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Chapter
XLIII & XLIV
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to him with the object that his mind should be withdrawn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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