Ruzbeh N. Bharucha

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Baba Sai as a sixteen year old boy when He first came to Shirdi to settle down for the next sixty years. Sometimes Sai joking with His devotees who were His friends too. Sai dancing in the guest or travel house, where numerous Sufis would come to meet Sai. Sai singing songs in various languages, especially Persian and Arabic. Sai showing His various Divine Forms, especially that of Lord Dattatrya and Lord Vithal. Sai raging and thrashing the living daylights of people and abusing them in such a prolific manner that it would give drunkard sailors a complex. Baba Sai loving His devotees with such motherly tenderness that would make His children weep. Baba Sai taking on the illness of His children and suffering such horrific physical agony that only a Perfect Master can embrace happily. Baba Sai gardening. Baba Sai asking for money from what seemed like one and all, but in reality asking from only those The Fakir pointed to Him and refusing money from many who He was not directed towards. Baba Sai earning more than the Governor of India, but every night going to sleep with a few paisas, enough to buy oil and tobacco.

Baba Sai as a Hindu Sage. Baba Sai as a Sufi and Friend of God. Baba Sai at times a traditional Muslim and then Baba Sai behaving in a manner that nobody would ever believe He could be a follower of Islam. He was and still is such an enigma and the best part of it all was that He loved confusing people about His birth and Religion. He loved playing with those interested not in His Godhood and spirituality but the triviality of which religion He was born to or followed. He loved confusing people about His past. Sometimes He would hint that He was a Hindu. Sometimes a Muslim. Sometimes His Guru was Roshan Shah, who was obviously a Muslim and to many He would say Venkusa, who was a Hindu. Both sound the same Roshan Shah and Venkusa. He would have Allah Malik on His lips, recite the Sureh Fatia and then go about doing everything not appreciated by the Muslims, like allowing devotees of other faiths to perform and sing the Arti treating Him clearly as their presiding Deity, God and Master and then of course His love for Lord Hanuman was known far and wide. Dare anybody say a word against Lord Hanuman and then Baba would swear and abuse. So He is an enigma. Most of the world considered Him to be either a Sufi or a Mad Fakir. Irony was that all Sufis considered Him to be a Friend of God and all Sages who met Him or spoke of Him, considered Him to be One with God. But the common man never gave up either trying to fix a religion with His name or malign Him by calling Him various names.

And nearly a hundred years since He exhaled and left His physical body, the dwarfs will not leave Him alone. Why is it so important whether Baba was a Hindu or a Muslim? If it was important, why would Baba shroud His birth and religion as a mystery?

The answer is simple. God and Guru are beyond religion. A child does not love his or her parents because the parent belongs to a particular religion. A child loves because s(h)e loves and that is that. The child is not concerned about trivialities as to which religion the parent professes faith towards.

The Guru is the embodiment of God and every parent that ever was, is and will be. How does it matter which religion our Sai belonged to? And even if Sai was a Muslim or a Hindu, so what? Is there a sin to belong to a particular religion?

The Guru Stotram or The Guru Mantra says:

 gurur brahmā gurur viṣṇu gurur devo maheśvara
 guru sākśāt parabrahma tasmai śrī gurave nama

Guru is Lord Brahmā (His Essence), The Guru is Lord Viṣṇu (His Essence), The Guru is Lord Śiva (His Essence),

The Guru, in fact to me, is Essence beyond form.

Salutations to that glorious Guru.

I doubt if there is a foot note in small print that says this mantra is only applicable for those professing a certain faith and a Guru not born to this certain faith has no stake to the authenticity of this Guru Mantra.

This Mantra goes beyond religion. There are no conditions applicable clauses to this Mantra, which means the Guru is beyond religion and in essence is like The Primordial One.

Anybody who tries to bring duality or a divide amongst people in the name of God or religion operates from everything which is not spiritual. The very essence of spirituality comes forth from Operating From The Spirit. The Spirit comes forth from The Great Spirit. To operate from the spirit means to operate from the knowledge that we all have come forth from The One and thus in essence we all are One. Thus, if one is truly spiritual, s(h)e, will operate from Oneness and not duality and divide. There has been a strange tamasha going on regarding Baba Sai and that He is a Muslim and thus He should not be worshipped in a Hindu Temple and the other side saying there is no proof of Him being a Muslim and the third side saying He was not a Muslim but He was a Hindu and my side, which says……Lord love a defrosted duck, how the damn does it matter whether our Sai was a Muslim, Hindu, Christian or not from earth? He is our Baba Sai, our Father and Mother and all relationships rolled into one and we love Him for Him being Him, our Sai and that is that. We are not concerned about His religion….all we care about is that He is our Sai, our Rockstar, our chillum smoking God who loved to love and swear and bless and help and be with us. So get the fug out of our world and leave our Sai alone.

Well that is all I have to say about our Sai. I may have innumerable flaws but I know one thing, our Sai lived and still lives to bring about Oneness amongst His children and not duality and divide.

God our Creator, came God alone knows how many millions and millions of years before the scum of creation, i.e. mankind, came into existence and religion came long after even that. God has no religion. How can God have a religion. If S(H)e did, then there would have been only one religion. Religion comes forth from a Prophet who speaks the word of God to a certain society or clan of people, addressing their needs and helping them to move towards The Light and spread The Light. Prophets come when the need arises and thus every few centuries, a Prophet has spoken the word of the Lord to His or Her sect of people. As there have been many Prophets addressing to various sections of the population at given times in the journey of time, these sections of the population to feel good about themselves and superior to others, have gone about indulging in slander, hate, bloodshed and blasphemy….thus the divide came about amongst various sections of the population who wanted to feel special and their God more Godlike and thus religion which was in reality meant To Spread The Light was used to spread divide.

Instead of spreading The Light, these intelligent worms began to spread darkness and thus now, the reality is, that there have been more deaths and misery caused in God’s name, then in the devil’s name.

Leave our Sai alone from all this wickedness and duality.

There is a beautiful story which I think Osho quoted. It goes something like this. The devil was sitting snorting something when two of his cronies come and tell the devil, ‘oh great demented one, mankind seems to be living in complete harmony and they seem to be really happy…so now what?” and the devil thought for a long time and said, “hmmmmm mankind is happy ehhhh and living in harmony hun…..okay dokey, introduce religion.”

Today, October 15th, between 2.27 and 2.34 pm, in 1918, our Baba Sai left His physical body. All His life, He lived to spread The Light and bring forth Oneness.

If we love Him, we will try to do the same.

Be blessed.

Allah Malik, Raja Ram, Sai The One.

 

Ruzbeh N. Bharucha​​​

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