Saturday, March 3, 2012

Chapter 2

Highlights of this chapter:

  • Inspiration behind writing Sai Satcharitra
  • Author's first visit to Shirdi
  • How the author was named Hemadpant
  • Importance of Guru
As we all know Govind Raghunath Dabholkar (Govindrao) is the author of Sai Satcharitra. He arrived in Shirdi in year 1910, he had a government job with an important position. Initially he was apprehensive of visiting Shirdi and have a Guru, but as was the fate or indeed Shri Sai's blessing he came, stayed and got inspired to write Sai leela's . He soon realized that Shri Sai is a true Sadguru and his devotion towards Shri Sai grew no bounds. He found it hard to resist the urge of singing the name & glory of his dear Sai. He thought of collecting the stories as well as experiences from Sai's devotees and compose a life story of Shri Sai.

He knew that he was not at all qualified to undertake such responsibility. However he had complete faith in Shri Sai, he knew if Sai Baba gave his blessings he would succeed in it. He took help from Madhavrao Deshpande ( an intimate devotee of Shri Sai) to get Sai's permission. Initially Sai Baba declined, however looking at their loving persistence eventually agreed to it. Shri Sai gave his blessings to the author and guided him to start this work. Shri Sai knew all the thoughts going in Govindrao's mind, he ensured the author that he would be just an instrument to write the stories. Shri Sai further said that he himself will write the stories, he himself will tell the stories and the devotees wish to write the stories will be granted by him only. The devotee only has to keep his pride aside. Once this is done the devotees will have all the assistance from Shri Sai. Following assurance was given by Shri Sai himself, its reproduced as is.
81:
करीता माझ्या कथाचे श्रवण
त्यांचे कीर्तन आणि चिंतन
होईल मद्भाक्तिचे जनन 
अविद्यानिर्सन रोकड़े 
82:
जेथे भक्ति श्रद्धान्वित 
त्याचा मी नित्यांकित 
ये अर्थी न व्हावे शंकित 
इतरत्र अप्राप्त मी सदा 
83:
सद्भावे या कथा परिसता
निष्ठा उपजेल श्रोत्यां चिता 
सहज स्वानुभव स्वानंद्ता
सुखावस्था लाधेल

The author was also know by another name, Hemadpant. This name was given by Shri Sai himself and there is a short story behind it. Govindrao used to stay in Bandra, Mumbai and was close to two great devotees of Shri Sai, Kakasahe Dixit and Nanasaheb Chandorkar. They persisted Govindrao to visit Shirdi and meet Shri Sai. Govindrao agreed to it, but during the same time one of his close friend's only son got sick. His friend took all the steps to cure his son but nothing seemed to work. In the meantime his son's health deteriorated. His friend had a spiritual guru and he asked guru to bless his son, he even got the guru to his place and made him sit next to his son. But that didn't worked too and his friend lost his son. This incident brought lot of grief to Govindrao and he wondered what's the use of the guru if he can't save the only son of a devotee. If fate or karma is so strong that it can't be changed, then why go behind a guru and lose all our independence. He lost his motivation to visit Shirdi and his meeting with Sai got postponed. 

Once Nanasaheb was in Mumbai for some work and he by a chance happened to meet Govindrao. Govindrao told the reason why he put off the visit to Shirdi, however Nanasaheb affectionately persuaded to get Shri Sai's darshan and left. Govindrao felt an excitement to meet Shri Sai and he decided to leave for Shirdi on same evening. He took a train to Dadar and decided to board the Manmad passenger from there. During his travel to Dadar out of nowhere a person approached him and started enquiring about his travel. He gave a timely advice to Govindrao, to not get down at Dadar since the Manmad passenger doesn't halt there. He should instead go to Boribandar. Govindrao did as advised and reached Shirdi the next morning where his friend Kakasaheb Dixit was waiting for him. What a luck !! Or Sai's blessing.

Upon reaching Shirdi, they happen to meet Shri Sai who was on his way back from Lendi bagh. Govindrao & Kakasaheb felt on Baba's feet and took his blessings. Govindrao was seeing Baba for the first time, his joy knew no bounds, he felt blessed. After this quick darshan they left to lodging and there they met Balasaheb Bhat. The normal chit chat took the form of heated argument and went on and on, with Govindrao insisting that one should not put their complete faith in a guru and lose their independence. Govindrao was sincere, hard working and always believed in fruit from action, rather than depending on a guru's grace. He was of the opinion that one should carry their assigned duties and responsibilities whole heartedly and intelligently. No guru can help a person who is lazy or careless. On the other hand, Balasaheb was of the opinion that no matter how much intelligent a person is, he is not free from the bondage and has no control on the outcome. Balasaheb was a strong believer in fate whereas Govindrao didn't like the idea of leaving everything on fate. As with any arguments, Govindrao thought he was absolutely right and took lot of pride in maintaing his stance. He lost all the peace which he had experienced from Sai Darshan.
153:
अंगी दुर्धर देहाभिमान 
तेणेच वादावादिचे जनन 
अह्मभावाची ही खुणा 
नाहीं त्यावीं वाद जगीं 

In the evening when they went to take Sai Darshan, Sai Baba who knew everything pointedly asked the people what argument was happening in the lodging. He looked at Govindrao and taunted what this Hemadpant is saying. Govindrao felt ashamed and he regretted his previous argument. He knew that 'Hemadri' was a smart and capable minister from 13th century and Sai Baba by calling him Hemdpant was instead ridiculing him and trying to teach him that argument should be avoided. Sai Baba explained to all that the tendency to argue indicate that we have unnecessary ego and pride in us and because of such bad qualities we don't let the grace of God to flow into our life.

86:
जेथे वादावादिची बुद्धि 
तेथे अविद्या मायासमृद्धि 
नाहीं तेथें स्वहितसमृद्धि 
सदा दुर्बुधि कुतर्की
87:
तों ना आत्मज्ञानासी पात्र
त्यासी ग्रासी अज्ञान मात्र
नाहीं तयासी इहपरत्र
असुख सर्वत्र सर्वदा
88:
नको स्वपक्षस्थापन
नको पर्पक्षनिराकरण
नको पक्षद्वयात्मक विवरण
काय ते निष्कारण सायास

Govindrao was open minded, he accepted and learned from this advice. He accepted the new name of Hemadpant so he always knew that he has to refrain from argument.  Through this story Shri Sai taught this valuable lesson to all of us. Govindrao realized that Sri Rama as well as Sri Krishna accepted the discipleship of their gurus, even though they were the incarnation of God. So what's the question for ordinary people like us. All the religious text have clearly mentioned that its not possible to gain knowledge or God realization without the help of a Guru.

Jai Shri Sai !

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