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SRI SHIRDI SAI SAMSTHAN, MI
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28875 W Seven Mile Rd,
Livonia, MI-48152
Phone: 248-471-6474
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| All about SAI BABA |
Baba first came to Shirdi about the year 1854 and lived there
for three years. He disappeared from there for sometime and
returned to Shirdi with a marriage party in 1858 and lived
there for sixty years till his Mahasamadhi in 1918. He lived a
simple life in a dilapidated mosque. He never accumulated
wealth. He advocated faith in God and tolerance towards all as
the basic tenets for religious life. His compassion towards
human beings and all creatures is the same. He is above caste,
creed and religion.
Impact of the precious immortal teachings, Leelas (Divine
experiences) and miracles of Sri Sai Baba were greatly felt by
numerous devotees who visited the place. Thus Shirdi has
become a veritable place of pilgrimage. To His devotees, Baba
has come to stay as the embodiment of Supreme Spirit, Primary
Cause of the Universe, Pure Consciousness and God incarnate.
Few years before His Mahasamadhi, Baba said that even after
his passing away, He would speak from the Samadhi (tomb). This
assurance came out absolutely true--Baba seems to be more
active now than when He was living. His ways of blessing the
devotees are mysterious and inscrutable.
May the loving grace and blessings of Sai Baba shower in
abundance upon one and all in the universe.
Sri Sai Baba, a personification of spiritual perfection and an
epitome of compassion , lived in the little village of Shirdi
in the state of Maharashtra (India) for sixty years. Like most
of the perfect saints he left no authentic record of his birth
and early life before arriving at Shirdi. In fact, in the face
of his spiritual brilliance such queries do not have much
relevance.
He reached Shirdi as a nameless entity. One of the persons who
first came in contact with him at Shirdi addressed him
spontaneously as 'Sai' which means Savior, Master or Saint.
'Baba' means father as an expression of reverence. In the
Divine play it was designed as such, that He subtly inspired
this person to call Him by this name, which was most
appropriate for His self-allotted mission.
All that we definitely know of Sai Baba is that his arrival at
Shirdi was anonymous. He was first noticed in the outskirts of
the village Shirdi, seated under a 'neem' (margosa) tree,
about the year 1854. However, even this date is not definitely
noted. Sai Baba of these younger days remained a stranger
staying under the neem tree for some time and then suddenly he
left Shirdi to come back again sometime in 1858, and stayed on
there till he left his gross body in the year 1918.
The second advent of Baba at Shirdi, around 1858 was
interestingly quite different from the first. This time he
accompanied a wedding procession as guest of honor. On the
arrival at Shirdi, he was immediately recognized by someone as
the same anonymous saintly personality who used to be seated
under the neem tree a few years earlier and, greeted Him as "Ya
Sai" - Welcome Sai.
In the early days of his stay at Shirdi he spent his time
either wandering in the outskirts of village and neighboring
thorny jungles or sitting under the neem tree totally self
absorbed. The first set of villagers who regarded this saintly
figure were Mhalsapati, Tatya Kote, Bayyaji Bai and few
others. Bayyaji Bai felt deeply motivated by this Divine
Saint, and with her motherly instinct she used to walk miles
on end into the jungles in search of him, carrying food in a
basket on her head. Often she found Sai Baba sitting under
some tree in deep meditation, calm and motionless. She would
boldly approach him, serve the meal and return home.
After sometime as though out of compassion for her, Sai Baba
ceased wandering and moved into a dilapidated mosque in the
outskirts of the village. He referred to this mosque, where He
resided till the end, as 'Dwarkamai' (Dwarka was the place
where Lord Shri Krishna stayed to fulfill His divine Advent).
This mosque 'Dwarkamai' - abode of Sai Baba became Mother of
Mercy for all the time to come.
He had a body of athlete built and in his earlier days he was
fond of wrestling. Another aspect of Sai Baba's personality
was his love for song and dance. In those early years of his
life he used to go to 'Takia' , the public night shelter for
moslem visitors to the village. There in the company of
sojourning devotees and fakirs, he used to dance and sing in
divine bliss, with small tinkles tied around his ankles. The
songs he sang were mostly in Persian or Arabic. Sometimes he
sang some popular songs of Kabir.
He donned a long shirt - 'Kafni' and tied a cloth around his
head, and twisted it into a flowing plait like manner behind
his left ear. He used a piece of sackcloth for his seat and
slept on it with a brick as his pillow. He always declared
that Fakiri (Holy poverty) was far superior to worldly
richness. He was no ordinary fakir but an 'Avatar '
(incarnation) of a very high order. But His external
appearance was of simple, illiterate, moody, emphatic - at
times fiery and abusive and at times full of compassion and
love. In the moments of towering rage people with him thought
it was ungovernable rage. But his anger never prevented his
compassion dealing with the devotees. His anger was evidently
directed at unseen forces. He enacted all these simple traits
only to hide His real identity as the God incarnate. Under the
cover of simplicity He silently worked for the spiritual
transformation and liberation of innumerable souls - human
beings and animals alike, who were drawn to Him, by unseen
forces.
He begged for alms and shared what he got with his devotees
and all the creatures around him. He never kept any food in
reserve for the next meal. He maintained the 'Dhuni' - the
perpetual sacred fire and distributed its ash - 'Udi' as token
of His divine grace to all who came to Him for help. Baba
would ask for 'Dakshina' (money offered with reverence to the
'Guru' or the master) from some of those who came to see him.
This was not because he needed their money but for deeper
significance, which the devotees realized at, an appropriate
time.
Baba used to freely distribute all the money that was received
in the form of Dakshina to the destitute, poor, sick and needy
the very same day. This was one of Baba's methods for testing
out the devotees attachments to worthy things and willingness
to surrender.
He ploughed up the village common land and raised a flower
garden there on, he watered the plants, carrying pots full of
water on his shoulders. In the later years he spent a few
hours in this Lendi garden which he himself had laid out in
the early days.
He was every moment exercising a double consciousness, one
actively utilizing the apparent Ego called 'Sai Baba' dealing
with other egos in temporal and spiritual affairs, and the
other - entirely superseding all egos as the Universal Ego or
Over soul.
He was the common man's God. He lived with them; he slept and
ate with them. Baba had a keen sense of humor. He shared a
'chillum' (clay pipe for smoking) indiscriminately with them
to write off the cast superiority and orthodoxy in their
minds. He had no pretensions of any kind .He was always very
playful in the presence of children. Baba used to feed the
fakirs and devotees and even cook for them.
Saibaba's perfect purity, benevolence, non -attachment,
compassion and other virtues evoked deep reverence in the
villagers around him. His divinity could not conceal itself
for long. Initially when people wanted to worship him
formally, Baba protested and dissuaded them. But gradually he
allowed it with the prescience that it would become the means
for temporal and spiritual benefits to millions of individuals
for all time to come.
The Dwarkamai of Sai Baba was open to all, irrespective of
caste, creed and religion. As the days passed devotees from
all walks of life started streaming into Shirdi. The village
Shirdi was fast assuming prominence. As the gifts and
presentations flowed in, the pomp and grandeur of Sai worship
also increased. But Baba's life of a fakir remained calm,
undisturbed, unaltered and there is the Saint's spiritual
glory.
He lived His divine mission through His pure self in a human
embodiment. The immense energy that was manifest in the body
of Sai was moving in a mysterious way, creating and recreating
itself every where beyond the comprehension of time and space.
This fountainhead of unsurpassed spiritual glory shed His
gross body on 15th October 1918. Every limb, every bone and
pore of his body was permeated with divine essence. Baba
claimed that though one day his physical body will not exist
his remains will communicate with all those who seek him with
inner yearnings. His self-allotted labor of love in his
physical body was perhaps over. Today he continues to work
ever vigorously as the 'Sai Spirit'.
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