SHRI SAI LEELA Official periodical of Shri Sai Baba Sansthan ...

SHRI SAI LEELAOfficial periodical ofShri Sai Baba Sansthan,ShirdiVOL. 70NO. 9 10January-February 92Editor: Prof. Dr. Lekha PathakExecutive Editor: Arun TamhankarEditorial Assistance :Mrs. Pravina Kambli,Vijay Kshirsagar,Surendra DesaiArt-work ofCover & Inner Pages:Hemant ChonkarTypesetting & Offset Printing:GEETA OFFSET, Wadala,Bombay.Office:'Sai Niketan', 804-B, Dr. Ambedkar Road, Dadar, Bombay-400014.Tel.: 4122561Annual Subscription - Rs.50/-, Life Membership - Rs. 1,000/-,Foreign Subscription - Rs. 1,000/- (Inclusive of Postage) Single Copy - Rs, 8/-Printed and published by Prof. Dr. Lekha Pathak, Chairperson, Shri Sai BabaSansthan, Shirdi, at 804-B, Dr. Ambedkar Road, Dadar, Bombay-14.The editor does not accept responsibility for the views expressed in the articlespublished.

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992--"WAIT, JUST A MINUTE!...LET ME THINK!! ..."ARUN TAMHANKAR— MYSTERIES, OF MYSTERY ARUN TAMHANKAR— CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF EVENTS CONCERNING SHRI SAI BABABY LT.COL.NIMBALKAR— GRACE ALONE BY KRISHNA AIYAR RAMASWAMI— WAS THE FATHER OF JUDAISM A DRAVIDIAN HINDU – ARE THEJEWS DESCENDANTS OF ANCIENT TAMILS BY YOGARISHIDR.SWAMI GITANANADA— SAI BABA OF SHIRDI A UNIQUE SAINT BY M.V.KAMATH ANDV.B.KHER— IS ASTROLOGY A SCIENCE— VARARUCI AND HIS TWELVE SIDDA PROGINIES BY KRISHNAAIYAR RAMASWAMI— HIDDEN TEACHINGS OF THE GREAT MYSTIC OF INDIA – SHRI SAIBABA OF SHIRDI BY SAI CHARAN DAS2www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992"WAIT, JUST A MINUTE!...LET ME THINK!!..."— Arun TamhankarSome days ago a friend of mine asked his friend,"Will you serve in my company?"I think over and let you know". Friend's friend said:Why ? What is there to think about ? The present one is temporary. The new oneis lucrative.My friend asked him again the next day. He said:"I couldn't find time to think about it so far"I got unnecessarily annoyed with his answer. Because in his answer there was afeigned overbearing to say that you struggle to exist by thinking alone!"Will you come to the picture ? When you ask so, people say, 'we will think aboutit'. Is there any connection to going to the picture and thinking?"Often we use the word 'thinking' at every step. Do we know the sense of it. Howmuch do we really know, how to think. We have forgotten to think along with theproduct of the culture of the past. Or in other words we have neglected to thinkabout the past along with the culture gained."What is meant by thinking?"There are three methods for the process of thinking:1. Discussion ('Charcha').2. Progressive Consequences ('Sankhya').3. Cogitation (Vicharanaj.Once we start the debate on thinking, then it is followed by a defective illusion(Bhrahnli), Mitya Mali (imperfect false notions), and Bhram (Confusion). There isa necessity for a perfect scientific thinking in order to arrive at an estimation anddetermination. But in the beginning with the development of false observationand atheism people begin to develop animosity which further gives birth to ismsand obsessive clash. Man slips on the estimation although he had taken adetermination. There the defects of suspicion and doubts boil up in his mind. Thisgives faith to 'Vimarsha', 'Vasana' and 'Bhavana', i.e., expanded-explanation,3www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992essential-memory, and image-projection. On the subject of thinking he is furtherthrown away.When a man says he is thinking, actually he is using his intellect behindhis thought. But intellect is of fourteen kind. According to Indian thought they are:1. Manisha2. Dhishana3. Dhihi4. Buddhi5. Pradnya6. Shemushi7. Mati8. Peksha9. Upallabdhi10. Chit11. Sanvida12. Pratipad13. Dnyapti and14. Chetana.The western scientists are unable to investigate into the various qualitiesof intellect as given above. The ancestral Indian wisdom has very minutely andscientifically evolved the fourteen compartments of the intellect. It will bepretentious to find or to coin equivalent or parallel words or phrases in Englishwhich connote or give the exact meaning or sense of these words and hencethey are given as such.Man's original existence is a group of thought vibrations. Because of thathis life depends upon the process of thinking and hence man is a thinking being.This process of thinking is amply dealt with by the ancient Indian thinkers.On the ladder of thoughts the first step is the introvert prompting of theurge to think and this is followed by the arrival thereafter immediately of theactual subject matter of the thought. This is followed by the attempt effort to4www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992understand the subject matter accompanied by the rules. The thinking process ofa particular subject embodies in itself the rules thereof. The fifth step is :(Asshrav) Here the concentration of a thought on a particular subject takesyou nearer to your goal. The next step is (Sansrav) In this the necessarypresence of mind to overcome all pains and impediments arising out of thethought stands confronted before you. There after one reaches a point whereone adopts the responsibility of thinking about a particular subject. Once thisresponsibility is accepted the process of thinking gets nearer to the subjectmatter which is called as (Abhyupagam). This is followed by a state called(Prathishrav). This means that the subject matter to be studied goes beyond theconfines of the state of knowing and the known. Here the process of' thinkinggets transformed into a balanced state called as (Samyakrudi Samadhi). Thismeans that a man's thought gets embeded in the subject matter. Here even if thethinking process is crystalised the study thereof is not fulfilled - what actuallymanifests in the thought pertaining to the study of a particular subject being born.But the (Samadhi Avastha) or balanced duet between the selected subject andthe thought there of being created or a state of parallel balanced breathing beingestablished one does not take a separate posture.But to have reached this stage is in itself a formidable event. Normallymen think about a subject having undergone the threefold process of introvertprompting, the arrival of the subject, and the effort to understand or comprehendit. But man is prevented from being bound by laws, the laws governing theacquisition of knowledge, wisdom or the ordeal of life or rather when the timearrives for the observation of rigid rituals, he shirks from his duties havingsuffered from his egotistic behavior or rather he is overshadowed by thecollective obsession -consequently his ‘ashrav’: getting nearer to goal isoblitered. Out of this is born evil efforts; defects like ignorance, loss ofknowledge, and ego centric tendency. These drawbacks appear in sequence atthe moment of understanding the subject and while the thinking process emergesand they get embeded in the attitude of attempting to overcome all impedimentsand obstacles. From this the subjected subject gets side tracked. The subject5www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992proper is neglected. The attempt to understand the tendency to neglect the rulesand rituals and the change in the pattern of knowing and known gels mixed upand creates a hum drum sound in thought vibrations. Consequently, thesequence oriented thought flow gets disturbed and distorted. Out of this arecreated the causes of. clash and pains and sufferings. This means that the senseof establishment, determination and state of affairs get transformed and thethinking mechanism of the brain gets confused. Brain sensory organism requiresfalse long and short shots. The physical body undergoes a change in theordinary metabolism and metabolic pressures and this results in the emotionaltendencies getting glued to the gums! This is called as ignorance!! Once theemotional tendencies got rooted, the quality of comprehending the subject matterand the analytical system get shattered! This shattered united collectiveness iscalled as ignorance.Wrong conclusions and false notions are born out of Avidya which gets —Even as we continue to proclaim and assert-Wait a moment! Let me think!Is it not funny and amusing?Translation in English byAnna Joglekar and Krish RamsMYSTERIES, OF MYSTERYTHE spiritual illustrations of Sairiath are mysteries. Baba's miracles are amystery. Dream illustrations given by him to foreign devotees of Baba are alsomysteries. In short Baba Himself is a Mystery. While writing about theexperiences pertaining to Baba the question about miracles persists. Afterhaving perfected himself of the science of mysteries Shri Sai Baba lightedthe lamps using water for oil. This miracle itself is classified as superstitiousbelief by the so called illogical intellectual and this attitude is day by dayincreasing. The time has come for devotees like us to put a stop to this attemptby the crowd of non-believers.6www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992But, for that purpose, we, as writers of articles like, 'Mysteries of Mystery',have to be cautious and careful to jot down our experiences about Baba.People have to be enlightened and set on the proper logical thinking trackby writing about the mysteries of mysteries to relieve them from the imbalancedmind and body arising out of family quarrels, tension, indisciplines, the foodhabits, beneficial or contrary, lack of proper understanding illogical thinking, vainarguments, deep shuddering, imbalanced experiences of life's events distorted,diabolical desparados ruling the roost and to wean such persons fromquarrelsome, mentally and spiritually dissipating atmosphere and to set them toenjoy the freedom of elevated thinking, such popular writings depicting the trueand correct version of Baba's deeds of mysteries must be encouraged. A tiredtraveller in the sandy desert of an imbalanced life, needs cold water to quenchthe thirst of his parched throat which is his nector. A patient on death bed who isdying in depressed, dissipated spirit and mind arising out of disbelief can begiven an elixir of Baba's mysteries through such enlightened writings as these.The writers of such articles needs necessarily to have clear perception and anenlightened idea of what he is to achieve by such healthy, spiritually enrichedand enlivened writings to be read by all peoplewho are either social workers, students, curiosity observers, etc., so as to begoaded and guided to set themselves on the right thinking lines. These writershave the responsibility to write with an analytical mind such articles to be readand properly understood by people especially of the lower strata so that they canbe elevated to higher levels of understanding.In any literary work, debate, seminar, expositions, preface is an important part. Itis the breath of what is contained in the book in the form of letters, words,sentences etc., propounding as principles and the balance exposition thereof.That breath should not be imbalanced nor suffer from short breath, but shouldenjoy the balanced proportions of "Maha Prana", that rneans the listeners,readers and practitioners should also experience the after effects of balanced(Samana Vayu and Prana Vayu) and simultaneously issuing forth such vibrationsto the readers and everybody denoting the long breath of pranayama.7www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992Or else it should be of the same calibre as the mysteries as the subject ofmystery of mysteries. Otherwise the affected patient will not receive the highfrequency vibrations but will only feel a tingling sensation of the bracing of thelow frequency of the vibrations. Consequently the blemish imposed on mystery ofmysteries as superstitious belief will persist for ever.Mahabharata and Ramayana, the two epics are the citation (Darshan) ofhow man is and how he ought to be, are the observations on these twofundamentals of lives gradual unfoldment and development. The later writingsappear to have displayed this very attempt of unfoldment and enlargement bypersons, provinces, individuals and the society later. Out of this appearance theauthors of and writers of mysteries have not escaped the clinches. Writing onmysteries needs the inevitable embroideries, embelishments and broadcasting ofmiracles in all their glitters. But it is not introspective in appearance then there isa danger of it axing at the roots of knowledge that can delve into the depths ofmysteries creating thus more confusion, if not confounding further only to feedthe arrogant, idiotic and indolent beliefs. Consequently it encourages social evils,meaningless mind-boggling rituals encouraging unholy and unworthy social evilspreventing the society from leading it along paths beyond repair and of no return.Solid forty years of one's life-squeezed, nailed and hit grooved and carvedby events which made it oscillate, the spiritual man and individual entity or acollective being who has done intense practice (SADHANA), cogitation, debate,lecturing, repeated recitation, rendition culminating in the writing of epics and ifafter all these when we study such individuals in the later half of their lives (hereappear to be a constantly agitated, abrassive, discredited, dilapidated, decripit,dishonoured, abandoned, dejected and appear to be running towards his ownspiritual annihilation. In the end having reached the abyss of no-return andfrustrated recless ruffian, they become addicts and terrorists and impotentcowards! Such galaxy of people become the medium of intellectual idiocy isaddressed and according to their intellectual speculation religion is considered asthe opium-pill. Such was the episode which happened in one of the by-gonedays. In the later period a near atmosphere of thoughts prevailed and a new8www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992society appeared on the horizon and in such a frustrated condition and artificiallyrecreated atmosphere, the very thought of 'Dharma Sastra' was made todisappear in the black-hole of nowhere and in the end it was branded assuperstitious belief.Why should it happen ? So some thought spiritualism as a misfit and notworth living and so the confusion prevailed. In the post Mahabharata andRamayana period the principles evolved in them appeared to be beyondcomprehension so as to become a part of life and thought and the result wasthere was void and an abyss created by these. Such an abyss turn out to be aprofound fear and such a fear became a bridging ground between two poles intime to come. The wick of thoughts produced by the discipline and culturebecomes strong by the amount of twist given to the two threads. The light ofwisdom shines more and more by the use of the oil of love got from unmolestedobservation and unobstructed examination. In the post Ramayana andMahabharat period the twisted wick and the oil got separated thus producingimproper understanding and disillusionment. In each compartment there came anunfilled gap. The traveller along the path having to cross insurmountable valleysof fear is lifted to the top in the wheel of life. Having begun the journey with amisunderstood enlightenment but virtually treading an unlighted path finding hisway about ultimately converted into degraded metomorphosis. He got embroiledinto the wheel of reincarnation with out a guide. There arose a question that inthe game of snake and the ladder of life and death what was binding bridge thatcould be made available to the traveller expect the constant dread, if not fear.The epic story of Ramayana and Mahabharat are not merely a mystifying story orhistory but a road leading an aspirant to the goal of liberation and fulfilment. Thethoughts embodied in them are mostly allegorical and so difficult to understand.That which is allegorical or allergic in belief and the toiler acquired this allergy ofbelief, in course of time has lost his balance. There arose a fear ofmisunderstanding. He loses his bearings and mornings by the repetition of hismisunderstanding what came in the road of misunderstanding gets guideless.Having become directionless. We all groap in darkness in search of a bearer of a9www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992torch to lead us ahead, but instead we only add to the load of misunderstanding.Such a stage arose in the past in the life of the society where Mahabharata andRamayana were born and so forgot how these epics were created in such a stateof affairs.No wise counsel was given by Lord Krishna to Arjuna when he askedabout the performance of "Sradha and Tarpana" but only suggested to give upthe chase. Thus begins first chapter of Bhagawat Gita.The periodic evolution of mankind had to be achieved and soMahabharata was written. For this a proper man had to be created. This wasunavoidable because there was a hermitage available in the mountains ofVindhyachala of Acharya Sandipani where the code of conducts of VaishnavaTantra evolved and established by the Acharya which aimed at homo-sapiensbeing elevated into the position of a superman continuous!;- and incessantly. Inthe process of so-creating such, a super personality the experiment in occultpractices were utilised involving various mystic knowledge and crafts.Acharya Sandipani himself having evolved experimented going throughthe mill of disciplines found in Sri Krishna the right sappling to be raised to theposition of a Superman and to teach him imposed the bondage of the disciplineand discipleship in him. And the child-prodigy Sri Krishna had to keep his flute asmortgage to the vow of the bondage of discipleship to Acharya Sandipani. SriKrishna became the ideal Superman to bridge the gap between homo-sepiensand superman and eventually he became only an honest observer ofMahabharata and he fulfilled this mission.In contrast the other heroes who are described as "Rati" "Atirati","Maharati" and "Yuddha Visharad" (Warlords), "Veer", "Dheer", have to beabsorbed and found out how Mahabharata had to be created and what were theother instruments required to create the situation. The study of these objectsbecomes essential.The mortal frame and the sword is a developed point (Hindu) revolvesround its own limited axis. The waves pf thought vibration so created and in thatprocess it found its own bearing of a circle which became his foundation seat of10www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992identity. But in the process of creating a new edition of itself it gave place to athought, Kala. Having become aware, he became a social self. Now there arosea gap between social-self and the collective self which was widening to becomethe cause of belligerency. Out of this fear was born the 3rd circle of the selfishnotions of worldly wealth and in their possession of it, the mine and yours alsocreated. The world began to manifest between these two poles of social-self andcollective-self who became conscious of wealth. The action and reaction beganto oscillate between these two and the ever increasing fear resulted in and itgave the balm of this ointment. Consequently the self and the collective self bothbecame the slaves and victims of the oblation of fire ritual resulting in the mortalman lose his transparency of his individuality and got 'transfixed which producedin him the ever flowing tears of sorrow. And so his thought process result inrefining observations as a vision. The gross opaque which resulted in tension,constant moistening of the eyes, which may result in tearful emotionality. All thishe did and understood as to establish his social self and to explain this social selfthe epic describes as follows:There are 18,000 chief parts and there are as many sub divisions whichgives and takes, which creates mental dialogue, feeds and several suchqualitative individual who are ever changing emotionally and yet joined togetheris defined as social self. This is also called as self-satisfaction and is also calledas "Aswatha" which is literally spfit up as (A) meaning negation, (Swa) meansexistence and (Tha) meaning today or at this movement. The social self of manappears as below:(A) means up to a point, (BHA) means the light of the soils and (SA)means source of emerging knowledge. Such appears the Aswatha Pratishtas assuch. She is the hand-maid of the goddess of destiny: She is also the queen andthe imminant form of Maya (illusion). This becomes the perfect form of (Prakriti)Nature.This is how Veda-Vyas has to be meditated upon who has defined(Prathishta) the social self as such. There arose a clash in the collective self whohad reached the zenith of progress of social-self.11www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992The whole of Mahabharata destroyed scores of families, foes and friends, allrelatives at large including the preceptor of all and as if this was not enough thepreceptor himself made Lord Krishna the culprit to doubting gene. In the presenttechnological era the answer to this was given arising out of 'Newtons How andAristotles Why'. Although Sri Krishna desciple of Santipini was administrativelyordained, but the period thereafter had no organised administration as such. Itwas here the Vedanta and thought from mystical science and thought arising outof that, which created the flow of wisdom arising out of them got separated.Consequently the cross breed of thought flow and its directionless growthbecame ever able to become a demonic flow and in the on coming future theindividual and the collective-self, maintained its identity and individuality began tofabricate ever new dialogues and the product thereof. The flow of thought everbecame stronger in the quadrangular facets of self, collective-self, social-selfwellbeing.This was a result of the question how to think. The religious scriptureswhich taught how to think began to fabricate mystical thought allegoricalcharacters to undo knowledge. The ill omens of thoughtless atmosphere beganto blow about.Out of this confusion the attitude of let the bygone be burried in the graveand by taking shelter behind this with the process of how to think through "VedaVidya, Gudha Vidya", and the relative sciences became the target propositionand that became the yard stick of behaviour. Really the sages' sayings, prophets'preachings, and religious scriptures became useless and they never came to therescue of humanity. Was it so? And so arose series of questions. Once more thethought process reversed and it appeared that whatever the saints, sages andwell meaning people thought and said became secretive in appearance andhence unknown.The secretive composition of these people became the ideal but why wasit so ?Physiologically man appears to breathe. Similarly any living object with afigure which can be called a flexible electro-magnetic system appears to breathe.The breath is a medium by which an object exists which is called as a continuous12www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992process. This causes the brain to remain ever active, the bodily nerves andarteries lose their tension and when proper breathing process is adopted it ispossible to prolong life. This breathing process or the breath itself is termed aslife-itself.At the present time we are breathing less of "Prana Vayu", which is clearbreath, and breathe more of the Avantara Vayu, i.e., polluted air. Because theintake of Prana Vayu being not enough the body metabolism begin to agequicker than necessary and making us 'nirutsag', lethargic, and dense. There is acertain flow of vibration, speech, behaviour etc. In other words there is a properflow of music in it. And this flow denotes the individuality of that man's nature. It isalso a moving pictorial chart of his existence of his life force. They are called as'Dheehi', vibrational inebriation in the language of mystical science. In themodern technological science it is called attractant chemicals. When this flow of'Dheehi' is unbalanced it results in 'Vyadhi' (Vya + Aa + Dheehi) as it is called so.The balanced flow of 'Dheehi', vibration makes our brain the resultant memoryand thought become ever productive of thoughts and activities. Further more, stillrefined, the process of flow which is more balanced the super-self ego begins toexperience a new awareness. This process is called 'Samadhi' (Sam + Aa +Dheehi). What is more is perfectly clear that all of us must practice and learn thescience of perfect breathing.In all religious scriptures the poetical creations of the saints and sages areset in the metre and rhyme in the appropriate poetical science. In these creationsthere is a peculiar collective combination of words mixed with a flow of music,with rhyming words, similies, metophors etc. To solve the question of what thesaints and sages did for us we should direct the flow of breath in the poeticcreation of the sages. In other words our breath should flow in line with thecadences of the musical metre of the poetic flow of our saints and sages. Ourinflow and out-flow of breath should be musically aligned to the metric flow of thecompositions. This breathing process becomes rhythmic properly lined andpoetical and get absorbed in it. The result is that all the bodily activities in thenervous and artery systems which depends on the pressure of the blood, and13www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992such activities acquire a vibrational second wind which brings the blood to anormal flow relaxing the nervous system resulting in a "Laya" of the music or"Samadhi". The vibrational wave of 'Dheehi' get locked into Samadhi instead ofgetting blocked in Vyadhi. As a result thereof we breathe the correct 'Prana Vayu'we become ever young and our thinking gets pure, subtle and rarefied.Howsoever the atmosphere may be polluted the existence of 'Prana Vayu'can't be denied. Since we are afflicted with a disease ridden body we are unableto breathe the original 'Prana Vayu'.The poetical creations of saints and sages is a bridge among nature,animals the world and the surrounding visionary objects. There is a vivid rhythmin the poetical creation of saints which depicts the visionary aspect of trees,creepers, vegetation and the music arising out of this vision and vibrational effectof "Dheehi", which depicts the unifying force and the identifying medium resultingin pure rhythm. Man, animal and vegetation is the triard of the wheel of total lifeon this earth. The instrument that causes the union of these three which causesto vibrate in unison of rhyme, rhythm and beat is the music of flute. How toachieve such atmospheric unison can be found is only one answer, that is thepoetical creation of the saint and sages should become a part of our breath. Thisis called 'Sama Swasan' or rhythmic breathing as denoted by the esotericsciences. Now we the process of this 'Sama Swasan' is a direct result ofidentifying of the poetical creations in other words, if we bodily identify ourselvesinside-out of a poetical creation all our chemical voltage get converted and thecomplete metabolism is born; the imbalance is replaced by balance and theduality between the life and death and we become our independent observer ofthis duality.Mysteries are known by personal experiences; experiences means theresultant controlled actions of sequences of events. Today in this world there are133 procedures of religious beliefs out of which the Hindu, Bhoudha, Jain, Sikh,Confusian, Tao, Shinto, Islam, Yehudi, Sufi, Christian and the Parasika religiousbeliefs; all such believers total nearly 3/4 of the world population. These twelveand the remaining religious leaders, writers, and composers have passed most14www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992valuable part of their lives in the company of one or the other animal. Theirbondage with these animals appear to be the most evolutionary time span in theirlives. In the age old ancient institutions of hermitage of India, animals haveplayed an important part because they are called 'Yash' - bestower of boons. Allthrough the Bhagavat Gita there is reference to them being near to the humanbeings, even more nearer than the preceptors themselves. Today there are 380languages with script and about 10,000 or more dilects. Bhagavat Gita appearsto have been translated into almost all languages with a script.Where there is evidence of knowledge about letters the word denoting SriKrishna is known to them. In India in all the languages the poetical works and thefolk tales with the memory Sri Rama and Sri Krishna appear to be imprinted.The relationship between the saints and sages and their experiences withSri Rama and Sri Krishna are Vaishnava Tantra oriented and the answer to thisis found in all the Adhyayas of Bhagavat Gita.Sri Krishna, desciple of Sandipani was the last Siddha Purushottama ofVaishnava Tantra Methodology of that period. The process of creating a perfectman was available in the only and one individual like that of Sri Krishna who wasperfect in that art. He inherited the responsibility of the entire Mahabharatatowards himself. The period after Mahabharatha, this process of creating theperfect man, the pure thought, his religious responsibility was left to Sri Krishna,the one and only super conscious creative intellect (Dnyana Brahman) becomingthe catelectic agent of converting imperfection to perfection. The period thatfollowed got ingrained in Krishna Bhakti, increasing in leaps and bounds. Theroad to devotion itself became the principal goal of life. Sri Krishna became theepitome as the embodiment of advice and initiation in the form of Dnyana, Yoga,Tapa. He became the lord of action. (Karma-Yogi) and began to be worshippedso. The science of Tantra lays emphasis on esoteric, mystery, rhyme, rhythmand coded aphorisms (Sutras). The Tantra Sastra contains 18,000 methodologybased on the study of the wisdom of alphetology, estoteric sonology,rhythomology esoteric geometry and mystic aphaorisomology. In a composition,a verse is based on rhythmic flow of appropriate words and their proper15www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992pronunciation. In such a composition the interwoven body of words is positiveand its rhythm of the composition become the warp and woof of the work fabric.The peculiar condition of mixing of these forces creates a powerful electromagnetic field. The body in which this process is continuously created gives birthto the optic-beams (primal power in man) or Kundalini which is latent in the body.The adjoining atmosphere and the body given to constant reincarnation in andthe oscillating human body a kind of unification is created which is the resultantresonance.And so we must emotionallv identify our breath in the rhythmic creations of thegreat saints and then only we will begin to understand what kind of legacy hasbeen left by the great saints and sages.The time has come to rectify the mistaken notion of branding the ancientliterature as superstitious beliefs. Before we began to write, broadcast and say atgreat length about the mystic science before it is brought to light, we ought to bealert and astute to perform our duty. While being alert and astute, we have to putall our negative qualities of egoism, and their allied evil propensities to acid testin the crucible. Otherwise it is improper and imperfect.On the writing on this subject in the province of mystic territory. The life ofordinary beings is not a garland of questionable existence. The man who hasundertaken the task of removing impediments and obstacles goes to the processof becoming a magneto - supersonic super-man. Our life is a game of snake andladders. The casting of the dice is not according to the wish of the thrower. Wehave to be alert in throwing the dice. The study of the Ancient Wisdom(Sanatana-Dharma) is dependent on developed and accompanished alertness.Vedas, Upanishads and Dharma Sastras have taught the art of swimmingthrough the blissful life of the ocean. The accomplished path of discovering theroad of blissful existence to extricate ourselves from the ever increasingvibrations of the imbalance and allied states was created by the voluminouswritings on Tranta Sastra.Everybody does not observe the facets of the colour of a rainbow. But it isperceptive only from certain specific angles of the light. Certain colour patterns16www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992alone are visible near the polar regions. It is a height of folly to say that a certaincolour pattern or combination does not exist in that region. We should not beobstinate in denying the existence of anything merely because of theirinvisibleness inaudibleness or incomprehensiblity to our intellect. In the learningof the mystic science there is an angle of understanding. Once that angular entryis achieved the mystical science will uncurtain and expose what hithertoappeared to be a miracle because it is the truthful comprehension of ourexperience gained therein. The gradual unfoldment of the wheel of the universeis a mystery. The rotation of the earth round its axis is also a mystery. Life byitself too is a mystery, vis-a-vis the death. Since we do not possess the key to theto the realms of these mysteries for a scientific investigation and understandingthem we continue to call them as miraculous unknown entities. There is ascience behind all these miracles and the laws governing their certainity anduncertainly of happenings. The fundamental knowledge about all these asobtainable by the study of the mystical science embodied, (Tantra Sastra),methodically guided by an adept (Guru) in the field.Mysteries will cease to be mysteries or as mere superstitious beliefs whenonce science begins to study and examines the phenomenon in an unbiased anda detached way.The renowned governor of the inner domain and the lord of the inside ofall insiders and composer of mystical sciences, Hajir-e-Imam, Haji-Malang Babaand through the profound inspirations of Shri Sai Nath this writing is being offeredas a humble effort to the two. Those who are devoted know thoroughly themystical science and the allied subjects.To become a devoted desciple we should be alert and to be alert we mustknow the art of submission and surrender. Let us all in one-heart, in one-breath,in one-thought prostrate at the feets of Hajir-e-Imam and all others.Let this writing be a pathfinder from the undeveloped to the developedcondition in listening to the music of the flute of the mystical sciences.17www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992With this act of determination let us all pray in front of Sai Baba who is ournearest abode in this life and on this land at this very spot. Let there be thecessation of births and rebirths granting us the eternity forever and ever."Shivam! Shantam! Advaitam!"Translation in English byAnna Joglekar andKrish RamsGRACE ALONEWhither do we stand now?With the fast frantic advance of the so-called modern science andtechnology, man today seems to have reached a juncture in his life which isdensely enveloped in dismal darkness and thought steeped deep in melancholy,wondering whither shall he turn or proceed to save himself from this catastrophicstage. He has become like Midas, the King finding everything around him allglittering gold, yet dying of hunger, thirst and what not of the manifold miseriesand immersed in the depth of darkness. Man has turned out to be like a herd ofcattle only to follow the one going ahead thoughtlessly not knowing whither,perhaps heading only to fall in the bottomless pit.Whither our path for safety ?So, now, we shall cry a halt to our march as dumb-driven catttlehood, norlook back, but look around to find the right path and proceed ahead thereon.Simultaneously we have to girdle our loins and embolden ourselves to fling fastwhatever literature or the so called prayer books which have been polluted andprostituted and interpolated by persons whose minds had been smoke-screenedby corrupt commercialism and overbearing selfishness. It is through such misguidingbooks we have lost our faith in ourselves, and turning self-terrified nonbelievers.We have now, therefore, to make bold ourselves to learn afresh to lookinto the plan of an absolute scientific, rightly drawn plan indicating the correctpath to be taken which has been emphatically authenticated by the ancientliterature, viz., Vedas, the words of which guide truthfully and in an unequivocal,18www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992unerring, clear, emphatic, unquestionably categorical terms, as told by GodHimself. The path as told by Him is straight and direct with no crookedness,bends or windings or clefts as to deviate one to anywhere else but to the exactgoal or "destiny man is tended to reach having taken this birth.Now before setting ourselves to tread this path, it will only help us here tomake an estimate of the damage done to the environments, while moderntechnology in playing its innings and become victorious in man's reaching themoon and other planets. In its wake, it has left a heavy trail of pollution of air,water and soil on the mother planet. At the accelerating tempo of a highlycomputerised achievements gained by him, man stands now dazed becominginsensitive to the chaos that has been wrought bringing a material, moral andspiritual degeneration to him and to everything around him. Trying to elaborateinto the nature and the extent of pollution and damage done will entail muchspace and time. Hence we shall only know that tons and tons of the oxygencontaining the most important 'Prana Vaayu' of our atmosphere is fast turninginto highly carbondioxided one forming a thick sheet of carbondioxide envelopingour planet earth affecting each and every life on it. Scientists opine that if such anenvelope of carbondioxide is allowed to grow thicker as days go by, the whole ofthe earth will be rendered an uninhabitable place for man and other living beings.Stalwarts in science and social welfare are putting their heads to find a way outto save the earth and its beings from the clutches of such an unimaginablyhorrible catastrophy. How many really know that the great Rishis and the Awalarsof God had ages ago foreseen this plight to come to this planet earth and thebeings there. So they had also devised the ways - 'Upayas* - to save the life ofthe people and other living beings of this planet earth and avoid the disintegrationof it to smitheriens.How to proceed ? Whither the beacon?Now what shall we do to save ourselves and the planet earth that we livein is the biggest question and poser that stands before us as a collossus. As hasalready been told that the great ancient Rishis of Yore have delienated the waythat we shall in one united prayer seek to be guided into the right path of action,19www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992and towards this, and thus seek His Grace Alone which only can act as thebeacon light to illumine our path ahead.Is the path straight?The path shown by the Rishis as told in the Vedas is not only straight butextremely simple too. The path is so universal and straight that it can bepractised by one and all irrespective of any compartmentalised beliefs or faiths.The Sun and Moon are common to one and all alike. Without any distinction, highor low, people of all shades of religious faith, welcome the warmth and the light ofthe Sun, so also of the cool illumination of the Moon. Just as these are universal,fire an extraction of these, is not only universal but one that is close to us andwhich serves us in our daily life in many forms from morn till eve. Therefore, thegreat Avatar of Vishnu, Parasurama, et-al evolved a simple way of propiciatingthe gods through worshipping the fire, the God nearest to us and within reach ofour hands, the ‘Hastamalaka', the goosebery in the palm of our hand. What isthis fire worship which the ancients sages of the east, especially of India, calledYAJNYA, sacrificial offerings to fire and how we should go about and otherdetails and benefits derived therefore, therefrom etc., can be known from thefollowing paragraphs.Now before we go into the study of the methods involved in performingthis sacrificial fire offering we shall just look into the benefits derived from it andhow it helps bring about a change in the performer and in the atmosphere aroundhim, close in his vicinity and elsewhere, all over in general.The aim and the prime business of any religion and the practices involvedin it is to transform the individual soul and elevate man as such from a mereanimalistic mundane living being to realise his reality as a part of the great allpervading effulgence of light, GOD. All temples built of brick and mortar or otherform of edifices, is of least consequence in the transformation of man. Thisshould be the criterion to justify any planning. On this Shri V. V. Paranjpe, adisciple commanded by His Holiness Gajanan Maharaj of Akkalkote says:"Short cut to progress is dubious and full of explosive potentialities. Scienceuntempered by this criterion may lead to slave test-tube babies made to order,20www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992domination of the technocraft over all he surveys, consequent pushbuttonconflagration, lava of desires feeding on itself and enveloping the globeunmindful of the wanton destruction, greed, anxiety, insecurity, chaos anddisharmony it brings in its train."“A single misdeed perpetrated in any corner of globe will adversely affectthe atmosphere, this in turn will have deleterious effect on functioning of humanmind. So the circle perpetuates. That is why peace like progress is indivisible. Byconscious efforts we have to purify the space dividing the Trilokas. Yajnya isconscious effort made in this direction."In a brochure entitled 'Sacrifice’ published prior to Somayag at AkkalkotState by the Sadguru Seva Samiti says:"A time is approaching when science and religion will reunite andharmonise. The fundamental unity of God in His essential attributes makes itimperative that science and religion must harmonise. Science is nothing but theinvestigation of physical laws while religion is realization of God and His laws inthe metaphysical realm. When God created universe He created the physical aswell as the metaphysical world. He projected His will into the physical worldcreated natural laws. There also exists a third world which can be described asphysical and metaphysical divinities from where contribute towards the unity ofthe physical and metaphysical world and strengthen the bond between them.'"This new consciousness for need of spiritual values is arising in theworld. In order to achieve this aim of life, the world atmosphere needs to becharged with the effects of harmonious musical notes and holy recitations.Harmony is an atomic energy that keeps off evil of all kinds."The hermitages of Vedic Seers, in days immemorial, were acting asgenerating stations of Divine Power solely with the object of enkindling ofhumanity to attain perpetual bliss. In that holy atmosphere these seers used toperform Fire Worship Continuously. Experimentation and minute observation ofresults there from convinced humanity about the efficacy of such worship,whether performed individually or collectively."21www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992This is known as the ritual of Yajnya in Sanskrit and merely Fire-Worshipin some other parts of the world. During this form of worship offerings of variousitems are made to be consumed by the fire along with the chant of Mantras.Mantras are combination of various syllables from the alphabets of Sanskrit. Byvirtue of the peculiar and specific combinations Mantra becomes a potent soundcombined with the power of the thought also behind them. The word Mantra alsocarries a thought and meaning. Manah Trayate Iti Mantrah ~ Mananat Trayate ItiMantrah!!! also holds good. This means that word or words which potentiallyvibration –charged can elevate the mind of the person who spells themrepeatedly mentally or mildly audibly with due devotion, the power or the form ofpower it denotes, not only that, the subtle sound vibration of them penetratesthrough every cell, nerve fibre, flesh and blood of the chanter to purify his everycell, cell by cell, but transforms them in due course to shining divinity. Again, theair around him is also rarified by the sound vibrations and many particles of theair get altered and surcharged as to dispell all the impurities therein and alsoneutralise whatever pollutions there about and makes it clean and porous so asto allow more of the divine substance of 'Prana' to fill in. Thus helping only peaceand godly enriched thoughts prevail all over the place. This, in turn, permit'Devas’ and their agencies take their due and legitimate places around us toshower on us their grace and promote plenty and prosperity. That is whatBhagawan Krishna meant by saying - Yajnatbhavati Parjanyah Parjanyatannasambhavah, i.e., through yajnya comes rain and by rain food grows. Doesn'tit make us wonder, how subtly and scientifically yoked the power of thought tothe five elements of Matter (Earth), Fluids (Water), Fire (Lustre), ElectronicVelocity (Wind) and Celestial atmosphere (ftther) to the welfare of man and hissurroundings on this planet earth by the Vedic Seers (Rishis). Fire standssupreme in the centre as the co-ordinating force between Matter and Fluidshaving a downward tendency while the Electronic Velocity and celestialatmosphere an upward drive. Matter and Fluids by coming in contact with Fireget transformed into the last two elements, thus proving indirectly how Fire can22www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992elevate all those who come in contact with it. And where is this Fire ? The answerto this is by raising another question, wherever it is not?In writing about Fire or Agni, the Rishis have nomenclatured ' themdifferently to distinguish and identify them specifically when they are operating ina manifested perceptible form or in its subtle slate. To mention a few, when itworks in an imperceptible mysterious way in digesting the food in living beings itis known as 'jaatharaagni' i.e. the fire in the stomach. In the kitchen as'Pachakanaagni' or 'Gaarhpalniyaagni', in yajnya as 'Aahavaneeyagni' etc.Now going into some details about Yajnya involving sacrificial offering, Ifeel what Mahatma Paranjpe says in his book 'Grace Alone' cannot be excelledor improved upon. Therefore I shall extract the same to the benefit of the readerswith my humble prostration to that great soul and his Guru Gajanan Maharaj ofAkkalkote.''Yajnya involving sacrificial offering to fire is a Siddha Sadhanabequeathed to humanity for achieving progress in matters mundane as well asspiritual. This Sadhana was prevalent in many parts of the world in ancient daysalthough it had assumed different form. Prehistoric Cretons, BabyloniansSumerians, Akkadians, Semites, Polynesians, Greeks, Jews used to perform thissacrificial worship.""Mexican Incas had a developed form of such worship. Fudo Myows ofJapan perform Goma holy fire invocation. Baku in U.S.S.R. had fire temples. InIndia Yagnya was a well laid out ritual performed under expert guidance. Avesta,prayerbook of the Zoroastrians calls this worship Yasht which means a sacredast for attainment of the Divine. The place of worship is known as Fire Templeand the Supreme Deity is Ahur Mazad (Asur Mahat, The Great God in Sanskrit).""In the performance of a Yagnya or a Mahayajnya offerings to fire always areaccompanied by chantings of mantras. Mantra is not merely a prayer asvibrations of sound are an important element. Hence a mantra has to be chantedin the manner in which it is received from the Guru (Preceptor) while prayer canbe offered in any language."23www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992"Every mantra strikes the atmosphere with its potency and the effect couldbe tested. The prescribed Yajnya material when offered to fire in the chant of themantras decidedly purifies the atmosphere. Scientific tests could be carried outbefore and after the performance of a Yajnya to guage the effects onatmospheric conditions. It is certainly cheaper than testing the after effects of N-bombs.""The purificatory action in the atmosphere after a Yajnya is performed inthe prescribed manner immediately goads the natural phenomena to act in theproper way yielding timely rains and bumper crops. It cleanses the waterresources on earth. It simultaneously strikes the mind of persons in the area tochange for the better and this pays marvellous dividends. Lust, greed, indulgencebecome on the wane and peace and contentment take their place. This is no idledream but stark truth open to examination by experts in the field. Yajnya is theKamadhenu, fulfiller of all desires.""Mind and Prana may be considered to be the obverse and reverse of thesame coin. If you control one you automatically subjugate the other.""Hence atmospheric purity has a striking impact on-mind of man. Thusdoes Yajnya contribute to peace and prosperity on earth.""A small atomic bomb exploding in a small town called Hiroshima hadpernicious effects on the atmosphere for twenty years. A Mahayajnya will alsohave purificatory effect for twenty years.""Vedas describe the rituals for various types of Yajnyas in typical details.The design, the mode of construction and the direction of the altar is posited. Thesolid and liquid offerings to fire and intervals between the offerings are clearlyprescribed. Fire is prepared from wood of particular set of trees only. These treesare found growing in nature from equator to pole. They do not need tending byhuman hands. Different mantras are to be chanted for different Yajnyas and theirsequence is stated. The intonations and pauses in utterances are mentioned.The qualifications of the priest and also of the performer are given. Nothing is leftto chance and there is no and equivocation."24www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992"Various types of Yajnyas are mentioned for satisfaction of various typesof worldly desires either for the individual or the community. They range fromAgnihotra to Ashwamedha for fulfilling the desires of an individual, a Masa,Chaturmasyayag, Soutramani, Vajapeya, Rajasooya, Somayaga were some ofthe Yagnyas prevelent in olden days performed for the fulfilment of specificdesires. Yajnya lasting for a week or more is called Satra.""It must be emphatically stated that among Yajnya offerings there isabsolutely no place for animal flesh or blood. There should be no misconceptionin this regard.""Yajnya performed with a desire to obtain rains, Parjanyakameshti wouldattract water particles as a combined result of specific offerings to fire amongchants of certain mantras when at a temperature of about 640 C there appears athin film in the atmosphere due to oxidation of organic substances leading toshowers.""Rains bring down to earth Prana from celestial atmosphere. There areinstances when Yajnyas were performed with a desire to beget an offspring as inthe case of Shri Rama and Draupadi. These are known as Putrakameshti andKanyakameshti Yajnyas. Yajnyas were also performed to avert great wars andworld disturbances when divinites were invoked.""Yajnya even to this day has the potential to bring about the aboveachievements. With the advance of physical sciences and the consequentenlargement of human knowledge present is the most opportune lime forresuscitation of Yajnyas in society. Frontiers of pure science are receding andthe scientist is on the verge to declare a new approach to problems of Life,Creation, Time and Infinity. It will be easier now to acknowledge that thedisappearance of Yajnya from society has robbed humanity of a potent weaponwhich is intrinsically an atindote to pollution besides being capable of generatingan atmosphere which imprints the human mind with seeds of contentment andprosperity."25www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992"Purificatory effect of a properly conducted Yajnya on the mind is thebiggest blessing to mankind and will enable man to climb up the stairs tospirituality for 'Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall SEE GOD."FIVE FOLD PATIIYWAYS comprising of and conveyed in five simplewords are: Yajnya, Daan, Tapa, Karma and Swadhyaya and Agnihotra: Fire,sacrifice in detail will follow in the next issue.Krishna Aiyar RamaswamiWAS THE FATHER OF JUDAISM A DRAVIDIAN HINDU?Are the Jews Descendants of Ancient Tamils?By Yogarishi Dr. Swami GitanandaWhenever a Tamil Conference is held in South India, scholars engage inan ancient debate on the obvious relationship between ancient Dravidian Mundu,the mother of the Tamil language and the ancient language of the Jews orHebrews, high class Japanese and the Australian Aborigines. Is there a commonsource for these languages and cultural habits ? There is ample evidence thatthere is a distinct relationship between the languages and obviously, DravidianMundu must be considered the most ancient language of them all, and possiblyeven pre-dates Indus Valley Vedic Sanskrit.The folk lore of the Tamils of Tamil Nadu, South India, carries manypopular tales about the origin of the Universe, this planet earth and the subcontinent,now called India, which in ancient times was called Kanyakhandan.Pondicherry, an enclave in modern Tamil Nadu, is deeply steeped in the ancientDravidam or Dravidian culture and the local language is Tamil. In ancient timesPodicherry was called Vedapuri, the city of the Vedas and some twelvekilometres south and west a great Sanskrit University existed at Bahur. Some3000 Vedic Pandits taught at this most ancient Sanskrit University. But todayBahur is a quiet angricultural-cum-developing industrial area. Some four milenniaago, twin sons were born to a cultured Brahmin couple and as per the custom ofBrahmins on the eighth day, were named Bahur (Bahure) and Nahur (Najure).26www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992The town today carries the name of the first born Brahmin's son, Bahur. (Thebracketed names would be the equivalent in Hebrew.) The eldest son delightedhis parents in scholarship and was sent to the town of Cuddalore for study of theVedas and to learn his priestly duties under the Brahmin Pandits there. Somestories say that Bahur, the Brahmin, and his brother were born in Cuddalorewhich today is a sleepy, seaport town, 26 kilometres south of Pondicherry on theCoromandal Sea Coast. Cuddal means 'the ocean' in Tamil, while Or means aplace or a city. The Hebrew version says that Bahur, the Brahmin, was born in Urof the Chaldea (Ur, Ura, Ure, Ore are all Vedic spellings of the word for a city). Inhis early teenage years this Brahmin boy married a local girl dressed in a SouthIndian saree and so as a bride, she was called 'Sarai' (dressed in a saree). Thecouple moved seventy kilometres south to the most holy city of Lord Shiva inIndia, now called Chidambaram, but then known as 'Thillai'. In that Shiva Templethere is no visible Lingam and one must see the 'Chid' or 'Mind Lingam' in thesuper-conscious, imaging-mind. This process is called 'Ambaram'. Hence seeingShiva dancing on the Lingam in your mind is called 'Chidambaram'. Bahur, theyoung Brahmin, learned much from the very strict and scholarly Brahmins andeventually moved 500 kilometres to the west to the ancient city of Ganeshaworship, now called Salem. Before being corrupted linguistically by the Englishinvaders to its present form. Salem was known as 'Sai-Alayam'. Saya or Sai isthe ancient name for Lord Ganesha and means 'Eternal God', while 'Alayam'even in modern Tamil, means a community or centre. In Salem, Bahur joined theservices of an ancient Kone King (Ananda Kone n). There were twelve AnandaKbnes in the Kone dynasty. These early Kone Maharajas or Malliks (emperors)came from the Deccan in Central India and the second dynasty was ruled overby a King called Ashoka and therefore, Mallik Ashoka Daka, which is corruptedinto Melchisedec, who in the Old Testament is called the Priest King of Salem.Bahur, the Brahmin, entered the personal service of the Priest King Ashoka. Oneday the King saw Sarai, Bahur's wife and fell instantly in love with her. Seekinginformation from the young Bahur, he inquired of her. Fearing the King's wrath,he told the emperor that Sarai was a Brahmin and his sister. The King called27www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992Sarai and proposed marriage that would make her the Empress of a kingdomthat spread to modern Finland in the north, the island of Bali in the South Pacific,Madagascar in the Western Indian Ocean and the Hindu kingdoms whichreached the Mediterranean 'and included modern Turkey. Bulgaria, Yugoslaviaand Austria. Sarai told the King that her young husband had lied to him, that shewas indeed his Dharmapathni, or 'wife for all time'. The Emperor called Bahurand accused him of the un-Brahmin-like conduct of lying and conniving the Truth.Bahur was stripped of all his priesty titles as a Brahmin and declared 'A-Brahmin',a 'non-Brahmin' by the King. He was then known only as 'A-brahmin' or'Abraham' and was told that both he and his young wife would be given only oneday to flee the kingdom for his crime before the King would send his army afterhim and his wife to slay them. The young couple fled Sai-Alayam (Salem) fearingfor their lives.Moving northwest, they passed through the Indus Valley now in Pakistan,into Eelam, an ancient Tamil or Dravidian site (in moder times the Tamils of SriLanka want to name their separatist kingdom Eelam again) westwards throughBabylon or Chaldea and finally into the ancient kingdom of Sri Krishna, calledKannan, or in the Bible, the land of Canaan. (Lord Krishna was called 'Kanna' or'Beautiful Eyes' by his mother.) Being unable to' go any farther west because ofthe Mediterranean Sea, Abraham and Sarai settled amongst the Canaannitesand the Philistines. Eventually 'A-Brahmin' founded a 'new Salem' or Jeru-salem,which in Tamil is 'Jeru-Sai-Alayam', literally the 'City of Ganesha where Jeru(Tamil for plow) was established'. Jerusalam is then simply, the Dravidian 'NewSalem'. In time Abraham renamed his wife as 'Sarah' and developed a separateAsia-Minor culture. A cursory look at the old alphabet of the Canaanites fourmillennia ago will leave no doubt that Tamil and early Hebrew share many of thesame symbols, word constructions and grammar.Is it possible that all of these language similarities are but a coincidence?Or was Bahur the twin brother of Nahur, raised in Caddalore as a Brahmin priest,serving the King of Salem and forced to flee for his life westward through the landof the north Dravidians Eelam and finally into the land of Lord Krishna in western28www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992Asia Minor called 'Canaan' where he established a 'new Salem', Jerusalem? Theoriginal Jews were vegetarians, very strict in their worship and only after the timeof Moses do the strict Brahmin observances and cultural patterns decay inmodern Judaism. Houses in the time of Abraham were built on the South IndianDravidian compound wall style. The Jewish men let their beards grow and woretheir hair long or in top knots. The women continued to cover their heads, as witha saree. The Jews also claimed themselves a 'Chosen Race', an exclusivenesswhich is literally what the word 'Brahmin' means in Sanskrit. This 'Jewishexclusiveness' is paralleled only today in India amongst the Brahmins, who speaka 'holy language' to an 'exclusive God' and worship the 'Nothingness' the 'Chid-Ambaram' in their holy 'box' now in the Synagogue.The Hindu custom of circumbulation of the Lingam is obviouslymisinterpreted in the Jewish custom of circumcision. Brahmins keep tothemselves and have a tight-knit community which allows no outsiders to enter.So also, the Brahmins were the scholarly caste of Hindu society. The Jewishpeople highly valued scholarship and learning Language, culture, religiouscustoms, worship rites and rituals and the myths like Adam and Eve (Kama andKami); the Garden of Eden (Eelam); the Great Flood when Kanyakhandam sankunder the Indian Ocean; Jonah (Jyana) and the whale; David and Goliath; Danielin the Lion's Den are all Hindu myths in only a slightly different form. According toProfessor Fida Hassnain of Srinagar, Kashmir, one of the Lost-Tribes of Israelreturned to North India and populated Kashmir. Jewish people still exist along theWest Coast of India from Rajasthan through Gujarat, Goa and the Konkani coast,through into Kerala and into Lanka and Dravida Nadu now Tamil Nadu. Prof.Hassnain has compiled a very exacting history of another famous Jew, known toChristians as Jesus the Christ, who also returned to India to find his 'roots'. Herein Pondicherry we believe that Isa (Essau-Jesus) visited Pondicherry, studied inBahur and himself admitted to being a 'priest' raised in the culture of the King ofSalem, Melchisedec. Really, Truth is much stranger than fiction and this strangeTruth could re-unite the world in the fact that we really are ONE PEOPLE29www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992...VASUDATVA KUTUMBHAKAM. As the Vedic seers said: "The world is onefamily".SAI BABA OF SHIRDI - A UNIQUE SAINT- By M. V. Kamath & V. B. Kher(JAICO PUBLISHING HOUSE, Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore, Calcutta, Hyderabadand Madras. Price Rs. 95/-)For a long time there was a need for a book on Shri Sai Baba's life and teachingswhich would appeal to the young convent-educated persons and foreignersvisiting Shirdi. Shri N. V. Gunaji's Shri Sai Satcharita was written in 1944 and isonly an English rendering of the original Maratni Shri Sai Satcharita ofAnnasaheb Dabholkar alias Hemadpant composed during 1922-29 i.e. about 63-70 years ago. Since then lot of research and study has been done by variouslearned devotees on Sai Baba's life and philosophy, and all this had to beincluded in a freshly published book. Moreover Shri Gunaji's book is in a 'pothi'(religious work) form - suitable for 'parayan' (regular devotional reading). Forinquisitive or curious persons and fresh entrants to Sai Cult, a pocket size (300pages) book written from various angles viz. historical, intellectual andphilosophical which could be read at home in an arm-chair or while travelling,was needed. And this is what exactly the present book provides.Shri M. V. Kamath is a senior and prolific columnist and an ex-editor ofIllustrated Weekly of India. As a correspondent at the United Nations for PressTrust of India and for the Times of India, he has covered every important internationalgathering between 1953 and 1978. Shri V. B. Kher is a keen student ofGandhism and has edited for Navjivan Trust, Ahmedabad, Seven collections ofMahatma Gandhi's writings in fifteen volumes. His research papers and articleson Sai Baba have been published in Shri Sai Leela and other periodicals. He wasa trustee of Shri Sai Baba Sansthan of Shirdi from 1984 to 1989 and also thechairman of its sub-committee for publication. Thus, there is no doubt about thesuitability of the authors for writing this book. "*In the earlier chapters, the authors have discussed the historical, socialand spiritual background of Sai Baba's time and also some of his contemporary30www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992saintly and political personalities to give readers a better picture of him. The laterchapters are a study of Sai Baba as a true Guru, a saint possessing enormousspiritual powers, one having mother-like care for his devotees and whose Durbarbeing open to one and all whether rich or poor. In short the biography is not just anarration of Sai Baba's life from his first appearance to his Maha-samadhi inShirdi, but a life-history discussed from various angles supported by experiencesof various devotees. Shri V. B. Kher being well-conversant with English, Marathiand Gujarati also, has made good use of study and research in the works of H.H. Narasimha Swamiji, H. H. Sai Sharananandji and of course Shri G. R. Dabholkaralias Hemadpant. The words of Sai Baba (i.e. Brief recount of sayings andadvice of Sai Baba) collated in the beginning of the book, chronology of events inSai Baba's life described in Ch. 1 (2), and glossary (of difficult and uncommonwords) bibliography and index at the end are useful assets well thought of. Inshort, the book is 'unique' and a 'must' for a Sai Devotee.Shri M. Hidayatullah, ex-Chief Justice of India, in his foreword to the booksays : "It is difficult to add anything to the account given by the authors. It is acomplete picture of a life of piety, full of miracles and devotion written withinspiration and care."No wonder therefore that the first edition of this book published in Aug. 91is already exhausted, a second edition published within a month i.e. in Sept. 91 isalso sold out and a third edition is being printed.-- Lt. Col. M. B. NimbalkarSai Baba's devotees are divided on the issue of whether he was born a Hindu ora Muslim. It was noted during Baba's life time that his ears were pierced, acommon Hindu custom, but not prevalent among Muslims. It has been said thathe was not circumcised, again a sure indication that he could not have been bornto a Muslim family. But Baba dressed like a fakir and lived in an old tumble-downmosque which was strangely enough called by him as Dwarkamai. Baba alsokept a sacred fire going in the mosque and devotees were allowed to worshiphim with fanfare, including blowing of conches and ringing of bells. Then again, inthe courtyard outside the mosque was a 'tulsi brindaban. Ram Na-vami was31www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992celebrated in the courtyard in which Sai Baba joyfully participated. At the sametime he had no objection to the local Muslims taking out a sandal procession onthe same day.He was unorthodox in his food habits and is said to have partaken meatand fish in the company of fellow fakirs. The name of Allah Malik was constantlyon the tip of his tongue. Yet he appeared in the garb of Rama, Krishna, Ganesh,Shiva, Hanuman or the guru of the devotee concerned.What, then, did it make him; a Hindu or a Muslim ?He had, apparently, intimate knowledge of the Gita as his exposition to NanasahebChandorkar demonstrated. But he also recited the first chapter of Koran inthe company of Muslims. He was known to be fluent in many languages, butnone knew how and when he acquired such mastery. From SAI BABA OF SHIRDI A Unique SaintIS ASTROLOGY A SCIENCE ?All vedic literature abound in important principles dealing in astrology. Sunnever rises nor sets, and yet the phenomena of day and night are caused by therotation of the earth is mentioned in the Vedas. In Vedic times practically everybody possessed the knowledge of constellations and time sequence forpractising the essential fire rituals which were frequent.Astrology was considered as a part of the Vedas and hence the study ofthe same was given due prominence. In pre-Christian times great manyprinciples dealing in astrology were found in epics like Vridha Garga Sarnhita andJain astrological treatises, Suriya Pannati, Ashwayalana Sutra, Par-askar GuhyaSutra, Mahabharata as well as Manava Bharmashastra. In the beginning of theChristian Era a more refined piece of book appeared named Surya Siddhanta.Pandit Varahmihira wrote his book called "Pancha Siddhantika" based on SuryaSidhanta. Presently available Surya Sidhanta or Surya Samhita are both differentfrom a new version of the original Surya Siddhanta. Varahmihirin his book"Pancha Siddhantika" has dealt the Panch Siddhanta namely Pulish, Romaka,32www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992Vasistha, Saur(The Solar) and Pitamaha in a succint manner in which bothArithmatic & Mathematics are utilised to do astrological calculation withoutinvolving the necessity of action. Similarly the views of the perceptors like AryaBhatta Pradumnya, Vijayadanti of Latacharya and Simhacharya are alsomentioned therein. All these learned persons were pronounsed to have existedbefore Varahmihira. In 476 A.D. Arya Bhatta wrote a book named Arya Bhattiyain which it is described that Sun and stars are fixed while the earth rotates roundits axis which causes the phenomena of day and night.In this book the circumferance of the earth is mentioned as 4967 yoganasor 24835 miles. There is also the scientific definition of Lunar Solar eclipses.There was another Arya Bhatta who wrote Arya Siddhanta. This Arya Bhatta ismentioned by Bhaskaracharya in his books.Greeks seemed to have progressed considerably by the use of Science ofRomaka. The Unani astrologiecal theories appeared to have been based on thisRomaka method.After Varahmihir there appeared another great scholar well versed inastrology named Pandit Brahmagupta. He wrote two books named BrahmaSputa Sidhanta and Khanda Kavya in the year 628 A.D. He mentions all theearlier scholars before him and his depth of scholarship is profound and versatileand methodical. In the 12th chapter he has criticised Arya Bhatta saying thatsome of his opinions are incomplete. After him there appeared a very learnedPandit named Lalla who composed Lalla Sidhanta, "He opposed Arya Bhatta' stheory of revolution of earth. He maintains that if the earth revolved round its axisthen no bird could or should return to its nest while it is in flight.He appears to have jumped to this conclusion without understanding thecomplete theorum of Arya Bhatta. In reality the earth rotates round its axis, alongwith its atmosphere, so says Arya Bhatta.After Lalla Pandit appeared Pandit Chaturveda Prithudak Swami who inthe year 978 A. D. wrote a critical treatise on Brahma Sphuta Siddhanta writtenby Brahma Gupta. In the year 1038 A.D. Pandit Shripati wrote "SiddhantaShekhar". Afterwards Varun Pandit wrote a critical treatise on Khand Kavya - in33www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992the year 1 100 A.D. Pandit Brahma Deva wrote a treatise on Khanda Kavyacalled Karana Prakashika. Thereafter Bhaskaracharya the son of the celebratedastrologer Pandit Maheshwar, wrote famous books like Siddhanta Shiromani,Karana Kutuhala, Karana Kesari, Graha Ganit, Grihalaghar, Dhyan Bhaskar,Surya Siddhanta Vakhya and Bhaskar Dikshitiya. In addition to SuryaSiddhanta he also wrote Siddhanta Shiromani. This contains four chapters viz.(1) Lilavati, (2) Bija Ganita, (3) Graha Ganitadhaya and (4) Goladhyaya. Out ofthis first two part deal in mathematics while the other two parts deal in astrology.Bhaskaracharya has described the earth as round on both sides and yet it is flatand he maintains that the power of attraction of the earth is created by its rotationround its axis - He says : One hundredth part of the circumference of earthlysphere appears like a straight line although the earth is round, yet the visibleportion of the earth appears like a straight line, hence the illusion that the earth isflat. In another canto he says that -The earth because of its power of attraction draws objects towards itselfand hence the objects fall back on earth. Many centuries before Sir Issac Newtonwas bom Pandit Bhaskaracharya propounded the theory of gravitation in ascientific manner and has also established several principles of astrology in ascientific manner -Al Biruni the celebrated Arab traveller and writer has mentioned in hisbooks about the principles as well as the progress of astrological sciences.According to William Hunter, the learned Al Biruni stayed in India and learnedand imbibed the knowledge and principles of astrology. Later he wrote a bookcalled '' Sinda Hinda'' in his own arabic language (See - Hunter, IndianGazetteer, India, pp. - 218). Khaliffa Harun Al Rashid and Khaliffa Al Mam calledIndian astrologers to Baghdad in Arabia and had got their books translated inArabic (See - Mill's History of India - Part II, pp. -107) . The books of Arya Bhattawere translated into Arabic, called as 'Arzabahar'.This science spread to the far eastern countries like China, Japan etc., sosays Prof. Wilson ~34www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992"Many associated science like the following which originated in India werestudied by other people considering the science of astrology as the basis andback bone of such knowledge" (See Mill's History of India - Part II, Page 107).Astrological Predictions:From very remote times the science of predictive astrology requiredrecognition in India. There are reference for predictive astrology in religiousbooks like Brahman Grantha and Dharma Sutra Grantha. There is a special partdevoted to astrological predictions in Vridh Garga Samhita. According toVarahmihira the science of astrology is composed of three parts viz. Tantra, Horaand Shakha. We have observed above the importance of Tantra in astrology.The remaining two viz. Hora and Shaka seem to be related to current andpredictive astrology.Brihat Samhita of Pandit Varahmihira is considered as a very foundationand important source book for astrological prediction. In this book there istechnical knowledge of building constructions, well digging, laying gardens arecontained. In addition there is the ritual of fixing of idols, marriage as well asthread ceremonies and other cultural rituals are codified and their auspiciousdays are prescribed. Varahmihira wrote several books on Digvijaya, Vivah etc.They are called as Prasthan Granth. He also wrote Brihatjataka Samhita andBrihatjatak Kesari. The object of this book is to predict man's destiny on themovement and position of constellation and planetary-positions. The son ofVarahmihira, Pandit Pruthuyasha (6th Cea) wrote Hora Pancha Shatika dealingin predictive astrology. In the 10th Century A.D. Pandit Bhatotpala translated thebooks of Varahmihira as well as his son's books. Pandit Shripati (1039 CenturyA.D.) wrote Ratnamala, Jatakapadhati etc.Translation in English byAnna Joglekar & Krish Rams35www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992VARARUCI AND HIS TWELVE SIDDHA PROGINIESKrishna Aiyar Ramaswami(from 'Aithihya Mala' (Malayalam) of Kottarathil Sankunni)This forms the story of a great scholar and a genious who lived in thecourt of Vikramaditya (52 B.C.). The episode herein narrates the story ofVararuci's adventures in his search for the most important verse inValmikiramayana, events relating to his wedlock and his leaving for a life oframblimg existence.In the subsequent issues will follow the birth of the twelve saintly childrenand their greateness.Mysterious are the circumstances in the appearance of Shri Sai Baba ofShirdi. So also the many miracles related to Him. While we have greatadmiration, reverence and respect for Shri Sai Baba and his greatness andwonder at the highly astounding miracles that were garlanding him both when hewas available to us in a physical body and even thereafter in the highlyelectrically charged 'Divya Sharira' - body of supre-brilliance, we shall hereendeavour to understand the lives of many like him who have been treading thesoil of our Bharata Desa, in this and the following pages.To begin with, we shall take the story of a person who was highlyhonoured as the most learned adviser to no less renowned a King Vikramadityawho ruled our country. His name was Vararuci. He is known to be the son ofGovindaswami, historically renowned, it is leamt.Be that as it may, Vararuci himself was highly learned in many subjects.'Paretparu' and such other highly meritorious works on the science of Astrologyare credited to his authorship. It is highly doubtful that there can be any whohadn't known this most respectful Brahmanothama. By Virtue of his lofty learningand versatility into the Vedas, Shas-tras, Puranas and many other sciences andarts, King Vikramaditya had made him his chief counsel and mainly counsultedhim alone on all matters of high importance relating to the governance of hiscountry and any others of intimate personal doubts. Such an honoured and primeplace was occupied by Vararuci in the court of the great King Vikramaditya.36www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992While thus the country was being ruled to the extreme satisfaction of everysubject, attending to the welfare and even the least wants with no distinction ofhigh or low and peace, plenty and happiness prevailing throughout the lengthand breadth of the country, one morning when the court had assembled, KingVikramaditya asked this Brahmin, Vararuci, "Which is the most important verse inRamayana and which is the most noteworthy phrase in it?"Vararuci with all his learning and proficiency with an indepth knowledgeinto each and every verse, why, even into the shades of meanings of the wordsof many works of merit including Ramayana, he was at a loss to locate the verseasked for by the King at a trice. He felt himself shame faced on his inability to risehimself to the occasion and felt his seat somewhat irksome. Sensing thepredicament he has been placed, the King told Vararuci that he may consult anylearned persons, Pundits, available anywhere across the country and let himknow the answer within forty one days. Further, he also told Vararuci that in theevent of his inability to get the verse and the important word therein, he needn'tturn back to the Kingdom. This command of King Vikramaditya put Vararuci intothe throes of great sorrow and anguish and anxiety.Thus, Vararuci had to leave the court and Kingdom heavy of heart grippedwith the thought of whence, whither and whomsoever shall meet his need of thehour. Cogitating thus as to which could be such a verse in Ramayana, for, fromhis own knowledge and of other learned. Pundits he knew that there is no specialportion that is sweeter in a ball of jaggery that could be called, travelled far andwide over the country. During the course of his long journeys he got theopportunity of meeting with many great men of colossal wisdom and knowledge.Yet, he couldn't get what he had been pursuing, viz. the particular verse and theword asked for by his King, King Vikramaditya.By now, forty of the forty one days stipulated by his King had also sped by.Extremely exhausted by the tiresome journeys, exasperated of himself about hisutter uselessness in the failure of his mission to be and also feeling sorry forhimself in not only losing his place and honour in the court of the King, but wouldbe insulted and looked down upon, he came to a place in the forest he had to37www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992cross during his sojourn where he found a peepal tree with a rostrum built aroundit. He found it a good resting place.Having wandered about the whole day with no food or water to appeasehis hunger and thirst, his energy, vim and vigour fully drawn out, he thought, hewould use the platform around the tree to rest and spend the night there thinkingthat death is far nobler than to get divested of his honour and respect in his ownplace, he put his bundle of clothes for a pillow, that poor man, foregoing even hisfood, rested and relaxed himself. Even doing so, prayed "May the angels of thisjungle and those of this tree protect me," he lied down. Since his body had beengiven to total exhaustion, he immediately went into a deep slumber.Around midnight when he had gone through the first lap of the sleep, hediscerned the arrival of some of the ariel itinerant divine and angelic beingassembling on the tree. They addressed those permanent protecting divinebeings, saying, "Aren't you coming along? Just now, there is going to be adelivery at a place. All of us are going there. You can enjoy there a feast of bloodand water." The angels of the tree said, "We shan't be able to leave now. Arenowned brahmin is lying down here, you see. For the sake of his personalprotection he prayed to us before going to bed. Hence you may proceed ahead.But on your return make it a point to come here and narrate to us whateverhappened at the place you go." Bidding a farewell and saying, "Let it be so", theethereal beings left.In the wee hours of the morning, although Vararuci had woken up,because of his physical fatigue and overtaken by grief, he was lying downengrossed in wooly thoughts as to what next he should do. Then those angelicbeings who had come earlier returned after their mission, The guardian angels ofthe tree then asked the visitors, "Where did the delivery take place ? What childis it ?" The angelic visitors said, "The delivery was in the liouse of a pariah andthe child is a female one." Those of the tree again asked the visitors, "Who willbe the one who would be marrying her ?" To this the visitors said, "He is thebrahmin who is lying here down below who docs not know the verse containing38www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992the words 'Mam Viddhi'. Now, soon the day will break and we shall hasten." Sosaying they left.A genious in-born already and with the vast erudition and versatile as hewas, Vararuci lost no time to locate and fix the verse with the clue given. Whilehe was much exhilarated over his having got to know the verse in Ramay-ana inquestion asked for by his King Vikramaditya, but also felt extremely depressedand dejected over his impending degradation which was to befall him. Soon hecould find a way out to get out of the catastrophy. This put him to cheer and to ahappy frame of mind. By now the night had also begun to gray into dawn.Forty days had sped by and the forty first day, the day stipulated forVararuci to give the answer to the King Vikramaditya, had also dawned. Whilethe King had been steeped into deep anguish and anxiety at Vararuci not havingreturned, whereas the other pundits in the court were feeling happy in then heartof hearts. They were feeling so because it was due to the highly luminouspresence of Vararuci their learning could not be brought into limelight, nor werethey being honoured or elevated to any position. Much learned though they were,yet they yielded a place to such a lurking jealousy in their hearts.The King took his seat in the exalted lion throne in the assembly of thestate. Ministers, the pundits and the many other dignitaries of the state who hadassembled could discern a mark of sorrow on the face of the King. The King thenopenly expressed thus: "What a pity Vararuci hasn't turned up yet? Could it bethat that person out of extreme remorse has committed suicide? Or has he fledthe country itself? No! Such a noble and highly learned one as he is it is hardlyever impossible for him not to have got to know of the verse and the word andreturn in time without fail," Even as he was expressing himself so, there at theportals the arrival of Vararuci was announced. And there lo! The King was alldelight, no sooner. Seeing Vararuci's beaming face, the King knew he isreturning with the mission fulfilled. So too the other members of the assembly."Well, how hath you fared in your mission? Sure, you have succeeded?"asked the King.39www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992Vararuci replied : "By the grace of God, preceptors (Gurus) and throughthe blessings of most revered and respectful members of this assembly, I shouldsay, I have to an extent been able to know and fulfill my mission."The King asked : "Yes ! Let me hear which is the verse and which is theword?"Vararuci said : "The most important verse in Ramayana is :It is this. The important word in it is "'Hearing these, there was a unanimous acceptance and affirmation from all thelearned members in the assembly and the hall resounded in the clap of hands ofapproval.Overwhelmed by happiness, emotion and affection, King Vikramaditya gotup from his throne, went upto Vararuci, took him by his hands and hugged himwith the fulness of a loving heart. He brought him upto the throne got him sharehalf of it, i.e., he gave him 'Ardhasanam' and made him sit by his side.Furthermore, he honoured him with many valuable trophies, ornaments etc.,besides making him to reside with him permanently.Thereafter, Vararuci apprised him of the twelve different ways this verse(sloka) can be anotated, each brilliant on their facets, hueing different colourfulexpositions on each of them.The above verse appears in Valmiki Ramayana Bala Kanda when Ramaaccompanied by his spouse Sita leave for the forest — for 'Vanavasa' -- at thebehest of Dasaratha, for fourteen years. Then Lakshmana, brother of Rama,40www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992second son of Dasaratha by one his spouses, Sumitra by name, also volunteeredto go with Rama and Sita to the forest. He goes to his mother Sumitra to obtainher consent and blessings in his becoming one of the members of the party inRama's exile to the forest. It is then that Sumitra tells her son Lakshmana tobehight Rama as Dasaratha, Sita for herself and the forest for Ayodhya.Adjudging them thus she blesses Lakshmana bidding farewell in his journey.The second exposition is, look upon Rama as Mahavishnu the rider on thebird, Garuda, Sita as 'Ma' (Mahalakshmi) and Ayodhya deserted by Rama as aforest. Thus my son dear go and farewell.King Vikramaditya and Vararuci were spending their time happilyconversing and in exchange of their lofty thoughts and views, and many matterrelating to the administrative and various others about their Kingdom.Periodically, the other scholars, pundits and learned members of the assemblytoo joined in the dialogues and discussions.Then Vararuci told King Vikramaditya : "Oh ! honourable King, yesternighta girl is born in the hutment of a paraiah to his wife. Looking into the hour of itsbirth and discerning the horoscope, it is seen that by the time of her attainingthree years of age this Kingdom will be ruined. From today ominous happeningswill begin. The only recourse is, hence, to see that the child is criminated".Hearing these words from the mouth of no less a person, who is an adeptand a great exponent of the science of astrology, as also a high ranking brahmin,than Vararuci, and consequent on the confidence reposed on him as a counsel ofa grand rank, the King and the members of the assemblage believed it to becorrect. And a chill of dread crept through their spines. The rest of the audiencewere also steeped in a sorrow, particularly because the case happens to be of aninnocent child and especially a female one that too. They all felt the punishmentsuggested is quiet an unbefitting one. Putting their heads together to find analterative considering the gravity of the position, and alternative was unanimouslydecided. It is that a burning torch be stuck to the head of the child and let thechild float down the stream of the river in a boat made with the sheafs of the41www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992stalks of plantain (banana) leaves. The King also gave his nodding assent to thismethod in getting the child out of bounds of his Kingdom.Accordingly the commanders of the King, getting the location where thechild to be from Vararuci, carried out the task and also reported to King of theirhaving done the job. Hearing it Vararuci also gasped a sigh of relief in his havingmanaged to be out of the woods of a social degradation.Life to Vararuci thus begun to pass on an even keel with the routines ofday to day affairs with the weight of anxiety unloaded off his head. As was hiswon't often to go out on travels, one day, during one such of his jaunts, Vararuciwent to the house of brahmin of the village he was passing through with the ideaof performing the daily rites and also incidentally have his food also there.In the customery way with the brahmins of the days of yore, as then,Vararuci was very warmly received. He was told that the food is ready alreadyand that he may come back after his bath in the river. It passed throughVararuci's mind to test the intelligence of this brahmin, his host to be. He told hishost, "Be that as it may, there are certain stipulations and they may perhaps betroublesome to you". The host told him, "Whatever be the inconvenience, if youcan let me know, I shall see how best I can help you get over them."Vararuci: "Oh ! it is not much. When I return I will need a good piece ofsilken cloth. Then, only after providing food for hundred people alone, I shouldtake my food. Besides, my food should contain hundred and eight dishes for mymeal. Later, when I had finished my meal, I must have three persons to eat.Thereafter, I must be carried by four people."Hearing this the brahmin host felt somewhat shocked and he stoodtransfixed. His daughter overhearing the conversation, passified him saying,"Father, don't you be worried or feel nervous. You only tell him that we areprepared to meet his demands." Accordingly Vararuci was also told to returnsoon after his bath and other ablusions.The anxious father summoned his daughter, after Vararuci had left for hisbath, and asked her: "Well child, how did you say so ? Will it be possible for us tomeet his needs ?"42www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992The girl said : "Yes, everything is possible. These are not so difficult tomanage; father, you haven't been able to understand whatever he wanted. By 'agood peice of silken cloth', he only meant a fresh piece of undercloth. By'hundred people to be fed', he only meant that as a brahmin he has to performhis daily fire-worship, (vaiswadevam or vaishyam) hundred devas must bepropititated through the fire. And as for the 'one hundred and eight dishes', heonly indicated the absolute must of ginger-currey for a brahmin on the path of hisbrahmanhood. Then, 'the three persons to be eaten after food' means that he willneed betel leaves with lime and arecanut. Now, lastly 'as for his being carried byfour people', he desired that he should be given a cot and a mat to rest on afterfood. That is all. Where then is the difficulty ? We have here everything." Herfather became extremely happy at the intelligence of his girl.Brahmin : "My girl, then you get ready everything, ere the guest returns",so saying he let her go.Vararuci returned after his bath and other ablusions. He was receivedhappily. He was provided with whatever he had asked for, the food in the way hehad desiring. He was also given the betel leaves etc. and also made to rest on acot where a mat had been spread with a pillow also for his head to rest. He wasimmensely pleased and felt extremely happy the way he was entertained.By now, he understood that all the arrangements as desired by himincluding the preparation of the food, all had been got up at the instance of thebrilliant intelligence of the girl, his host's daughter. This aroused a desire ingetting the girl married to him. During the course of his subsequent talk with hishost, Vararuci mooted the proposition to him. His host was only too pleased at it.Without any loss of time at an auspicious hour the girl was married to Vararuciand they became a happy husband and spouse and Vararuci returned to hishome-town as a 'Grihasta', wedded person, well patronized and respected byKing Vikramaditya.Vararuci was spending a life of peace and happiness and enjoyment in thecompany of his newly wed wife. One evening, liesurely both Vararuci and hisspouse engaged themselves in jovial conversation over many interesting43www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992subjects of no mean merit. While thus engrossed, overtaken by affection andlove, Vararuci thought of dressing and doing the hair of his wife. As he wascombing it, he found some deep mark or a deep wound on her head. Curious ashe became to know as to cause of such a one on the head, asked her as to howit had happened.To this she answered that she had only heard of it being said that that wasbecause of a burning torch which had been stuck on the spot and so the indeliblemark. She continued, "My mother during her childhood when she was playingalong the bank of the river saw the sheaf-boat made of plantain stalks and withme in it and a flaming torch stuck on to my head. Seeing the child, she had said,she picked up the both the boat and myself together. The mark she had told mewas consequent on the torch having been stuck on the head." Otherwise I am notbom to my mother.It hardly took any time for Vararuci, an intelligent man as he was, to find that hiswife was none other than the pariah girl as told by the nocturnal etherial beingsand the trick he had evolved to avoid and get away from such a catastrophyhappening to him. Though a dark cloud of grief passed over his mind uponknowing who his wife was, it flew off in a trice and came to the conclusion :" Likhitamapi Lalate Proggitum Kah Smartthah."(Whatever be the writing on the head alone will happen, where then is onescleverness.)"Whatever fate hath ordained alone happens; whence the cleverness" andpacified himself. He also told all about how they got into the wedlock. He thentold his wife, "Henceforth we shall cease to live here. We shall spend the rest ofour life roving from place to place instead of sticking to any one place." So sayingthey set themselves to a life of wandering. Their life adopted as such mostlyconfined to Chera Desa (Kerala). Evidently, therefore, one has to presume thatthey belonged to a place other than this, i.e. Chera Desa.(To be continued)44www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992HIDDEN TEACHINGS OF THE GREAT MYSTIC OF INDIA -SHRI SHIRDI SAI BABATEN thousand years ago the secret knowledge of the Real Truth wasrevealed in the Rig Veda in the following words by the Real Truth Seekers whowere not restricted in their search for the Real Truth by the parameters of anyreligion —THE TRUTH IS ONE -- MEN CALL IT BY MANY NAMESThough the Truth is One, divine experiences differ. Divine experiencesdiffer, so do the religions. Though the Truth is Immutable, Indivisible, Universaland Eternal, every religion professes that their God is the only Real Truth.Ironically it is forgotten by the religious protagonists and leaders that if the God ofevery religion is the only Real Truth, then the Real Truth is not One, but Many.How many religious leaders would accept that 'The Real Truth is not One, butmany.' To speak the Truth, the only Real Truth of every religion is the RelativeTruth.The Truth which is relative is not Real. The Relative Truth of differentreligions is truly illusion created by the Divine Will of the Supreme Lord, the RealTruth. Every religion in this world believes that the Real Truth which isTarameshwar', the God of allGods, the Master of all Masters of this world, the Creator of the Universe,is formless, spaceless and attributeless. The Real Truth therefore cannot beshaped in any one form or idol. The Real Truth is for the said reason known bythe names of the tongue of the God-men who founded different religions. In Islamthe Real Truth is called 'Allah'. Hindus call it by name 'Narayan'. The Christianscall it by name 'Father'. Those who worship idol of different Gods in differentreligions believe that the Formless Eternal One is Omniform present in all formsof its creations and the Unmanifest Eternal Truth manifests and assumesdifferent forms. They therefore believe that their Gods are the manifestations ofthe Real Truth which is One.In Truth the God of every religion is the manifestation of the Real Truthwhich is One, Indivisible, Universal and Eternal, which is the Truth of All Truths,45www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992the Lord of all worlds, the Supreme Lord, the God of all Gods, the Master of AllMen. Though each religion is true, each is far from Truth as the Real Truth in itsexpression of the Real Truth as the Real Truth can only be experienced, butcannot be truly expressed in words. It is for this reason, in spite of all religions theSupreme Lord is still a great miracle for all men.Those who are willing to accept that the Real Truth is One and yet notwilling to accept that it is the Master of all religions of the world aver and affirm ondivine oath that their God is the only Truth and in order to prove it, the exercise ismade by them to denounce the God of other religions out of their ignorance andintolerance generating in the minds of their followers the feeling of inner hate,malice and violence towards other religions. While denouncing the God of otherreligions, these religious Pandits and Scholars forget that "Though Religions aremany, The Master of All Religions and Men is One.'In modern times the message of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba is bold and explicitmessage to people of all religions that "Master of All Men is One." - Sabka MalikEk Hai. Master of all men is One, but religions have created different Masters oftheir own. The Masters of different religions are in truth the differentmanifestations of the Real Truth, the True Master Who is the Master of AllMasters, Who is the Truth beyond and beyond all Truths revealed by differentreligions, Who is the Truth called by different religions by different names. But theirony of the fate of man is that the Real Truth is forgotten in religious zeal and lostin the conflicts between different religions, each claiming that the Real Truth oftheir religion is the only Real Truth, thereby exposing unknowingly that the Truthof their religion is a Relative Truth.Shri Sai Baba did not advocate, propagate or preach any religion. No oneknows who were His patents or what was His caste or religion. His caste orreligion have all remained a secret forever. He respected and loved all religions,but he had no religion as every one of us has by dint of our lineage. His lineageremained a secret and so His religion. He did not need any religion. To Himreligion was a way of life. Life without intolerance, hatred, malice, arrogance,greed, lust and violence, was a true religious way of life as revealed through46www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992utterances of Sai Baba. Hatred towards another religion is in reality a hatredtowards one's own God because the Master of All men is One. Those who hateother religions and their Gods, who are all manifestations of the Real Truth whichis One, in reality hate their own God and religion. Shri Sai Baba gave a divinemessage to all men as revealed through His life — 'Love All Religions, HateNone.'Intolerance, hatred, malice, arrogance, fanaticism and violence lead to thegates of Hell where awaits the damnation of those who indulge in them.Tolerance, love, respect, compassion, universal brotherhood, service tohumanity, pity, lead to the gates of Heaven where awaits the divine bliss forthose who indulge in them. Sai Baba rightly uttered - 'Reap as You Sow', thedivine law of nature. Hatred generates Hatred, Love begets Love, Respectevokes Respect, Violence meets with Violence. Religious thinkers have realisedthis wisdom, but they cannot practise it in their religious practice and conductbecause they have not understood what is True Religion.True Religion can be better be understood from the life and utterances ofSai Baba which may be described in the following words --Religion is the Way of Life.Religion is the Way of Devotion.Religion is the Way of Salvation.Religion is the Way of Realisation.The divine mission of Shri Sai Baba was to bring peace, harmony andunity among different religions of the world under the banner - 'Master of All Menis One.' Those who founded religions to bring unity and harmony betweendifferent religions of the world ultimately ended in dividing men into moreconflicting religious groups. More religions have not in history resolved conflictsbetween religions, but they have rather created more conflicting religious groups.This is evident from new religions which were founded with the avowed bestintentions by noble realised Souls. Shri Sai Baba therefore did not establish anyreligion or advocate any religion or preach any religion because religion in history47www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992has divided men into more conflicting groups in the name of God and has failedto carry the message that the Real Truth is One.When religious leaders of this world will realise the Truth of the divinemessage of Shri Sai Baba and practise their religions accordingly, they will leadaii men to realise the Real Truth which is One, Indivisible, Universal and Eternaland thus bring about the unity of mankind. They will be able to establish amitybetween all religions in this tiny world in the vast divine spectrum of the immense,boundless, limitless and infinite cosmos which is beyond comprehension of alland at all times. Shri Sai Baba has set invisible spiritual wave for the worldintegration of mankind and this divine wave will sway in the process of time thewhole mankind without being conscious of the process and ultimately will mergeall men in the divine ocean of True Consciousness of the Real Truth, loosingtheir identity like rivers when merge with the ocean.Shri Sai Baba, humble as He was, never claimed any title of God-man,except calling Himself the humble 'Yadgar' of the Supreme Lord, though in TruthHe was the Manifestation of the Real Truth - 'Hari Om Sai Tat Sat.' Though SaiBaba was the True Manifestation of the Real Truth, but only few blesseddevotees realised it. With words -- 'Allah Malik' on His lips day and night, Hegave 'darshan' of Hidu Gods to His Hindu devotees, sometimes as Rama,sometimes as Krishna, sometimes as Vithoba, sometimes even in the form of theGurus of the devotees. In this manner He showed how the The Lord assumesform according to the consciousness of His devotees. Though the Lord has noform. He assumes form for the sake of His devotees. Shri Sai Baba through Hislife exhibited that He lives in all the creation, in all men, animals and even insectsfor the Real Truth which is Omniform is present in all forms of its creations and istherefore Omnipresent in all its creation. Since men will not understand thecreative potentiality of the Lord, Sai Baba illustrated it by living a life for Hisdevotees to know the Real Truth. Yet in His characteristic humourous mannerSai Baba in His humble way denied that He was God or God-man. He claimed inHis most humble way that He was only the 'Yadgar' of Allah, a mad Fakir. Helived as the poorest of the poor begging 'bhiksha' from five houses every day for48www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992the consumation of His desires and burning of His vanity and ego and teachingothers the lesson of sacrifice and service to humanity. His piety will down theheads of even the rich in shame. Through His piety He gave lesson to the richthat wealth like happiness is not for accumulation but for distribution. Whenhappiness is shared with others, it does not diminish. To the contrary whenhappiness is shared, it multiplies inwardly reaching the ecstasy of divinehappiness full of tranquility and peace. It gives the man the sense of thefulfilment of the purpose of life and ultimately liberates him from the attachmentto the worldly pleasures for his selfish end which is the reason of pain andsuffering in human life.Shri Sai Baba lived in a True tradition of a Diamond which does notrequire any attributes, which is self-illuminating, and whose radiance cannot beshadowed even when it is placed in darkness or light, in palace or coal, in anynook or comer, in high or low, or in dirt. He was a 'Real Diamond, theManifestation of the Truth, Who did not need any earthly title. He is still living todayin keeping with His hidden teachings --TRUTH IS ETERNAL --TRUTH ALONE EXISTSShri Sai Baba was one with the Real Truth. He did not require anyreligious philosophy or rites or rituals of any religion. The Truth has no religion ofits own. It is man who created religions. Hidden teachings of Shri Sai Baba maybe expressed in the following words -"Way of Life is a Religion of HumanityWay of Worship is a Religion of DevotionWay of Salvation is a Religion of ServiceWay of Realisation is a Religion of DivinityReal Truth has no ReligionReal Truth is the Source of all Religions."The Real Truth manifests in any form according to the consciousness ofthe devotee like water taking shape of the container. In other words - "You willexperience God according to your consciousness -Jaya Mani Jaisa Bhava, TayaTaisa Anubhava." God exists in the consciousness of a devotee. No wonder the49www.saileelas.org

Shri Sai Leela January February 1992image and the concept of God differs from individual to individual, from religion toreligion, even from one God-man to another, because the divine experiencesdiffer. Divine experiences differ because divine consciousness differs. Real Truthalone does not differ. It is One, Indivisible, Universal and Eternal. Divineexperience creates illusion in reality and reality in illusion. The devotees of SaiBaba have experienced this truth in his miraculous life. They have experiencedthat He manifested in many different forms not only during His life time but afterHis Nirvana. In this manner He showed to His devotees how there is illusion inreality and how there is reality in illusion. Both reality and illusion are thecreations of the Real Truth. There is Truth both in reality and in illusion. That wasthe hidden teachings of Shri Sai Baba Who conveyed to all that many formsworshipped by different religions are all manifestations of the Real Truth which isOne, the Master of All Men. The True mission of Sai Baba was to bringintegration of all religions whose Real Master is One. If all religions would realisethis Truth as revealed by Shri Sai Baba, there will be true integration of mankindwith bonds of mutual love, respect, tolerance and universal brotherhood.REGRETWe regret that due to some technical problems the 'Shri Sai Leela' issue forNov.-Dec., 1991 has not been published. We feel extremely sorry for this andrequest our readers to bear with us. We shall endeavour to streamline therelease of issues regularly at the earliest.50www.saileelas.org