Pathri—Parthi

Sri V. C. Kondappa in his Telugu book, Sree Sayeesuni Charitram, notes that Sri N. Kasturi has given in Sathyam Sivam Sundaram a few important details of the early life of the Baba of Shirdi. According to the narrative, based on Bhagavan’s own account, Shirdi Baba was born of Brahmin parents, Gangabhava and Devagiramma, at Pathri, a village on the banks of the Godavari [River]. The child was a gift of Lord Siva and His consort, Parvati, in answer to the prayers of the devout couple, who were childless. Shirdi Baba Himself has described how He was abandoned as a baby and brought up by a Muslim fakir [ascetic] and his wife with whom He remained for several years; this is confirmed in the Telugu book. The narrative further throws light on the circumstances that led to the boy’s leaving His foster-parents and His subsequent wanderings over the region where the village of Shirdi is situated.

The incident that made the lad leave the fakir’s household was this: the boy had swallowed a Shivalinga and was in the habit of taking it out from time to time for worship. This proved embarrassing to His Muslim foster-parents and the boy left the house. The incident of the Muslim nawab [nobleman] and his missing horse is also mentioned in the book. While looking for his horse, the nawab met the wandering lad who immediately located the horse. The Muslim gentleman, struck by the boy’s extraordinary capacity, first used the word “Sai” in addressing the lad. Soon the boy found His way to the village of Shirdi where He stayed for nearly 60 years in a ruined masjid [mosque], and people began to call Him Sai Baba.

Shirdi Sai Baba attained mahasamadhi [a yogi’s conscious and final exit from the physical body] in October 1918. Eight years later, on November 23 1926, the present Avatar took birth, this time at Puttaparthi. In 1940, Bhagavan announced that He was Sai Baba and that He had taken birth again to continue the work of His previous sharira [body]. At that time, no one in that region had heard of this strange Shirdi Baba. People were mystified at this announcement. All that they knew was that this strange lad possessed unusual powers. He could create anything He wanted by merely waving His hand. To a few doubters who questioned Him about Shirdi Baba, He gave a vision of the old Saint.

Sathya Sai Baba has traveled many times in His astral body to Shirdi, even while physically remaining in His room at Prasanthi Nilayam. He has uttered strange names and words, often while in a trance, which could be understood only by those who knew the life and mission of Shirdi Baba. Startlingly, Swami spoke with familiarity of the well-known landmarks of Shirdi and of several intimate devotees of the Baba there. Once, when Swami was in Mercara [in Karnataka], He suddenly recognized an old devotee of Shirdi Baba. In innumerable other ways, Baba has established beyond doubt His identity with the old beloved Saint of Shirdi. The Rani [queen] of Chincholi [in Karnataka], an early devotee of Swami, discovered an old brass kamandalu [drinking vessel] in her palace storeroom. Swami subsequently identified this as His drinking vessel in His previous Avatar.

There are three other things that should be emphasized. The first is the subject of miracles. The pattern of miracles performed by both the Babas is similar, although there is a greater profusion of them and a more lavish display of divine power in the case of Sathya Sai Baba. Swami can create anything by the power of His sankalpa [Divine will] and we are amazed at the variety of these creations. Explaining this power to some foreign visitors in July 1965, Baba told them that Divine srishti [creation] is the result of God’s sankalpa as well as the act of exercising this will [kriya]; the processes are simultaneous.

In other respects, too, Swami’s powers are as marvelous as those of His previous Avatar. He is a Trikalajnani [knower of past, present, and future] like the Shirdi saint. He can read the innermost thoughts of devotees. Like the Baba of Shirdi, Swami can manifest Himself, in His own form or in other forms at great distances, without moving from the place where He is. When devotees think of Him and pray to Him with love and faith, He protects them from danger, difficulties, and even from death. Swami’s touch has healed hundreds of sick people and many of the cures have astounded eminent medical men.

A word of cheer from Shirdi Baba could infuse courage and faith in a person filled with doubt and despair. Similarly, Swami not only radiates love and understanding to the people who come to Him, but in a subtle and yet powerful manner, He seems to give them a new faith. His soft-spoken words of compassion have soothed many an anguished heart. It was said that the Shirdi saint took the troubles and sufferings of others upon Himself in save them. There have been several remarkable instances when Swami has done the same—even undergoing a series of heart attacks in June 1963—to save a devotee.

Second, there is the uniqueness of the relationship between the devotees and the two Babas. This relationship is intimately personal. Devotees went to Shirdi because they found a guru there who was full of compassion and eager solicitude toward them. There was nothing remote about Him. He was so easily accessible, so simple and loving. They had found nothing like that in any other place or with any other guru. Shirdi Baba had the loving assurance of a father or mother. He would forgive His erring children with a benevolence that surpassed anything they had known before. He answered their prayers and seemed to have taken birth to live with them, to help them and guide them. He sometimes was a hard taskmaster, but the victims knew that His anger and even abuse were meant to teach them and show them the right path.

“Cast your burdens upon Me and I will bear them for your sake,” He declared. The power of this assurance was irresistible. “My voice,” He said, “shall continue to speak to you even from My tomb.” These were not empty words. This assurance has never been broken. Shirdi Baba’s influence has been as strong after His death as when He was alive. Those who have turned to Shirdi for grace and protection have never been disappointed. In some form or other, subtle, mysterious and yet patent, the old beloved Baba of Shirdi has held out a hand to lift someone who was sinking, who felt lonely and abandoned through the journey of life.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba gives the same abhaya or reassurance. “When you are in trouble, remember me. I will be by your side,” He has declared hundreds of times. This tremendous reassurance has always been fulfilled. The divine power is ever ready to come to the rescue of devotees. Baba says this is the secret of God’s nature. He once said playfully that if there were no devotees, God would be the idlest being in the universe. Thousands come to Puttaparthi to seek this guru, God Himself, who is close to them and can give them the solace and courage that they sorely need. In His presence, there is no secrecy, no hesitation, no faltering, and no fear. It is heart speaking to heart. The deep calls unto the deep. There is an intimacy that uplifts, heals, and inspires. The divine utterance vibrates with compassion. The words that come out distil the purest essence of wisdom. There is no restraint in His presence.

“Ask Me anything you want,” Baba says often, “I am Kalpavriksha [wish-fulfilling tree]—the fulfiller of all your needs.” He is the savior, the divine counselor, the loving guide whose words of truth warn even as they fortify and inspire. This intimate personal relationship is unparalleled. The pilgrimage to Prasanthi Nilayam is not like any other pilgrimage to a temple where, (despite its sanctity) this intimate rapport between the devotee and the deity is not possible. To millions, Shirdi has been a lighthouse for the spirit—a place where the strife and sorrow of the world are left far behind. So, too, is Prasanthi Nilayam today. A trip to Prasanthi Nilayam is a sweet homecoming and to many it has been a shelter, a haven where the storms of life cannot touch them.

Third, there is the abundant flow of divine grace at Puttaparthi as there was, and still is, at Shirdi. It has a tremendous transforming power that chastens and subdues, uplifts, and ennobles. “When I was in the presence of Baba,” said a devotee of Shirdi years ago, “I felt so strangely moved as if God Himself was before me and speaking to me.” Another said, “When Shirdi Baba looked at me, it seemed as though His eyes burnt all the evil and hatred in my heart.” This was nothing but the power of divine grace. Thousands who have come to Puttaparthi and been in Swami’s presence even for a few minutes have borne testimony to the working of the same grace.

A high government officer once told me that when he was with Swami, he seemed to sense that he was in a totally different world, full of light, wisdom, and peace. A friend of mine, oppressed by numerous problems to which he could find no solution, went into the interview room at Swami’s behest; suddenly, as Swami’s hand touched him, the answer to his conundrum flashed into his mind. Baba immediately put this thought into words.

This transforming power has been lavishly displayed by both the Babas. The interview room at Puttaparthi (like the chavadi [meeting place for villagers] of the masjid at Shirdi) has been a silent witness to thousands of these heart transformations. The shakti [divine power] at both these places is the same. Thousands have emerged from these places to lead a new life, to bear unflinchingly the burdens which life has cast upon them, and to face their destiny with greater courage and self-awareness. Baba once said significantly, “The bondage of karma cannot be broken completely. But the fight to overcome it must be there and the three great weapons in this fight are self-awareness, inner courage, and staunch faith in the supreme reality.” Baba gives these weapons to everyone knowing that an individual’s capacity to cope with life’s burdens and the compelling bondage to karma lies in his total inner transformation.

So Pathri and Parthi are the two points spanned by a single miracle of divine manifestation that has released in our time a power at once unique, potent, and irresistible.

~H. Sunder Rao
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, March 1966