SSaaii BBaabbaa TThhee MMaasstteerr BByy PPuujjyyaa AAcchhaarryyaa SSrrii EEkkkkiirraallaa BBhhaarraaddwwaajjaa.. INDEX Introduction 1. The Master Calls Me 2. Sri Sai Baba – A Sketch of His Life (I) 3. A Sketch of His Life (II) 4. The Call of The Guru 5. The Refuge of His Devotees 6. I am ever with you 7. The Guru Is All Gods 8. Sai Baba is in all Saints and Sadhus 9. Baba is all creatures and things 10. Baba’s Omniscience 11. Sai Baba’s Daily Life 12. Sai Baba The Man and The Master 13. The Master and His ways of Teaching 14. The God-man and Tradition 15. Sayings of Sai Baba 16. At the Threshold of Eternity 17. The Off-shoots of Sai Baba 18. The Tomb that Speaks and Moves 19. The Power of Satsang 20. The Harbinger of Grace 21. Sai Baba the Eternal Symbol 22. Appendix I to Appendix VI Sai Baba The Master By Pujya Acharya Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja. Sai Baba The Master By Pujya Acharya Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja Introduction I Man, in the first flush of scientific advancement, has considered religion to be a relic of superstition of primitive humanity. Today, the very advance of science has brought back the sense of awe and wonder at the immensity of the cosmos. Every step forward in science has made us aware how imperfect and tentative our knowledge has been, and is bound to be. The universe, with its mind-shattering dimensions, distances and speeds, down to the sub-atomic particles is basically a mystery. That our knowledge should be incomplete can be easily understood: If the entire history of life on earth be equated to a hundred years, man’s history occupies about a hundred minutes and that of modern science, a mere two seconds. That our knowledge is bound to be imperfect and incomplete can also be understood: “We know nothing of the universe beyond the effects that its happening produce on our senses, either directly or through the intervention of instruments,” says Sir James Jeans. The sense organs register the various stimuli as vibrations and convey them to the brain. Our mind assembles its image of the external universe from them. The range of perception of our sense is very limited and there are bound to be vibrations which they cannot capture. Thus our experience of the universe is only a fraction of what it is; that too, a subjective projection of it. For we never can experience the source of even the vibrations that our senses gather. This brings us to our knowledge of ourselves. Psychologists tell us that we are aware of only a minute fraction of our psyche, our being, i.e., of our potential for knowledge. Ancient spiritual philosophy which underlies religions and is confirmed by all great saints has a lot to offer us in this realm. It tells us that while our common means of knowledge is the mind functioning outwards through the senses, perceiving the discreteness of things in nature, the introverted mind of the saint goes deep down to the spiritual core of our being and experiences the spiritual unity of all that is. The latter thus realizes that Reality is normally veiled by the very make and functioning of our senses and by our normal awareness which is conditioned by them. In the mystic experience, on the other hand, man recognizes his identity with the Reality of all existence. The common form of knowledge is knowledge of particular things and does not affect our being, while mystical experience is knowledge of the unity of all existence which alchemizes our being. It transcends the limitations of individuality and leads to profound bliss and ‘peace which passeth understanding’. The genuine spiritual experience of great mystics and even of some common individuals should enable us not to confuse their knowledge with the subjective delusions of deranged minds. The perfect blossoming of spiritual values in a genuine mystic, the peace and bliss he experiences and emanates are the promises which spiritual life holds out to humanity. Sai Baba The Master By Pujya Acharya Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja. II The significances of an accomplished mystic to religion is inestimable. All major religions sprang from the mystic experience of such - the Rishis of the Vedas and Upanishads; the Masters of Taoism, the Buddha, the Christ and prophet Mohammad. All religions are sustained too, from time to time, by the saints who demonstrate in their lives, the truth of the promise of religious life, that any mortal can realize the Spirit through genuine effort. The individual seekers too derive the true interpretation of the scriptures from the lives and teachings of such. Upanishads say that a disciplined seeker has to seek the guidance of a realized sage and Sri Krishna says the same in The Bhagavadgita (ch. iv : 34). The third of the three vows of Budhism, “Sangham Sharanam Gacchami”, affirms the need to seek the association of the wise. The Chirst says, “No one can come to the Father save through me”. He finds it so essential to spiritual life that he chooses to seek baptism from John the Baptist “for righteousness’ sake”. The esoteric school of Islam, Sufism, enjoins a seeker to resort to the Pir-O-Murshad. Even modern saints like Guru Nanak and Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa were divinely directed to Masters even at an advanced stage of sadhana. The point is driven home even more powerfully in world’s mythologies. In Hinduism, Lord Dattatreya is the Avatar that manifests Himself to awaken and lead mankind to the verities of spiritual life. It is he that reveals himself in all the world’s perfect masters of wisdom. The Budha and the Bodhisattvas are said to reincarnate for the same end. Every Christian saint had declared at the moment of realization that Christ lives in him and not he. Sai Baba of Shirdi has demonstrated that the One spirit of wisdom of all saints is He. Further, all the world’s mystical works say that association with a Master is of greater value than the study of scriptures. For the Master interprets the scriptures in a manner which is appropriate to his times and to the individual seekers and thus enables them to live up to the spirit (rather than the letter) of religion. III Yet it is hard to recognize genuine spiritual masters among the teeming half-baked ones with false claims. It is the latter class that make organized religion an odious mess that repels the cultured today. To help the common seekers to find genuine Masters, all religions have adopted some common means. Firstly, the lives and teachings of great masters bring into relief the hall marks of such a one. Some scriptures even clearly spell them as The Bhagavadgita does the qualities of a sthithaprajna, or one who is firmly established in wisdom. Even with this help, not all can discern a true Master, For there are several clever ones who can successfully deceive people - “wolves in the lamb’s coat”, as the Bible says. Here certain religious traditions have pointed to a higher law which can help. It is said that when the seeker is earnest in his efforts and ripe to receive the Master he is sure to arrive. The Bridegroom knocks and we have to be watchful. All that we can and ought to do lies in preparing to receive the Master. Sai Baba The Master By Pujya Acharya Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja. The most potent means of self-preparation is the devout and intelligent study of the lives and teachings of the great Masters. The Master is the bridge between the human and the Divine, objectively. When a seeker reads his life, the human in the seeker intuits and intuitively contacts the Divine in himself and the inner bridge is thus built. When the process is complete, his accomplishment is corroborated by the external contact with the Master and eventually, the external and the internal become one. The Master is thus within (as “the Kingdom of heaven” is) and without (as the Christ is) too. The Master and the seeker thus become one in the Spirit. In the earlier stages of such reading, the seeker is charmed by a vision, in the Master, of his own infinite spiritual potentialities being realized and is thus spurred on to zealous, optimistic endeavour. The infinite power and love of the Master grips the seeker’s heart in steadfast devotion. From the lay stage of craving for worldly good in prayer, he becomes a true seeker of the Divine which is Love and Bliss, for its own sake. Such a one would most willingly bear the cross of worldly suffering, his heart set on the goal, the end of all sorrow, and follow the Master. Let us remember that all true Hindu, Buddhists, Christians and Muslims are people who are drawn to true religion by the lives of the sages, the Buddhas, the Christ and the Prophet. This tradition is represented by the works, Sri Gurucharitra in Maharashtra (India), and by Periyapuranam in Tamilnadu. In ancient India The Gurugita and The Bhagavata were widely used for the purpose. The instances of readers who were divinely directed to their Masters by such study are legion. The most famous is the instance of young Venkataraman being galvanized into an ardent seeker by a study of The Periyapuranam and, after his subsequent Self-realization which can be traced to it, he became famous as Sri Ramana Maharshi. The immediate presence of a sage is a myriad times more effective than all of one’s own spiritual endeavours. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Sri Ramana Maharshi were emphatic about it. But such association is not possible for all to the needed extent. To one such, Sri Ramana Maharshi said, “Satsang is association with the Divine Reality which is eternal and omnipresent. To be aware of it at all times is satsang. Devout study of lives of those who are realized too can constitute satsang, or association with the enlightened ones.” To most of us, the study of the lives of perfect masters is even more effective. For human nature being such, even when we live with a sage, we tend to focus our attention more on his physical frame than on his realization which is the essence of it all. Even the apostles of Christ faltered when their boat was tossed by a storm and the Christ chid them as those of “little faith”. Arjuna confesses to such an error in regard to Krishna in The Bhagavadgita. But when we study the life of a Master, we unfalteringly focus our attention on the Supreme wisdom-in-action which is the Master. Thereby, we are trained to do the same when we eventually contact a living Master, as it happened in the case of Sai Baba; or our contact with the Master might remain at a purely spiritual level and alchemise us, as happened in the case of Sri Ramana Maharshi. For when a devotee asked the sage how he happened to realize without the help of a guru, he said that he too had one, though not in the form which the devotee expected. Sai Baba The Master By Pujya Acharya Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja. IV In this context, the life of Sri Sai Baba of Shirdi, I feel, is unique. He does not merely teach about the omnipresent Spirit. Indeed, his verbal teaching is minimal. For there are scriptures galore to do that. But mere verbal teaching cannot strike deep root in the hearts of common folk. Sri Sai Baba has therefore taught through direct experiences. He baptized mostly through the Holy Ghost. He showed unerring, at-one-ment with all gods of Hindus, all saints, all creatures and even with so-called inanimate objects. He was ever aware of what transpired within and without his devotees everywhere. His devotees had no choice but to be aware of an omnipresent and omniscient Baba. The result is that at one stroke, their conduct and attitude to fellow-creatures were bound to conform to the highest codes of altruism. Wherever the devotee was, he was made to recognize that Baba was, in spirit, with him indeed. The implications of this aspect of Baba are rich beyond measure. The heart of all spiritual endeavour is to cultivate the presence of the Spirit uninterruptedly and this was secured for the Sai devotee - how remarkably, the succeeding chapters illustrate. Beside this, the manifestation of the Spirit as Sri Sai Baba is unique in another respect. No one knows his caste, creed, or parentage. This anonymity lent a strange facet to his teaching. To the Hindus he was an orthodox brahmin with sacred fire, enjoining the worship of the many gods and the devout study of various Hindu scriptures; he even named the mosque as Dwarakamai and planted the Tulasi in its frontyard and then allowed himself to be worshipped by his devotees in the Hindu fashion. To the moslems, he was a moslem, a pir, living in a mosque, observing the discipline enjoined for a fakir, always uttering the Islamic Allah Malik, guiding moslem seekers like Abdul Baba along the Islamic line. To the Parsis, he was the sacred fire-worshipper. His life, too, is a living manifestation of the Sermon of the Christ and of the eight fold path of the Buddha. Thus, in him we have a perfect model of harmony of all religions for whom this world, with all its sectarian and religious antagonisms, has been looking forward. A third feature that specially belongs to him is this: Most of the religious scriptures and holy men seem to suggest that one ought not to aspire for this or that material goal, in being devoted to a guru or god. Sri Sai Baba never laid down such a rule. Indeed, once, when a self-assured devotee dissuaded a few visitors who came to Sai Baba for the fulfilment of material needs, the Master told him not do so. The fourth unique feature is the phenomenally large number of instances in which the great fakir has been physically appearing before his devotees, even decades after his mahasamadhi literally fulfilling his verbal assurance on the great event. V The writer expresses his thanks to the Sai Baba Samsthan, Shirdi, All India Sai Samaj, Madras and Sai Spiritual Centre, Bangalore, for the kind permission accorded to him to utilize the material available in all their publications and journals. Thanks are also due to all other writers of books published in Hindi, Gujarathi and Marathi for the material drawn from them. My special thanks go to those devotees of Baba, like Sri Marthand Mahalsapathi, Sri Nanasaheb Rasne, late Sri Sai Sharananandaji, who shared the reminiscences of their life in the immediate presence of Sai Baba The Master By Pujya Acharya Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja. Baba. Finally, I acknowledge with thanks the immense assistance extended to me by Sri Sivanesan Swami of Shirdi in reading out to me from the back numbers of “Sai Leela” (Marathi), the official organ of the Sai Samsthan, Shirdi. The Master Calls Me My quest for truth was awakened by the tragic demise of my nephew in 1955 on the occasion of my initiation (sacred thread) ceremony. Now I see, in retrospect, that it was indeed an initiation. The initial heartbreak had left and, in its wake, several fundamental questions arose in me: “Is there a Supreme Spirit? What is the nature? How can we contact it? What is life? What is death? Is there a soul? Why hasn’t man found a way out of death? What is Time?” and such others. The search went on unanswered till 1960. One evening in that year, when I was taking a stroll, something mysterious occurred somewhere deep in me and all the questions vanished in a trice and peace prevailed. These questions seemed out of place, of no value any longer. A book on Zen which came to my hand quite unasked for, contained a description of inner illumination or satori which came nearest to my experience. It was a pleasant surprise and a promise. The quest took on a richer hue. In 1963, my elder brother Sri E. Vedavyas invited me to join him on his visit to Shirdi. Though I had little faith in saints at that time, I consented just to give him my company. On the 8th of February we reached Shirdi at sunset and we went straight to the samadhi mandir to attend the arti. The deep faith that shone on the faces of the congregation for the saint who left off his physical frame nearly half a century ago, was surprise to me. Soon after, the devotees dispersed and the shrine was mostly empty. My brother showed me the tomb at close quarters and told me that Shri Baba’s mortal remains were kept in it. That being my first close look of a tomb, I was shocked. My first reaction was to imagine in what a putrefied condition the body must have been. The marble structure of the tomb and the profuse incense that was burnt there made me suppose that it was intended to keep out any stench that might possibly leak out. The thought was revolting and nauseating. I at once took leave of my brother and slept in the room, unable even to relish food, in the wake of the shock. Next morning, a keen apetite woke me up and I made straight for the Madras hotel. As I passed before the samadhi mandir, I found that the morning arti was over and the place was almost vacant. The sight of the marble statue over the samadhi attracted my attention and I wanted to have a close look at the form that continues to charm so many devotees. I stepped in and stood at a little distance from the statue and looked at it. It is quite life-like and I felt that the saint must have looked precisely like that. The sculptor must have been divinely inspired in capturing that mysterious smile and the inward look. The look captured my gaze. “What does his face, especially his look and smile, indicate of his attitude? Was he elated that so many visited him to pay their homage, adore and worship him? Or was he overwhelmed with compassion for them? Or, in that mood, was he oblivious of his separate existence, his gaze fixed on the divine mystery, the one omnipresent spirit? Or was it a look of recognition of that ancient spirit, of his contacts with those teeming crowds that had contacted him through their countless previous Sai Baba The Master By Pujya Acharya Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja. lives? And, was that smile of reunion pregnant with his joy of their future possibility of reaching the spiritual summit? Or was he just oblivious of all this, lost in his ceaseless contemplation of the one spirit, in his at-one-ment? And is the mysterious Monolisa-smile a manifestation of that peace which passeth understanding? Or is there a possibility that at a higher level of consciousness all these attitudes could coexist without the one interrupting the other?” This last thought flashed with a particular intensity and my spirit leapt forth to comprehend how, in that state, he was viewing all this existence: “Is the universe of myriad forms an image projected in his consciousness? And am I, then, too, a thought in his Mind and are all these my thoughts parts of it?” The intuition took off and wafted my being into far-off states. I knew of nothing else. My being was still, taut with a particular illumination and my thoughts were both existent and non-existent. I am aware how absurd these words must look to anyone. But what else can they be when I verbalize what cannot be conveyed? Quite some time lapsed in that timeless moment and I was knocked back into normal awareness by what they felt to me like a rude knocking on my shoulders. It was then that I realized that I was seated and that my eyes were shut, that my cheeks were wet with half-dried tears. The shrine was quite noisy and crowded. I saw my brother patting me gently and asking, “You are still seated here! Had your bath and breakfast? It’s almost lunch time. It’s better to finish our lunch.” His words were quite audible but I found it hard to catch the sense, as though I was abruptly awakened from deep sleep. It was quite disturbing even to endeavour to understand the words and still more to respond, the spirit being totally unwilling to be called out from the heart of peace. It was much easier to just obey what he said. It was nearly four hours since I stepped into the shrine which was getting crowded as the time for noon arti was nearing and the devotees were queing up for finishing abhishek! We walked down to the dining hall but to me it was as though the walk were just a vivid reverie. My mind was all set on sinking back into the state of peace and bliss from which it was roused and with which the connection was not yet completely snapped. It was quite a task to pay particular attention to things and persons. This mood was persistent and had never quite left me during the brief stay of two days at Shirdi. Perhaps my brother had found out that something unusual was happening to me. “You may go over here again later if you want to, but now we have to go back!” he said. And we were back. The significant thing, as I see it now in retrospect, is that the spiritual connection with that deeper level of being, continued for months after our return from Shirdi. My mind, when it now and then relapsed into normal awareness, quite instinctively identified that deeper level of Being with Baba. Mostly I was in a continuous state of ineffable peace and quiet and the normal activities of the day were powerless to interrupt it. Days passed as a continuous moment of timelessness; it was as though all things around, including my body, were all parts of a whole which is conscious and aware. Whenever the world around had plucked me into the every day reality, my spirit, once again, at the earliest possible, was summoned back to its pristine state by the vivid appearance of the marble image at Shirdi before my mind’s eye. And then objects and creatures all around would seem to be crystallizations of a pervasive consciousness. Sai Baba The Master By Pujya Acharya Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja. This experience was accompanied by a remarkable change in my physical constitution. My lean frame got filled in with flesh to robustness and I was brimming with energy which was not lowered by late hours of reading at night or by missing my meal now and then. There was a strong urge to walk and walk, almost endlessly, through most of the day and I was not tired. My mind was engrossed in the blissful peace and was not stirred by the traffic on the road. My mind, too, seemed to have grown unusually penetrating. For, the most vexatious of meta-physical questions got cleared in a wink and there seemed practically nothing which it could not comprehend. Often knowledge concerning my friends who were far off, or of the thoughts that passed through my associates’ minds broke in and then I was no less surprised at it than they. Strangely enough, the pervasive peace was shared by all those around me. It was definite that my life turned a corner. The steady current of this experience has ever continued, sometimes quite vivid and sometimes a little less so. After three or four months followed my second visit to Shirdi. This time no such spectacular experience occurred but I keenly felt that I was visiting a saint who has been my guiding Spirit through lives, that he was somehow connected with my initiation into the quest for knowledge eight years earlier. There was only an intense personal attachment to the Master, and the sense of not having the good fortune of seeing Him in flesh and blood in this life. “What could have happened then? Now that I cannot hope for this, could I at least see any living saint? What would be his impact on me?” This was the object of my prayer at Baba’s samadhi mandir. The response was prompt and striking, as has always been characteristic of him. During the years that followed, I could come into close contact with numerous saints and bask in their blessings: Mother Anasuyadevi of Jillellamudi, Sri Ranganna Babu (a great Ramabhaktha of Guntur), the late Avadhuta Swami of Chirala, the guru of the Chinthapalli forests of Sileru area, Sri Swami Purnananda of Srisailam, his guru Sri Rakhadi Baba who stayed at Ganeshpuri, Sri Satya Sai Baba, the two Balayogis of Mummidivaram, the Senior Sankaracharyaji of Kanchi, Sri Ma Anandamayi, Sri Akhandananda Saraswati of Muthra, the recluse saints of Kalahasthi and Cuddapah, the recluse woman saint of Chivatam, Sri Samartha Narayana Maharaj of Harihar, and the Saint of Poondi. Besides, I had darshan of some famous devotees of Sri Sai Baba. I saw others like Mother Revati Amma of Madras, and Sri Gulab Maharaj of Nagpur. It is not possible to detail here my experiences with these saints, but one significant feature in all these was I could win their gracious attention only after specifically praying to Sri Baba for the same. Baba was thus once more proving three things simultaneously; he is still alive in spirit and would gladly bless us with the best at our hearty praying; that he is still one with the being of the saints of today even as he was when he lived in flesh and blood; that he can be a competent guru or Master (Samarth Sadguru) to his ardent devotee even today. For a time, a few friends told me that I was on a “saint-gathering” spree and not stabilized on any one. I was not effected by this criticism. Now in retrospect, I am happy to find that, fortunately, my faith in Baba, if anything, grew deeper and has been constant all through. Baba’s invisible hand was leading me to act according to the scriptural injunction; Sai Baba The Master By Pujya Acharya Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja. "Just as the bee which is fond of honey moves from flower to flower, the disciple who is fond of wisdom goes from Master (Guru) to Master". - Sree Gurugita. I shall mention a few instances of Baba’s grace during these years. In 1968 I resigned my job and lived at the ashram of a mother for an year. After that, on a specific indication from Baba I left the ashram and settled in my present job here, at Vidyanagar. At first I was very much disappointed with the life here which had stifled my spiritual longings. There was none who shared my aspirations, none to join me in satsang. Life looked dreary and barren even like the rocky soil here. I yearningly prayed to Baba either to take me to a place where I could have satsang or to secure it here for me. Within a few months there was Baba’s response in the most seemingly casual manner. A Christian boy, a student, started criticizing me for adoring a human being like Sai Baba. A discussion ensued which went on for days and drew large numbers of students to participate in it. Out of these a small group took shape and decided to have weekly satsang (devotional or spiritual gathering) on Thursdays for bhajan. The bhajan, by the grace of Baba, has been going on for the last nine years without interruption even for one week. The situation was so moulded that I happened to rent the house myself, Baba’s grace has been manifesting in the most miraculous ways to the participants in the bhajan. One Thursday, after bhajan, Baba inspired me to declare to the participants: “if all of us pray with all our hearts, great saints would come here and bless us instead of our going to them. We are sure to come into contact with great saints.” Baba has been keeping up his word as illustrated below. In 1971, I started for Mummidivaram (in East Godavari Dt. A.P.) to have darshan of Sri Balayogi on the holy Sivaratri day. On the way I stopped at Guntur to see Sri Ranganna Babu, a great devotee of Sri Rama, and invite him to visit Vidyanagar. “I shall seek the permission of my guru Sri Rama and, if he permits me, I shall go to Vidyanagar. It is not in my hands to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Many eminent people come from Hyderabad, Madras and other place to take me there but generally Sri Rama does not permit me to go”, he replied. I said, “I shall see you again on my way back from Mummidivaram. You please ask Sri Rama. If he is pleased with the devotion of the students at Vidyanagar, he would agree”, and took leave of him. All that I could do was to pray to Baba. He demonstrated while he was in flesh that he was all the saints and gods. So he should inspire Sri Ranganna Babu through Sri Rama to visit my place. Again the response was striking. On the third day, I saw Sri Ranganna Babu on my return journey. He was the first to greet me gleefully, “Sir, Sri Rama has permitted me to go with you! ‘Ranganna’, he said, the students at Vidyanagar, are doing bhajan with devotion. Go, see them’. And he gave me grapes to be distributed to the devotees!” So saying he at once started with me. Sai Baba The Master By Pujya Acharya Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja.