Shirdi Sai Baba Stories,Leelas and Teachings.: B.V Narsimha Swamiji-Swamiji's Mahasamadhi-Part 2.

Dear all,
Happy Baba's day
In the last post we read about Swami ji's Mahasamadhi and today's post continues on the same .Readers who have missed earlier parts of biography can read by clicking on the links which are given below at the end of post , chapter by chapter.Jai Sai Ram.

CHAPTER – 4 PART –IX
SWAMIJI’S MAHASAMADHI CONTD.

Just three weeks before attaining his Mahasamadhi, Narasimha Swamiji had stated in a message:-“In the first place the spiritual leadership of Sai movement is of the utmost importance and none but the Founder amongst the members could provide it. So the Founder still continues to be the spiritual head of the Sai Samaj and of all Sai devotees. It is to facilitate this work that a cottage behind the temple had been erected and allotted to the Founder to live in, and thus become a powerful and always a present guide, director and helper to all.”

Even though he has given up his physical body, Narasimha Swamiji is eternally with us forever. He is answering our prayers. He is guiding us in our spiritual efforts.

The Sai Baba temple and offices of the All India Sai Samaj at 37, Alamelu Mangapuram, Mylapore, Madras, covering about eighteen grounds with the tower rising to a stupendous height and spacious front hall represent in concrete form how much Narasimha Swamiji had achieved by his hard work and sacrifice.

We have in this magnificent building a library, hospital and a printing press, community hall for cultural activities, telephone and loudspeaker equipment, living rooms and baths and other amenities of urban life for outstation devotees, poor feeding etc.,

Whoever comes for ‘darshan’ is provided ‘prasad’. Let us not become lost in these comforts; let us cherish in humility and gratitude the memory of that rare soul for all this. More than seven times he was stricken by accidents; there was division among his followers. Accidents failed to deter him and he put heterogeneous elements together and evolved as His Master Sai Baba had done in Shirdi, ‘harmony out of chaos’. “I find Dwarakamayi here in Madras’ declared Justice Sri M.B. Rege as he visited the headquarters of the All India Sai Samaj. He could perceive Sai Baba manifesting in that holy atmosphere. He was linked to this place by memory of his close association with Narasimha Swamiji.

Out of over eighty-three years that Narasimha Swamiji had lived, he gave us in the last twenty years the cream of his profound wisdom and scholarship, ripe experience and above all the fruits of his ‘tapas’.

Narasimha Swamiji has left us the legacy-the Sai movement and the All India Sai Samaj. We should ask ourselves what we in our turn have done to preserve and improve that heritage by contributing our share to the work. There is still so much distress around-poverty, ignorance, communal discord, parochialism, selfishness and greed and therefore, so much to do to remove them by carrying the teachings of Sai Baba working in loving memory of Narasimha Swamiji. We may change the situation, however little that change may be. But we must change ourselves first.

Swamiji is still living in the literature he has left us; literature that goes into so many reprints and passes into so many languages, he lives in the ‘Ashtotharam’ and ‘Sahasranamam’ he composed and we chant in ‘Sai Mananam’ and the songs we sing. His spirit is brooding over the cottage behind the temple at the All India Sai Samaj, in the easy chair that held him, nay in the very temple he built, praying ceaselessly for the grace of Sai Baba that may come down pouring on us all in abundance.

After Mahasamadhi..

The physical absence of Narasimha Swamiji did create a vacuum. Initially the attendance at the temple diminished, but over the years it has increased by leaps and bounds.

Narasimha Swamiji was a great lover of books. He had collected over 6000 books on religion, philosophy etc., The Narasimha Swamiji Memorial Library and Free Reading Room was opened by Sri.B.N. Datar, the then Union Minister of State for Home Affairs on the first ‘Aradhana’ day of Swamiji in October 1957. From 1957 onwards the Annual Aradhana Day is celebrated as Founders Day at the All India Sai Samaj.

Narasimha Swamiji felt ‘Bhajan’ as the life of Sai movement. Narasimha Swamiji Dwarakamayi Prathana Sishya Ghosti led by Sundareswara Iyer was systematically carrying on Bhajan on all Saturdays. From 1959 onwards, Dhanurmasa bhajan in the early morning is also undertaken.

Sri Gopalakrishna Bhagavathar started ‘Radha Kalyan’ in January 1959 and this has become an annual feature. Narasimha Swamiji started Laksharchanas to Sai Baba even in the forties and this was upgraded to ‘Koti Archana’ in 1966.

In 1958, Sri V.S. Ramaswamy Iyengar, a senior Railway official brought fire from the Shirdi ‘Dhuni’. This was kept in the ‘Homakundam’in front of the shrine and kept alive continuously. Another devotee, Sri. N.K. Subba Rao, gifted a Dwarakamayi picture of Sai Baba. He also contributed for construction of a room where Dhuni as well as Dwarakamayi picture of Sai Baba are placed.

The picture of Krishna-Rama-Siva-Marutyadi Rupa Sai, which was in the front hall, was shifted to the rear of the Mandir to a small niche under the neem-aswatha tree to serve as ‘Gurusthan’.

In 1962, an annexe was built to the east of the dispensary to function as the Dental Block. To be continued....

Chapters Posted:

To read in Tamil click Here.

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