Satsang SRI SAI BABA HIS RACE, CASTE AND CREED - by B. V. Narasimhaswami

SRI SAI BABA HIS RACE, CASTE AND CREEDby B. V. NarasimhaswamiPrejudice and sentiments die hard. Even the great
Adi Sankara Acharya ordered a Harijan who came
near Him at Kasi to "go away". The Harijan thenrequested the Acharya to explain whether his
objection was to one earthly body approaching
another or whether he wanted the Atman in the one
to go away from the Atman in the other. The Acharya
perceiving that a great Janana in the form of that
Harijan had come to rebuke his prejudices declared
that even a Harijan with Janana was his revered
Sadguru. Sai Baba never considered any caste or
species as capable of polluting HIM even by touch.
Finding a poor harijan ready to leave Shirdi. Baba
put his arm round his neck and tried to stop him.
Differences of caste can have no place in the heartof one whose Atmic realisation was evident by his
morning Dhyana on the basis of "An at hag" "Maim
Allah hum" which are the equivalents of "AhamBrahma Asmi".

Baba was regularly demolishing the idea of difference
(in all other matters also) which fettered the advance
of his Sadhaka devotee. 'It is a popular fallacy that we
are different from each other and that our properties
are separate. This is an error. You are I, I am you.
Knock down this Telis wall. Then we see each dearly
face to face (i.e., as being the same Atman)" "Inquire
into all the scriptures; and see if the Atman is one of
many". It is the sad irony of fate that of a Baba who
spoke thus and lived thus yet some people still
anxiously explore the parentage to discover his caste.

One can easily understand the deserved who worship
images or other objects to avoid the control of
iconoclasts, and generally, Mahomedanism is identified
with iconoclasticism. But of Baba, it is well known that
HE objected to the conversion of any one from his
religion to any other religion, that He bade his visitors
stick not only to their own religion but also to their
sampradaya, their guru, their mantra, their observances,
their scruples, their images, and objects of worship
and that HE actually insisted on His devotees visiting
the temples and images that they usually visited for
worship and that HE presented to some a lingam and
to some padukas, coins, and pictures for worship. He
expressly told His devotees that though Nirakara
worship was praise worthy, yet as a concession to
the weakness of the vast majority to whom Nirakara
worship is an impossibility, any customary object
might be used for worship and meditation-including
Baba's own physical form for those who found that
most suitable.

Thousands have found that Baba answers in his
Sookshma for (as Apantaratma or as Parmatma)
prayers earnestly addressed to Him for temporal
and spiritual welfare. And still the question is raised,
"is HE a Hindu or Moslem?" In the words of the late
Rao Bahadur S. B. Dhumal in reply to an European
Dt. Magistrate who raised this question about 1910,
we may well answer: "Sai Baba is neitherthe one,
nor the other. Hs is above both."

Sai Baba repeatedly declared that he was not the eight
span body-the I was the Antaratma in all creatures.
Antaratma Chemakarkar Sarvo Bhootasaya-stitiahi
(SaiSudha-Oct-1940)