Ways of the World: A Sai Baba Temple Project - Escapades with Shirdi Sai Baba

In many blog posts of mine in the past I have referred the name of Shanthamma (Refer Archives February 2011 and January 2012). She happens to be a middle class woman in her mid fifties who is an ardent devotee of Shirdi Sai Baba. - a Saint of India who lived between the years ~ 1838 and October 1918. During his lifetime he has been recorded to have helped in bestowing favours to many people who later turned out to be intensely devoted to him. Even after his passing on many people have reported to have experienced certain 'states' and apparently been present at certain strange happenings and as a result, the number of his devotees is increasing phenomenally. It is not my purpose to recount the incidents of various people, but rather my effort is to maintain as a record, the happenings related to Shirdi Sai Baba that manifest around Shanthamma with whom I have been in contact since the year 2004.

The curious thing is that Shanthamma experiences certain states whose veracity is apparent to those around her from her expressions and body language, but none else present is privy to it. Many would be tempted to dismiss them as 'hallucinations' peculiar to her alone without any basis in reality. But to underscore that there could be some link to some level of reality, we normally see the materialization of strange objects at the same time. In my previous blogs I've described some of these and have attached photographs of things that have appeared, but here I proceed to declare some recent happenings just for the sake of keeping a record.

Since the past eight years or so, Shanthamma has been receiving instructions from Shirdi Sai Baba to take active steps in the construction of a Sai Baba Temple. Many efforts have been made to realize this objective but none had yielded fruit. Recently a family (mainly by two brothers - Shri Bhaskar and Shri Jayaram) that had lands in Byatarayanapura, near Mysore Road in Bangalore has been generous enough to donate a fairly large piece of land for the purpose.

The Ground Floor Hall of the building

One part of the land has a three storied building with three huge halls that will be put to suitable use like for meditation, bhajans or such. It is on the vacant portion that a Sai temple is proposed to be built. Shanthamma reports that the land has the approval of Sai Baba for the construction of a temple. One morning in the month of October 2012, Sai Baba is reported to have roused Shanthamma very early in the morning (around 4:30 a.m.) and stressed that she has to take a more proactive and vigorous step towards the construction of the temple and that the proposals of donations by Bhaskar et.al. should be considered. He also inspired her of the procedure that had to be followed :

Firstly, on a suitable day, starting with a Kaakada Aarthi (early morning Aarthi) the Naam Smaran of Sai Baba had to be done for five hours followed by what in Karnataka is called 'Bhumi Pooja' - the Ground-breaking ceremony. These two were to be followed by Dhoop (Noon) aarthi and later by a mass feeding of people. Towards this end the date was fixed for November 23rd 2012. On an earlier date when Bhaskar, Jayaram and their sister were visiting Shanthamma at her residence (this happened when I was also there) Shanthamma had a vision of Sai Baba and a pair of wooden Paadukas together with figurines of Dattatreya and Hanuman and plenty of vibhuthi and a few rudraksha together with glass marbles and a polished pebble of agate which is supposed to represent a Shiva Ling materialized in a white cloth bag that could be slung on the shoulder. The donors of the land were quite moved by the incident.

'Guddali Pooja - groundbreaking ceremony for Sai Temple

On 23rd November all the formalities that were envisaged took place without a hitch and maybe about 1300 people were fed on that day. A figurine which is the exact likeness of Sai Baba's idol at Shirdi was presented to Shanthamma at the time of the Bhumi Pooja when Sai Baba gave her a vision.

Sai Baba idol that materialised at Guddali Puja

Sai Baba had also instructed Shanthmma to carry out a formal reading (called Sat Charita Paraayana in Kannada) of all the chapters of Sai Satcharita by a large group of devotees at the newly consecrated temple premises. Accordingly a group of about 50 to 60 people from the Bhajan Group assembled at Byatarayanapura on the 20th of December 2012 and each person was allotted one chapter to complete the task. The group assembled at around 7:30 hrs at the temple site.

A few people were to escort Shanthamma and her husband Ramanath in a car from her residence to the temple. As they were on their way Shanthamma had a scary vision - it was as if the car was racing down a very steep gradient and Shanthamma shouted out to the person driving the car to grind to a halt lest they crash in a fatal catastrophe. Later she is supposed to have had a darshan of Saibaba as a huge figure whose feet were yonder below in the deepest of the nether worlds ("Paatala" as she says) and enveloped with tongues of fire, and the chest had snowy peaks of great heights as a backdrop and the head was way out in space. The vision was supposed to have created great trepidation in her. Later Sai Baba reduced his size and materialized a set of large wooden padukas together with vibhuthi and rudrakshas wrapped in a red cloth. Referring to a person in the car Sai Baba is supposed to have told Shanthamma "...What does he think he is doing - running around like a thief! While at times he prays to me there are times when he gets angry with even Me! Tell him to be relaxed, and that I am always there to protect him! He is very dear to me and was Das Ganu in his previous life..."

My question has already been asked once previously. If the vision is merely a set of hallucinations how come the very material presence of padukas, rudraksha and the red cloth in which it was all wrapped?

Baba is further supposed to have told Shanthamma that the various procedure and observances in constructing a temple will be revealed to her as things unfold and that she is supposed to record it in a book.

As has been happening for the past six to seven years, this year too an Annual function to honour Sai Baba was organised at the Adi-Chunchunagiri Samudaya Bhavan, Vijayanagar, Bangalore on 16th December 2012, and the usual things materialized - A silver rudraksha chain, onions, chappathis, figurines, and the bundle for the POORNA AAHUTHI.