Shirdi Sai Baba Stories,Leelas and Teachings.: B.V Narsimha Swami ji-Chapter 11.

Dear one's,
In continuation with biography of Pujya Shri B.V Narsimha Swamiji ,today I am uploading the Chapter-II (part-4) but I shall number it as chapter 11 keeping the sequence of the post .This post gives the details how Narsimha swamiji reached Sakori and how his life changed after coming to Sakori.Readers who have missed earlier parts of biography can read by clicking on the links which are given below here at the end of post chapter by chapter .Jai Sai Ram.

CHAPTER-2 PART V
AT SAKORI

Narasimha Swamiji’s meeting Upasani Maharaj and his life at the Sakori Ashram formed an important landmark in his spiritual pursuit.

Sakori is a small village, close to Chithali on the Ahmednagar-Kopergaon railway line, 80 km away from Ahmednagar. Narasimha Swamiji reached Upasani Maharaj’s ashram on a fine evening in March 1934. The ashram is adjacent to a burial ground.

Upasani Maharaj was conversing with a few of his followers. Upasani Maharaj had a clairvoyant vision and the moment Narasimha Swamiji arrived, he welcomed him saying;-

“At last you have come. I have been waiting for you for quite sometime.”

Narasimha Swamiji at that moment did not know the significance of Upasini Maharaj expecting his arrival.
Upasani Maharaj had undergone his spiritual pursuit under Sai Baba’s guidance and was a realized soul. Sai Baba had in fact groomed him to be his successor.
Unfortunately Sai Baba had strictly asked him to practice spiritual ‘sadhana’ for four years.

While Upasini Maharaj followed his instructions for three years and ten months and ran away from Shirdi two months before he could complete the rigorous training. Therefore, he had missed the golden opportunity of becoming an heir to Sai Baba. Never the less he had evolved to be a great saint.

Upasani Baba’s reputation was so great that Mahatma Gandhi had approached him in 1927 with a view to securing his blessings for national welfare. Inspite of his greatness, Upasani Baba was in deep crisis at that time and to help him come out of this situation, Providence had made Narasimha Swamiji reach Sakori at the opportune moment.

The exact position was this. In the days of yore, women in Hindu religion had equal rights as men for chanting the Vedas and performing Yagnas. Later on, the Hindu fanatics denied this privilege to women. In order to restore these rights to women, Upasani Maharaj undertook a revolutionary step. In order to permit vedic chanting and perform Yagnas, he married 65 virgin girls by holding an idol of Lord Krishna.

While Upasani Maharaj was past sixty years of age, all the girls were under twenty-five years of age. It was indeed a rare and an extraordinary event. Even though it was well intentioned, a good majority of the devotees of Upasani Maharaj considered it as a heinous crime and filed a public interest litigation in the courts of Nagpur and Mumbai. The courts also had taken the subject seriously and had issued summons to Upasani Maharaj to appear before the court. It was feared that any moment Upasani Maharaj could be arrested on charges of practicing polygamy.

Upasani Maharaj was searching for a suitable advocate to plead on his behalf in the court of law. Not a single advocate in Maharashtra was prepared to take up his case, as no one endorsed Upasani Baba’s action. There was a public outcry against Upasani Maharaj. Upasani Baba’s ashram, which used to attract thousands of devotees, had become virtually empty.

Photo-Upasani Maharaj.

Upasini Baba’s welcome word to Narasimha Swamiji ‘I am waiting for you’ meant that Narasimha Swamiji who had given up his legal profession should again wear the Lawyer’s robes and plead for him at Nagpur and Mumbai courts of Law. Narasimha Swamiji, who had given up his legal practice in 1925 to become a mendicant, was at first reluctant to again become an advocate. Ultimately he agreed to Upasani Maharaj’s request and prepared himself for a prolonged legal battle.

This litigation went on for thirty months. He had to travel to Mumbai, Nagpur, Ajmer and other places to examine witnesses. There were 265 witnesses. Ultimately, both at Nagpur and Mumbai, the courts dismissed the petitions after acquitting Upasani Maharaj as ‘not guilty’.

While attending to the litigation work of Upasani Maharaj at Mumbai and Nagpur, Narasimha Swamiji had a dose of pilgrimage too. Having heard about Saint Tajuddin baba as a perfect master, he visited his Samadhi shrine at Nagpur. Similarly, he undertook a pilgrimage to the Kwaja Moinuddin Chistry Sheriff’s darga at Ajmer. At Pushkar in Rajasthan, he paid his obeisance to Lord Brahma seeking His intervention in his quest for a Sadguru. He had a providential escape from the jaws of a crocodile while bathing at Pushkar Tirth. A timely shot from the rifle of a Sardarjee killed the crocodile and Narasimha Swamiji’s life was saved. The wound inflicted was quite grave and Narasimha Swamiji’s right leg was in bandage for months together and even after the wound healed, he used to limp for years!

In these thirty months, Narasimha Swamiji had delved deep into the life and mission of Upasani Maharaj, He evinced a keen interest in his teachings. He collected from the Master whatever information he could about his life and pieced them together in a systematic and chronological order. With the help of Sri Kakade and Sri Chitnis-two intimate devotees of Upasani Maharaj, he compiled Upasani Baba’s life and teachings and published a book ‘The Sage of Sakori’ in August 1936. This publication is interesting to devotees of Upasani Maharaj as also to those of Sai Baba as it presents valuable information on how Sai Baba had trained a spiritual aspirant in self purification, developing ‘Ekagrachitta’ (single mindedness), devotion and implicit obedience to the Guru and seeing God in every one and living creature. The teachings of Upasani Baba incorporated in this book are of practical value to aspirants. ‘The Sage of Sakori’ is, as ‘Self Realization’ the first authentic biography of Upasini Maharaj in English. Through this book, he introduced the greatness of Upasani Maharaj to the external world.

How much of chastening had Narasimha Swamiji undergone in the hard life he had lived in all these years, following the catastrophe in his domestic life, and what spiritual progress he had made by now may be assessed in the following passage taken from page 63 of ‘The Sage of Sakori’. While discussing Narasimha Swamiji’s bereavements, the following questions were mooted. “Why should this happen to him? What is the meaning of life?’ The following passage contains the answer.

“God declares that in giving His grace to a devotee, He deprives him of every possession and all attractions as these hold down the soul to the earth, and prevent the upward gaze which dwells upon and abosorbs or is absorbed in Him”.

Upasani Maharaj advised Narasimha Swamiji to stick to the ‘Bhakti marga’ and not to fritter away his powers in metaphysical speculation. He also asked Narasimha Swamiji to develop his knowledge and tendencies through well recognized methods such as Japa, Bhajan, Parayana etc., He also enjoined on him the life of an ‘Akinchana’. A holy ascetic.

While practicing his ‘sadhana’ in accordance with Upasani Maharaj’s advice, Narasimha Swamiji was startled to discover that there were elements in Upasani Maharaj’s teachings and methods which jarred on him and which went very much against the opinions and expectations which Narasimha Swamiji held about correct religious life. So Narasimha Swamiji decided to leave Upasani Maharaj’s ashram towards the end of August, 1936.

By now Narasimha Swamiji may be said to have arrived at the very end of his search. He was like a lost child seeking his parents going from one teacher to another. Meanwhile, he was also qualifying himself for a higher work awaiting him, the mission for which he was born.

Shirdi is not far from Sakori. Narasimha Swamiji had heard about Shirdi from Upasani Maharaj and wrote down in the publication ’The Sage of Sakori’ how much Sai Baba had helped Upasani Maharajh. He had set apart in that work, a chapter from pages 38 to 41 to give a brief account of Sai Baba. Still it did not occur to him to pay a visit to Sai Baba’s Samadhi at Shirdi till the destined hour had arrived.

Since Sai Baba had already taken up ‘Mahasamadhi’ in 1918, Narasimha Swamiji thought it was not worthwhile to visit Shirdi. Further, even Upasani Maharaj too did not motivate him to visit Shirdi. It is very true that ‘everything happens according to His will and His time’.To be continued....End of Chap-2.

Chapters Posted:

To read in Tamil click Here.

If you enjoyed this post and wish to be informed whenever a new post is published, then make sure you subscribe to my regular Email Updates. Subscribe Now!