Carrying the Sai who carried me all these years – A Sai Leela on his Mahasamadhi day

Its 17 :10:2010 , Vijayadasami – 92nd Samadhi day for Shirdi Sai Baba. Its been 92 years, since sai baba of shirdi has taken samadhi to live and play with us in his samadhi mandhir in shirdi , His holy Dwarakamai and our own self as Antaryami .

I woke up with a dream of a snake and someone telling the number 254…i wondered what it means but then analysing sai’s dream cannot always give us the right  meaning. Sai alone knows his ways.

As soon as i woke up i told my amma
” Theres Annadhan in Nagasai mandhir…so i will be joining my friends for service and then have lunch there itself and come late at night”.

As we have kept Gollu – statues of Gods and Goddess in 7 steps in our house and did saraswathi pooja yesturday keeping books, Amma asked me to take the books and read it few minutes and then go to Nagasai mandhir.

I had kept a Sundhara Kandam of Lord Hanuman from Ramayana and read about how Hanuman fought with the rakshasas in Ashoka tree forest to resuce Sita deva from Ravana.

A message about Chavdi procession of Shirdi Sai baba :

Then i opened , Saibaba’s book – Sri Sai Samaratha Satcharitra, It was about the description of Chavdi procession. How Nana ,Tatya and all close devotees of saibaba during his life time took the padhukas of saibaba in palanquin and saibaba used to walk infront of it. Entire shirdi will be in festive mood during this holy time when saibaba goes from Dwarakamai to Chawdi.

I just felt its a good message on Saibaba”s Mahasamadhi day , did my usual pooja and started to Nagasai mandhir. I was in hurry but yes i reached only at 12.30 in the afternoon. They have arranged the Annadhaan in front of saibaba temple itself. The gates were closed as people stood in que to have saibaba’s prasad. Looking at me , the people who do service opened the Gate. As i walked in one of my friend said jokingly ” Since you came late , we decided not to let you in ”

I laughed, went to get lamps, offered my pranamas to dhuni baba in dwarakamai and then the holy dhuni ( sacred fire of saibaba )

Annadhan – Seving Food to Sai devotees in temple :

As soon as the afternoon aarti started ,the devotees were asked to come in and have food. I took responsibility of serving water..I always love to do it too. This time it was need of the day too as there were lots of people having annadhan simoultaneously . There was a HUGE JUG which can hold atleast 10 liters of water. So carrying this , i was roaming all through to pour water in the glass as and when devotees emptied their glass.

After 2 hours my hand started getting pain since the jug when filled full of water was too heavy. Somehow i managaed to do other works also once in a while. Finally untill 5 in the evening, someone came to have food and we also served them.

We thought our work for the day is over :

Finally me , vengadesh, prem , Vijaykumar , all of us decided to simply sit and watch whats going on or do some odd works. We thought of going out to have a tea in the near by bakery. Vengadesh felt the place where people wash hands was dirty. So he was cleaning it. Mean while few devotees were arranging the Palki – Palanquin decorated with flowers, roses, jasmine and saibabas portrait in it along with a lamp.

We were called to the place were saibaba appeared as snake on jan 7th 1943 behind temple to carry palanquin of saibaba :

I was removing the screen i tied other day for Ganapathy homam climbing over the gate. While i was doing it my sai friend Viveks mom and another sai friend came running to us saying , they are calling you people to carry Palki of Saibaba. I thought we are only going to stand near palki and come back.

But i decided to call all my friends who serve in the dhuni usually. I ran to Vijaykumar and shouted at him to come with me… He was with his parents but i made him run with me. The i called up Vengadesh who was cleaning the place people wash legs. The palki was already carried from Saibaba temple main hall to the place where Other Hindu gods and the holy place where Sai appeared as snake on January 7th 1943 .( hence its known as Nagasai mandhir ).

Myself and Vivek stood behind the palki . We never knew they want us to carry the Saibabas palki because other big elder people were there to do it. Some how Vengadesh also came running and stood near the neem tree. It was crowded with sai devotees , men , women and children around .

Pooja to Nagaraja and the Nagasai as snake infront of the Palki :

The devotees who arranged the palki called all of us who were standing behind to come to the front. Only now i knew they actually want us all to carry the palki of saibaba. Then they did the pooja to Nagaraja and Nagasai as snake with chanting of sainath beautifully

“Aum sai sri sai Jaya Jaya Saayee..Aum saayee SRI saayee

Jaya JAayaa Saayee “

Many times the devotees hailed the name of saibaba

“Shri Satchidhaanandha Sadhguru sainath maharaj ki and all us devotees wil say

“Jaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii….”

Then they asked us to be ready to carry palki. Vengadesh was to the right and myself in the left. Vijaykumar stood behind and other devotees took their position . Prem was helping us to carry. As we started carrying, Vengadesh guided me on how to carry it. Beautiful…

Words can’t describe the beauty of

Carrying the greatest saint on 3 universe.

Carrying the Datta Avatar

Carrying the Guru of All Gurus

The mother of all sadhus and sants

As we moved the Ganesha temple priest and other devotees who organised the palki event guided us on how to carry and come farward. We carrying first to the Vallabha Ganapathy sannidhi with the chanting of Sainath and shiv ling. The priest was asked to bless us applying viboodhi to our forehead. To all of us standing infront and carrying the palki of saibaba.

Then we moved to another Ganesha and then to Lord Murugan, The best part was we also got blessings of Lord Hanuman about whom i read this morning . Hanuman was decorated beautifully by the priest and he also kept kumkum in our forehead.

Carrying the Sai who carried me all these years and years to come :

Then as we moved infront of the front of Nagasai mandhir, we felt really heavy but i can’t believe its the Sai baba who carried me for all these years whom i am carrying on his holy Mahasamadhi.  A devotee came and asked shall i carry instead of you but i never left the place as i felt saibaba wants to give this opportunity to us Probably to learn how heavy he feels carrying us for years.

Yes, its Saibaba who is carrying all of his devotees, his children in the pains, worries and the worst situation in life. This Sai gave us this opportunity to carry him and feel the beautiful pain in the shoulders. The pain that never pains as its Sai , the Guru who took care of me for years is the one i am carrying.

The exiting part is the chanting by the devotees and all who looked the Saibaba in palki and admired his beauty. Ok now comes the dhuni – dwarakamai. We went near the dwarakamai and the dhuni priest also showed aarti to saibaba and kept udi on our forehead.

Swing for Saibaba like Baby :

Other devotees too helped us carry and finally we were right infront of the entrance of the temple. They asked us to move sideways with the palki as if we are keeping sai like baby. We did that and enjoyed every bit of it friends. The devotees too were exited and sang

Aum sai sri sai jaya jaya saayee

it was really like the chavdi procession of shirdi during saibabas life time friends.

We then took the Palki inside the temple itself…it was truly wonderful.. Hundreds of devotees inside the temple were exited when they saw the palki infront of Nagasai. I kept watching how the devotees enjoyed. Their eyes can tell stories of how much they love saibaba.

Then we were asked to move to the top platform of nagasai.. The priest again took aarti to saibaba in palki and blessed us with udi in forehead. Then we came around the temple and rested the palki in a place.

Evening aarti inside temple :

Usually i always be in dhuni and take care of it. I make sure to drop wooden logs on time, get into the hot dhuni tank and wipe the ashes out and every month filter it. So i never be inside the main hall for aarti . Since they asked us to take care of palki i sat near palki itself with saibaba and attended the evening aarti.

Then after aarti all guys went to do other arrangements. Myself and another old sai devotee who is 75 were taking care of the palki and though we were asked not to allow devotees to touch . We made the offer flowers to saibaba portrait. Every single men, women and child took the flowers and offered to sainath happily .  Then i also attended the shej aarti , kept the lamp on the palki in the floor of nagasai mandhir and stood outside with my sai friends to thank the devotees who gave us this opportunity.

It was their generosity that though they made the beautiful palanquin of saibaba , they let us carry it. When we thanked them,they said there was some confusion and hence we decided to carry with the people who take care of dhuni  to carry the palki. How sweet of sai to bless us like this for the little work we do in dhuni every day for years.

Words from priest of Dhuni :

The dhuni priest came infront and told us ” you people are really lucky to carry saibaba’s palki today.  Since you serve in dhuni saibaba will bless you all with more good things in life”

I came home tired….entire afternoon was serving water with a heavy jug and then carried palki. So just wanna lay down . I can’t because sometimes only when we tell the world the gift of sai, we get satisfied.

It took atleast a hour for me to write this article friends.

A message from this experience

As i walked outside the temple to take bus i told my friend prem, This is a example to learn saibaba does things which we least expected. We never expected we will do it and they gave us this opportunity. same way our life will be good only.

Its truly a wonderful Mahasamadhi day experience for us friends in Nagasai mandhir who serve dhuni. Especially for me , i have pain in my shoulder but its a sweet pain …How beauiful is to carry the Sai who carried me all these years and the years to come.

This Sai baba of Shirdi is doing the same to you friends. He is carrying you for years . It might seem that saibaba is not helping you but probably life would have been worser if not for saibaba’s presence in your life.

He is there friends and he really is carrying you like a child in his own heart.

Saibaba’s dwarakamai itself is our Palki – The palanquin of millions of sai devotees is saibaba’s Dwarakamai and yes its not only the Dwarakamai in Shirdi but also the dwarakamai in our own self, Where Sai really lives.

He is our Antaryami – The one who lives in ourselves and carries us safely in this wordly life.

I have tears in my eyes now…Tears of devotion….

Sai , we have pain in shoulder for carrying you few minutes. How are we going to take care of you for carrying us for years , you are carrying your millions of devotees and still we only complain you.

Let us show devotion on sainath , so much devotion that we never complain him and surrender to his will whole heartedly.

I gave so many flowers to hundreds of devotees today..i mean i let them offer in on saibaba and then take to home also but i forgot to take a single flower for myself today. I felt a bit bad about it but i realized ,the flower i have carried is the experience sai blessed me with today.

When i wrote this beautiful sai leela with pain in hand and without sleeping this late night, i have given birth to the “Flower called Sai Leela ” for the world to read and fill their heart with devotion.

Aum Sri sainathaya namaha

Nagasai ki jai

Shirdi Saibaba ki Jai

C.Venkatraman

17 : 10 :2010

92 nd mahasamadhi day of saibaba of shirdi