The Essential Sai Satcharita

It was during the early 1910s that Hemadpant went to visit Baba in Shirdi. It was then that he first witnessed the following incredible leela of Baba, and was inspired to write Baba's life story in the ensuing chapters of the Sai Satcharita.

One morning, in Dwarkamai, Sai Baba sat at the grinding stone after completing His morning rituals. Carrying a scuttle-like basket in His hand, Baba went towards a bag of wheat and began taking its contents out in a rather hurried manner; filling cupfuls of wheat up to the brim and straight into the basket. Baba then spread out another empty sack on the ground near Him. He placed His grinding quern on it and attached its wooden peg firmly in place so that it would stay secure while grinding.

Getting Himself ready to grind, Baba rolled up His sleeves, tucked in the folds of His kafni, and then sat down near the grinding quern with His legs spread outward.

"What is this sudden idea – that of grinding wheat?" Hemadpant thought to himself. Puzzled as he was, he continued to think, "To a poor penniless one, without attachment to any material possessions, why should there be any anxiety about worldly things?" However, with His head bent downward, Sai Baba had taken a firm hold of the handle of the quern. Baba kept rotating the quern stone with His own hands intensely, as if He were crushing something more than just wheat, with enmity and hatred, into the flour. "Many a saint had I met before; but here was the one grinding wheat at a quern! What pleasure could grinding give Him? Only He can understand His strange ways!" People watched Baba in astonishment, but no one dared ask Him what He was doing.

As the news of this activity travelled, residents of the village came running and a crowd gathered. The women gasped for breath as they ran. Four of them hastily rushed up the steps of Dwarkamai and held Baba's hand, seizing it as they snatched the handle of the grinding stone away from Him. Baba retaliated and began quarrelling with the women; but without paying any heed to Him they started grinding the wheat at once. And as they began, they also started chanting Baba's praises and His marvellous leelas.

Touched by their genuine affection for Him, Baba's outward display of anger vanished, With tenderness and love, a pleasing smile stole over His face. All the wheat that Baba had kept there was ground. It measured a full eight pounds (four seers); the basket of ground wheat was now emptied. And then the women began to make lofty assumptions in their minds about the purpose of it all. They thought to themselves, "Sai Baba does not prepare wheat bread for Himself; to subsist on alms (bhiksha) is His actual practice. What then will Baba do with all this ground wheat flour? Moreover, Baba has no wife, no children, or family. Baba is all alone, without any worldly binding of hearth and home, or of any material possessions; what then would Baba want all this flour for?"

One of them then had the audacity to say aloud, "Oh! Sai Baba is compassion itself! All this flour is only for us. Just wait and see! Baba will now distribute all this flour to us. Baba will now divide it into four shares, one for each of us!" The other women happily assumed this would happen, and were beginning to build castles in the air. But only Sai Baba knows His own ways; none other can comprehend His ultimate purpose. And yet, the women waiting there, salivating in their minds, overcome by greed, wanted to get their hands on the wheat flour! When all of the wheat grain was ground and the flour spread out, the grinding quern was put back in its place. The women began to fill the scuttle-like basket with the flour, and in their minds, they were already walking towards their homes with the flour.

All this while, not a word escaped Baba's lips. But as they proceeded to divide the flour in equal parts, listen to what Baba had to say. What follows is from the original script in Marathi documented by Hemadpant. It gives an insight into how direct Baba could be when needed, unlike what many television series wrongly portray Him to be. The word Randa that Baba used for them is impossible to translate, but it gives the reader a glimpse of the intensity of Baba's words. The attempt at an English translation is given below.

"Where do you think you are taking the flour? Does it belong to your father that you are carrying it away? Go at once to the village boundary and throw all of the flour at the side of the stream there!"

"Leech-like whores! How you came running to loot Me! Was it some borrowed wheat that you wanted to claim?"

The women were ashamed of their greediness and were quite shaken up! In whispers they spoke amongst themselves trying to find consolation. Then immediately they left for the village boundary as Baba had commanded them to, No one understood Sai Baba's intention at the time. The reason for His leela that was unfolding – nobody could quite comprehend.

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The Sai Satcharita is the Bible for Sai Baba's devotees, in the truest sense of the word, as it chronicles the life and teachings of Baba. This sacred work has been documented by Baba's intimate devotee, Govind R. Dabholkar, whom Baba lovingly named Hemadpant.

The book is titled Sai Satcharita, and not 'Sai Satcharitra' – as it is commonly misspelt. A 'Satcharita' is a record of leelas, teachings and incidents, whereas a 'Satcharitra' is a biography, which the work is not.

The original work of Hemadpant was written as a series of poetic verses called ovis, composed in vernacular Marathi. It was, therefore, not very accessible to everyone because of the language barrier. Over the years, it has been translated into various languages.

The more commonly known works were abridged editions that edited Baba's words and leelas, thus changing the context, intensity, and essence of the work, to some extent.

The translations did, however, fulfil a very big and important purpose by making the work accessible to many devotees all over the world.

The author, Indira Kher, has painstakingly translated the wonderful, original manuscript very accurately in her English edition, where it is a literal translation – verse by verse, ovi by ovi. It is highly recommended that a devotee get a copy of this edition as it is the closest an English-speaking reader will get to the original work of Hemadpant.

For devotees who are new to Sai Baba, I would recommend that one read a short book written by author Arthur Osborne – The Incredible Sai Baba – before proceeding any further. This should give the reader an overview of Baba's life, which would be very helpful before commencing the reading of the Sai Satcharita.

Reason For The New Edition

What we have compiled here is – The Essential Sai Satcharita – which has been put together with the intent of taking the essence of the original work and making it more accessible to readers today.

The original composition by Hemadpant includes philosophical commentary which is precious and relevant; making it, however, difficult for the contemporary reader to quickly access the important leelas and sayings of Baba, as Hemadpant, in the original work, has intertwined the two throughout his work.

A lot of time needs to be invested in sifting through a large part of the commentary in order to find these precious jewels. A typical devotee of today's younger generation leads a life very different from that of the era when the book was originally composed. Today's reader might have a busier work routine, time constraints, and a shorter attention span, thereby making the need for this new edition even more urgent.

For the modern reader, the new edition serves an additional purpose – that of remaining true to the original manuscript – through its compilation of all the leelas and sayings of Baba. The words of Baba are impregnated with deep meaning. They can penetrate the heart, mind, and soul of an earnest and receptive devotee and can bring about a transformation.

In this digital format, the the new edition also makes references and provides links to various important and relevant resources such as videos, articles, and photographs that correlate to the given section that is being read. To augment the reading experience and support the reader further, an audiobook version of the Sai Satcharita is also in the process of being recorded. This should enable devotees to hear Baba's leelas, smaran, and teachings while on the go.

The digital edition and the audiobook are designed to complement each other; one not being a replacement for the other. The audiobook carries two additional short commentaries at the end of every chapter.

The first commentary is by Dr Vinny Chitluri who is an authority on Sai Baba's life. Her chapter-wise commentary gives precious insights and perspectives into the details of Baba's life, which a new devotee would find only after years of painstaking research and exploration.

The second commentary is by Advaita teacher and author, Gautam Sachdeva. His spiritual insights give devotees pointers on the deeper meaning of Baba's teachings and leelas. Gautam guides devotees on how they can apply the teachings to their daily life and thus live the path as shown by Baba.

To sum up, this truly essential edition has been compiled with the purpose of providing a tool to help devotees remain in constant remembrance of Baba, deepen their understanding of Baba's teachings, and become living examples of the path Baba has shown us.

Taking advantage of the convenience of modern technology, we endeavour to make this portal an important platform to help sincere devotees of Baba. In addition to e-books and audiobooks, we shall be adding an important 'Resources' section – an entire library that will have categories on Baba's Mahabhaktas, the leelas, the experiences of devotees, interviews with luminaries, and a host of other tools – sha...