Sai Satcharitra - Ch 1

Starting from this week, I will be posting stories from Sai Satcharitra every Thursday.I hope that this will give readers of this blog something to think upon.I have made corrected some grammatical errors in an effort to make it more readable and also added my own thoughts.

Shri Satchitaanand Sadguru Sainaath Maharaaj ki Jai

This is the first story in Sai Satcharitra. Hemadpant writes, "It was sometime after 1910 A.D. that I went, one fine morning, to the Masjid in Shirdi for getting a darshan of Sai Baba. I was wonder-struck to see the following phenomenon. After washing His mouth and face, Sai Baba began to make preparations for grinding wheat. He spread a sack on the floor; and thereon set a hand-mill. He took some quantity of wheat in a winnowing fan, and then drawing up the sleeves of His Kafni (robe); and taking hold of the peg of the hand-mill, started grinding the wheat by putting a few handfuls of wheat in the upper opening of the mill and rotating it. I thought ‘what business does Baba have grinding wheat, when He possessed nothing and stored nothing, as He lived on alms!’ Some people who had come there thought likewise, but none had the courage to ask Baba what He was doing. Immediately, the news of Baba grinding wheat spread throught the village, and at once men and women ran to the Masjid and flocked there to see Baba's act. Four bold women, from the crowd, forced their way up and pushing Baba aside, forcibly took the peg into their hands, and singing Baba's Leelas, started grinding. At first Baba was enraged, but on seeing the women's love and devotion, He was pleased and began to smile. While they were grinding, they began to think that as Baba had no house, nor property, nor children, and none to look after, and as He lived on alms, He did not require any wheat-flour for making bread or roti.They wondered what He will do with this big quantity of flour? they thought that perhaps as Baba is very kind, He will distribute the flour amongst us. Thinking in this way, they finished the grinding and after putting the hand-mill aside, divided the flour into four portions and began to remove them one per head. Baba, Who had been and quiet up till then, got wild and started abusing them saying, "Ladies, are you gone mad? Whose father's property are you looting away? Have I borrowed any wheat from you, so that you can safely take the flour? Now please do this. Take the flour and throw it on the village border limits." On hearing this, the women felt abashed and whispering amongst themselves, went away to the outskirts of the village and spread the flour as directed by Baba.

I asked the people of Shirdi - "What was this that Baba did?" They replied that as the Cholera Epidemic was spreading in the village,this was Baba's remedy against the same.It was not wheat that was ground but the Cholera itself was ground to pieces and pushed out of the village. From then on, the Cholera Epidemic subsided and the people of the village were happy. I was much pleased to witness all this; but at the same time my curiosity was also aroused. I began to ask myself - 'What earthly connection was there between wheat flour and Cholera? What was the causal relation between the two? And how to reconcile them? The incident seems to be inexplicable. I should write something on this and sing to my heart's content Baba's sweet Leelas'. Thinking about this Leela, my heart was filled with joy and I was thus inspired to write Baba's Life - The Satcharitra.

And as we know, with Baba's grace and blessing this work was successfully accomplished.

Philosophical Significance of Grinding
Apart from the meaning that the people of Shirdi put on this incident of grinding wheat, there is, we think, a philosophical significance too. Sai Baba lived in Shirdi for about sixty years and during this long period, He did the business of grinding almost every day - not, however, of the wheat alone but also the sins, the mental and physical afflictions and the miseries of His innumerable devotees. The two stones of His mill consisted of Karma and Bhakti, the former being the lower and the latter the upper one. The handle with which Baba worked the mill consisted of Jnana. It was the firm conviction of Baba that Knowledge or Self-realization is not possible, unless there is the prior act of grinding away of all our impulses, desires, sins and of the three gunas, viz. Sattva, Raja and Tama; and the Ahamkara, which is so subtle and therefore so difficult to be got rid of.

This reminds us of a similar story of Kabir who seeing a woman grinding corn said to his Guru, Nipathiranjana, "I am weeping because I feel the agony of being crushed in this wheel of worldly existence like the corn in the hand-mill." Nipathiranjana replied, "Do not be afraid; hold fast to the handle of knowledge of this mill, as I do, and do not wander far away from the same but turn inward to the Center, and you are sure to be saved."