The Publication of ‘Shri Sai Satcharita’

completes

75 years

Shri Sai Satcharita, the magnum opus, a composition of 9,308 verses (ovis) on the life and teachings of the venerable Shirdi Saint, Shri Sai Baba, penned in Marathi by late Govind Raghunath Dabholkar (Hemadpant) with the Blessings of Shri Sai Baba, completes 75 years on November 26.

The ‘Shri Sai Satcharita’, which is revered and read by crores of Sai devotees, was styled in the verse form based on the popular Eknathi Bhagwat. The ‘Charita’ contains 53 chapters, which provides an interesting mix of Baba’s advent in Shirdi, His miracles (leelas), His teachings, etc. The ‘charita’ is another of Baba’s leelas, because not only has it slaked the thirst of His innumerable devotees by providing them succour for their material and spiritual growth, but has proved to be a fountain of inspiration for other literary works on Sai Maharaj. Innumerable devotees have penned books inspired by the ‘Shri Sai Satcharita’. Many musical composition and films have been based on the ‘Charita’ and the latest enterprise is Ramanand Sagar’s mega serial on Sai Baba.

The story behind the writing of the ‘Shri Sai Satcharita’ is as follows.....

Kakasaheb Dixit and Nanasaheb Chandorkar were staunch devotees of Baba and both of them were urging Annasaheb Dabholkar to visit Shirdi for Baba’s darshan. Dabholkar promised, he would; but then an incident happened, which made him change his mind. Dabholkar was in Lonavala with his friend, when the friend’s son fell ill. The family tried various remedies, yet the fever would not abate. Even the friend’s Guru was called, who sat by the son’s bedside, yet they could not save the son. Dabholkar started pondering, ‘Is there any point in having a Guru, when he cannot do anything for us ? Why should I go to Shirdi ?’

But, then in 1910, Nanasaheb, who was a Prant Officer, was going on a tour to Bassein. From Thane he came to Dadar and was waiting for a train to Bassein. But, when Baba wants to pull ‘His sparrow’, He creates means and methods for them to reach Him.

This was one such leela of His, when a Bandra local pulled in the station. Nanasaheb sat in it and reached Bandra, sent a message for Dabholkar and once again convinced him to go to Shirdi.

Dabholkar, hearing Nanasaheb’s point of view, decided to go to Shirdi the same evening. He packed his luggage and started to go to Dadar to catch the train for Manmad. Baba again guided him through a Muslim, who entered the train just before it pulled out of the station and seeing Dabholkar’s luggage, enquired, where he was heading. On hearing Dabholkar’s plan, he suggested that he should go to Boribunder (Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus) instead of Dadar, as Manmad Mail was not going to halt at Dadar. By following this suggestion Dabholkar was able to reach Shirdi at about 9 a.m. the next day. He felt that if he had missed the train and had delayed reaching Shirdi, doubts would have again assailed him.

When he reached Shirdi, Kakasaheb was waiting for him. The moment Dabholkar alighted from the tonga, Tatyasaheb Noolkar returned from the mosque (Dwarkamai) and said that Baba was at the corner of Sathewada, and sugg-ested to Dabholkar to go for ‘dhool bhet’ first and after having a bath, have a leisure darshan. Hearing this, Dabholkar ran and prostrated in front of Baba, right there in the dust ! He experienced bliss. All his senses were satiated. The experience is more divine than he had thought possible, when Nanasaheb had described Baba. He felt, he got a new lease of life. He felt with Baba’s darshan, one’s thoughts change, the force of previous karmas (actions) starts abating and gradually a non-attachment to the worldly things starts growing. He felt that those who had spurred him for this divine meeting were his true kin and he felt that he was forever indebted to them. He was so taken in by the darshan that he started seeing the world as Sai’s form.

On his first day in Shirdi, a strong argument ensued between him and Balasaheb Bhate. Dabholkar contended, “Why should one have a Guru ? Why should we lose our freedom and subjugate ourselves to others ? When we have to do our own duties, why a Guru is needed ? What can a Guru do to someone, who is not making any efforts and is idling ?’’ Bhate stuck to the opposite viewpoint. He said, ‘‘Man proposes, but it is God Who disposes. How can you fight fate ? Leave aside your cleverness !’’ Dabholkar says that his ego wouldn’t let him accept defeat. So, the argument stretched to three quarter of an hour. The only net gain of the heated argument was the loss of his peace of mind. Then, it dawned upon him that unless there is strong body - consciousness and egoism, there would be no discussion.

After this debate, when Annasaheb reached the mosque with the others, Baba asked Kakasaheb, while looking pointedly at Dabholkar, “What was going on in the wada ? What was the dispute about ? And what was this ‘Hemadpant’ saying ?” The distance between the wada and the mosque is considerable; how did then Baba come to know of this incident. Dabholkar realised, Baba is Omnipresent. He started pondering as to, why Baba must have called him ‘Hemadpant’. Hemadri was a well-known minister of king Mahadev and Ramaraja of Yadav dynasty. He was the author of ‘Dharmashastra’. He had also written a book ‘Chaturvarga - Chintamani’. Hemadripant of Sanskrit became Hemadpant of Marathi language. Dabholkar contemplated that there was no similarity between Hemadri and himself. He pondered, ‘His gotra (line of descent) was from ‘Vatsa’, whereas mine from ‘Bharadwaj’; his pravara (lineage) has five exulted persons, whereas mine has three. He was Yajurvedi, and I Rigvedi. He was learned in Dharmashastra, was a shrewd statesman, and could compose verses in Sanskrit, whereas I am totally incompetent in these areas.’

Then, it dawned on him that this title by Baba was to shatter his ego and the resultant contentious nature. He realised that there should be no desire to vie or argue with others, but to be forever humble. Only ‘Shraddha’ (faith with courage) and ‘Saburi’ (patience) can help us in our spiritual progress. Since the title came from Baba’s lips he accepted it as an ornament. He felt that even Shri Ram and Shri Krishna, God incarnate themselves held on to their Guru’s feet. So, in comparison, who was I ? And finally he concluded, there can be no knowledge without Guru and hence no salvation.

In 1911, one fine morning, when Dabholkar went to the mosque, he saw Baba grinding wheat at the hand-mill. Immediately the news spread in the village and men and women flocked to the mosque.

Four bold women pushing their way through the crowd took hold of the peg forcibly from Baba’s hands and started grinding and singing Baba’s leelas. When all the wheat was ground, the women thought, ‘Baba does not have any dependents, moreover, He subsists on alms, why does He need the flour ? Baba is Compassion Incarnate; He will give away all this flour to us.’ So, they started sharing it. Baba, Who was quiet till now, got enraged and asked, ‘‘Whose father’s property you are looting ?’’ He asked them to throw the flour on the village outskirts. The women fretted and were ashamed at their greediness; they threw the flour as directed by Baba.

At first no one understood Baba’s intention. But, later realised that it was not flour but the raging cholera epidemic, that was crushed and banished from the village.

When Dabholkar saw this leela of Baba, he was filled with a divine joy and felt that he should sing Baba’s leelas to his heart’s content, which became the inspiration for penning the ‘Shri Sai Satcharita’.

God assigns some to build temples, ashrams or ghats on riverbanks; others to do kirtans and some He sends to pilgrimages. But, He bade Dabholkar to write about Him. He was unable to comprehend, why He assigned him this task, as he considered himself to be ‘Jack of all trades, and master of none’. He felt, he did not have the requisite qualities to accomplish the task of writing on Him. He was caught in a situation, where if he did not make an effort, it would tantamount to disobedience and if he obeyed the command, he was not worthy of the task. He thought, ‘How can I describe the inner self of Baba ? I do not have the intellectual capacity to fathom His greatness.’

Hemadpant was 60 years old and was skeptical, whether he would be able to write on Baba’s life; so he wanted to seek Baba’s blessings to accomplish the task. On his behalf Shama told Baba, “This Annasaheb wishes to write Your biography; don’t say You are a Poor Fakir and there is no need to write it. But, if You agree and help him, Your Feet (Grace) will accomplish the task.”

Baba was moved and placed His Boon Bestowing Hand on Dabholkar’s head and gave him Udi as prasad. The Omniscient Baba wanted to calm his agitated mind; so He said,

“Make a collection of My stories, experiences, conversations, etc. He should subdue his ego and offer it at My Feet. He who does so, will get not only My help in writing the book but I will be there to assist him forever, in every way.’’

“I shall Myself write My own story, and he will become My instrument. Listen to My stories with reverence, narrate them to others in keertan, and meditate upon them ! This will give rise to love and devotion, which will instantly destroy ignorance. Where there is faith and devotion, I remain enslaved forever; but otherwise, I am unattainable.’’

“When these stories are heard with devotion, the devotees will experience constant bliss and Self Realisation. Where disputes and arguments prevail, maya and ignorance abound, thus eluding Self Knowledge, hence he remains unhappy on earth and even in heaven.”

Dabholkar thought, there are several works on Baba by other devotees like Das Ganu, Savitribai Raghunath Tendulkar, Amidas Bhavani Mehta, etc., then, why one more book on Baba. But, then he felt that Baba’s life is as wide and deep as a boundless ocean and all can dive deep into the same and take out precious gems of knowledge and devotion and distribute them to others.

Dabholkar started writing in 1922-23 and wrote for six years (1929) under the divine inspiration of Baba. Dabholkar writes - ‘‘When I myself start to write anything, I cannot compose a few words or sentences; but when He of His own accord makes me write, I go on writing….. and there is no end to it.’’

The ‘Shri Sai Satcharita’ is published by Shirdi Sai Sansthan and currently is into its 24th edition. The first edition in Marathi, having approximately 900 pages, in vertical size of 8’x5.5’, at price Rs. 3/-, was released on November 26, 1930. Later it was translated verse to verse in Gujarati, Telugu, Kannad. Adapted versions are available in English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannad, Urdu, Gujarati, Sindhi, Bengali, etc. Millions of copies of the ‘Shri Sai Satcharita’ have been sold.

      – Shamshad Ali Baig

shamshadbaig@rediffmail.com

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