Sai, Saakshaath Eeshwar and Markandeya to Lord Curzon(Part-2)

The term ”Bhola Shankar” could not have been coined by some humans or sages. It is the word that conveys not just that Shiva can be easily appeased but that it is also a bad quality of His. It is such bad propaganda that always pestered Shiva. Yes Shiva had given powers to Asuras(Demons) but the same way He had also went out of His way , made enemies out of His own and helped great devotees. Mostly who prayed for Shiva’s darshan and got powers from Him have always suffered. Bhasmasura, Ravanasura and Gajasura all have been killed later by Lord Vishnu’s avatars and it was termed as triumph of good over evil. But there is one such purana that depicts how Lord Shiva helped one of His devotees, a non-asura to gain endless life.

Mrikandu rishi and his wife Marudmati prayed to Shiva for a boon to have a son. All versions of this purana that are available suggest that Shiva gave the couple a choice to choose from a long living less intelligent son and an intelligent son with short life. If Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are responsible for Srishthi(Creation) , Sthithi(Continuation of life) and Laya(End) how is it possible that Shiva would have given such a boon to the couple. He can only decide the life span but not the intelligence. It can be argued at this point that not all the times boons were given without consulting the whole council of Gods. This was also one such case where Shiva was just the representative of the decision given by the council.

Markandeya was thus born as intelligent son for Mrikandu and Marudmati with only short life span of 16 years. He also became an ardent devotee of Lord Shiva and as he grew up with the intelligence he was given, he understood that Srishthi and Sthithi karakas were the ones responsible for his life and intelligence. So he thought only Lord Shiva needs to be appeased now so that he can live long life. And so he started praying to Him. All this while he was ignorant that it was not Shiva’s decision to grant him short life. Nevertheless his prayers were answered when Lord Shiva obstructed Yama, God of death, from taking the life of Markandeya. Shiva was so pleased by Markandeya that he went out of his way to wage a war against Yama. As a result Markandeya was granted endless life but Shiva had short-lived this victory as He soon had to face so many complaints against Him in council of Gods. Of all the things He learnt then, one thing He promised Himself not to forget was to never go against His own even for devotees. 

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Baija Appaji Patil is another devotee of Sai Baba who had seen so many miracles done by Sai. Over the years of his devotion to Sai he became a close aide to Him. He would later become one of those cursed devotees who witnessed the end of Sai. 

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Lord Curzon’s plan of dividing Bengal was almost successful and it wrote the beginning of an era of Hindu-Muslim strained unity which would later go on and make two nations enemies for the rest of humanity. Stopping this was the main motive of Sai’s entry into Shirdi or what has been publicized as re-entry. 

Sai with His prophetic powers found out recently that Tatya, son of Baijabai is dying on October 15 1918. Baijabai on her death bed made Sai promise that He will take care of Tatya. So Sai told to Himself that saving Tatya on that day would be an easy task for Him as He had done that already for few devotees. So He kept Tatya’s health on the back burner for now. He started focusing more on reading scriptures, sayings from holy books like Quran, Ramayana etc. He insisted to His followers to believe in oneness of the God and suggested that the essence of Upanishads and Tawhid is the same. He told them to detach themselves from religion as a person is soul and not the body and human soul is above all the religions. His followers though opposed of this side of Sai Baba , never doubted Him and His divineness.

So Sai was happy now that once His true identity which was never known to anyone is revealed He would find universal approval for his philosophy of “Sabka Malik Ek”. But there were few people that were not happy with this, the council of Gods. Them being what they are and knowing the true identity of Sai Baba, they knew the adverse effects of Sai’s revelation. It would destroy Hinduism and for that matter all the faiths of the world. There would only be one God and He would be Sai Baba. Time has come for the council to come into picture and take the matter into their hands. They summoned Lord Yama (God of death) and ordered him to go personally to take the life of Tatya. Yama from his past experiences was scared at first but He was given the required courage from rest and explained how this time it’s not His life that is at stake.

Part-1 Part-2 Part-3