Baba's
Passing Away (Continued)
Preparation - Samadhi-Mandir - Breaking of the Brick - 72
Hours' Samadhi - Jog's Sannyas - Baba's Nectar-like Words.
Chapters 43 and 44 continue the story of Baba's Passing
away, and therefore they are taken together.
Previous Preparation
It is the general practice amongst the Hindus that when a
man is about to die, some good religious scripture is read out to him with the
object that his mind should be withdrawn from worldly things and fixed in
matters spiritual, so that his future progress should be natural and easy.
Everybody knows that when king Parikshiti was cursed by the son of a Brahmin Rishi
and was about to die after a week, the great sage Shuka expounded to him the
famous Bahagwat Puran in that week. This practice is followed even now and
Gita, Bhagawat and other sacred books are read out to dying persons. Baba being
an incarnation of God needed no such help, but just to set an example to the
people, He followed this practice. When He knew that He was to pass away soon,
He ordered one Mr.Vaze to read Ramavijaya to Him. Mr.Vaze read the book once in
the week. Then Baba asked him to read the same again day and night and he
finished the second reading in three days. Thus eleven days passed. Then again
he read for three days and was exhausted. So Baba let him go and kept Himself
quiet. He abided on His Self and was waiting for the last moment.
Two or three days previous, Baba had stopped His morning
peregrinations and begging rounds and sat in the Masjid. He was conscious to
the last and was advising the devotees not to lose heart. He let nobody know
the exact time of His departure. Kakasaheb Dixit and Shriman Booty were dining
daily with Him in the Masjid. That day (15th October) after arati, He asked
them to go to their residence for dining. Still a few, viz., Laxmibai Shinde,
Bhagoji Shinde, Bayaji, Laxman Bala Shimpi and Nanasaheb Nimonkar remained
there. Shama was sitting down on the steps. After giving Rs. 9/- to Laxmibai
Shinde, Baba said that He did not feel well there (in the Masjid) and that He
should be taken to the Dagadi (stone) Wada of Booty, where He would be alright.
Saying these last words, He leaned on Bayaji's body and breathed His last.
Bhagoji noticed that His breathing had stopped and he immediately told this to
Nanasaheb Nimonkar who was sitting below. Nanasaheb brought some water and
poured it in Baba's mouth. It came out. Then he cried out loudly 'Oh Deva.'
Baba seemed just to open His eyes and say 'Ah' in a low tone. But it soon
become evident that Baba had left His body for good.
The news of Baba's passing away spread like a wild fire in
the village of Shirdi and all people, men, women and children ran to the Masjid
and began to mourn this loss in various ways. Some cried out loudly, some
wallowed on in the streets and some fell down senseless. Tears ran down from
the eyes of all and every one was smitten with sorrow.
Then the question arose - How to dispose off Baba's body?
Some (Mahomedans) said that the body should be interred in an open space and a
tomb built over it. Even Khushalchand and Amir Shakkar shared this opinion. But
Ramachandra Patil, the village officer said to the villagers with a firm and
determined voice, "Your thought is not acceptable to us. Baba's body
should be nowhere placed except in the Wada." Thus people were divided on
this point and discussion regarding this point went on for 36 hours.
On Wednesday morning Baba appeared to Laxman Mama Joshi in
his dream and drawing him by His hand said - "Get up soon; Bapusaheb
thinks that I am dead and so he won't come; you do the worship and the Kakad
(morning) arati." Laxman Mama was the village astrologer and was the
maternal uncle of Shama. He was an orthodox Brahmin and daily first worshipped
Baba in the morning and then all the village deities. He had full faith in
Baba. After the vision he came with all the pooja materials and not minding the
protests of the moulvis, did the Pooja and the Kakad arati with all due
formalities and went away. Then at noon Bapusaheb Jog came with all others and
went through the noon-arati ceremony as usual.
Paying due respect to Baba's words the people decided to
place His body in the Wada and started digging the central portion there. In
the evening of Tuesday the Sub-Inspector came from Rahata and others from other
places turned up and they all agreed to the proposal. Next morning Amirbhai
came from Bombay and the Mamlatdar from Kopergaon. The people seemed divided in
their opinion. Some insisted on interring His body in the open field. The
Mamlatdar therefore took a general plebiscite and found that the proposal to
use the Wada secured double the number of votes. He, however, wanted to refer
the matter to the Collector and Kakasaheb Dixit got himself ready to go to
Ahmednagar. In the meanwhile, by Baba's inspiration there was a change in the
opinion of the other people and all the people unanimously voted for the
proposal. On Wednesday evening Baba's body was taken in procession and brought
to the Wada and was interred there with due formalities in the garbha, i.e.,
the central portion reserved for Murlidhar. In fact Baba became the Murlidhar
and the Wada became a temple and a holy shrine, where so many devotees went and
are going now to find rest and peace. All the obsequies of Baba were duly
performed by Balasaheb Bhate and Upasani, a great devotee of Baba.
Breaking of the Brick
Some days before Baba's departure, there occurred an
ominous sign foreboding the event. There was, in the Masjid an old brick on
which Baba rested His hand and sat. At night time He leaned against it and had
His asan. This went on for many years. One day, during Baba's absence, a boy
who was sweeping the floor, took it up in his hand, and unfortunately it
slipped from thence fell down broken into two pieces. When Baba came to know
about this, He bemoaned its loss, crying - "It is not the brick but My
fate that has been broken into pieces. It was My life-long companion, with it I
always meditated on the Self, it was as dear to Me as My life, it has left Me
to-day." Some may raise here a question - "Why should Baba express
this sorrow for such an inanimate thing as a brick?" To this Hemadpant
replies that saints incarnate in this world with the express mission of saving
the poor helpless people, and when they embody themselves and mix and act with
the people, they act like them, i.e., outwardly laugh, play and cry like all
other people, but inwardly they are wide awake to their duties and mission.
72 Hours' Samadhi
Thirty two years before this, i.e., in 1886 A.D., Baba made
an attempt to cross the border line. On a Margashirsha Pournima (Full moon)
day, Baba suffered from a severe attack of asthma. To get rid of it Baba
decided to take His prana high up and go into samadhi. He said to Bhagat
Mhalasapti - "Protect My body for three days. If I return, it will be
alright; if I do not, bury My body in that open land (pointing to it) and fix
two flags there as a mark." Saying this, Baba fell down at about 10 P.M.
His breathing stopped, as well as His pulse. It seemed as if His prana left the
body. All the people including the villagers came there and wanted to hold an
inquest and bury the body in the place pointed by Baba. But Mhalasapati
prevented this. With Baba's body on his lap he sat full three days guarding it.
After three days passed, Baba showed signs of life at 3 A.M. His breathing
commenced, the abdomen began to move. His eyes opened and stretching His limbs,
Baba returned to consciousness (life) again.
From this and other accounts, let the readers consider
whether Sai Baba was the three and a half cubits' body that He occupied for
some years and that He left thereafter or He was the Self inside. The body, composed
of the five elements is perishable and transient, but the Self within is the thing - Absolute Reality which is immortal
and intransient. The pure Being, Consciousness or Brahma, the Ruler and
Controller of the senses and mind is the thing Sai. This pervades all things in the
universe and there is no space without it. For fulfilling His mission He
assumed the body and after it was fulfilled, He threw away the body (the finite
aspect), and assumed His infinite aspect. Sai ever lives, as also the previous
Incarnation of God Datta, Shri Narsimha Saraswati of Ganagapur. His Passing
away is only an outward aspect, but really He pervades all animate and
inanimate things and is their Inner Controller and Ruler. This can be, and is
even now experienced by many who surrender themselves completely to Him and
worship Him with whole-hearted devotion.
Though it is not possible for us to see Baba's form now,
still if we go to Shirdi, we shall find His beautiful life-like portrait
adorning the masjid. This has been drawn by Shamrao Jaykar, a famous artist and
well-known devotee of Baba. To an imaginative and devout spectator this
portrait can give even to-day the satisfaction of taking Baba's darshana.
Though Baba has no body now, He lives there and everywhere, and will effect the
welfare of the devotees even now as He was doing before when He was embodied.
Saints like Baba never die, though they look like men, they are in reality God
Himself.
Bapusaheb Jog's Sannyas
Hemadpant closes this chapter with the account of Jog's
sannyas. Sakharam Hari alias Bapusaheb Jog was the uncle of the famous Varkari
Vishnubuva Jog of Poona. After his retirement from Govt. Service (He was a
Supervisor in the P.W. Department) in 1909 A.D., he came and lived in Shirdi
with his wife. He had no issue. Both husband and wife loved Baba and spent all
their time in worshipping and serving Baba. After Megha's death, Bapusaheb
daily did the arati ceremony in the Masjid and Chavadi till Baba's
maha-samadhi. He was also entrusted with the work of reading and explaining
Jnaneshwari and Ekanathi Bhagawat in Sathe's Wada to the audience. After
serving for many years, Jog asked Baba - "I have served you so long, my
mind is not yet calm and composed, how is it that my contact with Saints has
not improved me? When will You bless me?" - Hearing the Bhakta's prayer
Baba replied - "In due time your bad actions (their fruit or result) will
be destroyed, your merits and demerits will be reduced to ashes, and I shall
consider you blessed, when you will renounce all attachments, conquer lust and
palate, and getting rid of all impediments, serve God whole-heartedly and
resort to the begging bowl (accept sannyas)." After some time, Baba's
words came true. His wife predeceased him and as he had no other attachment, he
became free and accepted sannyas before his death and realized the goal of his
life.
Baba's Nectar-like words
The kind and merciful Sai Baba, said many a time the
following sweet words in the Masjid - "He who loves Me most, always sees
Me. The whole world is desolate to him without Me, he tells no stories but
Mine. He ceaselessly meditates upon Me and always chants My name. I feel
indebted to him who surrenders himself completely to Me and ever remembers Me.
I shall repay his debt by giving him salvation (self-realization). I am
dependent on him who thinks and hungers after Me and who does not eat anything
without first offering it to Me. He who thus comes to Me, becomes one with Me,
just as a river gets to the sea and becomes merged (one) with it. So leaving
out pride and egoism and with no trace of them, you should surrender yourself
to Me Who am seated in your heart."
Who is this ME?
Sai Baba expounded many a time Who this ME (or I) is. He said "You need not
go far or anywhere in search of Me. Barring your name and form, there exists in
you, as well as in all beings, a sense of Being or Consciousness of Existence.
That is Myself. Knowing this, you see Me inside yourself, as well as in all
beings. If you practise this, you will realize all-pervasiveness, and thus
attain oneness with Me."
Hemadpant, therefore, makes a bow to the readers and
requests them humbly and lovingly that they should love and respect all Gods,
saints and devotees. Has not Baba often said "He who carps and cavils at
others, pierces Me in the heart and injures Me, but he that suffers and
endures, pleases Me most." Baba thus pervades all beings and creatures and
besets them on all sides. He likes nothing but love to all beings. Such nectar,
pure auspicious ambrosia always flowed from Baba's lips. He therefore,
concludes - Those who lovingly sing Baba's fame and those who hear the same
with devotion, both become one with Sai.
Bow
to Shri Sai - Peace be to all
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