Shri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram
Shri Sainath (alias Sai Baba) Maharaj, the Saint of world fame, first appeared in Shirdi as a very handsome lad of sixteen about the year 1872 A. D. Shirdi is a small village abutting on the Agra Trunk Road, in the Kopargaon Taluka, in the Ahmednagar District. Upto now there is no reliable information about the birthplace and parentage of Shri Sai Baba. This much is certain that Sai Baba was very familiar with several places in the Nizam’s territory. In his talks he several times used to mention Shelu, Jama, Manvad, Pathri, Parbhani, Nowrangabad (Aurangabad), Bid, Bedar, all Moglai places. Once a man from Pathri had come to take Baba’s darshan. Baba’s inquiries made from this man about the Pathri village and several of its well-known residents showed that he knew the place very intimately; but this alone does not warrant that Pathri was Baba’s birthplace.
So also whether Baba was born a Brahmin or a Musalman cannot be authoritatively stated.
Once Baba said to the late Hari Sitaram Dikshit (well-known in Mumbai as Bhausaheb Dikshit and in Shirdi as Kakasaheb Dikshit) that after Baba left his body, Baba would return as a lad of eight years (i.e. exactly as Lord Shri Krishna had done). Many devotees of Baba believed him to be an incarnation, and not an evolved saint, and all this belief of theirs was based on their own personal observation of what Baba spoke and did. Although Sai Baba at times used to please himself by uttering “Yade Haqq” (i.e. I always remember God) and avoided the expression “Anal Haqq” (i.e. I am God), still innumerable cases have been recorded where Baba’s thousands of devotees have realised the omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence of Shri Sai Baba.
Shri Sai Baba came to Shirdi along with a marriage procession of a relation of one Chandbhai, the Patil of the village of Dhoopkhede.
Prior to this, one of the said Chandbhai’s horses had strayed into the jungle and could not be traced for a long time. On a lookout for his missing horse, Chandbhai while wandering in the jungle, sighted Sai Baba sitting under a tree. He had never seen Baba before. Sai Baba called him, saying “Go a smoking chilim” Chandbhai said, that he was in search of his missing horse and could not afford to thus loiter on his way. Sai Baba told him not to worry, and that his horse would be found grazing on the other side of a hedge further on this Chandbhai hastened to that spot, and to his great astonishment found his valuable and beloved missing horse grazing exactly as stated by Sai Baba. Chandbhai was a devout and God fearing person, and promptly presented himself before Sai Baba with his horse, in a suppliant mood and expressing his desire to partake of the chilim. But there was no fire for lighting the chilim, nor water for moistening the chilim cloth. Sai Baba by a stroke of a pair of pincers at one place produced a fire and by another stroke nearby, water came out, and thus this enviable jungle chilim party, convinced Chandbhai that Sai Baba was certainly a being of a very high order, and therefore, requested him to go with him (Chandbhai in his house. Sai Baba told Chandbhai that he would come the following day, and did accordingly. After a few days’ stay at Chandbhai’s to the greatest good luck of the people of Shirdi Sai Baba came to Shirdi with the said marriage procession which camped in a field near the Khandoba’s temple on the outskirts of the village. One Mhalsapati, a goldsmith by cast of Shirdi was a devotee of Shri Khandoba and visited the temple daily. There, when this Mhalsapati first saw Sai Baba the former spontaneously accosted him thus, “Welcome Sai Baba’ and this is the name i.e. ‘Sai Baba’ by which thereafter this Said of saints became known to the world. Sometime after coming to Shirdi, when Sai Baba happened to be examined on commission in a case, in answering the question as to what his name was, Sai Baba said, “I am called Sai Baba”. Mhalsapat brought Sai Baba inside the village and there introduced him (Baba) to his (Mhalsapati’s) friends, Kashiram Shimpi and Appa Jagle. These three Shirdi folks (i.e. Mhalsapati, Kashiram and Appa Jagle) were in the habit of welcoming according to their means, whoever came to their village, especially people who had renounced the world or were of an ascetic nature.
After the marriage, the marriage procession went back, but Sai Baba chose to remain in Shirdi to the great joy of the above trio, who eventually become Sai Baba’s devout worshippers. Both Kashiram and Appa died after some years on Ekadashi’ days, thus giving proof of their devotion to Shri Sai Baba. Kashiram worshipped Sai Baba with his ‘Tan’ (body), ‘Man’ (mind) and ‘Dhan’ (his wealth). Sai Baba used to wear white or orange colour ‘Kafani’, but Kashiram had prepared a green Kafani and cap for Sai Baba. But later on, Sai Baba wore white Kafani and folded a pieces of white cloth on his head. Kashiram used to provide tobacco for chilim and firewood for the ‘Dhuni6 ‘ and also to give him some money. Later on he placed every month all his cash before Sai Baba requesting the latter to take as much as he liked. At that time Sai Baba never took any money from anybody as dakshina; still from Kashiram he used to take a pice or two always… Kashiram had become so much attached to Sai Baba that he always prayed that Sai Baba should take money from him. If on any occasion Sai Baba refused to take anything from Kashiram, he was grieved and shed tears. That this mentality was a kind of egoism and a hindrance to the realisation of one’s self, has been taught by Sai Baba to hundreds of his later devotees, by bringing home to them, that, nobody was rich enough to give whatever dakshina Sai Baba would ask for and so it eventually happened to Kashiram, who later on could not pay what Sai Baba asked for, as his financial state became poorer and poorer, and then he fully realised that it was mere vanity on his part to think, that he could pay anything that Sai Baba would demand. After such conviction, Kashiram’s financial condition gradually improved and he became happy, but never again panted before, to pay whatever Sai Baba would demand.
Kashiram was a trader in cloth and so visited several villages on bazaar days. Once while returning from Naw. bazaar, he was waylaid by dacoits. Kashiram was horse-back and the dacoits did not go for him first; but waylaid the carts that were going along with him and when they saw Kashiram, they ran towards him, and began to ransack him. Kashiram surrendered everything except a small bundle, which the robbers thought contained money. As a matter of fact it contained powdered sugar. A saint Janakidas Baba; had advised Kashiram to put such sugar before ants, and as Kashiram always carried a packet of sugar with him, and considered it a great treasure; and come what may, be would never let this packet go. In the struggle, Kashiram saw a sword nearby; dropped by one of the robbers. Kashiram got hold of this sword and killed two of the robbers outright; but a third robber gave a blow with an axe on the head of Kashiram, who fell do in a pool of blood, almost dead. The remaining robbers too! Kashiram for dead and left him there. After a time, Kashir; regained consciousness and recovered after some days, he had complete faith in Sai Baba as God incarnate, he decline’ to be removed to the hospital but urged the people to take him straight to Shirdi. At Shirdi, Sai Baba asked Madhavrao Deshpande to attend to him, and Kashiram recovered with the treatment ordered by Sai Baba. The Government of Bombay rewarded Kashiram with a sword for this valour against the dacoits. While Kashiram had been struggling with the dacoits, Sai Baba in Shirdi, was vociferating and abusing in anger looking towards the direction of Kashiram. The devotees nearby at once felt, that some devotee of Sai Baba must be in grave danger, and all this anger and fighting mood was meant to fight against, and avert the danger, of his devotee, a phenomenon which ultimately appeared to be too true. There were many armed robbers against Kashiram was able to defy them and escape from the jaws of death. But as it is said the killer is always helpless before the Saviour. Kashiram lived after this for some years and died in Shaka 1830 on Chaitra Ekadashi Day.
This incident at the start, which is only one out of hundreds if not thousands that happened later on, is convincing proof of what Sai Baba really was; and 1stly. It proves that Sai Baba was completely merged in the Atman pervading the entire Universe, and therefore could at once know what was happening everywhere in the entire Universe. 2ndly. He had the power to so arrange the struggle that Kashiram could slay two robbers; that the axe blow on the head could not entirely kill Kashiram; that the robbers could be deluded to take him for dead and that within such a long period intervening between Kashiram’s bleeding and his arrival at Shirdi, hemorrhage or later tetanus would not put an end to Kashiram’s life – miracles, which only the One in Tune with the Infinite, could perform.
