THE MIRACLE THAT IS BABA
In a previous post ‘The Silence of the Sage’ I had written about Ramana Maharishi, a great saint and a realized soul. His was the language of silence, the silence of the soul. The constant refrain in Maharishi’s path to Self-Realization is contemplating the question ‘Who am I’ and turning inwards to find the answer.
“More than the books about him what had an everlasting impact on my mind was the photograph and the eyes that spoke so much, that words were not necessary to commune with him. I remember I was so fixated on the glow in his eyes that I ended up sketching a portrait of him, and the minute I finished, I felt he had looked deep into my soul. That moment brought a satisfaction I had never felt before. I felt fulfilled.”
Much later, perhaps a decade and odd years later, I first came to know of another great saint who had lived in the town of Shirdi during the nineteenth century and early part of the twentieth century. Sai Baba was a fakir they said whose origins were unknown. There are many stories about him, that he was a healer and a miracle worker.
I was not in search of saints to solve my problems. It just happened, whether it be Ramana Maharishi or Sai Baba, that I came to know of them, the former when I was a child and the latter as a youth. Their impact on my life took its own time. It crept on me slowly but surely and by now it has completely absorbed me.
It was sometime during the winter of 1974 that I accompanied my brother and family on a road trip from Mumbai (then Bombay) to Aurangabad and Ahmednagar primarily to see the Ajanta and Ellora caves. On our way back to Nasik we had a brief stopover at Shirdi. It was late in the evening when we reached and proceeded to the samadhi of Sai Baba. For me then, it was just a part of the tour and we did not plan to spend much time there. Shirdi then was a small town and the Samadhi itself was a simple structure. There were not many pilgrims. The dimly lit surroundings and the quietness prevailing lent an aura of sanctity and peace. We did not stay long and left for Nasik.
Though at that time, for me Baba was just another saint among the many, in hindsight, I feel I carried something back with me which found its fruition many years later. Forty-eight years later as I sat down to write about what Baba means to me, I heard my grandson whistling in the next room the Arathi song of Sai Baba. Slightly taken aback, I went and asked what made him whistle the Arathi. He replied that it just came to him and for no particular reason. For me at that instant, it was as if Baba was urging me to write. You may call it a coincidence but to me, it was a sign, one among many that I have experienced over the years.
This post is not about the story of Baba or his miracles. There are enough books written on these and I do not feel qualified to write about them. Mine is just experiential. Some may dismiss it as coincidences and once upon a time even I had judged them so, whenever I heard or read people narrating their own experiences. Ultimately, it is all about faith and that is an aspect that made a doubter into a believer. You may ask how come this transformation? Well, that’s where my story begins.
What are we without faith,
A rudderless ship on stormy seas!
In search of hands to steer us through,
In a quest to reach that distant land,
of promised calm and peace,
To place our faith in his hand
To cross the turbulence of the stormy seas.
So, what are we without faith but a rudderless ship on a stormy sea?
The first sign appeared (which then did not in any way alter my perception of Gods and Gurus except that they were there for people to cling on to escape the reality of life) one afternoon as I fell asleep on the couch next to the window. I don’t remember what I dreamt, but that afternoon I was in a pensive mood wondering about my future and what lay in store. This was soon after my visit to Shirdi. I was woken up by something falling on my chest. I woke up to find that the postman had just thrown an envelope through the window and it had fallen on me. It was addressed to me and as I read the letter stating that I had been successful in the State Bank probationary officer’s test and asking me to appear for the interview for final selection. At that time I felt no connection, they were isolated incidents.
It was only much later as I sat down to recollect, after certain incidents which I could not dismiss as coincidences, that I felt the connection.
Baba drew no distinctions and did not preach or recognize religion. Anyone who came to him was equal in all respects. This was what drew me to him. Like Ramana Maharishi, to him the realization of the self is paramount. Discarding attachment to worldly things and concentrating on doing your duty echoes the Bhagavad Gita. His was a simple philosophy of love and forgiveness, charity and contentment.
While Ramana Maharishi stressed asking the question ‘Who am I?’ to take one on the path to self-realization, the two cardinal principles of Baba’s philosophy are Shraddha (love and reverence) and Saburi (Patience and perseverance). These two are enough and a must for an individual to overcome obstacles in the course of one’s life and move towards a state of realization.
I have always believed that there are no miracles and that things do not happen the way we want them. There are no shortcuts; one has to undergo the full play of life, the way of destiny. Well, that is an easy way of shifting the onus for the ills in your life. No one knows the future, destiny is an afterthought when you find yourself unable to tackle the problems of your present. So how does one tackle the present? Accept the reality of the present and move forward and the future will take care of itself. This is where Baba becomes so relevant. Shraddha and Saburi in the conduct of one’s life will help you to accept, understand and overcome and that’s where the miracle happens. You are no longer attached to your present and will find it easier to move forward without regrets.
As I moved from place to place and house to house, I would always find a Sai Baba temple nearby, given the fact that over the years since my first glimpse of Shirdi the devotees of Baba had increased manifold and temples had sprung up all over, it was nothing strange. Without fail, on my morning walks around the neighborhood, I would stop by a Baba temple, go inside, say a short prayer and resume my walk. There was nothing intense about it since it had become a part of my morning routine. There was no deep devotion. But it slowly happened and I felt uneasy if I missed the routine. Slowly I felt myself being drawn into his fold. I did not pray because I wanted something to happen, it was just the sensation of peace and fulfillment when I stood in front of Baba’s idol.
It happened slowly as I started looking up to him for support during times of personal crisis, whether it be concerning my health or anxiety. As always, I did not expect miracles to solve my problems, but I soon found that things would get sorted out. Faith in Baba had helped me face and overcome these situations. Maybe not all my problems were solved, but faith gave me the necessary strength to face and accept the outcomes.
There have been certain incidents that I have not been able to comprehend or dismiss as coincidences. These have invariably happened during my daily meditations. To narrate two of those intriguing happenings - as I sat in meditation one day the question crept in whether all this was a futile exercise and whether Baba had heard me. Precisely at that moment, the clock started ringing, though the alarm was set for 6am. It was strange for the time on the clock showed 10 am. Well, you can always say that it was a malfunction and a coincidence, but for me, it was a sign.
The second incident was even more intriguing. As I sat in meditation that day in a disturbed state of mind, I received a phone call from a friend. He said that he had just come back from Shirdi and brought something to give me. It was a scarf worn around the head of the Sai Baba idol at Shirdi. He further added that when he stepped out of his home to go to the office in the morning, something urged him to give the scarf to me. He sent it later in the day to me. To this day I have the scarf at home.
It is very easy to label these as coincidences, but for a man of faith, it is a sign.
It’s not my aim to indoctrinate or sermonize. Sai Baba’s philosophy is universal, embracing all religions, believers, non-believers, and those who doubt. It is all about faith, patience, perseverance, and commitment to the conduct of one’s life. Baba does not promise miracles, but he is there to lend his hand to pull you out of entanglements that life weaves around you. And that is a miracle. Yes, Baba is a healer and a miracle worker.
Through all the trials and tribulations that life throws, there is a silent confidence that Sai Baba is there to take care of me.
