Gracy Saints-Saint Kabir Das

Saint Kabir

(1398 A.D - 1448 A.D)
Saint Kabir Das (kabir, Arabic for "great", dasa, Sanskrit for "slave" or "servant"), is widely acknowledged as one of the great personality of the Bhakti movement in North India. He was as is widely acknowledged born in Year 1398 A.D.(71 years before Guru Nanak). Kabirpanthis (followers of Kabir) say that he lived upto the age of 120 years and give date of his death as 1518, but relying on the research of Hazari Prased Dwivedi, a British Scholar Charlotte Vaudenville is inclined to lend credence to these dates and has prooven that 1448 is probably the correct date of Saint Kabir's demise. He is one of the medieval Indian saints of Bhakti and Sufi movement whose compositions figure in Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib. From among all of them, Kabir's contribution is the largest, 227 Padas in 17 ragas and 237 slokas. Under each raga or musical mode marking a section of the Holy Book, Kabir's hymns appear at the head of Bhagat Bani, a generic name for the works of contributors other than the Gurus. The presence of a substantial amount of Kabir's verse in the Sikh Scripture and chronologically he being the predecessor of Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh faith, led some Western scholars to describe him as the forerunner of Sikhism.
Saint Kabir Das
Some have even called him the preceptor of Guru Nanak There is, however, ample evidence to prove that Guru Nanak and Kabir had ever met their periods of time in fact do not coincide. Kabir's compositions do figure in what are known as Goindval Pothis, anthologies of the hymns of the Gurus along with those of some of the Bhaktas prepared in the time of Guru AmarDas, Nanak III. They were inclucled in the Guru Granth Sahib as well But this happened much later when Guru Arjan, fifth in spiritual line from the Founder, compiled the Holy Book Besides his own works and those of his four predecessors, he entered in it hymns of some saints and mystics, both Hindu and Muslim, Kabir was one of them. Kabir lived in the fifteenth Century after Christ, which was a time of great political upheaval in India. As is true of many contemporary religious teachers, very little reliable information concerning Kabir's life is available, though there is no dearth of legend gathering around him. Kabir's life was centred around Kashi, also called Banaras (Varanasi) Legend has it that he was actually the son of a Brahmin widow who abandoned him and that he was found by a Muslim weaver named Niru, who adopted the boy and taught him the weaver's trade. It is not clear whether he ever married, but tradition gives him a wife named Loi and two children. His caste was that of Julaha and from his sayings his caste's heriditary occupation of weaving. On the basis of modern research, it seems probable that Kabir belonged to a family of non-celibate yogis converted, not long before and to a considerable degree superficially to Islam. From the writings of Kabir it seems that his knowledge of Islam was slight, rather in his poetical utterances (Bani) a wealth of Hathayoga terminology and a thought structure which bears obvious resemblance to Nath Yogis. Nath Yogis in addition to the yogic conception that all truth is experimental, i.e. to be realized within the body with the aid of psycho-physical practices, concentration, control of breathing and thus making the body incorruptible and the yogis immortal. Bhakti movement was started by hindu saints while Sufi mysticism by Muslim saints in medieval India (1200-1700). Kabir immensely contributed to the Bhakti Movement and is considered a pioneer of Bhakti along with Ravidas, Farid, and Namdev. His concept of love as a path of suffering may possibly indicate, in some measure, a debt to the Sufis. These and other elements from Nath tradition, bhakti and sufism, kabir combined with his own mystical nature and produced synthesis which is the distinctive religion of Kabir. Tradition tells us that Swami Ramanand was his Guru (a teacher). In fifteenth century, Benaras was the seat of Brahmin orthodoxy and their learning center. Brahmins had strong hold on all the spheres of life in this city. Thus Kabir belonging to a low caste of Julaha had to go through immense tough time of preaching his idealogy. Kabir and his followers would gather at one place in the city and meditate. Brahmins ridiculed him for preaching to prostitutes and other low castes. Kabir satirically denounced Brahmins and thus won hearts of people around him. There is no doubt that single most famous important person from the city of Benaras today is none other than Saint Kabir. Kabir through his couplets not only reformed the mindset of common villagers and low caste people but give them self confidence to question Brahmins. It was 100 years after him that Tulsidas broke the hegemony of Brahmins by writing Ram Charitra Manas, a poem of Ramayana at Benaras which went against the tradition of Brahmins. Kabir was in fact first person to go against Brahmins and be so successfull. Benaras was devasted by an attack by a Muslim invader Tamur Lang or "Tamur the lame" during his time. Kabir also denounced mullahs and their rituals of bowing towards kaba five times a day. Because of open condemnation of established and popular religoins, Kabir became an object of the wrath of both Hindus and Muslims in and around Benaras. Kabir travelled in and around Benaras to preach his beliefs. Kabir believed in sell-surrender and God's bhakti. The Kabirpanthis follow a lite of singing the praises of God, prayers and a simple and pure life of devotion. Kabir recommends ceaseless singing of God's praises. He virtually suggests withdrawal from the world. He is against al1 ritualistic and ascetic methods as means to salvation. It is true that Kabir refers to some yogic terms in describing the meditational and mystic methods of the yogis. But, there is no ground to suggest that he himself recommends the yogic path. In fact, far from recommending yoga, he is quite strong in condemning ascetic or yogic methods, and says that yogis, in their meditations, become prey to maya. The point wil1, however be considered further while comparing Radical bhakti with Nathism.
The moral tone is quite strong in Kabir's hymns. "Kabir deck thyself with garments of love. Love them is given honour whose body and soul speak the truth." "The ruby of goodness is greater than all thc mines of rubies, all the wealth of three worlds resides in the goodness of heart. When thc wealth of contentment is won, all other wealth is as dust." "Where there is mercy, there is strength, where there is forgivenesss there is He." "The man who is kind and practises righteousness, who remains passive in the aftairs of the world, who considers creatures of the world as his own self, he attains the immortal Being; the true God is ever with him. Kabir suggests inward worship and remembrance of God. For him, true worship is only inwards. Put on the rosary inward. By counting beads, the world will be full of light. He clearly suggests moral discrimination betwecn good and bad deeds. What can the helpless road do, when the traveller does not walk understandingly. "What can one do, if, with lamp in hand, one falls in the well." "Or goes astray with open eyes. Discern ye now between good and evil." It is not surprising that Kabir's satire was brought to bear not simply on the vices and weaknesses of men but reached through and beyond them to the very system themselves. It was the authority of Vedas and Quran that more then the authority of Brahmin or Qazi which Kabir attacked. He rebelled against the pretension of resolving by the means of books or by way of authority, the mystery of human conditions and the problem of liberation (Moksha). He spent his last 40 days living in a place where it was believed that if you die you will born as a Donkey in next life. Kabir is a firm advocate of ahimsa. His doctrine extends even to the nondestruction of flowers. " The life of the living you strike dead and you say your slaughter makes it dedicated. It is blood haunting you and those who taught you." "They fast all day, and at night they slaughter the cow; here murder, there devotion; how can this please God? O' Kazi, by whose order doth thou use thy knife." "When you declare the sacrifice of an animal as your religion, what else is sin. If you regard yourself a saint, whom will you call a butcher ?" "The goat eats grass and is skinned, what will happen to those who eat (goat's) meat? "Do not kill poor jiva, murder will not be forgiven even if you hear a million Puranas. Among the fifty commandments laid down for the followers of Kabir, vegetarianism is one of them. For Kabir, moral life involves adherence to ahimsa. In common with all monastic, ascetic or otherworldly sects, Kabir does not think well of women. Ihere is almost a tirade against them in the hymns of Kabir. Woman is characterised as "a black cobra', thc pit of hell and the refuse of the world." She is considered to be a hurdle in the path of thc spiritual progress of man. He spoke, "woman ruins everything when she comes near a man; Devotion, salvation and divine knowledge no longer enter his soul." His views, about woman are also evident from all his vehement attacks against maya. Almost everywhere he links maya to a woman who is out to entice and entrap man, and destroy his spiritual lifc. Such views about woman from a married person arc, indeed, quite uncommon. The cosmological views of Kabir give a clear clue to his worldview. He finds Niranjana to be the creator of the world; maya or woman. And this woman stands between man and god. She is there to entice him away from Him. Kabir composed no systematic treatise, rather his work consists of many short didactic poems, often expressed in terse vigorous language in the form of Padas, Dohas, and Ramainis (forms of poetry in Indian languages). Besides his work recorded in 1604 A.D. in Guru Granth Sahib by Guru Arjan Dev, Nanak V, and preserved inviolate since, two other collections exist - Kabir Granthavali, and Bijak. In his poems, he was quick to tell the illustrations of moral and spiritual truth in the incidents of everyday life , and many of his similes and metaphors are very striking.

Gracy Saints - Shri Ramkrishna Paramhamsa

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Ramakrishna Parmahamsa is perhaps the best known saint of nineteenth century India. He was born in a poor Brahmin family in 1836, in a small town near Calcutta, West Bengal. As a young man, he was artistic and a popular storyteller and actor. His parents were religious, and prone to visions and spiritual dreams. Ramakrishna's father had a vision of the god Gadadhara (Vishnu) while on a religious pilgrimage. In the vision, the god told him that he would be born into the family as a son.
Young Ramakrishna was prone to experiences of spiritual reverie and temporary loss of consciousness. His early spiritual experiences included going into a state of rapture while watching the flight of a cranes, and loosing consciousness of the outer world while playing the role of the god Shiva in a school play.
Ramakrishna had little interest in school or practical things of the world. In 1866, he became a priest at a recently dedicated temple to the Goddess Kali located near Calcutta on the Ganges River. It was built by a pious widow, Rani Rasmani. Ramakrishna became a full-time devotee to the goddess spending increasing amounts of time giving offerings and meditating on her. He meditated in a sacred grove of five trees on the edge of the temple grounds seeking a vision of the goddess Kali.
At one point he became frustrated, feeling he could not live any longer without seeing Kali. He demanded that the goddess appear to him. He threatened to take his own life with a ritual dagger (normally held in the hand of the Kali statue). At this point, he explained how the goddess appeared to him as an ocean of light:
When I jumped up like a madman and seized [a sword], suddenly the blessed Mother revealed herself. The buildings with their different parts, the temple, and everything vanished from my sight, leaving no trace whatsoever, and in their stead I saw a limitless, infinite, effulgent Ocean of Consciousness. As far as the eye could see, the shining billows were madly rushing at me from all sides with a terrific noise, to swallow me up. I was caught in the rush and collapsed, unconscious … within me there was a steady flow of undiluted bliss, altogether new, and I felt the presence of the Divine Mother. Mahendranath Gupta, Ramakrsna Kathamrta translated by Swami Nikhilananda as The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (Mylapore: Sri Ramakrsna Math, 1952), Book 1, p. 15
Ramakrishna's behavior became more erratic as time passed and began to worry his family and employer. He would take on ritual and mythical roles identifying with figures from the Puranas (medieval Indian holy books describing the adventures of gods). His parents found him a wife hoping his mental instability was a result of his celibacy.
About this time, an elderly holy woman named Bhairavi Brahmani appeared and determined that Ramakrishna's madness was "spiritual madness" rather than ordinary madness. He was literally mad for the vision of God. She convened a group of respected religious leaders who examined Ramakrishna's symptoms. They concluded that this was a case of divine madness similar in nature to that of other famous saints such as Caitanya (a fifteenth century Bengali saint). From this point on, people began to treat Ramakrishna with more respect though his unusual behavior in worship and meditation continued. The holy women stayed with Ramakrishna for some time teaching him yogic and tantric meditation techniques.
A yogin named Totapuri then became Ramakrishna's mentor. Ramakrishna adopted the role of renunciant and learned a nondualist form of Vedanta philosophy from him. In this system, God is understood to be the formless unmanifest energy that supports the cosmos. Ramakrishna experienced a deep form of trance (nirvilkalpa samadhi) under the guidance of this teacher. This state can be described as complete absorption of the soul into the divine ocean of consciousness.
Disciples began to appear at this point in Ramakrishna's life. He embarked on a long period of teaching where he gathered a group of disciples around him. This period of his life is well documented by two sets of books written by his disciples. These references are listed below.
Ramakrishna explained on different occasions that god is both formed and formless and can appear to the devotee either way. He often asked visitors whether they conceived of god as having qualities or as being beyond qualities. He then proceeded to teach the devotee according to the way he or she viewed the divine. His acceptance of different approaches to the worship of God and the validity of different religious paths, such as Christianity and Islam, is in the best tradition of the universalist approach to religion common throughout India today.
One extraordinary quality of Ramakrishna's message was its universal appeal to a broad cross section of Indian society. In the West, religions like Christianity and Judaism tend to be exclusive, and find the contradictions that arise from a religion that is too broad to be objectionable. If one religious approach is right, the others must be wrong. But the Indian mind tends to more readily accept someone like Ramakrishna who preaches universality of religion and accepts and even promotes individuality in the seeker's approach to God. For instance, Ramakrishna appealed to the upper classes who are likely to follow a Vedantist or philosophical approach to religion by sometimes describing God as a nondual formless essence.
His description of Kali as an ocean of light had much in common with the ocean of Brahman that the Brahmins (the traditional priestly caste) seek to encounter when they are initiated into the Gayatri mantra, or the mantra of the sun. One divine ocean of consciousness may be difficult to distinguish from another.
Ramakrishna also appealed to those with an interest in yoga and esoteric practices by practicing a nondual form of meditation prescribed by Totapuri which seeks samadhi.
The most popular religious practice by far in India is bhakti, or devotion to a deity. Ramakrishna's message was welcomed by both the rural and urban religious people who did puja to the divine mother Kali as a protective and benevolent deity (Kali also has a fierce and destructive side which she generally does not show to those who worship her). These devotees saw him as a great teacher and bhakta who sang the names of God and talked incessantly about God. They too did puja and sang Kali's name in hopes of having healthy children, getting good jobs or marriages, or producing a plentiful harvest. The sincere devotee could even hope for a vision or dream of the divine mother.
Those who followed the Vedic prescription of religious universalism summed up in the phrase "There is but one Truth, but sages call it by different names" noted that Ramakrishna practiced the rituals of many religions, and found that they all brought him to the same divine reality in the end. For those who worshiped many different saints and deities throughout India, this universal approach echoed their own multi-faceted religious practices.
Finally, for those with a strong sense of Hindu nationalism, Ramakrishna's chief disciple, Swami Vivekananda, entered onto the world stage by doing a keynote address at the World Parliament of Religions meeting in Chicago in 1893, and he electrified his audience. Hindus for generations could point to their indigenous traditions with pride after his exemplary speech.
Vivekananda also promoted a more activist form of Hinduism, which focused on education, feeding the poor, and developing libraries and other institutions. His works were a way of showing Hindus that it was not only the Christian missionaries that could benefit society, but that Hindu religion was also valuable with respect to improving society and combating social ills.
Ramakrishna died of cancer of the throat in 1886, leaving his wife Sarada Devi who was considered a saint in her own right to take charge of his disciples and carry on his message.
Ramakrishna and Psychological Reductionism
An unusual development in modern attempts to understand Ramakrishna’s life has been the recent application of psychoanalytic theory to his experience. While a large majority of psychologists consider psychoanalytic theory to be discredited, historians of religion have resuscitated this moribund methodology in an attempt to explain the existence of Ramakrishna’s mystical experience. Specifically, it is claimed that Ramakrishna's mystical states (and through generalization all mystical states) are a pathological response to alleged childhood sexual trauma.
There are, however, some serious problems with the attempt to apply this form of psychological reductionism to Ramakrishna. First, the most recent proponent and popularizer of this theory is not a psychologist and has no formal training in psychoanalytic (or any clinical) theory. Second, he is doing his analysis based on a set of biographical texts rather than direct contact with an individual patient in a clinical environment. Psychoanalysis is a highly interactive process, and analysis of textual data cannot begin to approximate the complex and detailed information provided by the one-on-one relationship that develops between patient and analyst. Applying the psychoanalytic method to one or more texts about a person is therefore likely to result in a failure to understand the patient. Third, the author is working in a thoroughly non-western culture where is it highly questionable whether Western psychoanalytic theory even applies. Fourth, the author has been shown to have difficulty understanding the nuances of the Bengali culture in general as well as the Bengali language in which Ramakrishna's biographical texts are written. He spent a mere eight months in West Bengal most of it apparently in libraries and on this basis makes grandiose claims about understanding both the mind and cultural environment of the renowned saint. This limited exposure makes him subject to serious errors in translation and to misinterpretation of both cultural and textual data.
These would be serious problems even if psychoanalysis were among the newest and most accepted psychological theories. Combining them with the fact that psychoanalytic theory is disrespected and ignored by most of today’s psychologists seems to call the whole reductionist enterprise into question.
The fact that many historians of religion have eagerly embraced this antiquated Freudian methodology in an attempt to understand Ramakrishna and mystical phenomena in general is an indication that the field may be in trouble. Historians of religion and those in the field of religious studies who grant awards to books based on cultural and psychoanalytic illiteracy seem to be at a loss to find a better methodology by which to understand saints and their religious experience.

GRACY SAINT-GOSWAMI TULSIDAS

GOSWAMI TULSIDAS

Tulsidas was born in Rajpur, in the district of Banda in Uttar Pradesh, in Samvat 1589 or 1532 A.D. He was a Sarayuparina Brahmin by birth and is regarded as an incarnation of Valmiki, the author of Ramayana written in Sanskrit. His father’s name was Atmaram Shukla Dube and his mother’s name Hulsi. Tulsidas did not cry at the time of his birth. He was born with all the thirty-two teeth intact. In childhood his name was Tulsiram or Ram Bola.
Tulsidas’s wife’s name was Buddhimati (Ratnavali). Tulsidas’s son’s name was Tarak. Tulsidas was passionately attached to his wife. He could not bear even a day’s separation from her. One day his wife went to her father’s house without informing her husband. Tulsidas stealthily went to see her at night at his father-in-law’s house. This produced a sense of shame in Buddhimati. She said to Tulsidas, "My body is but a network of flesh and bones. If you would develop for Lord Rama even half the love that you have for my filthy body, you would certainly cross the ocean of Samsara and attain immortality and eternal bliss". These words pierced the heart of Tulsidas like an arrow. He did not stay there even for a moment. He abandoned home and became an ascetic. He spent fourteen years in visiting the various sacred places of pilgrimage.
While returning from answering the calls of nature, Tulsidas used to throw the water that was left in his water-pot at the roots of a tree which a spirit was occupying. The spirit was very much pleased with Tulsidas. The spirit said, "O man! Get a boon from me". Tulsidas replied, "Let me have Darshan of Lord Rama". The spirit said, "Go to the Hanuman temple. There Hanuman comes in the guise of a leper to hear the Ramayan as the first hearer and leaves the place last of all. Get hold of him. He will help you". Accordingly, Tulsidas met Hanuman, and through His grace, had Darshan or vision of Lord Rama.
Tulsidas wrote twelve books. The most famous book is his Ramayan—Ram-charit-manas—in Hindi. He wrote this book under the directions of Hanuman. This Ramayan is read and worshipped with great reverence in every Hindu home in Northern India. It is an inspiring book. It contains sweet couplets in beautiful rhyme. Vinaya Patrika is another important book written by Tulsidas.
Some thieves came to Tulsidas’s Ashram to take away his goods. They saw a blue-complexioned guard, with bow and arrow in his hands, keeping watch at the gate. Wherever they moved, the guard followed them. They were frightened. In the morning they asked Tulsidas, "O venerable saint! We saw a young guard with bow and arrow in his hands at the gate of your residence. Who is this man?" Tulsidas remained silent and wept. He came to know that Lord Rama Himself had been taking the trouble to protect his goods. He at once distributed all his wealth among the poor.
Tulsidas lived in Ayodhya for some time. Then he shifted to Varanasi. One day a murderer came and cried, "For the love of Rama give me alms. I am a murderer". Tulsi called him to his house, gave him sacred food which had been offered to the Lord and declared that the murderer was purified. The Brahmins of Varanasi reproached Tulsidas and said, "How can the sin of a murderer be absolved? How could you eat with him? If the sacred bull of Siva—Nandi—would eat from the hands of the murderer, then only we would accept that he had been purified". Then the murderer was taken to the temple and the bull ate from his hands. The Brahmins were put to shame.
Tulsidas once went to Brindavan. He visited a temple. He saw the image of Lord Krishna. He said, "How shall I describe Thy beauty, O Lord! But Tulsi will bow his head only when You take up bow and arrow in Your hands". The Lord revealed Himself before Tulsidas in the form of Lord Rama with bow and arrows.
Tulsidas’s blessings brought the dead husband of a poor woman back to life. The Moghul emperor at Delhi came to know of the great miracle done by Tulsidas. He sent for Tulsidas. Tulsidas came to the emperor’s court. The emperor asked the saint to perform some miracle. Tulsidas replied, "I have no superhuman power. I know only the name of Rama". The emperor put Tulsi in prison and said, "I will release you only if you show me a miracle". Tulsi then prayed to Hanuman. Countless bands of powerful monkeys entered the royal court. The emperor got frightened and said, "O saint, forgive me. I know your greatness now". He at once released Tulsi from prison.
Tulsi left his mortal coil and entered the Abode of Immortality and Eternal Bliss in 1623 A.D. at the age of ninety-one at Asighat in Varanasi.

Gracy Saints-Shirdi wale Sai Baba

SHIRDI WALE SAI BABA

The mystic Sai Baba (1838 - 1918) is one of those peculiar Indian phenomena that so exasperate all those who want rational thinking and an ordered sequence to biographies. For while it is indubitable that Sai Baba lived in the public eye for over fifty years, it is also only too true that his life has almost no connection with normality as it is generally understood. Amongst his many devotees there is a breathtaking disregard for evidence and a dazzling susceptibility to the miraculous. In fact as a rule of thumb, a miraculous rather than natural explanation for any act of his is normally preferred. Sai Baba has suffered the fate of all saints - he is swallowed by the hagiographies. Even by Indian standards however his life makes for most peculiar reading. He has become transformed into a myth, rather than a real person of great spiritual attainments. A myth gives meaning to reality without fully embodying it. If we use that as a working definition for the phenomenon of Sai Baba then we can make more sense of all that has been proclaimed in his name.Shirdi was, and is, a little dusty no-horse town about twenty-eight kilometers from Nasik city in Maharashtra and about a hundred kilometers from Pune city. It was of no consequence before the saint decided to settle down there. It is today one of the fastest growing pilgrimage centers in India. Of all the miracles attributed to Baba, as he is known, perhaps none is more impressive than the fact that a dead man continues to be the economic mainstay of thousands of people. The entire town in fact, has a rationale only because of him.Baba has become, in the communally surcharged atmosphere of today, a useful tool to promote the synthetic and ineffective notions of Harmony that are deemed useful for the ignorant masses. As a consequence you find all sorts of literature and even a court judgment that repeats the currently popular line that He was neither Hindu nor Muslim. While true at an absolute level, the facts seem to be at variance with this comforting and agreeable belief.Briefly, Sai Baba seems to have been born of Hindu parents, raised up by Muslim foster parents, lived as a Sufi fakir all his life, and died with enough ambiguity about his behavior to be classified as belonging to all. In practice he has been almost completely Hinduised and his memorial is now a full-fledged temple, with all the daily rituals of pooja as performed at any other temple. Even the story of this birth has enough elements of the miraculous. His parents were supposed to be Brahmins of the village of Patri, in Aurangabad and then under the Nizam's dominions. Today it is in Maharashtra state. His father was supposed to be one Ganga Bavadia and his mother a Devigiriamma. As his birth neared however, his father felt that most powerful of all impulses in India, vairagya, the irresistible pressure to renounce the world. His wife followed him on this quest. She was overcome by labour pains in a forest close by, but the gripped-by-vairagya Bavadia left her there and forged on.
In the cultural context of this mythic retelling of divine origins, this is not reprehensible behavior but actually a laudable act. The urge to seek God overcomes all other emotions, no matter how cruel the behavior may seem and it reflects on Baba's glory too that he had a father so determined to renounce the world. A grand and terrible gesture somehow reassures the devotees that the vairagya is the real thing. His wife gave birth, wrapped up the infant in some cloth and abandoned him, hastening after her husband. That too is regarded as laudable in the context, her duty prescribes she follows her husband no matter the cost.A wandering Sufi fakir and his wife chanced upon the infant in one of those miraculous coincidences, and as they had no children themselves, kept the boy as an act of God.There is no evidence for any of this except pure hearsay and the doubtful process of inner insights offered at various times by various people, but for the faithful that is enough. Indeed this story was never meant to be taken seriously as we understand it in modern times. It was always a divine origin myth, and it needs to be treated at that level. Even the life of Kabir, a medieval saint, has this abandonment by Brahmin parents and Muslim upbringing theme. Indeed Baba is supposed to be a reincarnation of Kabir. His devotees have at some time or the other claimed him to be a reincarnation of almost every divinity known to India so that is that.The young boy lost his foster father when he was five and his mother put him into a sort of ashram at Selu, run by one Venkusha - who may have been Hindu or Muslim. (We never know what Baba's name was before he came to Shirdi, so perforce we have to call him boy.) In another typical mythical construct, his brilliance outshone all the students there and excited their jealousy, so much so that a murderous assault was made upon him. His attacker immediately falls down, struck by divine retribution, and Baba performs his first miracle in restoring him to health.About the age of sixteen Baba suddenly appeared in Shirdi, looking like a typical wandering Sufi fakir. In later life he spoke of his teacher, one Roshan Shah, who had initiated him into this path and there is some confusion whether Venkusha is a mispronunciation of Roshan Shah. After a sojourn of about two months he disappeared again into the great open spaces of India, performing the wanderjahre that is so essential a part of all Indian spiritual striving. He reappeared in Shirdi in 1858 and then never budged from the spot till his death in 1918.It is ironic that the saint wanted to live in the near-abandoned Khandoba temple but was stopped by the person who would become his first and closest devotee, Mhalsapathi. This Brahmin priest was shocked at the thought of this Muslim-looking person entering the temple and subtly suggested that he might consider an old abandoned mosque instead. This was the famous greeting that gave the saint his name. "Ya Sai, (Welcome Sai) are you looking for the mosque?" Sai was a common appellation for the Muslim fakirs of the time, and Baba accepted both the name and the hint with a quiet, "Then let it be so". Strangely, he named the masjid (mosque) where he would live out all his life, and where his Muslim followers would regularly offer namaz, as Dwarka Mai or Mother Dwarka. Dwarka is the holy city associated with Krishna and this was very peculiar indeed.Sai Baba's mystic quest did not end once he had settled down. He practiced a great deal of austerities and meditations regularly at spots he claimed to recall from previous births. His spiritual stature was growing by leaps and bounds and some time in 1886 he had a direct experience of union with god. So strong was this state that his body exhibited all the symptoms of death for three full days and only the faith of Mhalsapathi prevented the body from being carted away. After this incident he began to manifest his miraculous powers regularly.Sai Baba had also become a beacon of sorts for all the Sufis on the spiritual path at the time and they were constantly drawn to the sheer power of his spirit. He regarded himself as a sort of mentor, not a guru to these fakirs and he was always giving them advise and spiritual exercises and instructions. After his death and the building of a temple over his remains the numbers of these Sufis coming to Shirdi have declined drastically. It is a matter of great regret, one that has been overlooked in the general rush to proclaim Sai Baba as a via media between the Hindus and Muslims. This is the famous Boa constrictor simile used to describe the assimilative powers of the Hindu cultural system, and there could be actually no better example than that of Sai Baba.The mystic used to keep a fire going which was never allowed to be extinguished and it is still tended to today. The ash, udi, from this fire became his panacea for all illnesses as well as a blessing he would hand out. The Sufi tradition does have a constantly tended fire amongst its practices, so it is not as Hindu as it may appear. He also developed the practice of never sleeping two nights in a row at the same spot. Every day he would switch from the masjid to a structure known as the chavdi, and reverse the process the next day. In the last years of his life this had become a spectacle of its own with a crowd of devotees trailing him. In the last eight years of his life Baba had also allowed his Hindu devotes to offer worship to him as if he were a Deity in a temple and that has a lot to do with subsequent events.Sai Baba's miracles were the reason he became immensely famous even in his own lifetime. These miracles are accepted in the Sufi tradition as special dispensations of God's grace and as signs of the holiness of the fakir. These miracles are known as Kara mat to distinguish them from the miracles of the Prophet Mohammed, which are unique to him alone, unrepeatable, and are known as mu'jizat. Baba had all the familiar features of such powers. He knew what was going on in people's minds, he could discern the karmic causes of their miseries, he had the power of bilocation and he could dole out wealth. Sai Baba was supposed to have saved a great many devotees from physical harm and accidents and he was a famous curer of disease. He used to give away money as soon as he got it and a steady stream of it poured out to benefit all the wandering fakirs and devotees. He also had the rather disconcerting habit of telling people to look for money at the spot where they went to answer the call of nature! There are many people who claimed to be so enrichened. But the prime reason for his fame was his perceived ability to remove the curse of sterility and barrenness. In child-mad India that was enough to convert the few faithful into a flood of miracle seekers. Apparently the code was a mango-gift for boy children and a tamarind for female offspring. The mystic himself had never any patience with pretence and self-importance in anybody and his temper was formidable. He was called the mad fakir for his apparently bizarre behavior, a famous example being his grinding enormous quantities of wheat during a cholera epidemic and then spreading the flour in a circle round Shirdi. Shirdi escaped the cholera ravaging the district and his reputation grew immensely. In his teachings there was never anything specifically Hindu in terms of terminology, theology or philosophy. On the contrary, he was constantly muttering "Allah Malik" or God is the master, and he used to indulge in typical Sufi practices like the bhandara, a community feast with meat dishes, hardly a Hindu practice.In India a guru or saint who promises or seems to promise miracles is always more popular than a guru who teaches and gives knowledge. Baba became popular because of his miracles but he was also the spiritual guide for a lot of people, a fact that is forgotten or submerged under the tide of miracle-seeking devotees. He had no system or rituals that needed following, it was a set of spiritual practices that he would prescribe to each aspirant according to their individual natures and their abilities. It is a tragedy that there is almost no literature on this aspect of his life, and nobody seems to have focused on collating the data on this topic.Since Baba never left a systematic compendium of his teachings, none emerged. He used to teach according to the needs of his querents and he used all the common theological ideas current in this time. Because he was so eminently of a tradition that did not value the codification of knowledge, preferring the company of holy men, it is difficult to set down any philosophy of Sai Baba as such. There isn't any. The mystic is the message, period. He is actually dangerously close to being regarded as an avatar of god and many millions of people do so regard him as such, literally god on earth. Debate and discussion is difficult in these circumstances. Sai Baba's representations are now found all over India and nearly every taxi and auto-rickshaw in Maharashtra carries a little image or photo of him as a talisman. As a real focus of religious belief he is hard to beat.Shortly before his death however he set down Eleven Promises, or articles of faith .We reproduce them to give some insight into the zeitgeist of this faith.
Whoever sets foot on the soil of Shirdi has their sufferings come to an end.
The wretched and unhappy will experience joy as soon as they climb the steps of the mosque.
I shall always be active even after leaving this earthly body.
My tomb shall bless and fulfill the needs of my devotees.
I shall be active and vigorous even from the tomb.
My mortal remains shall speak from the tomb.
I am ever alive, to help and guide all who come to me, who surrender to me and who seek refuge in me.
If you look to me, I look to you.
If you put your burden on me, I shall surely bear it.
If you seek my advice and help, it shall be given to you at once.
In my devotee's house there shall be no want.
The more contemporary Sai Baba is the world famous god man at Puttaparthi, he of the flaming silk robes and Afro hairstyle. He claims to be the reincarnation of the Shirdi Sai Baba and has a colossal following. He has also made the interesting prediction that he will die in 2O22 and then the same Sai energy will reincarnate after seven years. The two sets of followers maintain an uneasy peace between themselves.Shirdi is a spot of unusually strong spiritual power and it can hit people almost physically if they are so attuned. That a spiritual giant had once lived and meditated there is only too evident. A great many people still have significant spiritual experiences there. Even one of Indiayogi's Panelists, Justice Dudhat, met a spiritual teacher there who significantly shifted his life. The kitsch that is making Shirdi into a spiritual supermarket is a looming danger for the future. As it stands today however it is a monument to the sheer magnificent power of ones man's attainments in living the life spiritual.