Spiritual Gems from Sai Satcharita Chapter -1, Part 1

Salutations -- The Story of Grinding Wheat and Its Philosophical Significance

According to the ancient and revered custom, Hemadpant begins the work, Sai Satcharitra, with various salutations.

• First, he makes obeisance to Lord Ganesha to remove all obstacles and make the work a success and says that Shri Sai is Lord Ganesha.
• Then, to Goddess Saraswati to inspire him to write out the work and says that Shri Sai is one with this Goddess and that He is Himself singing His own life.
• Then, to the Gods; Brahma, Vishnu and Shankar - the Creating, Preserving and Destroying Deities respectively; and says that Sainath is one with them and He as the great teacher, will carry us across the river of worldly existence.
• Then, to his tutelary deity Narayan Adinath who manifested Himself in Konkan - the land reclaimed by Parashurama, (Rama in the Hindi version) from the sea; and to the Adi (Original) Purusha of the family.
• Then, to the Bharadwaja Muni, into whose gotra (clan) he was born and also to various Rishis, Yagyavalakya, Bhrigu, Parashara, Narad, Vedavyasa, Sanak, Sanandan, Sanatkumar, Shuka. Shounak, Vishwamitra, Vasistha, Valmiki, Vamadeva, Jaimini, Vaishampayan, Nava Yogindra etc, and also modern Saints such as Nivritti, Jnanadev, Sopan, Muktabai, Janardan, Ekanath, Namdev, Tukaram, Kanha, and Narahari etc.
• Then, to his grandfather Sadashiv, father Raghunath, his mother, who left him in his infancy, to his paternal aunt, who brought him up, and to his loving elder brother.
• Then, to the readers and prays them to give their whole and undivided attention to his work.
• And lastly, to his Guru Shri Sainath - an Incarnation of Shri Dattatreya, Who is his sole Refuge and who will make him realize that Brahman is the Reality and the world an illusion; and incidentally, to all the Beings in whom the Lord God dwells.

Sai Ram. Om Sri Ganesaya namah. Om namo Venkatesaya.Om Sri Matre Namah. I offer what is written or rather keyed in to the PC by His inspiration to Him, Sadguru Sainath Maharaj. At His inspiration, it is proposed to share with all Sai Bandhus, various Spiritual Gems that were handed over to me, His instrumen,t to be brought out at the appropriate time. As this writer was reading Sri Sai Satcharitra by Gunaji (translated into English from the Marathi work of Sri Govind Raghunath Dabholkar, a.k.a. Annasaheb and on whom the title of Hemadpant was bestowed by Sai), various ideas, clarifications etc., used to float up as it were from the depths of Sai Satcharitra and Sai Philosophy. Earlier, these insights, which were given the name, "Spiritual Gems" were published without the full text of Sai Satcharitra, thus necessitating Sai devotees to separately read that book. Now, by His inspiration, the Spiritual Gems are integrated with the full text of Sai Satcharitra, thus enabling Sai devotees to read the whole thing at one place.

At the appropriate time, Sai willing, it is proposed to bring out an ebook with the option to read only the original Sai Satcharitra or that with the Spiritual Gems. For now, those who want to do a Parayana of Sai Satcharitra may skip these interjections, which are presented in italics for easier identification. Firstly, the author makes salutations to various Gods while asserting that Sai is one with all of them. Then why bow to all of them? Why not to Sai alone? Bowing in obeisance comes from a feeling of Dwaita, i.e. the feeling of separateness from the other person or Deity. Since most of us including the author are presently in that Dwaita state, it is proper to bow in worship to all the different Deities. It is like bowing to all the elders. Since Sai is our Sadguru and since the Sastras assert that Guru is Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, in fact Para Brahma and since all Deities are manifestations of the same Para Brahma - Para Shakti, it is also correct to say that Sai, our Sadguru is one with all of them. 'Sarva Deva Namaskaram Kesava Pratigacchati' - all namaskars reach Kesava, Sai Who is Para Brahma. Sai Ram.