Baba the Mother
Referring to Shirdi Sai Baba, Hemadpant [Govind R. Dabholkar] writes [in the Sri Sai Satcharita], “Sai Baba had the peculiar, disinterested, and extraordinary love of the Mother; His joy knew no bounds when He saw His children beautifully dressed and adorned. He knew the wants of His children long beforehand, and He took great pleasure in fulfilling those wants.”
Everyone who has come to Sathya Sai Baba, the present manifestation of that same Mother, will describe Him too in the same words. Every devotee, however old, becomes a little child in the presence of Sathya Sai Baba. And just as a child takes refuge in its mother’s lap and sobs out to her all its fears and worries, the devotee, too, pours out his troubles and gets consoled.
In the Markandeya Purana, the Devi is described thus: “If remembered in times of trouble, she destroys the fear of all living things.” We all know that Baba need only be remembered, and He flees thousands of miles in an instant to succor and give relief. The sloka continues, “If remembered by others who are free from immediate fear, She grants the most auspicious understanding.” Devotees of Baba will endorse that Baba, as soon as they pray to Him, gives advice directly or, if they are far away, indirectly but clearly on all problems facing them, not merely the spiritual, mental, and physical ones but even the social and domestic.
Let us again turn to the Markandeya Purana. There the Mother is again praised as “Daridra dukhabhya haarini [One who relieves pain and distress].” Just like a loving mother who helps the distressed child from out of her secret hoard and saves it from shame and dishonor, Baba, too, as everyone knows, is saving many from their own folly and negligence and putting them on the path of honorable living. In the last line of the above sloka [verse], Mother is described by the Purana as “full of mercy.”
The poet asks, who else has the heart ever melting to bestow favors on all? Baba’s heart, too, is ever overflowing with mercy not only for those devoted to Him over the years but for those who have had little contact with Him and even for those who disparage Him. His mercy is the right of all beings, and He is never tired of telling the good news to all. He has said so often in His discourses at Puttaparthi and elsewhere that no one need look upon Him with fear, or even extol Him, to earn His grace, because no one fears his mother or is put to the necessity of praising her to win her to his side. The mother’s love is spon-taneous and independent of any expectations.
In Tamilnadu [state in south India], Easwara [the Lord] is known also as Thayumanavar (He who became the mother) because in one of His divine activities, He saved a woman’s life and helped in the safe delivery of her baby. The mother of the woman, who was to attend on her, was held up by a flooded river, and the Lord, taking pity on the lonely, forlorn daughter, assumed the form of the mother and attended to the labor Himself. Numerous are the cases where Baba, in a dream or vision or through some form of actual materialization, has, like Thayumanavar, saved His children from calamity.
To see other examples of Baba’s mothering, you have only to listen to the advice He gives His daughters and sons about their choice of life mates, and to the daughters when they proceed to take up residence with their mother-in-law or when they have newborn babies to feed and foster.
One common argument that Baba uses to persuade people to postpone their departure from Puttaparthi comes to mind just now. He usually asks the lady of the party, “Why don’t you remain a few days longer in your mother’s home?” And that settles it! You will realize then that He is the mother of all mothers, the mother who is the mother in all beings. The tenderness, sympathy, and love with which Baba attends to the needs of the cows, rabbits, peacocks, deer, or pet dogs—the care He takes to avoid any harm to living things—is a lesson to everyone in the art of efficient mothering. He is verily maternal love, incarnate.
There is, therefore, a special significance in the celebration of Navaratri at Prasanthi Nilayam. Besides Baba’s birthday, the only two festivals celebrated on a grand scale at Puttaparthi are Sivaratri and Navaratri, for Baba is both Siva and Shakti. During these nine days and nights, He is Saraswati presiding over poetry, dance, music, and drama; Annapoorna lavishing food and clothes; Lakshmi granting boons to all who come; and Durga slaying falsity, pretence, and wickedness, destroying the buffalo sloth and stupidity that has overpowered us all. May Baba, the Mother, bless us and give us faith, strength, and joy.
~N. Kasturi
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, October 1958
