Resume
- (1926 - 1961)
Dawn
at Puttaparthi
A ring of
pink-brown hills, a broad deep valley with a
river cutting through and emptying into a tank
built by an Emperor about six hundred years ago
- that is the milieu, where the village of
Puttaparthi nestles. It was the seat of a
chieftain who ruled over the surrounding area in
the past; later, it became desolate and
isolated, but, the soil continued to be the
nursery of saints and scholars. The family of
the chieftain, the Rajus, continued to lead and
guide, to teach and train the village youth.
Kondamaraju was a saintly centenarian who built
a temple for Sathyabhama, the temperamental
Consort of Lord Krishna; he was proficient in
the ancient texts and scriptures. His eldest son
was named by him after a famous recluse who
adorned the family tree, Venka Avadhootha
(Venka, who had given up all attachments to
earthly things); he called him Venkappa Raju.
This son married a distant relation, a daughter
who was born after the construction of a temple
by her father to Siva, (under the appellation,
Iswara) and so, named Iswara-amba. They were a
pious couple, quiet and contented; the only
recreation Venkappa allowed himself was
'playing' epic roles on the village stage just
as his father, Kondamaraju did. They had a son
and two daughters; then, on November 23, 1926
was born another son, Sathyanarayana,
who proved quite soon that he was uniquely
Divine in nature and attainments.
Iswara-amba,
Easwaramma, the Chosen Mother
His playmates
called him, 'Guru'
(Preceptor). For he was always correcting them
and consoling them; he comforted them in
distress and never seemed to get cross or tired.
He was a liberal giver, even at that age; for,
he pulled out of empty bags, delectable sweets,
pencils, pieces of rubber, toys, flowers and
fruits for them. When asked how he got them, he
answered, 'O, the village Goddess gives me what
I want'. That was only to slake their thirst;
that was the only answer which would quieten
their doubts. But the wonder
remained!
It increased
when he was put to school; there he acquired a
new nickname, "Brahmajnani". It meant "One who
has acquired the wisdom that reveals the Inner
Reality". What a name for a boy of six summers!
At the age of eight Sathyanarayana decided to
reveal his mystery by a dramatic miracle; when
he was ordered by his teacher to 'stand upon the
bench' for listlessness in the class-room, he
'willed' that the teacher stick to the chair,
until he stepped down from the bench. It
happened so and he became the talk of the
region. He was simple and sweet, in spite of all
this publicity; he formed a prayer-group of boys
in his village and led them from place to place,
caroling the hymns he wrote and
taught!
He was an
adept at dance and music, as well as the
histrionic art. Nay, his talents were used even
by theatrical companies that toured the
country-side; he had the temerity to write songs
for them and for himself and even stretches of
dialogue, when he was barely 'twelve'. He
accompanied his elder brother to Kamalapur and
Uravakonda, where he served as a teacher of the
Telugu language; at school, in those places,
Sathyanarayana
stood head and shoulders above even the
teachers, for he shone as a poet, playwright,
scout, sportsman and songster of extra-ordinary
standards of excellence. He had also the
mysterious power of tracing lost property,
reading others' thoughts, seeing far into the
future and deep into the past. He became the pet
of the town and was much sought after, by the
distressed and the
down-trodden.
He sat through
the First Year of the High School course and was
but a few weeks in the Second Year Class, when
the Call of the Task which had brought him among
men could no longer be ignored by him. He had
already found it hard to cloak his majesty in
the petty rigmarole of home and school. When on
a picnic with his brother and others among the
ruins of the ancient capital of the Vijayanagar
Empire (Hampi), he was seen by them as Iswara,
where the Iswara idol was installed in the
Virupaksha Temple. On the 8th day of March 1940,
he could not but leave the body and go to the
succor of a devotee in dire distress! This was
misunderstood by his brother and others as a
scorpion-sting or a snakebite, or a fainting
fit, or an attack of hysteria. Doctors, of
course, could not diagnose it right. Quacks and
sorcerers were tried; they guessed wrong. They
only tortured him and proved that the boy could
suffer great pain and remain steady and
unruffled.
At last, in
the village of Puttaparthi, on the twenty-third
day of May, 1940, while scattering gifts into
the outstretched palms of all who came, Baba
declared that He was Sai Baba come again to save
humanity from downfall. He asked them to worship
him, every Thursday, as the first installment of
spiritual discipline. Back at Uravakonda, even
while attending school, Sathyanarayana was
worshipped as Sai Baba, the Saint of Shirdi come
again, according to the promise he had made at
Shirdi. Manchiraju Thammiraju the teacher, who
loved
Sathyanarayana
more than any other member of the staff, has
written about these Thursdays - how, as Sai
Baba, his pupil gave to those who gathered for
congregational prayer, sacred ash or other
curative gifts of Grace like a piece of the guru
gown that Sai Baba wore at Shirdi (the saint had
entered the tomb in 1918) that He got by a mere
wave of the hand! Hundreds used to flock around
Him and interrogate Him on all kinds of
subjects, but, He replied calmly and
correctly.
He
went, on Mahasivarathri (a holy day dedicated to
the Worship of Siva) to a Siva temple outside
Uravakonda with a few companions including
Thammiraju's son, Sairam, and the youths were
astounded to find a stream of effulgence flowing
from Sathyanarayana towards the Idol of Siva and
another flowing from Siva to Sathyanarayana! One
Thursday, He informed the wife of Kasibhatla
Ramamurthy, "I have placed a picture in your
shrine; go and worship it." She hurried thither
with some neighbors and opening the locked doors
and the closed window shutters, jammed tight to
prevent the entry of monkeys, she found a
picture of Sai Baba of Shirdi, inside the shrine
of her home! He introduced or created such
pictures inside many a home during those years -
pictures which gave the people their first
acquaintance of the Shirdi Saint! Thammiraju's
experiences are amazing; Sathyanarayana came
into his house one evening and on the wall of
his modest home, He called up, as in a movie,
the sacred Forms of the Ten Incarnations of the
Lord, besides life-like portraits of many sages
and saints mentioned in the sacred scriptures.
His wife was so moved by this uplifting
experience that she wrote a poem on it in
Telugu; it was published in the 'Sai Sudha'
magazine of Madras. Another day, Sathyanarayana
gave him a picture of Shirdi Baba in an
astoundingly new way - a bumble bee entered his
room through an open window, with something
rolled held fast by its legs. It dropped it and
flew off; the paper was unrolled; it was a
picture of the Shirdi Lord! A few days later, a
monkey perching on the window, outside his room,
threw a small bundle of cloth into it; when the
bundle was opened Thammiraju writes, it was
found to contain a ball of sweets! and a letter!
from Sathyanarayana who was away at Puttaparthi!
And what did the letter say? "The other day, I
sent you with the bumble-bee My! picture; today,
I am sending herewith
Prasadam
for you." Others too had amazing experiences of
the Divine powers of the teenage Baba; but, he
was biding the moment for Full Manifestation and
Final Declaration.
October 20,
1940; that was the Day He chose. That day,
returning sooner than usual from school, He
threw his books outside the door of his
brother's house, and, when his sister-in-law
came out to discover what the cause of the noise
was, she was astonished to hear Him say, "I do
not belong to you. I am leaving; I have work
ahead." Then he stepped down and took the road.
"Those devoted to Me are calling Me. The task
for which I came is yet unfinished: I am
starting now," He said, and walked vigorously
off. He was accosted by the learned Pandit,
Narayana Sastry, the neighbor, who ran up and
tried to stop him; he was half afraid of the
boy, for, he had called him out one day when he
was expounding a difficult Sanskrit text and
corrected his interpretation. This time, when he
expostulated with the boy, he saw a halo around
His head and was rendered mute. The brother too
failed to make Him retrace His steps;
Sathyanarayana told him, "The illusion has gone;
I am no more yours; I am Sai Baba,
remember."
Baba proceded
to a garden around the house of the Inspector of
Excise, for it was extensive and open; He sat
under a tree with the whole town around Him.
Immediately, He inaugurated the Bhajan that was
to progress so quickly and dramatically in every
nook and corner of this vast land,
revolutionizing the habits and attitudes, the
nature and character of hundreds of thousands.
The very first song which He taught the
astonished mass of humanity was an invitation to
surrender to the Feet of the Guru who had so
mercifully appeared. It also contained a lesson
that Baba has always emphasized since then that
Bhajan or reverential adoration must be a mental
upsurge, not an oral exercise. It ran
thus:
"Manasa
Bhajare Guru Charanam,
Dustara Bhava Sagara Taranam
Guru Maharaj Guru Jai Jai
Sai Natha Sad Guru Jai Jai
Om Namah Shivaya Om Nama Shivaya
Om Namah Shivaya Shivaya Namah Om
Arunachala Shiva Arunachala Shiva
Arunachala Shiva Aruna Shiva Om
Omkaram Bhava Omkaram Bhava
Omkaram Bhava Om Namo Baba"
Sung
by Baba MP3
"Oh,
ye seekers! Worship the Feet of the Guru, with
all your mind;
you can thus cross the ocean of grief and
joy, and birth and death"
"O Mind, without worshiping the Lotus Feet of
Guru Sai Natha it is not possible to cross the
ocean of life and death. Victory to the Noble
Teacher, Lord Sai Natha. Chant "Om Namah
Shivaya". Chant the name of Lord Shiva, Who
resides in Arunachala (a sacred mountain in
Southern India associated with Lord Shiva).
Chant the name of Lord Baba, Whose form is
Om"
Sai Baba
returned to Puttaparthi or rather was brought
there by the "parents"; they prayed to Him not
to leave the village. Now, every day became a
Thursday and large groups of people gathered to
have His
Darsan
and Blessings. Baba spent most of the time at
the village in the house of the Brahmin Karnam
(hereditary village accountant) of the village
where the aged Subbamma served the pilgrims with
care and love. He granted many people their
wishes, which ranged from a vision of
Dwarakamayi (ruined mosque where Sai Baba spent
His days) at Shirdi to the cure of an ulcer or
an ache. He sat on most evenings among the
devotees, on the sands of the Chithravathi River
and created from the sand images, pictures,
idols, sweets and fruits. He climbed the hills
around and vouchsafed to the groups below,
visions of the splendor and effulgence
associated with Siva, Narayana, Kumaraswamy and
other Forms of God. He plucked from the branches
of the tamarind tree growing on the hill apples,
mangoes, figs, bananas and grapes and
distributed them to the devotees. He showed them
Himself as
Krishna
or as any one of the Ten Incarnations of Vishnu,
or as Siva.
He also gave
guidance to many, who were struggling along the
hard path of spiritual Sadhana.
For example, there came to Puttaparthi a lame
monk, whose attainments were two popular vows:
he would not speak out, he would only write what
he had to say; he refused to wear clothes. Baba
saw through this exhibitionist asceticism; he
requested him either to retire into the forest
for
Sadhana
(He assured him that he would ensure him food
and shelter even there) and save his devotees
the ignominy and the burden; or, to resume talk
and clothes, which are not handicaps to
spiritual effort. This incident happened when
Baba was scarce sixteen. People felt that this
was the task for which He had come; correcting
and guiding erring men.
One devotee
had run deeply into debt and so he decided to
escape into Burma or Malaya. He went to Madras
Harbour to purchase a ticket for the journey,
his pocket was picked; penniless he returned to
his hotel; there was a letter from Baba on the
table, advising him, commanding him, in fact, to
return and brave it out. He did, and is today,
quite happy, with the wife and child whom he had
then decided to desert! How did Baba know his
address at Madras?
Hearing that
Sai Baba had come again, many who had been to
Shirdi and many who had lost all hope of
contacting the Saint hastened to Puttaparthi;
they took Him to Hyderabad, Bangalore, Madras,
Karur, Trichinopoly and Udumalpet. Rajas, and
Zamindars, ryots
and clerks, doctors and lawyers thronged the
house of Subbamma and later, the tiny little
Mandir that she and others built for
Baba.
Baba was now
twenty years of age; His elder brother,
Seshamaraju, the teacher of Telugu, could not
quite grasp the mystery of this phenomenon. He
watched with increasing consternation and
genuine fraternal love the procession of cars
that came to the right bank of the river and
took his 'simple village-grown brother' away
into the cities that glittered beyond the
horizon, full of temptations and pitfalls. A few
press comments that rose from ignorance pained
him. So, he wrote a letter to his brother
warning him and imparting to him the lesson he
had learnt in life about society and human
foibles, about fame and its
attendants.
The reply that
Sai Baba wrote to him on the 25th May, 1947 is
in my possession. It is a Document that reveals
Baba in unmistakable terms. So I must allow you
to have it: "To
all who are devoted to
me"
(Though the letter was written by the brother,
the reply is addressed to all, including you and
me, for it is essential that you and I should
know the real nature of the Phenomenon that has
appeared for our sake.)
Excerpt
from Baba's letter in Telugu to his brother
Seshamaraju
"My
dear One! I received the communication that
you wrote and sent; I found in it the surging
floods of your devotion and affection, with
the undercurrents of doubts and anxiety. Let
Me tell you that it is impossible to plumb
the hearts and discover the natures of
Jnanis,
Yogis,
ascetics, saints, sages and the like. People
are endowed with a variety of characteristics
and mental attitudes; so, each one judges
according to his own angle, talks and argues
in the light of his own nature. But, we have
to stick to our own right path, our own
wisdom, our own resolution without getting
affected by popular appraisal. As the proverb
says, it is only the fruit laden tree that
receives the shower of stones from
passers-by. The good always provoke the bad
into calumny; the bad always provoke the good
into derision. This is the nature or this
world. One must be surprised if such things
do not happen.
The
people too have to be pitied, rather than
condemned. They do not know. They have no
patience to judge aright. They are too full
of lust, anger and conceit to see clearly and
know fully. So, they write all manner of
things. If they only know, they would not
talk or write like that. We, too, should not
attach any value to such comments and take
them to heart, as you seem to do. Truth will
certainly triumph some day. Untruth can never
win. Untruth might appear to overpower Truth,
but its victory will fade away and Truth will
establish itself.
It
is not the way of the great to swell when
people offer worship, and shrink when people
scoff. As a matter of fact, no sacred text
lays down rules to regulate the lives of the
great, prescribing the habits and attitudes
that they must adopt. They themselves know
the path they must tread; their wisdom
regulates and makes their acts holy.
Self-reliance, beneficial activity - these
two are their special marks. They may also be
engaged in the promotion of the welfare of
devotees and in allotting them the fruits of
their actions. Why should you be affected by
tangle and worry, so long as I am adhering to
these two? After all, the praise and blame of
the populace do not touch the
Atma,
the reality; they can touch only the outer
physical frame.
I
have a 'Task': To foster all mankind and
ensure for all of them lives full of
Ananda.
I have a 'Vow': To lead all who stray away
from the straight path, again into goodness
and save them. I am attached to a 'Work' that
I love: To remove the sufferings of the poor
and grant them what they lack. I have a
'reason to be proud', for, I rescue all who
worship and adore Me, aright. I have My
definition of the 'Devotion' I expect: Those
devoted to Me have to treat joy and grief,
gain and loss, with equal fortitude. This
means that I will never give up those who
attach themselves to Me. When I am thus
engaged in My beneficial task, how can My
Name be ever tarnished, as you apprehend? I
would advise you not to heed such absurd
talk. Mahatmas do not acquire greatness
through some one calling them so; they do not
become small, when some one calls them small.
Only those low ones who revel in opium and
ganja but claim to be unexcelled Yogis, only
those who quote scriptural texts to justify
their gourmandry and pride, only those who
are dry-as-dust scholars exulting in their
casuistry and argumentative skill, will be
moved by praise or blame.
You
must have read life-stories of saints and
Divine personages; in those books, you must
have read of even worse falsehoods and more
heinous imputations cast against them. This
is the lot of Mahatmas, everywhere, at all
times. Why then do you take these things so
much to heart? Have you not heard of dogs
that howl at the stars? How long can they go
on? Authenticity will soon
win.
I
will not give up My Mission, nor My
determination. I know I will carry them out;
I treat the honor and dishonor, the fame and
blame that may be the consequence with equal
equanimity. Internally, I am unconcerned. I
act but in the outer world; I talk and move
about, for the sake of the outer world and
for announcing My coming to the people; else,
I have no concern even with
these.
I
do not belong to any place; I am not attached
to any name. I have no ' mine' or 'thine'. I
answer whatever the name you use. I go,
wherever I am taken. This is My very First
Vow. I have not disclosed this to any one so
far. For me the world is something afar,
apart. I act and move only for the sake of
mankind. No one can comprehend My Glory,
whoever he is, whatever his method of
enquiry, however long his
attempt.
You
can yourself see the full Glory in the coming
years. Devotees must have patience and
forbearance.
I
am not concerned nor am I anxious that these
facts should be made known; I have no need to
write these words; I wrote them, because, I
felt you will be pained, if I do not reply.
Thus, your Baba."
What a letter
this! It is an epic epistle; a parting of the
curtain, to give us a quick glimpse of the God
in this human frame!
No wonder
hundreds flocked to the village of Puttaparthi
to have the Darsan
of Sai Baba and to derive the benefits that the
Grace of God can bestow on the meek, the lowly
and the distressed. The Mandir built in the
village to supersede the tiny room next to
Subbamma's house had also to be changed; the
festivals of Navarathri and Sivarathri attracted
tens of thousands, especially the latter, since
symbols of the Siva that He is, formed
themselves in Him and emerged at the sacred hour
which the scriptures declare as auspicious and
significant. Devotees took delight arranging
processions through the streets of the village,
every day, during the Navarathri or Festival of
Nine Nights.
So, a site was
chosen outside the village and a spacious Prayer
Hall-cum-Residence was constructed. Baba named
it 'Prasanthi
Nilayam',
the Abode of the Highest Peace, for, He, the
source, the sustainer and the sustenance of that
Peace, had that as His visible Abode. From this
Nilayam, the Message that every man's heart must
be transmuted into a Prasanthi Nilayam is
radiating in all directions and the discipline
necessary for this alchemy is being taught, with
sympathy and understanding, to all
mankind.
Baba
refers to Himself as 'Sai Baba' and to the Sai
Baba of Shirdi as 'My previous Body'. He speaks
of His having come down, like Rama
and Krishna,
for the restoration of Truth and Morality, Peace
and Love among mankind, for instilling faith in
God among men who deny Him through pride and
ignorance, and for saving the good from the
talons of the bad. He had announced that till
the age of sixteen He will be mostly engaged in
sportive pursuits, and that from then on until
the age of thirty two, He will be drawing people
to Him by means of Mahimas or miracles; for, as
He has so often said, without these 'visiting
cards', no one can gauge even a fraction of His
Glory. "I shall give you what you want, so that
you may want what I have come to give", is what
Baba has said, at Shirdi, while in His previous
body. These miracles range from revealing to
those who go to Him their past and future, to
shaping their future as He wills it to be; by a
wave of His hand, He changes empty air into
sacred ash, sweets, images, idols, flowers,
fruits, books, bowls, rosaries, crucifixes,
drugs, dolls - in short, all things that man is
accustomed to, as well as many that he has not
known.
"If I had come
amongst you as Narayana with four arms holding
the Conch, the Wheel, the Mace and the Lotus,
you would have kept Me in a museum and charged a
fee for those who seek Darsan;
if I had come as a mere man, you would not have
respected My teaching and followed it for your
own good. So, I have to be in this human form
with supra-human wisdom and powers," Baba has
said. Baba is every moment the spiritual guide,
which is His prime role, though He had said that
He would begin His Upadesh or Teaching only when
He reached His thirty-second year. He was too
full of kindness to wait until then, to remove
the ignorance of men, ignorance, that is leading
them on to war and ruin.
Since 1947,
Baba has emerged as the Great Teacher of the
People. That year, He presided over the All
India Divine Life Conference, at Venkatagiri and
all those who heard Him, monk or scholar or
literateur, ryot
or industrialist, young or old, man or woman,
were moved by a strange exhilaration into the
new world of the spirit. Thereafter, Swami
Sadananda, the author of a commentary on
Patanjali's
Yoga Suthra and of other valuable books as well
as
Swami
Satchidananda
followed Him for months and persuaded Him to
visit Rishikesh and Kashmir, Delhi Mathura and
Brindavan. They had the good fortune to witness
some astounding miracles and hear many
satisfying interpretations of religious doctrine
and spiritual discipline, which they spread
enthusiastically among those who contacted them.
Baba made them His instruments for announcing
His advent.
In fact, every
person who came to Him either for getting some
physical illness cured or getting over some
secular handicap or to be helped over a
spiritual stile which he could not negotiate,
became a loud herald of the tidings that a
Divine Phenomenon has appeared in human Form
inviting all with sweetness and love, to receive
from Him joy and peace, security and
liberation.
In February,
1958, on the sacred occasion of Sivarathri Baba
inaugurated a monthly magazine to convey His
Teachings into every home, a magazine which He
named, "Sanathana Sarathi" (the Timeless
Everpresent Charioteer) ever intent on taking us
to the goal of Peace, Everlasting Prasanthi.
This magazine is published in English and many
languages other than the Telugu original; it has
brought Baba into thousands of homes and hearts.
It has also been the vehicle for a series of
books from the Divine Pen, as well as for the
inimitably wise and simple discourses that Baba
gave in the cities and villages He deigned to
visit, at the request of
devotees.
The revival of
Dharma
(the regulated life of the spirit affecting
every detail of the process of living, with
liberation from the consequences of ignorance
always in view) is the avowed purpose of all
Incarnations of the Divine. Baba too, has come
for the same task. The revival of scriptural
studies, of classical mores, of prayer, of
temple-ritual, of simple living and high
thinking, of piety and virtue - these are all
items in the programme of uplift that Baba has
burdened Himself with.
His visits to
the ancient temples of Ayodhya, Varanasi and
Badrinath were for "charging the batteries that
had gone weak", as He said. These are but stray
examples of His overwhelming Love for Mankind.
His ministration of the sick, the insane, the
desperate and the downtrodden and His
"extra-corporeal journeys" to save men from
calamity or to bless them at the moment of
departure from the physical cage, proclaim His
Mission of Bhaktharakshana (Guarding the Good).
His Touch, His Word, the very sight of Him has
opened a new chapter in the lives of many a
sinner, miser, and atheist, idler, agnostic and
ascetic. The revised edition of the First part
of this Book published in 1961 gives the Divine
Life of Sri Sathya Sai Baba until the
epoch-making visit to Badrinath. I am thankful
for this chance to continue the purifying record
in this Second Part of the same Book, for which
the only fit title is "Sathyam
Shivam Sundaram"
for, His Nature and His Reality are Truth, Light
and Beauty, Sath, Chith and Ananda, Existence,
Awareness and Bliss.
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