Baba stayed short time in Shirdi as a young boy and disappears for
a while. Nobody knew where he was and he suddenly appears in a small village by
name Dhup in Aurangabad district. The village head for that area by
name Chand patil lost his horse and has been searching for more than 2 months.
He looked all over and could not locate his horse and one day he sees fakir
sitting under a mango tree who later shows where his horse is. Patil looked all
around several times but it was not there before. He was surprised to see this special fakir creating fire and water out of nowhere. Then this Patil begs this
fakir to come to his house and accept his service. We read about this several
times in the Satcharita but let us learn the inner meaning of this incident.
Here the lost horse indicates our mind and we are strayed from God. We are
wandering not knowing the truth. Then Guru comes along to show the correct
path. Baba used his satka to get fire from the earth which represents the
lighting of inner wisdom in us. But to sustain this knowledge we need to dilute
the bad qualities in us. Once this wisdom is installed then we have
to realize the importance of Guru in our lives. That means we have to invite Guru into our home like Patil did. Here our home means our heart. This is where we
have to keep Baba.
Baba goes to Shirdi second time with a
marriage procession of Chand Patil wife’s nephew. As soon as he arrived there,
Mahalsapathi sees this fakir and invites him by saying “Ya Sai”. Since then
this fakir became Sai. Mahalsapathi has been waiting for a Guru. His wish
became true once Sai came back to Shirdi. Then Sai made the Dwarakamai as his
abode. He used to have satsangh with Devidas and Janakidas. This was his
routine. He brought some flowering plants from Rahata and used to water with
mud pitchers every day. These were raw and were not fully made. So they used to
break by evening. This same place was used later to build Samadhi mandir. This
could be seen as our daily actions that we perform everyday which become
impressions but if they are analyzed everyday they will not sustain as
impressions. If we can continue like this our heart will become Samadhi mandir.
If we ignore this, then we have to take multiple janmas (lives).
Then Hemadpanth talks about how Padukas
were installed under the neem tree. There was a person named Bhai
Krishnaji Alibhagkar who was a staunch devotee of Akkalkota Maharaj, stayed in
Shirdi to worship Baba. He gets a vison that Akkalkota Maharaj is in Shirdi in
the form of Sai. To commemorate this special worship, he installed the Padukas
under neem tree with the help of other people. Upasini Baba and Dada Kelkar
played a major role in this. If we worship Guru’s padukas, we will
get jnana as a blessing quickly. Guru Gita and Adisankaracharya also praise the
importance of Guru Padukas. Guru Gita says all Theerthas and holy places are in
guru’s feet. Baba gives us darshan as Lord Dakshina Murty so that we
can easily access his feet. This unique touch of Baba’s feet with our
head will send some special vibrations.
Faith and patience are the essential
qualities to worship Guru. Here in this chapter next they talk about how Baba
wrestled with Mohiuddin Tamboli and lost. They say that Baba then changed his
way of dressing by wearing a long Kafni and his head covered with a piece of
cloth. In a similar way Gangagheer also had a passion towards
wrestling and had a transformation towards spirituality. Once we turn towards
God and Guru appears in our life we might have to face some inner enemies to
improve ourselves. This is like a wrestling match between good qualities versus
bad ones. This is where we need some dispassion towards the worldly objects.
But if we have Guru in our life we can tackle anything.
Baba never spoke by himself unless someone interacted with him and
asked a question. He used to sit most of the time under the neem tree and
sometimes under the shade of Babul tree near the stream in the out skirts of
village. He used to sleep in the Masjid and recite God’s name all the time.
People say that he used to dance in a rhythmic way by wearing anklets and sing
bhajans.
Once Baba lighted the lamps with water when the shop keepers
refused to give the oil to Baba. They used to give oil to Baba but they felt
like not giving from that day on wards and lied to Baba that they do not have any oil. They were all
amazed and surprised
Lastly in this chapter, Hemadpanth talks about Javahar Ali who
claimed that he was the Guru of Sai Baba. Baba showed how a Guru needs to be
served. Here Javahar Ali was a pawn in the Sai leela. Baba was teaching us to
be careful when we are treading the path of spirituality because people can
feel that they know everything in fact there is so much to learn and experience.
Sraddha and Sabhuri are essential factors in this journey. Let us all pray
to Baba to give us this kind of blessing so that we can advance in our
spiritual quest.
Sri Sadguru Sainatharpanamastu!
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