Freedom to Speak and Write

Sairam friends,

India being a very conservative country, irrespective of the fact that everyone has changed today, the so called “Conservativeness” still remains just to play politics and give problems to truthful people. Being a Sai Servant, I must use this opportunity to write about Narasimha Swamiji. It is because of his efforts, mass movement of Sai devotion in India happened.

He lived a happy life as a family man. Once during some function at his home, his younger kids fell down in a well and passed away. He was dejected with life. Decided to go in search of a Guru.

He left his family, Elder sons, daughters and started from Madras leaving away his wealth. He stayed outside temples, huts and even got hurt by police men during British era. He met one Saint after another and finally, it took 18 years for Narasimha Swamiji to find a true Guru – Our Sai.

Now tell me how many years it took for you to know about Sai and that too without any effort?

Those days, finding a true Guru was a task irrespective of the fact that India has numerous good saints in early 20th century.

He has never met Sai once as he reached Shirdi only during 1933. The moment he saw Sai’s sacred Samadhi, he realized the greatness of our humble saint.

From late 1930’s , Narasimha Swamiji started spreading Sai’s fame through a journal he launched. There was a big controversy that here’s a Brahmin promoting a Muslim saint and trying to have a temple for him in the the heart of Chennai – Mylapore. It was Narasimha Swamiji who tried to make people understand Sai has no religion and people can remain in their respective religion to worship Sai baba of Shirdi.

If you see him as Ram, he gives darshan as Ram and if you perceive him as Shiva, he inspires you to worship Lord Shiva. He’s Guru of all Gurus.

Being highly Educated, Narasimha Swamiji used to write small articles in “The Hindu” every Sunday about our Sai. Some of them asked him “Your Sai sounds like a magician based on the miracles he does, how can he be a saint.”

It took several years for some people to accept Sai.

I never encourage people to get exited about miracles of Shirdi Saibaba saying “Sai gave darshan in Shirdi, I saw Saibaba in Moon, Sun and Saibaba opened eyes in temple.” No issues. Kindly look beyond all these and see Sai as simple as possible. We must not portray him as a Magician. His core values are not miracles but “love”.

The reason I write about Freedom of Speech and Writing is because we as Sai servants too face criticism when we write honestly. Saibaba Sansthan once filed a case against Narasimha Swamiji thinking his intention was to make money and also to become bigger Guru in the name of promoting Saibaba.

The worst part is, they even released an Advertisement in Newspaper announcing people not to be deceived by him.

After few years, Sansthan regretted their behavior as they realized he’s good at heart.

The problem is no one likes someone writing honestly and expressing their innermost feelings. I writing about Sai with all freedom and make sure I don’t hurt others sentiments but the world is really cruel.

Freedom of Speech and Writing is important for everyone.

I dedicate this article for Writers, Journalists,Photo journalists and many other professionals trying to write and express their opinion truthfully without fearing a bit.