Sai Sachcharitam - chapter 5
Nission of Saints & Sai Avatar, Holy tirth Shirdi, Sri Sai Baba's personality, Gaulibuva's experience, Appearance of Vitthal.
Lord Sri Krishna in the seventy - eight sloka of chapter four of Gita has said, " Whenever declination of 'Dharma' (righteousness) and ascendance of evil takes place I incarnate. In order to reinstate righteousness and destroy evil doers and uplift the virtuous and remove their sufferings, I incarnate from age to age. Saints are the embodiments of God. Emerging at appropriate time, they fulfil their mission in their own unique characteristic way.
Such an opportune time is also indicated and when the four 'Verna' (classes) Brahmin, martial and trading classes give up their respective duties and the 'Shudra' snatch away functions appropriate to these upper classes; When the saintly people are disrespected and maligned; When people give up distinction between eatable eatable and non-eatable foods and indulge in intoxications; When followers of various religion begin to quarrel among themselves and the people begin to develop indifference to religion; When yogis give up their meditation and when the common people hold he view that money, progeny and wife are the only aspirations to be ful-filled. Thus when people begin to degenrate into misdeeds by being misguided then Sints emerge to establish righteousness by their teachings and actions. They indeed by giving proper guidance inspire us to follow the path of truth and virtue. Several saints like Nivratinath, Gyandev, Muktabai, Namktabai, Namdev, Gora, Kasai, Savan mali ramdas etc., appeared in order to show the path of truth from time to time. Last of all these appeared the avatar of Sai Baba in Shirdi.
Holy thirth Shirdi
The banks of sacred Godavari river flowing through Ahmednagar are indeed greatly fortunate where many saints were born and lived. Sri sant gynaneswar Maharaj is prominent among them. Shirdi is situated in Kopargaon Taluka of ahmadnagar district. Crossing over Godavari river there goes the straight way to Shirdi. after going eight miles ahead when we reach Neemgao then Shirdi comes in such as Ganagpur, Navsinhwarhi, and Audumbar, Shirdi is a famous pilgrimage place. As Damoji purified Mangaal verha(near Pandharpur) samarth Ramdas purified saijangarh and the incarnation of Dattatreya Narsimgh Sarswati purified Warhi in the like manner by being incarnated at Shirdi Sai Nath purified it..
Sri Sai Baba's Personality
By proximity of Sri sai baba the importance of Shirdi had enhanced greatly. He had conquered the worldly ocean, which is usually very difficult for ordinary mortals. Peace was his ornamentation and he was wisdom(Gynanaswaroop) in human form. Devotees received shelter in Him. Among the doners, He was like Karna - the king of donars; and he was essence of all wisdom. He had no interest in wordly affairs. He always remained engrossed in His true self of 'Atomic reality'. his heart was always glittering like sparkling glass. From His mouth flowed incessantly sweet nectar - like words. He was totally indifferent to praise or condemnation. he used to discourse fearlessly, lived in the company of all sorts of people, watched the dance and acting of nautch girls and heard quwwalies as well.
Inspite of doing all this His deep meditation was never disturbed. God's name was always in His lips and He constantly kept on uttering - "Allah Malik", "Ram Maalik", when the world kept awake inner-shelf he was unrulledd like the deep sea. No one could fathom the way of His working. In the general sense, He lived at one place, but He was very fully aware of what was taking place in the whole world. His divine court was unique.
He used to say anecdotes often, but His peace was never disturbed. He always used to sit by the side of wall of the mosque and go for morning and evening walks towards Lendi and Chawadi, and even then He was engrossed in His 'Atomic-self'. Being self-realised and having attained the highest Siddhis and mystic powers He used to behave like ordinary aspirants. He was humble and without pride. He always gave happiness to all. Shirdi became holy by the mere touch of His Lotus feet. Its importance became extra-ordinary. As Gynaneswar exalted Aalandi and Eknath Paithad, the same way exaltation was bestowed upon Shirdi by Sai Baba. Shirdi became for devotees another Pandharpur, Jagannath Puri, Dwaraka, Banaras(Kashi), Mahakaleswar and Kaukarna Mahabaleswar.
To have 'darshan' of sai was to receive Vedic mantra by which the wordly attachments decreased and the path of self-realisation became easy. His darshan was verily Yoga practice and conversation with Him was enough to get rid of sins. worshipping His holy feet was like taking a holy dip in the Ganga at praying as such and by drinking water of the worship of His holy feet all wishes got fulfilled.
His command was the command of the Vedas for us. By partaking of 'Prasad' and 'Udi' purification of mind was attained. He was our Sri ram and sri krishna who gave us liberation; He alone was our God-oncorporeal. he was always the living form of Consciousness, Bliss, Truth and Benediction.
In the general sense, Shirdi was His main headquarters but His sphare of divine works was spread to Punjab, Kolkatta, North-india, Gujarat, Dhaka, Konkani. The glory of Sri Sai Baba soon spread far and wide and devotees began to come from different places for his 'darshan' and to avail of His benevolence. By His mere 'darshan' people whether of pure or impure disposition got peace of their mind and experienced bliss in His proximity as was the case with the 'darshan' of Vithova at pandharpur. There is no exaggeration in this. Let us now see it with the experience of a devotee given here.
Guali Buva's experience
Guali Buva was approximately 90 years old. he was apilgri of Pandharpur. He used to live eight months at pandharpur and four months(July-October) at the bank of Ganga. he had a donkey with hm to carry his luggage and was always accompanied by a disciple. Every year he would go to Pandharpur and visit Shirdi on his return. He had deep faith in Baba. he would stare without being disturbed at baba for long and would pronounce spontaneously that He is Pandharinath avatar of vitthal who is the Lord of destitute, the forlorn and the Lord of poor and meek. Guali Buva was great devotee of Vithova. he would undertake several travels to Pandhari and had direct experience that Sri Sai Baba was indeed Pandharinath.
Appearance of Vithal
Sri Sai Baba had great passion for contemplation of God and chanting His divine glories. He always called out 'Allah Maalik' and got 'Sankirtan' performed by devotees which came to be knon as 'Namsaptah'(week-long 'Sankirtan').
Once He commanded dasaganu to perform 'Nama-Sankirtan'. Dasaganu pleaded with Him that he accepted His command, but he must get an assurance that Vitthal shall definitely appear at the end of the week. Touching His chest, Baba said Vitthal shall definitely appear, but simultaneously faith and keen inquisition is alsi inevitable on the part of devotees. Dankpuri of Thakurnath, Pandhari of Vitthal, Dwaraka of ranchchorh is here itself. None needs to go afar. Will Vitthal come from somewhere else? He is, verily, present here. When devotees love and faith shall over-flow Vitthal shall himself appear instantly.
After Sankirtan being over, when Kaka Saheb Dixit, as usual sat in meditation after taking bath then he had a vision of Vitthal. When he reached at noon for 'darshan' of baba then Baba asked him, "Did Vitthal Pati come? Did you have His vision? he is very instable, hold on to Him fast. If there be slightest carelessnee He will escape and run away". This was an event of morning, and at noon he had another vision again. That very day a picture vendor came there with 25-30 pictores of Vithova. This picture was exactly alike the one Kaka Saheb had seen in his vision. He was astonished and happy at seeing His picture aand remembering the words of Baba spoken to him in this respect, he bought a picture with great delight and installed it in his worship room.
The retired Mamalatar of tada shri B. V. Dev has proved it by his researches that Shirdi falls within Pandharpur. In the south, Pandharpur is well known place of Sri Krishna. Therefore Shirdi itself is Dwarka. There is another narrative about Dwarka which is taken from Skand Puran(part 2 of page 90) written by K. Narayan Ayyair. It is as follows:
Chaturvarnamapi Varganam yatra Dwarani Sarvatrah.Ato dwaravakeetyukta Vidvadbhistatva vadibhih.
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