Age sang out to the world, but no one heard: "Don't you recognize who it is that Sai cried out to? You too will proclaim him! You too will bow to him! He is the Ancient One!"
Three years later, as World War I was approaching its end, on 28 September 1918, Sai Baba was stricken with a fever which lasted for two days. Afterward, the Master began fasting, well aware of his impending death.
Sai Baba had an old brick which he had used as his pillow for years. One day the boy who cleaned the mosque dropped the brick and it broke in two. When Sai entered the mosque, upon seeing the broken brick he exclaimed, "It is not the brick but my fate that has been broken. The brick was my lifelong companion and assisted me in my work. It was as dear to me as my life. Now that it is broken, the earthen pot of my life will also soon break."
After seventeen days with no food, Sai Baba collapsed at 2:30 in the afternoon and cried, "Ah, Deva ! [O, God!]" His head leaned on the shoulder of a close disciple and he breathed his last at the age of 80. It was 15 October 1918, on the Hindu holy day of Dassera , which celebrates Lord Ram's victory over Ravana.
Even in the end there was a bitter dispute between Sai's different devotees. The Hindus wanted his body to be cremated, while the Muslims wanted it to be buried. After heated argument, the body was buried on the evening of the 17th in a large Krishna temple, whose construction Sai himself had approved.1 The broken brick was broken into smaller pieces and placed in the six-foot grave before Sai Baba's body was lowered into it. As the body of Sai Baba was lowered into the grave, it looked as fresh as when it was alive. The poor fakir's body had contained the Uncontainable God!
Sai Baba once said, "I shall be active and vigorous even from my tomb. Even after my mahasamadhi , I shall be with you the moment you think of me."2 Sai Baba's words proved true, since his shrine at Shirdi has become the most popular place of pilgrimage of any contemporary Spiritual Master in India thus far.
O Sai! How can we repay you for what you have done for us?
You brought formless Parvardigar into form!
Footnotes
- 1.The temple was constructed by Bapusaheb Buti, a wealthy devotee of Nagpur, who greatly revered Sai Baba. Sai had given his consent to Buti's wish to construct this large building in Shirdi, promising that after it was completed he would one day stay there. The edifice was completed a few months before Sai Baba dropped his body.
- 2.Mahasamadhi means the dropping of a Sadguru's physical form, which a Perfect Master consciously wills when his Universal work is completed. Perfect Masters do not reincarnate again or return to the gross world; only the Avatar returns every 700 to 1400 years.