SAI BABA THE SUPREME MASTER

Shirdi Sai Baba, one of the foremost saints of modern India, lived in the small village of Shirdi in the state of Maharashtra for sixty years. Sai Baba did never reveal his original name, time and place of birth, especially his religion and caste, and even the names of his parents. Through this, he has emerged as a solution to all the religious and communal differences that are destroying the world today. He preaches that God is Almighty and he has given all the souls on earth equal opportunity to reach him, whichever is the religion they belong to. ‘Sai Baba’ is the name given to him by his first devotee, Mahalsapathi – ‘Sai’ means ‘Saint’ and ‘Baba’ means ‘Father’. The name is just an expression of love, reverence and devotion.

Acharya sri ekkirala Bharadwaja master garu was born on 30.10.1938 and was a post-graduate in English literature. he came under the influence of Shirdi Sai baba and through his grace attained self realization.He was the founder president of sai baba mission,ongole, and shirdi sai culture mission,vidyanagar.
He had been the main source of inspiration in the construction of several sai baba mandirs and he was the main spirit behind the telugu fortnightly 'SAI BABA'. he has written several books in telugu and english mainly with a view to spread the indian spirtual discipline and culture in a scientific manner.After a life of incessant activity in spreading the messages and teachings of sai baba till his last breath, he attained maha samadhi on 12.4.1989 t the dismay of all his followers and admirers.though he has left his mortal frame, even now he responds to the call of the devotees

Sri Ramana Maharshi (Tamil: ரமண மஹரிஷி) (December 30, 1879 – April 14, 1950), born Venkataraman Iyer, was an Indian sage. He was born to a Tamil Hindu Brahmin family in Tiruchuzhi, Tamil Nadu. After having attained liberation at the age of 16, he left home for Arunachala, a mountain considered sacred by Hindus, at Tiruvannamalai, and lived there for the rest of his life. Arunachala is located in Tamil Nadu, South India.^[1] Although born a Brahmin, after having attained moksha he declared himself an "Atiasrami", a Sastraic state of unattachment to anything in life and beyond all caste restrictions^[2].

Sri Ramana maintained that the purest form of his teachings was the powerful silence which radiated from his presence and quieted the minds of those attuned to it. He gave verbal teachings only for the benefit of those who could not understand his silence.^[3] His verbal teachings were said to flow from his direct experience of Consciousness as the only existing reality.^[4] When asked for advice, he recommended self-enquiry as the fastest path to moksha. Though his primary teaching is associated with Non-dualism, Advaita Vedanta, and Jnana yoga, he highly recommended Bhakti, and gave his approval to a variety of paths and practices.^[5]

Hazrat Tajuddin Baba was one of the five Perfect Masters (Sadgurus) of his Age. Such is the play of nature known as maya (illusion) that this Perfect Master was declared a lunatic and kept in confinement in the Nagpur Lunatic Asylum for more than sixteen years. However, Baba Tajuddin started his divine play from this place and virtually converted the asylum to a place of worship.
Baba Tajuddin was born on the 21st of January in the year 1861 at a place called Kamthi situated near Nagpur in the state of Maharastra.

From the birth itself, there was something unusual about the child, for the new-born baby would not at all cry. He would, at times, open his eyes and look at people and again go to sleep. All normal methods to induce the child to cry having failed, the parents took recourse to a traditional shock method of touching hot iron to the forehead and ear of the child. With the application of this method the child jerked out of its stupor and started crying. The burnt marks thus made on the head and ears of the child remained on his body till the last.

Gajanan Maharaj from Shegaon (Buldhana District), Maharashtra, India is regarded by Hindus as a saint. A temple in his name is built on his Samadhi at Shegaon. "Sant Gajanan Maharaj Sansthan" is the largest temple trust in the Vidarbha region.

The early life history of Gajanan Maharaj is obscure, his birthdate being unknown. Biruduraju Ramaraju has tried to establish in his collection of books called "Andhra Yogulu" that he was a Telugu Brahmin. Some speculate that he might have in fact hailed from Sajjanghad, (which was the native place of Sant Samartha Ramdas). Das Ganu Maharaj has written a 21 chapter biography, "Shri Gajanan Vijay," of Gajanan Maharaj in Marathi. Contemporaries of Gajanan Maharaj identified him by several names like Gin Gine Buwa, Ganpat Buwa, and Awaliya Baba.

According to a legend, a money lender named Bankat Lal Agarwal first saw Gajanan Maharaj in a "superconscious state" on February 23, 1878 on a street. Sensing him to be a saint, Bankat took him home and asked him to stay with him. Legends say that in his lifetime, he performed many miracles such as giving a fresh lease on life to one Janrao Deshmukh, lighting the clay-pipe without fire, filling a dry well with water, drawing sugar cane juice by twisting canes with his hands, and curing leprosy of a woman. He died on 8 September, 1910.

Gajanan Maharaj looked upon all religions with equality. He propounded "Advaita Tattva" through his conduct and teachings.

Lord Dattatreya, an incarnation of the Divine Trinity Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. The meaning of Datta is 'given' or 'adopted' who is given HIMSELF to sages Atri and Anasuya to uplift the Human Kind. The very purpose of the incarnation of Lord Datta is to inspire the entire mankind towards such noble living and to uplift them. It is indeed a great blessing that Lord Datta is eternally available on the Earth to the mankind unlike other Avataras (incarnations) like Sri Rama and Sri Krishna.

A Human birth which is rare privilege as proclaimed by our sages since times immemorial; devotion towards God; knowing the secret behind Datta's incarnation; faith towards him; the holy books of 'Sri Guru Charitra' and 'Sri Sai Baba jeevitha Charitram' which bestows the darshan and blessings of Sadguru-on acquiring all these, it is our bounden duty to make our lives worth living.

Shri Dattatreya is a very ancient incarnation, highly venerated through the ages. Dattatreya – a Universal Guru manifested in the recess of time of 'Kaliyug', when humanity had gone far from its pristine state and steeped into threshold of a timewhen all kinds of vices had already taken root, and the pious souls made fervent appealed for the salvage of the mankind surging forward in manifold way. He had descended on this earth to establish 'Satya' (the Universal Truth), 'Rta' (the CosmicOrder), Dharma', (the perennial principles), in all its entirety.

Seer Atri was one of such Seers who had ‘seen’ and experienced the Brahman, the eternal Wisdom. To him was born a son, the product of the Grace or the Divine Will, which was the manifestation of all three Primal Energies ofBrahma, Vishnu and Shiva. He was ordained with the three energies; He came to have the concentrated wisdom of the three God-heads or symbolically three heads. The three heads signified as Brahma:‘Tejas’ personified, Vishnu:‘Ojas' personified, Shiva: ‘Tapas’ personified. Under these heads, illumination of knowledge, vigorosity of action and stringency of penance were represented as three aspects or state of being of the same.

Sripaad Shri Vallabh was born in a Brahmin family in a village named Pithapur (East Godavari District in Andhra Pradesh, India). A Brahmin couple Appala Raju Sharma and Sumathi, were devotees of Lord Datta.They had many children of whom only two survived. One was lame and the other was blind. They worshipped Lord Datta and never failed to offer food to mendicants and monks. They looked uponon all such as they very forms of Lord Datta. One day, they were performing the annual ceremony in their house and many Brahmins were invited as guests for thefeast. Tradition holds that none should eat on that day before these guests partake their food.

At that time Lord Dattatreya appeared at their threshold in the form of a renunciate sadhu (saint), bearing the staff and the water-vessel (Kamandalu) and asked for food. The housewife, with immense faith that the visitor was none other than the Lord to whom the whole annual ceremony was being offered, gave Him food even before the Brahmin guests were fed!

Sripada ShriVallabha, is the first incarnation of Lord Dattatreya in Kaliyuga and was born to Sri Appalaraja Sarma and Sumathi in Pithapuram in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India.

Chivatam Amma is an Avadhuta lived in Chivatam village of in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India.

Akkalkot Maharaj, recognized by many as an incarnation of Dattatreya, first appeared in Akkalkot in 1856. There he stayed for nearly twenty-two years. When asked about his parentage and childhood, he gave various, sometimes contradictory, answers to inquirers.

One account put forth by deotees asserts that after traveling in the Himalayas, the Swami sat in samadhi for three hundred years in a dense forest. He became completely covered by anthills, and a large tree grew beside him. Once a woodcutter came to the forest and chose that particular tree for cutting. Laying his axe first to the anthill, he was surprised to see blood oozing from it. Pulling down the anthill, he discovered the Swami beneath it.

Roused from samadhi, the Swami declared the incident to be Divinely ordained as it was time for him to go into the world and continue his mission. The Swami is said to have then wandered for a hundred years, performing many miracles, before appearing in Akkalkot.

The Swami was unpredictable, appearing mad to many, and full of miracles. He loved his devotees with a great passion, and like other Adepts of the Crazy Wise style, he was paradoxically full of both human and Divine qualities. Once, when asked who he was, he replied, "I am this infinite universe; I am everywhere. Yet my favorite resorts are Sakyodri, Girnar, Kasi, Mathapur, Karveer, Panchaleswar, Audumbar, Karanjnagar, Narasimhvadi, and Gangapur."

Bhagavan Venkayya Swamy is an Avadhuta lived in Golagamudi village of Nellore district in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India.

Shri Narasimha Saraswati (henceforth referred in the article as Shri Guru) is considered as the incarnation of Shri Shripad Shri Vallabha who lived in Kuravpur (He was born in [[Pithapuram]. A new book "Shripada Shrivallabha Charitamrutham" available from Shripada Shrivallabha Mahasansthan in Pithapuram throws more light on this incarnation). Shri Narasimha Saraswati is considered as the Guru by the Datta-Sampradaya people. His life story as given in Shri GuruCharitra is read and followed by hundreds of thousands of devotees. Shri Saibaba is also considered in this lineage of the Swamis or Gurus.

He was intially named as Narahari or Shalgramdev. His father's name is Madhav and mother's name is Amba-Bhavani. They lived at Karanjapur which is modern Lad-Karanja in Maharashtra. His surname is Kale.He was born in Deshastha Brahmin family. At Lad-Karanja there is the original house where he was born. Although the house is no longer in the original shape, but still some parts remain and have been converted in to a temple.

The study of his life and life events have put his time to be from 1378AD to 1458AD when he took Samadhi in Kardali-van (Jungle of Kardali trees). The only documented source of his life is Shri GuruCharitra. The writer of this book did not have direct contact with Shri Guru, but possibly had the original Sanskrit version of the Guru-charitra in front of him written by one of the four disciples of Shri Guru. The disciple is Shri Siddha. The whole book is written as a conversation between a disciple Namdharak and Siddha.

Born on 5th may, 1870 at Satana, Maharashtra (in India), Kashinath did not exhibit traits of a normal child from the beginning, although his deviations did not indicate existence of any super-intelligence or excellence in him. He held extremely strong views about two vital aspects of life when in his teens. First, he declared that the formalised educational learning was only for bread winning and, therefore, after doing three years in a vernacular elementary school left it; merciless canning by his teacher becoming the immediate cause of such realisation. Secondly, he hated and condemned the body (i.e. his own body) as the creator of limitations and pain in life. He spent all his time doing in Asans (exercises as per Yoga), Pranayama (Breath control exercises), repetition of mantras etc. With such an attitude he could earn nothing and for his family members he was a problem child. To make matters worse, he was married with the hope that his ways would change. Old habits die hard. Not only did Kashinath not change, but also a few months after marriage he ran away from home (at the Dhulia district in Maharashtra) leaving a departing note and reached Nasik. However, two months later anxiety about the plight of his parents compelled him to return home. Shortly thereafter his wife expired, but before the cup of sorrow could be emptied, Kashinath, now fifteen was got married second time. To earn livelihood he went to places like Pune and could not find a job because of the absence of any formal education. At times he did menial work for others and at other times, he took to begging. He was in a miserable state of life. Sometimes, he even had to sleep on footpaths (sideways) and live only on Margosa (Neem) leaves.

Hazrat Babajan hailed from Afghanistan (Central Asia) and was the daughter of well to do Afghan of noble lineage. Her maiden name was Gulrukh (rose faced) and her early training was that befitting the status of an Afghan aristocrat. At a very early age she learned Quran by heart and later became conversant with Arabic, Persian, Pushtoo and Urdu. From early life she developed mystical tendencies, and unlike girls of her age, she used to pass a good deal of her time in prayers, meditation and solitude.

This mystical aspect in her asserted itself, as when coming of age, she was found to be against any idea of marriage. The parents could not understand her and to them the idea of a Pathan girl remaining unmarried was extremely scandalous. Finding the situation no longer tenable and the parents bent upon forcing the issue of matrimony on her. Gulrukh managed to escape and came to Peshawar (India) and then to Rawalpindi. For a Pathan girl brought up under the strictest discipline of the Parda system, wandering at the age of 18 years, was not an easy undertaking.




TanQ U .......God Bless U