Shri Sai Satcharitra
Chapter I
Salutations -- The Story of Grinding Wheat and Its Philosophical Significance
Chapter I
Salutations -- The Story of Grinding Wheat and Its Philosophical Significance
According to the ancient and revered custom, Hemadpant begins the work, Sai Satcharitra, with various salutations.
First, he makes obeisance to the God Ganesha to remove all obstacles and make the work a success and says that Shri Sai is the God Ganesha.
Then, to the Goddess Saraswati to inspire him to write out the work and says that Shri Sai is one with this Goddess and that He is Himself singing His own life.
Then, to the Gods; Brahma, Vishnu and Shankar - the Creating, Preserving and Destroying Deities respectively; and says that Sainath is one with them and He as the great Teacher, will carry us across the River of Worldly Existence.
Then, to his tutelary Deity Narayan Adinath who manifested himself in Konkan - the land reclaimed by Parashurama, (Rama in the Hindi version) from the sea; and to the Aadi (Original) Purusha of the family.
Then, to the Bharadwaja Muni, into whose gotra (clan) he was born and also to various Rishis, Yagyavalakya, Bhrigu, Parashara, Narad, Veda Vyasa, Sanak, Sanandan, Sanatkumar, Shuka, Shounak, Vishwamitra, Vasistha, Valmiki, Vamadeva, Jaimini, Vaishampayan, Nava Yogindra etc, and also modern Saints such as Nivritti, Jnanadev, Sopan, Muktabai, Janardan, Ekanath, Namdev, Tukaram, Kanha, and Narahari etc.
Then, to his grandfather Sadashiv, father Raghunath, his mother, who left him in his infancy, to his paternal aunt, who brought him up, and to his loving elder brother.
Then, to the readers and prays them to give their whole and undivided attention to his work.
And lastly, to his Guru Shri Sainath - an Incarnation of Shri Dattatreya, Who is his sole Refuge and Who will make him realize that Brahman is the Reality and the world an illusion; and incidentally, to all the Beings in whom the Lord God dwells.
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Sai Ram. The author (Hemadpant) makes salutations to various Gods while asserting that Sai is One with all of them. Then why bow to all of them? Why not to Sai alone? Bowing in obeisance comes from a feeling of Dwaita, i.e. the feeling of separateness from the other person or Deity. Since most of us including the author are presently in that Dwaita state, it is proper to bow in worship to all the different Deities. Since Sai is our Sadguru and since the Shastras assert that Guru is Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, in fact Para Brahma and since all Deities are manifestations of the same Para Brahma- Para Shakti, it is also correct to say that Sai our Sadguru is one with all of them. 'Sarva Deva Namaskarah Kesava Pratigacchati' - all namaskars reach Kesava, Sai Who is Para Brahma. Sai Ram.
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After describing in brief the various modes of devotion according to Parashara, Vyasa and Shandilya etc., the author goes on to relate the following story:
"It was sometime after 1910 AD 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 rotated it. I thought ‘what business Baba had with the grinding of wheat, when He possessed nothing and stored nothing, and 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.
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Sai Ram. Coming to the story of the chapter, grinding of wheat, the author thought, "What business Baba had with the grinding of wheat, when He possessed nothing and stored nothing, and as He lived on alms!" Every act need not have a selfish motive and can be for universal welfare. Baba had no earthly business. His business (Busy ness!) was spiritual, to bring all of us to the path of the spirit. His grinding of wheat represented the grinding of our egos and thus freeing the inner spirit in each of us, just as the useful flour is released from the external seed by grinding. Sai Ram.
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Immediately, this news of Baba's grinding wheat spread into 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, took forcibly the peg or handle into their hands, and, singing Baba's Leelas, started grinding.
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Sai Ram. Were the women the four directions of the village? Were the bodies of four ordinary simple devoted village women taken over momentarily by the Grama Devatas, the Village ruling deities? Who but Sai will know? Sai Ram.
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At first Baba was enraged, but on seeing the women's love and devotion, He was much pleased and began to smile.
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Sai Ram. He was smiling because He knew the past, present and the future and since He knew very shortly how the drama was going to unfold. Sai Ram.
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While they were grinding, they began to think that Baba had no house, no property, no children, none to look after, and He lived on alms, He did not require any wheat-flour for making bread or roti, what will He do with this big quantity of flour?
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Sai Ram. True, in the worldly sense, but the whole Universe was His house, His property and all the living and non-living beings were His children. He had the whole world to look after! Sai Ram.
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Perhaps as Baba is very kind, He will distribute the flour amongst us. Thinking in this way while singing, they finished the grinding and after putting the hand-mill aside, they divided the flour into four portions and began to remove them one per head. Baba, Who was calm and quiet up till now, 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.
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Sai Ram. Looked at from the ordinary human point of view, this episode brings home the truth that even while doing good karmas, we get attached to the fruits or the result of the karma, action. Sai has rightly rebuked them and us and advised us to work without any expectation of the results for the work which we do. This is perfectly accordance with Sri Krishna's teaching to Sri Arjuna in Srimad Bhagavad Gita that one should do ones' duty but without attachment to the result. "Ladies, are you gone mad?" Yes, those ladies and all of us who hanker after reward for actions are 'mad' with ajnan. Greed is the root cause of madness. "Have I borrowed any wheat from you, so that you can safely take the flour?" If we try to take what is not rightly ours, we get into karmic debt, which we have to repay with interest in the present or future lives. Thus Sai, our Krishna is teaching us His Gita. Sai Ram.
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I asked the Shirdi people - "What was this that Baba did?" They replied that as the Cholera Epidemic was spreading in the village and 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 this time onward, the Cholera Epidemic subsided and the people of the village were happy. I was much pleased to know 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 in this way about this Leela, my heart was filled with joy and I was thus inspired to write Baba's Life - The Satcharita.
And as we know, with Baba's grace and blessing this work was successfully accomplished.
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Sai Ram. The most extraordinary things start in very ordinary way. The masterpiece Sri Sai Satcharitra began thus from a very simple incident. "Cholera itself was ground..." not only cholera, but the desire to covet what is not ours, that was ground. "What earthly connection was there..." nothing. But in the astral planes, it becomes clear to those gifted with 'divine eyesight' that disease/illness is linked to our disharmony with nature and our transgression of dharma. So Baba used a magical ritual (white magic), which the simple village people did not understand consciously or intellectually but could feel in their auras and spiritual vibrations. Simple souls would just wonder, pray and accept. They don't question or look for logical explanations. But the educated need intellectual curiosity to be satisfied. Hence explanations come when we surrender our ego and our intellect so that intuition can come forth and our faith can grow side by side with logic and discriminating intellect. Sai Ram.
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Philosophical Significance of Grinding
Apart from the meaning, which 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, the wheat alone; but 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 of all our impulses, desires, sins; and of the three gunas, viz. Satwa, 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."
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Sai Ram. “and the Ahankar, which is so subtle and therefore, so difficult to be got rid of." In extraction of metals, the raw materials that are in the form of ores, minerals need to be ground before they can be processed further. The law of comminution states that the finer something is, the more energy is needed to grind it to a finer state (check any scientific book on mineral dressing). Only Bhakti can provide that infinite energy to grind the subtle Ahankar and dissipate it into the five elments, pancha bhutas! The grinding of corn: The corn may feel the pain while being ground, but as flour, it is useful, to appease the hunger, as food for ants etc., and as roti or bread, to other animals including humans. Similarly, we should not mind the troubles coming to us because we, like the corn get refined or transformed into flour and thus serve the purpose of our being created in this world. Sri Nipatiranjan, Kabir's guru, is advising him, not to wander from the path of knowledge, and to remain introverted. For the disciple, Guru is the axis, so if he does not wander far from Him, he need not fear being crushed by the wheel of Karma, which crushes only those who out of their spiritual ignorance, ajnan, are troubled by Kama, Moha etc., but does not touch those who know their true nature. Sai Ram.
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Bow to Shri Sai -- Peace be to all
