Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 8

Beggars of Truth --- Sadgurus- Shirdi

Sai Baba ,Upasani Maharaj & Meher Baba

N K Srinivasan

This is a short article on the great Sadgurus who are linked to


each other and who have been blessing millions of devotees.

While several books have been written about Shirdi Sai Baba and

His abode in Shirdi is a veritable pilgrimage center in India,

the other two saints -Sadgurus-- have been much less known

among the people at large.

There had been many negative reports on Upasani Baba Maharaj


and Meher Baba in the literature too. Such reports are not only

superficial in content, but also were designed to discredit

them in some ways.

My attempt here is to place them in a

perspective showing the unbroken chain of advanced masters or

Perfect Masters these three sad-gurus were.I am not giving much

of biographical details which are available in other websites.

Shirdi Baba & Upasani Baba

Shirdi Sai Baba ,who attained Samadhi in 1918 trained Upasani Maharaj with great care.

Upasani left Shirdi after nearly 4 years of intense sadhana


under the care of Shirdi Baba in a Khandoba temple and then

traveled to Nagpur and later to Kharagpur. Shirdi Sainath was

above caste and religion.He treated all with the same love and
grace. Upasani wanted to prove to the world at large that caste

barriers should be broken at the altar of divine dispensation.

Though he was a high caste brahmin with strong sanskrit

knowledge and profound understanding of scriptures, he moved


to a house of an untouchable in Kharagpur and used to dine with

him. This induced many of his followers to shed the caste

prejudices and taboos.It also created many enemies for him.

Upasani Baba returned to Shirdi sometime in 1914 and

established His ashram at Sakori,at a distance of about 5 kms


from Shirdi, on a creamtion ground. He must have known that

Sai Baba would soon leave his mortal coil. The Ashram at Sakori

developed into a great spiritual centre and drew hundreds of


devotees after Sai Baba's samadhi in 1918.One preeminent

disciple of Upasani Baba is ,of course, Meher Baba or Mehrawan

Irani [ of Iran or Zorastrian descent] who came from Pune.

Upasani lived a life of utter simplicity ,wrapping himself with


sack cloth and even lived in a bamboo cage for

mortification. In 1917, Upasani came to meet Shirdi Sai Baba

many times and did the last funeral rites for Shirdi Baba after
Baba attained Samadhi in 1918. Some of the hymns composed by

Upasani in Sanskrit are sung even today at Shirdi Samadhi

Mandir.

It may be mentioned here that Shri B V Narasimhaswamiji, [BVN


for short ],the founder of All India Sai Samaj[AISS] in Chennai

and who had propagated Sai lore with missionary zeal, had

earlier spent some years with Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi at

Thiruvannamalai [Tamil Nadu} and moved to north in search of


other gurus. He met Narayan Maharaj and also spent a few years

with Upasani Maharaj. He wrote a small book " Sage of Sakori"

in praise of Upasani in 1930 which was published from

Chennai.BVN also wrote the first biography of Bhagwan Ramana

Maharshi, titled " self realization". [This book ,which was out

of print, is again reprinted by Sri Ramanasramam,

Thiruvannamalai.]

[Thus BVN has the unique distinction of having written the

biographies of three great masters: Bhagawan Ramana, Upasani

and Shirdi Baba.]

Later BVN wrote three small volumes entitled "Life of Sai


Baba", published by AISS, Mylapore, Chennai, which is

available as a single volume now. He included life sketches of

major devotees of Sai Baba in those volumes--- much information

he had gathered while he toured Maharashtra in the late 1920's


after Baba's samadhi.. In that valuable work, BVN wrote

disparagingly about Upasani, stating that Upasani Baba

maintained a harem of women as a sexual pervert and his ashram

dwindled in numbers of visitors. [This account was repeated

verbatim by several writers from Tamil Nadu and also mentioned

in the book by Kamath and V G Kher in the appendix.]

Upasani built an ashram or gurukulam or school for kanya


(virgin) girls to train them in Vedic shastras or scriptures.

This was not only not easily accepted ,but women doing Vedic

rituals was forbidden in Hindu society. Upasani held the view


that women, particularly virgin girls, would be able to attain

spiritual heights easily compared to men. Upasani in many ways

broke the caste barriers such as allowing the outcastes or


untouchable in his fold. Local orthodox persons could not

accept these things. A law-suit was also filed against

Upasani's ashram on sexualy oriented charges.It appears that

several attempts were made to close the ashram entirely. BVN


who had stayed there did write the book " sage of Sakori" at

that time and but told that Upasani developed bad ways in his

later years.

I have read in another book how the well known devotee of


Shirdi Baba, G S Khaparde himself, a lawyer by profession and

an associate of Bal Gangadhar Tilak,exonerated Upasani and his

work after visiting this ashram. It may be recalled that


Mahatma Gandhi also visited Upasani's Ashram at Sakori and the

Kanya [virgin] gurukulam there. It may be remarked that his

successor was Godavari Mata who joined the ashram at a young

age and was trained by Upasani with strict discipline. This


Gurukulam and Upasani's ashram are very much active today.Yet,

many unsavory things have been written about Upasani and is

being circulated even today.

Meher Baba

The life and works of Meher Baba are well known to

repeat here.

It may be noted , in brief, that Meher Baba was first

blessed by Hazrat Baba Jan , a sufi woman-saint in Pune


who remained under a neem tree all her life.

Baba Jan's kiss led to spiritual realization for Meher


Baba. He lived in a trance-like state for nearly nine

months.

Then Meher came under the influence of Upasani who

brought him into normal consciousness of the mundane

world so that he could serve humanity. Upasani directed

Meher to Shirdi Baba in 1917. Shirdi Baba blessed him


,calling him "Parvadigar" and soon Meher experienced

Bliss and attained divine powers. After Shirdi Baba's

samadhi, Meher took further instructions and training

under Upasani for a total of nearly seven years.

Meher came to Ahmednagar and established his humble

ashram in Aarongoan near Ahmednagar [where his tomb

exists now.] Here he gathered many disciples who would


be trained by him.He also started many schools and

hospitals ,including one for lepers whom he would serve

with devotion. This indeed was a rare type of service

rendered by any Hindu saint in India. Meher became well


known .He kept in touch with Upasani and the last

meeting between them took place in 1941, a few months

before Upasani attained Samadhi.What transpired between

them or what specific instructions Upasani gave to his

chela--no one will ever know.The two sad-gurus ,Upasani


and Meher met inside a small cottage close to

Sakori in private and probably Upasani transferred his

spiritual mantle to Meher Baba .After the samadhi of

Upasani, Meher sent a group of his devotees to attend the funeral rites of his master.

It was Meher who was a Perfect master to spread the


path of self-realization with emphasis on worldly life

with suffering and sacrifice. Meher Baba met with two

accidents--once in USA and another in Pune--after which

he physically suffered greatly but continued his

ministry to devoted followers.

It may also be noted that unlike many gurus, Meher

observed silence for nearly 40 years since 1925, till

his last breath. He used an alphabet board and later a

sign language to communicate.

While Shirdi Baba did not move out of Shirdi except for

trips to Rahata , a nearby village, Upasani traveled

throughout India and Meher made global tours to Europe,

USA and Australia.

Next we trun to Paul Brunton.

Paul Brunton, who like BVN, had stayed with Ramana

maharshi and wrote a popular book " A Search In Secret

India" met Upasani Maharaj and Meher Baba. He spent a


few days there at Meherabad and had long interviews.

[It looks as if Paul Brunton and BVN follwed similar

paths, but from different perspectives.]

Paul Brunton's "Secret" book contains much

scathing remarks on Meher Baba as his role as a

self-proclaimed Messiah and a megalo-maniac who

misguided people. At first it may appear that


Paul Brunton's views are acceptable. A closer

study of Meher Baba's life and work would


indicate that he was not only blessed by Shirdi

Baba and Upasani, that he was a personification

of humility and service to the poor and

down-trodden without any bias of caste and

religion.His words, not spoken but dictated, are of high value. No one had cast aspersions on his moral behavior.
How could Paul Brunton fail to perceive this?

This is indeed a mystery. When Meher Baba

declared his avatarhood, it was a statement of

his inner conviction and not a vain boast. Did

not Jesus Christ say that " I and My father are


one"? Al Hallaj declared " Allah Ul haq"--of

course he was martyred.

Considering the background of Meher Baba as I have briefly recalled here, no one would doubt

about the

supreme

state he

had

attained whatever may be the

literal

words

used by

him .

Conclusion

In

concluding

this

article,

let me

add that

the
negative

reports

of BVN on

Upasani

Maharaj

and Paul

Brunton
on Meher

Baba had

done more

damage to

the
Indian

spiritual

heritage

than good

.While
these

authors

had

freedom

of

writing

their

views ,

it is

important

that

writers

and

authors

who came

after

them make

a careful

analysis

and
proper

account

of these

sad-gurus

, namely
Upasani

Maharaj

and Meher

Baba
,both of

them

blessed

and

nurtured
by Shirdi

Sai

Baba.No

great

devotee
of Sai

Baba can

cast

aspersions

on these

Sad-gurus

blessed

by Baba.

Most

probabaly

other

mundane

motives

are

behind

the

negative

remarks .

It may be

added

that the

works of
Sad gurus

are to be

reckoned

over

several

centuries
at least

and

cannot be

evaluated

in terms
of one's

life

time.

-------------Om Sai

Ram-----------------------------------------------

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi