Sai Ideal And The Sai World (An Old & Rare Book)

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Sri Shirdi Sai Baba (1838-1918), the greatest of all the mystics and Godmen of the modern age, taught the basics of morality and spirituality in the most simple and unconventional manner. The mission of His Incarnation was to make the misguided humanity God-minded and united in the real sense. Within the last 100 years, His following has grown tremendously. There are now millions of Sai devotees belonging to all religions and nations who worship Him as the God Almighty. While the unique SAI IDEAL as laid down by Sri Shirdi Sai Baba still controls and inspires the fast growing numbers of His devotees to a very great degree, certain trends of change, illogicality and unhealthy problems are also now seen in the Sai Sansar-The World of the Sai devotees.This highly informative and interesting book is virtually a 'Shirdi Sai Baba Miscellany' in which Sai ideals, traditions, old memories, recapitulation of Sai Baba's teachings of Spiritual Humanism, current practices and emerging trends, developments and happenings and unique experiences of some Sai devotees in the Sai world have been presented.

S.P. Ruhela is an eminent Sai devotee who has contributed over a dozen of books on the Sai Baba phenomena based on his extensive research during the last 25 years. He is Professor of Education (Sociology) at the Jamia Millia Islamia (Central University), New Delhi. He is the Founder and Secretary of Sai Divine Research Centre, Faridabad (India).

Lord Krishna had revealed to Arjuna in His immortal Bhagavad Gita discourse on the battlefield of Kurukshetra: "Whenever there is decline of righteousness, and unrighteousness is in the ascendence, then I incarnate for the protection of the virtuous, for the destruction of the evil, and for establishing Dharma (righteousness) on a firm footing from age to age." In accordance with this divine assurance, God incarnated in the form of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba in 1838 in India when there was the disappointing spectre of alround misery, exploitation, mutual distrust and animosity. The British rulers were exploiting the Indians by their policy of 'Divide and Rule' and consequently there existed a lot of suspicion and enmity between the Hindus and the Muslims. Casteism, fundamentalism, ritualism and many kinds of social evils were rampant in the Indian society. People in the country had forgotten the norms of good conduct, tenets of real faith, social integration and the very zest of living. There was normlessness and mood of revolt against the existing political, social, cultural and economic conditions of India. In the world at large, capitalism, colonialism and moral decay of mankind were fast progressing and creating global unrest. Sri Shirdi Sai Baba reached Shirdi and settled there in 1858 and stayed there till His passing away in 1918. During His 60 years of stay at Shirdi-then an humble interior village. He taught the basics of morality, good conduct as a human being and spirituality to people of all religions and all social strata by His thrilling miracles, fables, stories and brief teachings sitting in His old, dilapidated mosque which He had named as 'Dwarkamai. Although He was a Hindu belonging to the high caste of Brahmins, He did not reveal his religion and caste and even family identity to any one during His life time, and dressed, spoke and behaved in the style and fashion of a typical Muslim Fakir who lives on alms and leads a life of renunciation and piety. He demonstrated that it was possible for the Indian people to achieve real harmony through re- inforcing their faith in and following the spiritual teachings of atmaic equality of all creatures, love, patience, devotion, unity and belief in God. Sai Baba's Dwarkamai mosque was His spiritual anvil on which the great Avatar (Incarnation of God) forged the links of integration of people of different religions with His charismatic personality. thrilling miracles and functional teachings couched in simple rural idiom which the common man could easily understand. The name and fame of Sri Shirdi Sai Baba, therefore, spread all over the world within 10-12 decades only.

Sri Shirdi Sai Baba is one of the most venerated mystic saints of India. He commands world-wide respect among people of all religions. He was born in Maharashtra State in 1838 and lived at Shirdi for 60 years from 1858 till He left for His heavenly abode in 1918. He is widely believed to be the incarnation of Lord Dattatreya-the Trinity of the three Great Gods Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. According to His own revelations, He had countless births and in one of them He was the great Saint Poet Kabir of the medieval Indian history who was the disciple of Guru Ramanand of Banaras and who had vigorously attacked and exposed the superstitions, religious rituals and hypocrisies of the Hindus as well the Muslims and laid stress on understanding the reality of God, Soul and man's existence in the world. Sri Shirdi Sai Baba lived the life of a simple village Fakir. He dressed like a Muslim, lived in an old forsaken mosque, spoke Urdu, Arabic, Hindustani and Marathi languages and always addressed God as Allah, as the Muslims do. So most people thought that He was a Muslim, but He allowed the Hindu devotees and all visitors to come into His mosque to which He had given a Hindu name 'Dwarkamai, to seek His divine grace and to worship Him in Hindu ways. He successfully tried to unite the hearts of the Hindus and Muslims by His unique concept of secularism. He was a great mystic, Yogi, Godman or Avatar who had all the Siddhis. His powers of During his 60 years' life at Shirdi He was never seen reading any book or paper, signing his name or writing anything, and, therefore, people believed Him to be an illiterate Fakir, but many-a-time He surprised his devotees by His mastery over Hindu and Muslim scriptures. The 'Sai Ideal' and innumerable incidents of His divine powers had become popular far and wide during his Avatarhood and most of them have been duly recorded in his biography entitled 'Shri Sai Satcharita' and in the books written by some of the eminent devotees of his time, namely Das Ganu, Khaparde, Sai Sharan Anand, etc. and in the books of Sri Narasimhaswamiji, the great Sat pracharak after Baba's Mahasamadhi. He stood for the universalistic pattern variables and worked for the moral and spiritual awakening of mankind. There have been countless mystics, Godmen. Saints, Aulias and Jeevanmuktas in India and in other countries during the last 8,000 years of history of human civilization. Sai Baba of Shirdi is matchless among all of them, as He alone has given a standing assurance to all people that who- so-ever would remember His divine Name in his hour of misery or need earnestly or would step into His tomb (Samadhi Mandir) or Dwarkamai Masjid, would surely, receive His divinc grace and help.

**Contents and Sample Pages**