Shri Sai Satcharitra - Chapter 10 - Part III ...Contd

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His Stay in Shirdi and Probable Birth-date

None knew or knows the parents and exact birth-date of Sai Baba; but it can be approximately determined by His stay in Shirdi. Baba first came to Shirdi, when he was a young lad of sixteen and stayed there for three years. Then all of a sudden He disappeared for some time. After some time, He reappeared in the Nizam state near Aurangabad, and again came to Shirdi with the marriage-party of Chand Patil, when He was twenty years old. Since then, He stayed in Shirdi continuously for a period of sixty years, after which Baba took His Maha-Samadhi in the year 1918. From this we can say that the year of Baba's birth is approximately 1838 A.D.

Sai Ram. Baba kept His life's origins a deliberate mystery to reflect the mystery of each of us. Do we really know when we were born, from where we came, who our real parents were etc.? And do we really know what we were in our previous births and what is going to happen in our next births, unless of course we get liberated from the cycle of birth and death by cutting the knot of our desires? And what is more important, what our history is or what we are doing now with what is given to us?

As already mentioned, Baba represents the core Spirit in each of us, animal or human, animate or inanimate. He represents the Unity in Diversity, the one common to many. So, He deliberately kept the details of His birth and His early childhood a mystery. In Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna compares the manifest universe to an inverted Banyan (Aswattha) Tree, with its branches spreading down from a root somewhere up. If we assume that we are on one of the twigs of a branch, can we simply trace the origin, i.e. the root? Similarly when Lord Brahma first became conscious in this Cycle, He found Himself seated on a lotus. He did not know from where the lotus originated. So, He investigated and found that He originated from the navel of Vishnu. Vishnu literally means one who is everywhere. Of course, Lord Vishnu materialized Himself into some form so that Brahma can see Him and understand from Him the secret of Creation represented by Vedas.

Thus Sai, by keeping His birth details a mystery, is conveying several important messages. One, that unless we overcome our Maya, we cannot realize our true origin. Second, to who we were born etc., is not as important as what we have done with that gift of human birth. And if we really trace our birth to the real roots, we find that though we all look so different, we all share one common ancestor, thus eliminating the need for conflict.

The same idea is expanded by Shri Hemadpant in the following paragraph. Sai Ram.

We will continue with the rest of the chapter next week. Sai Ram.