Redemption at Shirdi

Copyright © 2013 Indrani Maitra.

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ISBN: 978-1-4525-8026-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-8027-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013915103

Balboa Press rev. date: 12/13/2013

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

A Few Statements from Baba for the Common Man

To

Gurudev Mahamandaleshwar Sadguru Swami Gangeshwaranand Ji

and

Shirdi Sai Baba

I humbly offer my prayers and gratitude

Foreword

I am very thankful to the Almighty for giving me an opportunity to work on this book. My heartfelt thanks and gratitude also go out to my husband, Umadas, and my two sons for their continuing help and support during my entire journey of translating this book. I specially thank my son Shankar for all his help. Without his encouragement and critical comments, it would have been difficult for me to complete this book.

Prabhat Mukherjee (1917–1997), the author of this book, was the oldest sibling in our family and the eldest of my four brothers. We fondly called him Dada Bhai (the oldest among the brothers). I was his pet sister, being the youngest of nine siblings. He brought me toys and showed a great deal of affection but at the same time was strict and made sure that I studied and did all my homework regularly. Therefore, I must say, I was in awe of him as a little girl.

Years passed, and we each experienced life in our own way. As an adult I saw him as a celebrity, a successful filmmaker, an award-winning film director, and a writer. Women were charmed by his charisma. Again, I was a little intimidated by him. As he grew older, I saw a gradual change in him but was ignorant of the reasons. I thought it was just a part of his aging process.

I remember that when he was in his sixties and seventies, he was still full of energy, enthusiasm, and excitement about life. He made us laugh and told us gripping stories that kept us entertained whenever I went home for the holidays. During one of my visits, we had planned a visit to Shirdi Sai Baba’s temple in New Delhi one evening. Before leaving the house, my brother tried to climb a ladder to fix a leak on the roof, but he fell down and fractured his ankle. What struck me as strange was the fact that he locked himself up in a room and did not let anyone enter except me. For two hours, I sat there quietly and saw him weep until he had no more tears to shed. I had no inkling then about his inner conflicts or the way he was trying to resolve them. His spirituality was veiled from me.

The last few years of his life, my brother spent all his time in a Shirdi Sai Baba Temple that he had built next to his cottage in Konnagar, a small town outside Calcutta. My brother passed away a year before I could visit the temple and his small cottage. I was told that he died in peace thinking only about Baba. I am grateful to Baba for his blessings on my Dada Bhai.

A few years ago when I read this book, I saw for the first time the inner demons he had been fighting for so many years. The book gave me a glimpse into his mental state and some understanding of his behavior that I could not comprehend earlier. I was also amazed to learn the depth of his love and dedication for Baba.

One day, I decided to translate this book. I like to think that is because my brother wanted me to know and understand him better. I have never been a writer, which makes it even more mystifying that I started to work on this book and have enjoyed every bit of it.

While it was fun to translate this book, it was also very hard at times. My brother wrote this book in the 1960s, and in one of the chapters he quoted the prices that prevailed then for those planning a visit to Shirdi. I do not know the current prices, as I have not been there yet and do not know when Sai Baba will call me there. Things have changed with the passing of time and ever-increasing inflation. Therefore, I urge readers interested in visiting Shirdi to inquire about the expenses they may incur before making their travel plans.

I like to believe that Sai Baba also has had a role in making me work on this book. At times, it was difficult to keep the spirit of the original text while translating it into English. There are passages where some comparisons and contrasts have been drawn between Sai Baba and Jesus Christ. I humbly state that I have excluded a few paragraphs of the text, as I have the utmost respect and love for Jesus Christ, Sai Baba, and all the other religious figures of the world. I hope to be forgiven if I have not done proper justice to the message of the book and for any errors I might have made either in my understanding or in conveying the correct essence of the message my brother had intended.

Sai Baba, I look for your guidance, blessings, and forgiveness.

Indrani Maitra

Dedicated to

dear Bubu

with heartfelt blessings and much affection,

and also with

profound respect

to

Bubu’s Sudha Aunty

Acknowledgments

It would be unfair to say that this book is entirely my composition. When I went to Shirdi the first time, I met two senior devotees of Sai Baba who had not only seen Baba but had personally served him. These devotees had narrated a few incidents, but the rest of the stories and events have been gathered from some periodicals and books written in English, rephrased by me. A list of the books and the authors should have been included, but when this book was written in the 1960s, it escaped my mind to record such information.

I am truly grateful to all of them.

Prabhat Mukherjee

Introduction

Shirdi, a small, forgotten village, exists in the district of Ahmed Nagar, which is in the state of Maharashtra. Today, it has spread out, and Sai Baba’s memory is all-pervasive. There are organizations dedicated to the common man anxious to find a path to freedom from daily struggles. When traveling from Kolkata to Mumbai by train, about four hours before reaching Mumbai, there is a small town called Manamaad. From here one has to take a bus and ride for about two hours to get to Shirdi. The fare was around fifteen rupees, and the bus left every hour. From Mumbai buses run in the morning and late afternoon, and the ride lasts for about eight to nine hours.

On one side of Shirdi is Manamaad and on the other side is Nasik. Most pilgrims come via Nasik, as there are other pilgrimages nearby. Nasik is similar to Pune, around where one finds places from the times of Ramayana, such as Saraju’s bank, Panchavati, and a modern temple, Mukti Dham.

Shirdi used to be a small village, and up until twenty years ago, except for Sai Baba’s tomb, his temple, and three other buildings to accommodate the pilgrims who came to pay homage to Baba, nothing much had changed. All around, as far as one could see, there were only sugarcane fields interrupted by a few sugar-making machines controlled by a factory in Coopergaon.

Sai Baba is still the life of Shirdi and his tomb the heartbeat of the village. Actually, it is no more just a village, nor is it a real town. Within a few miles of the tomb and the temple, there are now six huge buildings for the visitors, twenty-two hotels of all sizes, a large number of shops, restaurants offering foods from different regions, a post office, a railway office, a big hospital, the Maharashtra State Office, and a huge bus stand where every two minutes a bus arrives from one of the different cities of Maharashtra and every five minutes a bus departs. A few miles away in the outskirts, Shirdi is still a village.

Around the temple, there are a lot of stores, and tourists walk around in large numbers. But unlike at other holy places in India, there are no socially misbehaving guides to harass the pilgrims. There are guides, but the rules of the temple are so strict that they do not get any scope to pester the visitors. They just act as agents for the different stores to provide supplies to the temple and are happy just to get any customers.

There are two ways to give offerings. Those who want to walk up to the altar have to stand on line to buy tickets from 3:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m., and then they can give their offerings between 7:30 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. However, those who want to touch the tomb while giving their offering have to wait on another line. This line starts when the temple doors open and continues throughout the day, except when Arati¹ takes place, and until the last Arati at bedtime. Contrary to many other holy places, here no preference is given to anyone depending on the size of their offerings. There is no obligation here to offer any money to the priest, nor does one have to deal with any agents. If one has patience and faith one can observe the ceremony with peace of mind. There are some beggars around, but they are not in the premises of the temple, since there are security guards who chase them away. Even inside the temple, there are guards dressed in red uniforms carrying huge silver sticks, busily walking around trying to maintain the decorum of the waiting line.

The guest houses are also under the supervision of the Sai Trust. These houses can accommodate about 1,500 guests, and separate living arrangements are available for women. The rent for rooms without attached bathrooms is about Rs 3² per day, and there are rooms with bathrooms available upon request for pilgrims who arrive with families. The rent for these rooms vary from Rs 10 to Rs 100.

Tea, coffee, and milk are available from five in the morning till one at night, for Rs 1 per cup. Breakfast packages are available from 7:00 a.m. till 10:00 a.m. for Rs 1.50. The amount of food in these packages would cost a minimum of Rs 10–12 in the outside markets. A common dining hall is open from ten in the morning until two in the afternoon and again from seven in the evening until eleven at night. Anyone can sit here and have a hot meal, which includes rice, dal, roti (Indian bread), and vegetables. One has to buy a ticket for such a meal by waiting on line, and the cost per meal is Rs 3. About a thousand people can be accommodated in this dining hall. The organizers have arranged it in such a way that for any item available in the dining hall one has to stand on line to purchase a ticket, whether it be coffee, tea, or a meal. This helps to avoid any confusion or chaos, since no one can cut