Monday, May 28, 2007

A beautiful incident


Sad Guru Sai Nath Maharaj Ki Jai

Tonight the internet connection is not working, so was left with the best option that of Meditating on the grace of Sai Baba from the shawl, consecrated at Samadhi Temple and Dwarkamai and on the stone on which Sai Baba used to sit. Otherwise the mind was made for searching the cause of falling down of this blog, which was scoring well in google search suddenly was out of the google search engine, and rectify it. After an hour or so, the hunger from the stomach called out and searched for some food and ate it. As I was entering the room, the eyes fell on a book, which was lying there since months, called “Sai Baba of Shirdi a Unique Saint”, written by two authors M. V. Kamath and V. B. Kher. I was drawn towards the book and started reading it again, last time it was read might have been ten years before. The book at the start has quotes of Sai Baba as recorded by the contemporary devotees. Some will appear on the side panel of this blog and others in the other blog of devoted totally to the quotes and poems.

After reading the first incident in the book, which I had also read before in this book and a small book called “ The Incredible Sai Baba”, ‘The life and miracles of a modern-day saint’ by Author Osborne.

After reading the incident, cold shivers passed through the body and something felt affecting the brain making it totally silent for few moments and felt like putting up on the blog. So here it goes as it is presented on the “Sai Baba of Shirdi a Unique Saint”.

But it was not to his devotees alone that he was the source of succor. There is the strange story recounted by a Londoner Arthur Osborne, born in London, educated at Christ Church, Oxford who lived in India for several years and was deeply interested in spirituality and has written a small book entitled the Incredible Sai Baba.

In Calcutta, where Osborne lived for four years, he had an old lady as his neighbor, a Miss Dutton, had been a Nun in her younger days, but had been given absolutions to her vows by the Pope because he found that she could not, in all honesty, accept the rigors. While her application for release from her vows was pending, she was much too preoccupied with her internal conflicts to give much thoughts to her future. It was only that she was about to leave the convent that it dawned on her how hopeless her future was. She was practically penniless. She was well over middle age, without a profession and scarcely any new relative. The nearest to the relative was a nephew living in far-away Calcutta. The situation was daunting.

One day while sitting in her cell immersed in her deepest gloom, she suddenly felt the presence of a man in front of her. He was tall, barefoot and looked like a holy man. Miss Dutton’s surprise could well be imagined. There was no way a man could have got entry into her cell. In any event he did not look like a holy man in the West. As she told Osborne, he looked at her with compassion and told her: ‘Do not worry so much, Everything will be alright when you go to Calcutta.” Than Miss Dutton reported the holy man said: “Now won’t you give me a gift?” Miss Dutton told him she had no money with her. “Oh yes, you have,” said the holy man, “you have thirty five rupees in a box in the cupboard up there!"” Miss Dutton had completely forgotten about that little treasure, but taken aback by holy man’s prescience, she went to the cupboard, took out the money but, when she turned around, the holy man was nowhere to be seen! He had disappeared as unaccountably as he had come!

She never mentioned this incident to anybody. She left the convent and went to stay with her nephew who turned out to be a kind and loving nephew indeed. Her worries about her future had been taken care of.

Osborne wondered who this holy man—Miss Dotton had call him a fakir—could be, but felt instinctively that may be it was Sai Baba. To test out his hunch, he told Miss Dutton: “I will show you a picture of fakir”. He went back to his apartment and fetched the picture of Sai Baba to show to Miss Dutton. She took one good look at the picture and exclaimed with the unfeigned surprise: “Yes that is he! He had even the same white kerchief on his head!”

The point writes Osborne is that Miss Dutton had never heard of Sai Baba before!

8 comments:

రామ ShastriX said...

Thanks for this, Alpesh. Who can understand the mahima of Sai?

There's an interesting reference to Sai in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna: (page 513, top)
~~~~~
According to the Sakti cult the siddha is called a koul, and according to the Vedanta, a paramahamsa. The Bauls call him a sai. They say, 'No one is greater than a sai.' The sai is a man of supreme perfection. He doesn't see any differentiation in the world. He wears a necklace, one half made of cow bones and the other of the sacred tulsi-plant. He calls the Ultimate Truth 'Alekh', the 'Incomprehensible One'. The Vedas call it 'Brahman'. About the jivas the Bauls say, 'They come from Alekh and they go unto Alekh.' That is to say, the individual soul has come from the Unmanifest and goes back to the Unmanifest. The Bauls will ask you, 'Do you know about the wind?' The 'wind' means the great current that one feels in the subtle nerves, Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna, when the Kundalini is awakened. They will ask you further, 'In which station are you dwelling?' According to them there are six 'stations', corresponding to the six psychic centres of Yoga. If they say that a man dwells in the 'fifth station', it means that his mind has climbed to the fifth centre, known as the Visuddha chakra. (To M.) At that time he sees the Formless.
~~~~~

Alpesh Patel said...

Thanks for sharing this great information Mr. Shastri

Chirag Lavri said...

Thanks for this wonderful information about Saibaba which is not even published in Sai Sat Chairitra...i m a staunch devotee of Saibaba and i strongly beleive that saibaba do show miracles even now to those who beleive in him and take his refuge. Bow to Shri Sai and peace be to all...

Alpesh Patel said...

Yes Chirag,

Anonymous said...

Sri Sai baba always said do good to people and love the people always...god will show mercy on you!! Sri Sai baba is my Teacher, my inspiration and most of all my Father & Mother... I always remember my Sadguru in Good & Bad times....two Important teachings of Sai baba "Shrada & Saburi" & God is one "sab kaa malik Ek Hai"

Jai Sainath & Allah Malik.

P.V. Reddy

Unknown said...

Yes Alpesh,

I do agree in one of his finest teachings "Shradha and Saburi,every being shud have it in them.


Om Sai ram,
-Sushma

Anonymous said...

Amazing experience! This proves Sai's nature is to help ALL. Beautiful.

Anonymous said...

I too have an experience that I want to share with everyone.

I am an wordly man, immersed in myself and my family, living selfishly, thinking of nothing else but my and my family's future.

Around 2 years ago, in the month of May, I had become depressed because of professional and personal situations and had lost hope in myself.

In order to take my mind off my petty troubles, I had arranged to go to Mahabaleshwar with my wife and kids for 2-3 days.

I cannot say that I had lost faith in baba as I beseeched him to show himself and restore my faith. I was deeply in conversation with baba for some days,questioning him and pestering him. Finally, He answered and said that I will meet him in the form of a Shekaroo, a form of wild sqirell, giant insize than regular

squirrel, at Mahabaleshwar.

I was surprised as I knew that Shekroos are very shy creatures and are found in forests near Bhimashankar. Mahabaleshwar is not a place where you can find these creatures.
The skeptic in me took over and laughed at my own naivete for expecting a miracle.

Anyways, I went on the trip to Mahabaleshwar with my family and enjoyed the 2-3 days doing what tourists do and forgot about everything.

On the last day of my stay, I decided to go for my morning jog around the MTDC resort where we were staying. I left my family sleeping in the
hotel room and started my run along the roads that go thru the MTDC resort. As I reached the main gate of the resort and turned towards the road that goes to the Bombay Point,
I heared crows making a din overhead on the tall trees that have formed a sort of canopy over the road.

I froze as I could see a golden brown Shekroo gingerly moving across the branches, moving from one tree to another. I stood for a few seconds taking in the miracle before I
regained my senses enough to get out my phone and click a picture.

I thanked Him for showing himself and abandoned my morning jog to seek out my wife and tell her about this experience.

I showed her the picture but discovered that the camera had not been able to capture the creature as it was not a good enough camera without zoom and the Shekaroo had been at a height.

After coming to Pune, I spoke to a friend who was an avid trekker and knew some things about wildlife in Maharashtra.

He was adament taht Shekaroos were not common in Mahabaleshwar and anyways seeing a shekaroo is a very rare phenomenon for a lay person even in forests where thay had known habitat.

Remembering this incident still gives me goose bumps and has cured me of my skepticism. I do keep on asking, "Did I imagine this?" and the answer comes from deep within my heart, "No, you have witnessed a miracle
by Baba. celebrate!"

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