ARDHANARISHWARA

It is a common belief in the minds of many devotees of Sri Sathya Sai Baba that he is a ray from
the ultimate Absolute, the Supreme Brahman. But this is a belief that has no basis in the
scriptures. On the contrary, the popular accepted notion about Avatars is that they are all
manifestations of Vishnu or Narayana who is one of the trine Godhead, the others being Brahma,
the creator and Shiva, the destroyer. Vishnu is the god who is responsible for the preservation,
maintenance and upkeep of the created universe. Whenever virtue is on decline and vice
predominates and is on the ascendant owing to the evil actions of the children of the earth,
Vishnu or Narayana takes upon himself to restore the balance. For the establishment of the moral
order, for sustaining the good and virtuous men and punishing the wicked and vicious ones, in
short, for establishing the norms of sanatan dharma he incarnates from age to age. Sri Sathya Sai
Baba has to say something very significant about the advent of avatars:

Of the avatars, some are for a definite limited purpose, like Vamana or Narasimha. They are just
manifestations to counter some particular evils. They are not full-fledged, longlasting, expansive
like Rama and Krishna.

For this reason, some avatars are born with only the powers requisite for the task at hand. Others,
such as Sri Sathya Sai Baba, are endowed with powers beyond the immediate need. The Rama
avatar manifested some of his powers through his brothers. However, Krishna was a full avatar,
an incarnation with complete divine powers. Sri Sathya Sai Baba has pointed out the distinction
between partial and full avatars when he says:

That is to say, the avatar might manifest only such part of the divine glory as was
essential for the task which brought the form or it might exceed the limited
purpose for which it came and shine in full grandeur. Rama is a good example of
the first and Krishna of the second.

Elucidating the reason behind his incarnation in the kaliyuga Sri Sathya Sai Baba says:
The Lord comes as avatar when he is anxiously awaited by saints and sages.
Sadhus prayed and I have come.

Howard Murphet records:

One day, many years ago, I said to Sai Baba, 'Swamiji, the Indian scriptures say
that all major avatars are descents of Lord Vishnu, but people say that you are an
avatar of Lord Shiva. How is that He smiled and replied, 'It's all one; there is only
One.' I knew, by then, that his main teaching was that there is only one God and
He goes by many names and appears in many forms. Yet, there are three main
facets of the many faceted one God. The Indian scriptures name these as Brahma,
Vishnu and Shiva. So I came to accept the idea that Sai Baba was an Avatar of the
one God, with emphasis on the Shiva aspect.

But there are other evidences that of the recorded annals of Indian cultural and religious myths
and legends as well as the more authentic and irrefutable admission of Sri Sathya Sai Baba
himself that he is the composite manifestation of both Shiva and his divine consort Shakthi,
which really means that he is Ardhanarishwara, the androgynous God, the combination of the
masculine power and executive energy represented by the feminine principle, that is both
Ptirusha and Prakriti. When the Eternal Absolute incarnates as Rama, Krishna or Sai, there is
Maha Lakshmi and Maha Kali as well. The feminine principle is also a cosmic force incarnating
as Durga or Kali. It is only rarely that Shiva and Shakthi come together and if they do, a terrible
beauty is born. There exists a story in the annals of Aryan culture. Sage Bhardwaj spent a
lifetime in the quest of knowledge and complete and thorough mastery over the sacred Vedas.
But even after a life span of one hundred years, devoted and consecrated to that thirst for Vedic
knowledge, he realized that he was merely standing at the shore of the ocean only gathering
pebbles and the pearls still lay hidden in the depth of the ocean. Feeling sad and disconsolate and
faint on account of withering old age, he approached Indra, the king of Gods, and prayed to him
for lengthening his life further. The boon of another hundred years was granted to him and he
resumed his quest with additional vigour. Time passed and the fresh lease of hundred years of
life came to an end. But sage Bhardwaj felt that the ocean of knowledge lay still before him and
he was thirsty and insatiated as ever. The knowledge was limitless and infinite and life too short.
Although he was granted three centuries of existence, at the end of the period, he stayed on the
fringe of Vedic knowledge. He approached Indra again and renewed his plaint. This time Indra
praised him for his great unquenchable thirst for knowledge and his consistency, and advised
him to organize a yagna and invite the primeval divine mother Parvati to preside over the yagna.
Indra assured him that this would crown his effort and enable him to garner the true and full
knowledge of the sacred lore. Sage Bhardwaj actually did organize a full-fledged yagna and
travelled to the snow-capped Mount Kailash, the abode of Lord Shiva and divine mother, Shakti.
Since the divine couple was engaged in their cosmic dance, Sage Bhardwaj waited for full eight
days in intense and freezing cold of the region. Mother Shakthi appeared before him and
indicated through her gesture that she would attend his yagna; but unfortunately, Bhardwaj failed
to understand her positive sign. Utterly exhausted and disconsolate, the sage turned around to go
back. No sooner than he took a few steps on the frozen terrain he fell down on the icy ground
and his left limbs were paralyzed. Lord Shiva and Parvati both saw him fall. Shankar, the
compassionate Lord, moved towards the sage and raised him. He sprinkled few drops of water
on the body of the sage from his kamandulu and spoke to him in soft and sweet words :

'Bhardwaj, Parvati and I will grace your yagna with our presence and your desire
to gain Vedic knowledge will be crowned with success.'

And he further conferred another important boon by saying that he would incarnate in kaliyuga
thrice in order to bless his gotra and lineage. Lord Shiva went on to say: 'In my second
manifestation in kaliyuga when I would be known as Sathya Sai and would live in that body
along with Shakthi then this Shakthi would remain immobile and motionless and would suffer a
similar inertia, pain and paralysis as you have suffered here under the frozen cold.' Thus, the
boon vouchsafed to sage Bhardwaj has come to fructify in the kaliyuga. First, Lord Shiva
manifested himself as Sai Baba of Shirdi in Maharashtra State, and later at Puttaparthi in Andhra
Pradesh as Sathya Sai Baba, the composite androgynous God, ardhanarishwara, the masculine
and feminine aspect of Shiva and Shakthi rolled into one. Sri Sathya Sai Baba has prophesied
that the triple Sai incarnation would take place at Mandya district in Karnataka after he attains
Maha Samadhi at the age of ninety-six years.

The point to note here is that all this is not mere fancy or fairy tale. If we cast a glance at the
advent of Sai Baba of Shirdi, the circumstances of his birth, his arrival at the Shirdi village and
making it his playground for his Leela and his splendor and majesty, the truth of the matter is
revealed. Besides, we have the account given by Sai Baba himself:

I propose to reveal what has not been known to anyone hitherto. In the former
Nizam's dominions there was a remote village called Pathri. In that village there
was a couple named Ganga Bhavadiva and Devagiriamma. They are grieving over
lack of children. In answer to their prayer, a son was born on September 28th,
1858. That child was Sai Baba ... On Vijayadasami day in 1918, he gave up the
body.
In a detailed and longish account, Sri Sathya Sai Baba says how Parmeshwar and Parvati
appeared before Devagiriamma and told him that they were pleased with her devotion and that
Lord Shiva would take birth as her third child. The divine blessing fructified and the child was
born on the road while the couple was on way to the forest, renouncing the world and in search
of Parmeshwar and Parvati. A Sufi fakir who brought him up picked up the abandoned child.
After the passing away of the fakir, his wife took care of the child. The child behaved in a
strange manner. He went to the Hindu temples and proclaimed that he was Allah and visited
mosques, shouting that Rama was God. Upset by the troublesome behaviour, the widow of the
fakir placed him in the ashram of Venkusa. He left the ashram and reached Shirdi in 1858, and
stayed there for two months. He wandered from place to place until he reached Shirdi again with
marriage party of Chandu Patel's brother's son. He remained there for sixty years. The divinity of
Shirdi Sai Baba was revealed. Once while playing with marble with a neighbour boy, he
swallowed the marble that was a lingam. The mother of the boy was greatly incensed and rushed
to the place, demanding the sacred Lingam. As Babu, as Shirdi Baba was called, opened his
mouth, the bewildered woman was awestruck as she saw creations and universes rolling one
after the other. She knelt down before the child and knew that she was face to face with Lord
Shiva himself. When asked by his devotees, Sai Baba predicted that he would come again as a
boy of fourteen in the south, and it so happened that Sri Sathya Sai Baba was born on November
23, 1926 at Puttaparthi in Andhra Pradesh, and he declared at the age of fourteen in 1940 that he
was Sai Baba.

Furthermore, Sri Sathya Sai Baba has also revealed the events that took place in the Sathyayuga
that testifies to the truth of Lord Shiva's boon conferred on sage Bhardwaj. In the words of Sri
Sathya Sai Baba:

For those who have no refuge, God is the refuge. That is exactly the reason why I
had to take on the disease that one helpless devotee was otherwise to get. He
would have had to suffer this dire illness as well as four heart attacks, which
accompanied it, and he would not have survived. So according to my dharma of
bhaktha samrakshana, I had to rescue him. There is another reason; too, why the
eight-day period had to be observing some thing I have not disclosed so far,
something, which I have been keeping within myself for the last thirty-seven
years. The time has come to announce it.

Thousands of years ago, the great sage Bhardwaj, wishing to master all the Vedas, was advised
by Indra to perform a yagna. Eager to have Shakthi, the consort of Shiva, to preside over it and
receive her blessings Bhardwaj left for Kailash, the abode of Shiva and Shakthi to convey the
invitation. Finding them coupled in the cosmic dance, Bhardwaj waited for eight days-apparently
ignored by them. Although he had failed to comprehend the welcoming smile cast at him by
Shakthi. Unhappy and disappointed, Bhardwaj decided to return home. But as he began to
descend he fell in a stroke, his left side paralysed as a result of cold and fatigue. Shiva
approached and cured him completely by sprinkling on him water from the kamandulu. Consoled
by Shiva, Bhardwaj was granted boons both by Shiva and Shakti, who also were pleased to
attend the yagna. Shiva promised the rishi that they would both take human form and be born
there in Bhardwaj lineage or gotra: Shiva alone at Shirdi, as Sai Baba; Shiva and Shakti together
at Puttaparthi as Sathya Sai Baba; then Shakthi alone as Prema Sai. Further in expiation of an
illness that Bhardwaj had suffered at Kailash, Shiva made another promise. This Shakthi will
suffer a stroke for eight days when we both take birth as Sathya Sai and on the eighth day I will
relieve her from all signs of the disease by sprinkling water just as I did at Kailash to cure your
illness. The assurance given in the Tretha Yuga had to be honored. The splendour of this avatar
will go on increasing day by day.
No wonder that this emphatic and timely declaration by Sri Sathya Sai Baba that he was truly the
embodiment of Shiva and Shakthi. Baba says:

Let me tell you. Nothing can impede or halt the work of the Avatar. When I was
upstairs some people foolishly went about saying 'It is all over with Sai Baba'
and they turned it back many who were coming to Puttaparthi. Some said I was in
Samadhi (communion with God) as if I was a sadhaka (Aspirant). Some feared I
was a victim of black magic as if anything can affect me ... The splendour of this
Avatar will go on increasing day by day. Formerly, when the Govardhangiri was
raised aloft by the little boy Krishna, the Gopis and Gopals (milkmaids and
cowherds) realized that Krishna was the Lord. Now not one Govardhangiri but a
whole range will be lifted you will see! Have patience, have faith.

When the eternal Absolute and his executive force, Shakti, choose to take human birth, nothing
is beyond realization. And as the poet has said, world's great age begins anew and the golden
years return. The concept of Ardhanarishwara is ingrained in the imagination of the Indian mind.
The power and majesty of the Shiva Shakthi form acquires the Nth dimension and nothing
remains unattainable. As Baba Himself states:

This is a human form in which every divine entity, every divine principle, that is
to say, all names and forms ascribed by Man to God are manifest. Do not allow
doubt to distract you; if you install in the altar of your heart steady faith in my
reality as Sarvadevataswarupam you can soon have a vision of my reality ... Let
me draw your attention to another fact. On previous occasions, when God
incarnated on earth the bliss of recognizing him was vouchsafed only after the
physical Embodiment had left the world in spite of plenty of patent evidence of
His grace. The loyalty and devotion they commanded but in this age of
materialism, what is it that brings to it the adoration of millions from all over the
world? The reason is, it is Supra-world Divinity in human form.

Among the one hundred and eight names attributed to Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the most important
one is that of Shiva, Sankar or Maheshwar, one of the Hindu Trinity: Brahma the creator, Vishnu
the preserver and Mahesh the destroyer.

Shankara is the doer; it is he who confers happiness and prosperity. Sai Baba of Shirdi often used
to bless his devotees by saying that in the abode of my devotees there will be no dearth of food
and clothing; I will not allow my devotees to come to harm. As a matter of fact, Baba is the
universal provider who, like Krishna, is responsible for providing yogakshema to all his
devotees, the mother who is more loving than all the mothers of the world. To see him is to get
oneself rid of sin. To touch his feet is to unburden oneself of the load of karma. Baba floods us
with happiness. He has the attribute of Shiva, for example, application of vibhuti or ash on the
body. His grace is easy to earn. He has given visions of himself as Shiva. Many devotees have
seen him as Shiva. Sai Baba combines in himself the power of Shiva and Shakthi both. He is
Shiva-Shakthi born together even as they are at Kailash and he grants Shivam, bliss, happiness
and Shakthi, vigour, intelligence. He insists further, as Mr. N. Kasturi says:

Faith in the Atma within. Om Sri Sarva Shakti Moortaye Namah. Moorti means
image, idol, symbol, embodiment. Baba is the Moorti of all Shakti (Sarvashakti).
He is Mahashakti come as Mayashakti. The innovator of the will, the deed and the
thought is He and none else. He is the manifestation of all Godhead, which is
subsumed in the Sathya Sai form and name. For Baba has granted vision of
 himself as Shiva-Shakthi, as Shakthi, as Shiva at Kothanghatta temple and at
Hampi Virupaksha temple, as Krishna, as Rama, as Ganesha and as Panduranga.

Further Professor Kasturi says:

Om Sri Maheshwar Swaroopaynamah. Maheshwara is another name of Lord

Shiva meaning auspiciousness or profusion of favours. The most meaningful
symbol of Shiva is the ovalshaped figure called Lingam ... Baba creates these
symbols of Shiva in himself, on Shivaratri. Shiva is also the third aspect of
Divinity, the Layakaraka, the merciful God who merges all in the universal,
reduces all to the ultimate ash. Maheshwara also means the supreme God ... Baba
is undoubtedly Maheshwara Swaroop.

There is a very interesting incident that took place on the roadside three days after Baba's
birthday on the 26th November 1958. A devotee from Bangalore left Prasanthi Nilayam by car,
taking leave of Baba. This is how Mr. Kasturi describes the incident:

On the way, his two-year-old daughter was attacked by fits, which became so
serious that the child was asphyxiated and collapsed. Baba knew this and
presented himself before them as a villager with two other villagers whom he
created. He wanted the child to be given to him and the two comrades supported
his demand, 'Give him, he will cure it; he has cured thousands/ they implored. The
villager (Baba) told them, 'I was busy for the last three days; just now laid myself
for rest that a child was seriously ill on the road. So, I ran up.' He placed the child
on his lap and it was cured. He gave it back to the happy parents. They offered
him a rupee and when it was refused they gave him a fruit from the many that he
himself had given them at the Nilayam while leaving...

They asked him his name. He said Jodi Adiapalli Somappa. When asked at the Nilayam why he
chose that name of all others, Baba said, 'I am Somappa Soma appa (Shiva) Sa Uma Shiva-
Shakthi twin Prakriti and Purusha.' He reveals his truth, as Shiva-Shakthi.

Thus Jodi Adiapalli Somappaya is Baba's most appropriate epithet, selected by him, for that
profound miracle of grace. Another name for Sathya Sai Baba relates to the great sage
Bhardwaja. Baba announced that he belonged to Bhardwaja Gotra or lineage and that he was Sai
Baba. He made this dramatic announcement at the age of fourteen. And later, in the year 1963 he
threw off the paralysis of a devotee, which he had taken over and announced to the anxious
assembled audience on the Gurupoornima day that he was Shiva-Shakthi in human form. Mr.
Kasturi says:

In response to a boon granted to Bhardwaja rishi by Shiva in the past that he

would take human form in his Gotra as Sai Baba of Shirdi and as Sathya Sai
Baba, He will be born in the same gotra as Prema Sai Baba in the future...
Bhardwaja's ashram was at Prayag; he is mentioned in the Ramayana as a sage
with amazing spiritual powers, won by thapas. Baba declared that he was not
Sathyanarayan Raju, as people knew him till then that was only a make-belief,
worn by him until the world could grasp the news of his Divinity. Even his claim
to the Gotra of Bhardwaja is a make-belief, for how can lineage and kin bind the
Divine? It follows from this that Sai Baba is the incarnation of the one supreme
God, the manifestation of the Divine principle as Aadi Shakthi and Aadi Purusha.

Mr. Kasturi discusses the implication of all this when he says:

 Baba is the Avatar of the age, come to restore Dharma and save man from
downfall. He is the Sanathana Sarathi, the eternal charioteer. One of his acts as
charioteer was at Kurukshetra when he instructed Arjuna in the science of
Liberation ... Baba is Sanathana Sarathi, the primeval Purusha ... This means he
was and is in the past and the present. Aadi means the 'very first'. The Lord is the
very first person, the digit that gives value to the zeros that he granted a vision of
himself as Padmanabh to Swami Purushotamananda at Vashishta Guha near the
Ganga, near Rishikesh.

So we can conclude that Sri Sathya Sai Baba is the avatar of the Supreme Brahman, the Eternal
Absolute in human form. But in another sense, he is the living configuration of the masculine
and feminine aspect of the one God. In the words of N. Kasturi:

Many devotees experience Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba as their mother. So
deep is his love and his consideration for the comfort and progress of his children!
Baba has himself declared that he is Shiva-Shakthi. He often describes Prashanthi
Nilayarn to women devotees as 'your own mother's house'. Baba is Aadi Shakthi;
the energy aspect of the Aadi purush. This energy is believed to be feminine and
is worshipped as such during Navratri, the festival of the mother, of Aadi Shakthi
(prime energy). Baba evinces that he himself is Saraswati, Durga and Lakshmi.
He has the overpowering love of the Supreme Mother.

No one with equal or more Shakthi has appeared on earth, since Lord Krishna except the Sai
Shakthi. Sai Baba at Shirdi declared he was Basudeva. 'I am Mahalaxmi, I am Vinoba of
Pandari, I am Ganpati, I am Dattatreya, I am Krishna. All this universe is me. I am formless and
everywhere; all that is seen is my form...' Sathya Sai Baba, the same Baba who has come again,
is as universal and as omnipotent as the Sai who declared, 'I am the universal Absolute that is
both immanent and transcendent, I am Viswa-Virat-Swarup, I am Sarva-devata-Swarup...' 'When
someone asks you where God is, do not dodge the question giving a reply in which you have no
faith, namely, 'He is everywhere'. Direct him to Puttaparthi', He has declared.

Professor N. Kasturi says further about Sai Baba:

Baba was sought as a son by his mother Eswaramma through a series of

Satyanarayana vrathas (worship): so he was named Satyanarayana and called
Sathya until his fourteenth year, when he judged the time had come to announce
that he was no other than Sai Baba (The real and the genuine Sai Baba). Millions
know him as Sai Baba or Sathya Sai Baba. Sai means Lord, master. It also means
Sa: Sarveshwara, sovereign; Ayi means mother; Baba means father; Sai means
glory in all respect.

It has become common knowledge now that Sri Sathya Sai Baba is the Avatar of the age
comparable in power and splendor to Krishna and Christ, and is worshipped by millions all over
the world. Enlightened spiritual seekers, eminent intellectuals, scientists and devotees ranging
from the highest to the lowest ranks of society pay their obeisance at the lotus feet of Baba and
regard him with deepest reverence, ardour and sense of self surrender. N. Kasturi, the eminent
biographer of Baba, has absolutely no doubt about the true identity of Baba and says that Swami
has not assumed the form of an ordinary human being. 'He is the three role presentation of
cosmic consciousness: Supreme Brahman, Iswara, the creator and Avatar, the Incarnation.'
Professor Kasturi, having spent thirty years in all waking consciousness with Sai Baba, affirms
the truth of Swami's concrete, tangible presence as God in human form. Sai Baba has himself
said that the Sai form is the form of all the various names that man uses for the adoration of the
Divine and that no distinction should be made between the names of Rama, Krishna, Iswara and
Sai. Since our concern here in this chapter is with the Hindu concept of Ardhanarishwara, that is
the combined manifestation of Shiva and Shakthi, purusha and prakriti we take it that both the
male and female adjuncts of the one God are operative in the Sai form according to the grand
Avataric design known only to God Almighty. The manifestation of triple Sai avatar seems
imminent. Sri Sathya Sai Baba has himself explained the logic of the successive advents in
Kaliyuga to Mr. R.K. Karanjia, the editor of Blitz magazine. This is truly revealing and has to be
quoted in full :

Q. Why had this task to be divided in three separate incarnations of the Shirdi,
Sathya and Prema Babas?

Baba: They are not separate. I have already mentioned the complete oneness of
the three in the final objective of the mission. I will give you an example. Take a
kilo of gur (a sweet substance). The whole of it tastes sweet. Now break it in
small pieces. Each of it tastes sweet. Finally break them further into small grains.
You find the same sweetness in them. So the difference is one of quantity and not
quality. It is the same with Avatars, Their tasks and powers requisite to them
differ according to the time, the situation and the environment. But they belong to
and derive from the same dharma swarup or divine body.

Let us take the example of fruit. It begins with the seed, which grows into the tree and from it
comes the fruit. Work can be compared to the seed, worship to the tree, and wisdom to the fruit
... The previous Avatar, Shirdi Baba laid the base for secular integration and gave mankind the
message of duty is work. The mission of the present Avatar is to make everybody realize that the
same God or divinity resides in everyone. People should respect, love and help each other
irrespective of colour or creed. Thus all work can become a way of worship. Finally, Prema Sai,
the third Avatar will promote the evangel news that not only does God reside in everybody, but
everybody is God. That will be the final wisdom, which will enable every man and woman to go
to God. The three Avatars carry the triple message of Work, Worship and Wisdom.

However, the embodiment of Shiva and Shakthi together in the figure of Sathya Sai Baba adds a
new and additional dimension to the majesty, glory and grandeur of this manifestation. When
before the Gurupoornima day in 1963, he had suffered a stroke and a series of four major heart
attacks and the doctors diagnosed tubercular meningitis, Baba refused to take medicines and
injections, saying that he would be all right in four days' time. And actually on the evening
Gurupoornima, Baba descended the circular stairs down to the prayer hall. He sat on the chair
before five thousand, silent and sorrowful people. Then he gestured for water, drank some, and
sprinkled some drops on the paralysed left hand and stroked the stiff left leg and hand. And then
the miracle of all miracles happened. Swami become immediately normal, cured of all
his firmity, stood up before the audience and delivered his address in clear, and resonant voice
and continued for an hour. The devotees danced with joy. As prophesied by Lord Shiva in Treta
yuga to sage Bhardwaja Sathya Sai Baba who was born as Shiva-Shakthi in one enacted the
miracle of healing his paralysed left limb (Shakthi) by his right hand (Shiva).

As Baba declared in that Gurupoornima address, his divinity had to be announced by the
manifestation of the grand miracle, his taking over the disease of a forlorn devotee was just
incidental.

Finally if we cast a glance at the circumstances and situations before the birth of Baba on
November 23, 1926, we come to know that many strange, inexplicable, divine phenomena were
witnessed. One such strange phenomenon was that the musical instruments placed in the Raju
household, tambura, mridang etc. started playing by themself transmitting unearthly music, the
significance of which was difficult to grasp. Venkappa Raju, the father, was deeply concerned
about the event and was, more or less, apprehensive. So he visited as many as six nearby villages
and contacted wise and sacred men about it. One Shastri, in whom Venkappa Raju had full faith,
dispelled his fear and apprehension by saying that the mysterious music was all for the good, an
auspicious sign, a harbinger of great things to come. Venkappa Raju testified to the fact that
supernatural music was so captivating and bewitching that he could not find words to describe its
beauty. Then Shastri told him that a divine power was to be born and that the gods were
heralding his birth by playing on the musical instruments to welcome it. On the 23rd November
in the early morning six minutes past five A.M., the advent of the Lord took place. It was the
month of Kartik and Lakshamma, the mistress of the house and wife of Kodamma Raju, was
attending the worship of God Satyanarayan at the house of a neighbour. She was informed; but
she came only after the Pooja was over. She offered the prasad to Eswaramma and soon
afterward she delivered the child. The grandmother on a bed put the child. Seeing the movement,
akin to the rise and fall of the bed, the family members discovered that a cobra was lying under
the bed. This was an entirely strange and inexplicable event. Although the serpents frequented
the village homes, it was unbelievable that a serpent would enter the bedroom and station itself
under a freshly prepared bed. Surely, that serpent must have been the Adishesh on which Lord
Vishnu was resting. Biographers and commentators find in this extraordinary and unbelievable
occurrence the evidence of the first great miracle soon after the birth of the divine child. Another
strange event that surprised Eswaramma was the presence of aura of bright light round the face
of the child. Sacred ash or vibhuti came out of the body of the divine child establishing his
kinship and identity with Shiva, the supreme God. It all proved beyond doubt that the child was
no other than Lord Shiva himself, the cosmic visitor from the ultimate beyond to shed his lustre
and glory on earth and its inhabitants. Sathyanarayan Raju was growing like waxing moon in the
sky and became the universal favourite of the village. His grandfather Kodamma Raju was very
fond of him. It seemed to him that his prayer to Venka Avadoot had been answered. When
Sathyanarayan started going to the school at Bukkapatnam, his playmates admired him. They
called him Guru and Brahmagyani. The account of Sathyanarayan Raju's earlier life is recorded
in its full detail and texture by Professor N. Kasturi in Sathyam, Sivam, Sundaram, and the most
authentic biography of Sai Baba. One may say without hesitation that the early phase of Sai
Baba's life and career announces the presence of a power that was destined to move the world
and ensure the advent of a millennium. Sathyanarayan Raju endeared himself to all alike and
established his credentials as a gentle and pleasing personality with extraordinary charisma,
intelligence and great interest in singing, dancing, feeding the poor and composing religious
songs and staging plays on religious and moral themes. He would often surprise his friends and
classmates by materializing objects like sweets, toffies, vibhuti, lemon drops, etc. He also joined
a circus party to sing and dance. In one such dance, he even surpassed a famous dancer of the
theatre. No wonder, he was Shiva, the cosmic dancer. On May 23, 1940, he disclosed to his
father and other members of the family 'I am Sai Baba. I belong to the Apastamba sutra, the
school of sage Apastamba and am of the spiritual lineage of sage Bhardwaja. I am Sai Baba of
Shirdi. I have come to ward off your troubles; keep your houses clean and pure.'

It was later on October 20, 1940, while he was staying with his elder brother Seshama Raju at
Urvakonda and studying in class VIII at the high school there, that he cast aside his books and
standing at the doorstep of his brother's house, he declared: 'I am no longer your Sathya. I am
Sai.' His sister-in-law came out of the kitchen and as she looked at the face of Satyanarayana
Raju, she was almost blinded by the bright aura hovering around the face and she shrieked. Baba
addressed her: 'I am going. I don't belong to you. Illusion has gone. My devotees are calling me.
I have my work. I cannot stay any longer.' As every step in the career of an Avatar is
predetermined, the time had come for Baba to reveal his true identity. Thus, the assurance given
by Sai Baba of Shirdi to his close disciples Abdul Baba, Kaka Dixit and others, that he would
come again in the South as a boy of fourteen had come true. Baba was just fourteen years of age
at that time. His parents came from Puttaparthi and made all efforts to persuade him to return
home. All that they could get from him was the assurance that he would return on the condition
that his work should not be hampered and he would live away from the ancestral home. Thus, he
moved to the house of Subamma, who, like Yashoda, proved to be his foster mother who looked
after him and his devotees who thronged the village in increasing numbers. On the 23rd birthday
of Baba, the devotees constructed the spacious Ashram with a prayer hall about a mile away
from Puttaparthi village and Baba blessed it. It was named Prashanthi Nilayam, the abode of
peace, which now has become a place of pilgrimage for millions from all the nooks and corners
of the world. Like Lourdes in Spain, it has become a power substation, the residence of God on
earth. Baba has carried on his mission of Dharma sthapana and Bhakta samrakshana ever since.
He operates on two levels. As human being made of flesh and blood, he meets an increasing
number of people from all parts of the world and works ceaselessly for their welfare and moral
uplift. It is in this sense that his life is his message. More than this, he operates on the level of a
mysterious divine Spirit, as an omnipotent and omnipresent God and as dispenser of Divine
justice to all his children. He is the Eternal Absolute, a Ray from the primeval Fire, the single
flame that is God, the Ardhanarishwara who unites in himself the Divine Principle as Idea and
executive energy, the masculine and feminine aspect of creation.

It is not possible for human intelligence to grasp the full implication of Ardhanarishwara. In the
first incarnation we have seen that it was Lord Shiva himself who walked the earth; in the
second, the divine couple Iswara and Parvati both took human form as Sathya Sai Baba. And
Prema Sai is still to come, presumably in the first quarter of the next century and he will be the
embodiment of Shakthi. And then, the triple Sai Incarnation will come full circle and the divine
mission for which the Lord is pleased to take human form would inevitably be crowned with
success.

At the end of this chapter, it may be rewarding to echo the view of the poet, V.K. Gokak, about
the Shiva-Shakthi aspect of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. It is the considered opinion of the present
author that one through the perspective of poetry can view obtuse and difficult metaphysical
problems. It is verily the poet who gets at the centre of the reality that is. Again it is the poet who
gives a concrete, tangible expression to what may seem to the average men tenuous, vague and
dissolving abstractions. V.K. Gokak in his beautiful poem, Darshan, sums up the
ardhanarishwara aspect of Sri Sathya Sai Baba in the following verses:

Have you seen Baba

Who sets cities aflame with longing
and drenches them with the delight of existence?
You've missed the very meaning of your life
If you haven't seen him and been spoken to by him.
He defies the laws of physics and chemistry
that he might assert the higher laws of spirit
a lingam materialises
That a million souls may be born.
Matter and spirit are Siamese twins
That have an identical body but a different face
Only the androgynous God
Ardhanarishwara
Purusha and Shakti in one --
Can solve the riddle of their birth and growth.