God is in some way His mercy! No one can escape His compassion whatever the circumstances. God's nature is mercy, and He is mercy itself. In His eyes, no one is helpless and without hope. But only those who become God fathom this mystery.
Although mother and son were suffering in the eyes of the world, one cannot imagine what the five-year-old boy was about to receive. After knocking on door after door in the village of Shelwadi and being turned away empty-handed, the mother and son wandered to the door of a blind man who took them in. But this blind man was a saint!
GOPAL RAO DESHMUKH was a famous Hindu saint in the area, and he embraced the boy so ardently, it was as if after years of separation two old friends had been reunited once again. Indeed, the saint had been waiting for this woman and boy, and with great respect and love prepared a room in his own house for them to live with him permanently. There was nothing in the blind saint's house – no furniture or decorations – except a large life-sized statue of Vyankatesh – Lord Vishnu – which he would worship day and night.
The saint's father was named Keshav Pant. Although a poor Hindu, Keshav was very religious or devout and was the root of Gopal Rao's spirituality. From childhood, inspired by his father, the flame of spirituality burned deeply in his heart. When it became time for Gopal Rao to earn his livelihood, he had failed to find a job in his birthplace of Jamb, and so he had moved to Shelwadi. After he had lived in Shelwadi for some years, the local townspeople looked upon him with reverence. Although still a poor man himself, whatever he had he would share with others more unfortunate and nurse the afflicted. In token of his selfless service, the town officials granted him a piece of land on which to live and grow food.
SOON AFTER Gopal Rao's death, the young man left Shelwadi and sought seclusion in a forest. One day, a man named Chand Patil was passing through the forest when he came upon the young fakir seated under a tree. Without any introduction, the young man asked Chand Patil, "Have you lost two horses?"
Startled, the man replied, "Yes, but I have been unable to find them."
"Go to a nearby stream," said the young fakir, "and you will find them there." Chand left and was happily surprised to find them exactly where the young ascetic had indicated.
When Chand returned to thank the fakir, he saw the youth filling his chilum with tobacco. Anxious to light the pipe for the fakir, Chand realized that he did not have any matches. The young man waved him away and, thrusting a stick in the ground, unearthed a piece of burning charcoal and held it to his pipe. This remarkable feat convinced Chand Patil that the young fakir was "someone great and holy." He requested the young man to accompany him to the village of Shirdi, where he was journeying to attend his nephew's wedding, and the fakir agreed to join him.
Shirdi was not a big or famous town then. The entire village turned out to welcome the visitors, little knowing what a distinguished guest they had among them. As the wedding procession passed by the Khandoba temple, a Hindu priest named Bhagat Malsapati caught sight of the young fakir and called out for the first time the words, "Hah Sai, hah!" – "Welcome, Lord, welcome!" From that day on, the young fakir of only sixteen whose name no one really knows, came to be known as Sai.
The young fakir did not remain in Shirdi long, however, and began his wandering from place to place in Maharashtra, begging along the way. Finally, he wandered among the hills surrounding the ancient Ellora caves at Aurangabad, where he entered a small cave atop a hill in Khuldabad.
At the bottom of this hill is the tomb of the Sufi Qutub Zarzari Bakhsh. This Qutub's tomb has been a favorite spot of Mohammedan pilgrims in the area for over seven hundred years. Zarzari Bakhsh was the Master of Sai in a previous lifetime as a Sufi. Sai, inwardly drawn to be near his former Master, entered a cave overlooking the tomb. Sai became God-Realized during this period and stayed in this cave for several years in the state of majzoobiyat, never leaving the cave for food or water.
During these years the strong healthy physique of the young fakir turned into a living skeleton. The skeleton, however, had infinite light – as if Sai's flesh and bones had been transformed into light! But this emaciated fakir had lost his gross consciousness. He now had the body of a mature man, but he was a man who had no bodily consciousness! He had become a God-Realized majzoob. Sai was fully conscious of himself as God – "Anal Haq" – but for over four years was completely oblivious of his own human body and the world around him. Yes it was necessary for Sai to leave that cave; he needed to regain his gross awareness to be able to fulfill his destiny – to wipe away the tears of our Age – to bring the Ancient One into form.
When Sai finally left the cave, he was emaciated – a living skeleton. Inwardly drawn by the power of another Perfect Master, he wandered east to meet the Swami of Akalkot, and by this Hindu Sadguru's grace Sai regained normal human consciousness. In this village of Akalkot, in the mountainous range of Ajanta, the fakir had now become Sai – a Lord of the universe – a living Perfect Master – and his divine work on earth began. He was twenty years old.
SAI WANDERED back to Shirdi in 1858 and there he stayed, making this humble village his permanent headquarters. At first, it seemed as if a new fakir had made his residence in Shirdi; he kept aloof from the villagers, spending his nights under a neem tree in all seasons. His bodily needs were minimal; whatever food or tobacco he wanted he begged for. The fakir preferred to be alone and he made this known to anyone who invaded his solitude. It appeared he disliked the villagers.
After living for some months under the neem tree, Sai moved into a small tin shed which served as the local mosque in this poor village. Sai renamed the mosque "Dwarkamai Masjid" – the mosque of the Mother of Mercy. Here two men began
faithfully serving him, one the Hindu priest, Malsapati, who named him "Sai," and another named Tatya Kote. Many of the villagers would sarcastically refer to them as "the trio of the Masjid."
At that time, Shirdi was a quiet farming village, but some years after Sai settled there, plague swept through the area and scores of persons died. The district officials tried everything to alleviate the epidemic, but nothing helped. Eventually some people approached Sai, narrating their tales of woe and pleading with him to help before the entire population of Shirdi was wiped out.
The fakir was moved by their stories and went to a nearby house, picked up a millstone, then returned to the Mother of Mercy mosque and started grinding wheat. Collecting the flour, he gave it to a woman with instructions to sprinkle it along the boundaries of the village. The woman willingly did as she was told and, within a short time, to everybody's relief the epidemic started to subside. Patients recovered and Shirdi was completely free from the fatal effects of the plague.
On frequent occasion, invalids and the diseased from the surrounding villages would come to the fakir, who treated them with medicinal herbs. Afterward, he would sit with these afflicted ones, listening to the devotional music they would sing. Each person was attracted to him for one reason – the light in his eyes!
The Perfect Masters are all unique. If there was a physical characteristic that set him above other men it was his eyes. The eyes of this Perfect One were so luminous with such power and deep penetration in his gaze that no one could look into them for long. One felt that he was reading one through and through, that nothing could be kept secret from that gaze. Once those eyes beheld one, that look was never forgotten. After seeing his face and eyes, people could only bow to him in worship as their Lord.
Sai Baba begged for his food every day; usually he would beg for only bread at five different houses in Shirdi. At each doorstep he would call out, "Mother, give me bhakri," or "Mother, give me roti." He continued begging up to his last days in 1918. Sai ate only one or two of the breads himself, distributing the rest to the poor.
Sai Baba had several strange personal habits, besides being a heavy smoker. While begging, he would often stop along the way – in secluded places or amidst a teeming bazaar – and unabashedly lift his dhoti to urinate, and after finishing, he always shook his penis seven times before he would continue on with his begging. Seeing him behave in this uncouth manner, some of the villagers at first took him to be mad – not holy.
Sai Baba would also take hours to relieve his bowels. As the number of devotees increased, this act of attending to nature's call was actually transformed into a ceremony of pomp and adoration. The ceremony that became the moving of his bowels Sai would call "lendi." He would go to defecate every day at a fixed time, usually late morning in a nearby field, followed by a parade of devotees – some playing musical instruments.
Yet this lendi-ceremony held a spiritual mystery. Sai Baba once explained, "While I pass my stool, I direct my abdals – spiritual agents on the inner planes – about their duties to the world. I call upon them through the sound of the music during the parade."
Once in a glorious state he declared his divine state:
"I am the Attributeless One – the Absolute!
The universe is my abode.
Brahma is my father
and Maya is my mother.
By their interlocking, I got this body.
Those who think I reside at Shirdi
do not know the real Sai,
for I am formless and everywhere!"
At another time, Sai Baba declared his divinity:
"I am God. I am Mahalaxmi,
I am Vithoba ...
Ganesha ...
Dattatrey ...
I am Narayan ...
Why do you go to the Ganges River in Benares?
Hold your palm at my feet –
here flows the Ganges!"
SAI BABA was a ghous type of spiritual personality. This ghous type of Master is rare. Once a man went to the mosque where Sai Baba slept and found the physical limbs of the Master's body lying separated on the floor! In one corner was the Master's hands and arms, in another corner his legs and feet, and in another corner his head! Every limb was separated from the torso! The poor man was aghast. Terrified, he thought of notifying the village police that the fakir had been murdered – hacked to pieces. But he feared that the police might implicate him in the crime, and so he went home out of his wits as to what to do. The next morning the disturbed man anxiously went to the mosque. To his shocked surprise he found Sai Baba alive, giving a discourse to some of his devotees, and he wondered if what he had seen the previous evening had been a nightmarish dream. The man did not know about this rare characteristic of the fakir. At times, for their inner work, Perfect Ones enter the ghous state and parts of their physical body separate. When that particular phase of work is finished, their body automatically joins together again when they return to gross (bodily) consciousness.
There is another story of a man who witnessed Sai dismembering himself. The fakir always slept alone, and each night he entered the ghous state. It is said that Sai slept on a bed about six feet off the ground, but there was no ladder. Once when he had gone to retire to his room, a man quietly crept to the window to see Sai levitate to his bed. But he was aghast to see a body without arms, without legs and without a head! Instantly the man was blinded, and his blindness served as a source of repentance for the rest of his life.
Sai Baba was a person of great humor. He would often joke with his devotees and even poke fun at their weaknesses. However, until he died, he retained the austere ascetic life of a fakir. He would call God "poor" – a Fakir also. "Since God is poor I am poor."
He wore the same kafni (shirt) until it was so torn and tattered that one of his disciples had to forcibly remove it from him and give him a new one to wear. Even after that, Sai often sat with a needle and thread, patiently repairing it. This was the same garment given to him in his youth by Gopal Rao. Later, when it was completely in shreds, he sewed the pieces together and made a turban-kerchief which he wore around his head.
"My treasury is open. But none of you bring a cart to haul away the real treasure. Dig deep and take what is rightfully yours, but none of you want to take the trouble.
"I tell you, all who come to me, this opportunity will not return! I am the One, I am God!"
SAI BABA controlled World War I. When the Master would come from the mosque to the temple of Gopal Rao, his arti would be sung between these two buildings. At that time, when he was walking between the mosque and temple, a strange light would be seen on his face. It was also noticed that he would make strange signs in the air with his fingers. This behavior continued daily for four years, from the start of World War I to its conclusion.
During the war years, Sai Baba would often say: "I am formless and I am everywhere. I am not this body you call Sai.
"I am the Supreme Soul – the entire creation. I am everything and I am in everyone.
"I am in saints, criminals, animals, and everything else ... Nothing happens without my wish.
"My light is of God; my religion is Kabiri – Perfect Mastery – and my wealth lies in the blessings I alone can give."
Topic: Om Sai Ram (Read 2438 times)