Shirdi Sai and Sathya Sai are One
and the Same
By Arjan D. Bharwani
32. NEARNESS IN NATIVITY
The serpent, 'Naga', occupies a holy
position in the Hindu pantheology -Siva wears a garland of a
serpent:, Vishnu reclines on the 'Sesha-naga (thousand-hooded
serpent)'. In the incarnation of Rama, Lakshmana is regarded as
the incarnallon of Sesha-naga and once again when Narayana
incarnated as Sri Krishna the inseparable Naga accompanied Him as
Balaram. Thus Hari and Naga remain concurrent down the ages. No
wonder therefore that when the Lord incarnated at Shirdi, the
village so chosen signified a distorted form of 'Sira-Vadi' the
word Sira means snake and Vadi stands for place.
In striking similarity Sri Narayana
in the reincarnation of Shirdi has chosen for His nativity -
Puttaparthi - 'Putta' which means an ant-hill in which a snake has
taken up its abode. 'Parthi' is a modified form of 'Vardhini' or
propagation.
The neonate Hari was accompanied
once again by the naga when the cradle in which He was placed,
moved in ripples. To the utter astonishment of those in proximity,
a majestic cobra slithered out from under the sheet and vanished
spontaneously.
The two 'Leela-dharis' that we are
experiencing the good fortune of mentioning about, also have
manifested as nagas, as if in response to the yearning for
darshans of the Lord. Shirdi Sai appeared as the serpent coiled
around the Lingam in the Naga-Sai Temple at Coimbatore and also as
the reptile coiled around the kamandalu at Chincholi. Sri Hari in
the years of Sathya Sai has also been similarly manifesting in the
naga form. Once whilst He was away visiting Mysore, He appeared as
a white cobra coiled around the portrait of Baba, during the
overnight Deepavali bhajans at Parthi. In this instance a bold
devotee addressed the cobra and said, "If it is really you, Swami,
give us proof of it by hitting the ground thrice with your hood".
The cobra responded by hitting its hood three times on the ground.
There is a coloured photograph of
Sathya Sal taken by the Malaysian author J. Jegathesan and widely
circulated, on which a huge serpent is seen wound around the 'pushpa-haar
(floral garland)' of the Lord. Needless to add that there was none
at the time this picture was clicked.
On 19th January, 1970, Sathya Sai
appeared at the residence of T.S. Sethumadhavan Nair at Palghat,
as an exquisite golden snake which had shining pearls all over its
body. There were three eyes on the hood, of which the center one
shone like a torch.
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