The Birth And Early Life Of Balu-mama :
Balu-mama was born on Monday, the twelth bright lunar day of Ashwin, 1814 of the Shaka era, according to Hindu calendar, i.e. on 3rd Oct. 1892 at 4.23 p.m. at Akol, Tal. Chikodi, Dt. Benlgaum (Karnatak) in a shepherd family. His father was Mayappa, a good-natured person and mother was Satyva, a god-fearing woman. (She was devotee of Vithal) As a child Balu-mama behaved in a quaint way, and could not be understood by his parents, nor by anybody else. He spoke little and when he spoke, he spoke in a symbolic language. Sometimes he slept on thorny bush, and spent most of his time in isolation or in meditation, forgetful of his surround.
As a young boy, he served in the house of a rich Gujratiman for a period. Then he went to his sister’s husband’s house, where he was married to her daughter against his will. With this marriage he started his career as a shepherd.
Balu-mama : A unique Guide And Spiritual Teacher :
A shepherd, by the very nature of his job has to come in contact usually with people who are at the very low strata of society, whose life is sunk in vices and bad habits. A shepherd cannot remain unaffected by them. Not so Balu-mama, who was not an ordinary shepherd. It was these men of vices and bad habits, who could not remain unaffected by him. Their life was completely changed almost beyond recognition by him. He was a practical guide and counsel to them. Their wretched and immoral life was transformed into a civilized and spiritual one. They could not thank God sufficiently for their good fortune to have such a spiritual guide. Not only wretched people, but even saints were transformed into still better saints by his discerning intellect. For example, the famous scholar-saint, Harikaka of Yamakanmardi, who attended his ‘Bhandara’, committed on error that did not suit his position as a saint. Balu-mama knew that a scholar like Harikaka could not be made to realize his mistake or moral lapse except through a reminder of scriptural rule. So he immediately quoted the famous verses from Bhagavadgeeta in which Lord Krishna reminds Arjun of his moral duty. This flabbergasted Harikaka, because Balu-mama was illiterate. How could he quote Sanskrit verses from a scripture when he could not read even a single Marathi script? He realized that Balu-mama was not an ordinary shepherd. He immediately corrected himself by obeying the scriptural rule (order). Even a famous saint had this to obey Balu-mama; what to say about others? This incident speaks volumes about Balu-mama’s high spiritual standing and moral authority.
Ordinarily people visit saints after under taking long journey. Balu-mama was extra-ordinary in that he himself visited the people after long journeys. This is how people, both from Karnatak and Maharashtra, came into his holy contact during his long journeys as a shepherd, grazing his sheep from one corner of one state to the other corner of another state. He could speak both Kannad and Marathi very well. He spoke with villagers in their own rural language and with the city people in a polished language.
His followers and disciples came from all strata of society, they comprise of illiterate villagers, professors, doctors, musicians, wrestlers, godmen, farmers, traders, practitioners of witchcraft and voodoo, etc. Whenever came into his contact could not but follow him as his disciple. Such was the magic of Balu-mama. However, every disciple had to pass his test which was often very severe. The test was, of course intended to purge the disciple of his vices, mainly his egoism. The laws of God are very severe, but most rewarding in the end – was the message he intended to convey to the disciples through these severe tests.
He could clearly read the character and motives of his visitors. Liars and thieves could not hide their true nature for long in his presence. They were ruthlessly exposed at the most opportune time, to their shame and utter embarrassment, thereby the giving them the lesson of their life. Even to-day persons are taught a lesson if they indulge in wrong doing in the precincts of the temple or service of Balu-mama. It is well known that Balu-mama manifests himself in the form of a cobra whenever there is a moral lapse or slackness is duty. Once a servant who fell asleep during the tending of the temple horses was awakened by a hissing cobra.
Balu-mama, The Yogi And Miracle-Man :
Balu-mama’s ways were inscrutable, when his wife was pregnant for the first time, he drew a line around her during night time, when she slept in the field, where the sheep were camping, and asked her not to cross the line till morning. She disobeyed him and crossed the line to obey the call of nature at night. The result was that there was immediate abortion. That was the end of his marriage tie; because the marriage was forced on him against his will. That was Balu-mama, the ascetic and yogi.
His yogic powers were phenomenal. He had unhindered power over all the five elements of nature. To give a few examples : mud did not stick to his shoes even when he walked with his shoes on, in the mud during rainy season. Food-stock was never exhausted, no matter how many people partook of it. There was a funny incident once. When there was a violent storm and his coarse blanket (ghongadi) was blown away the wind, he beat it severely with his stick! Thereafter the blanket never blew away even in a gusty strong wind! It is a moot question whether it was the blanket or the wind, which obeyed Balu-mama faithfully! How could his wife dare disobey Balu-mama, when even earth (mud) and wind could not dare disobey him?
Balu-mama has vacha-siddhi. Whatever he said came to pass without fail. He could read the events of the past, the present and the future. He was a yogi par excellence. However he used his yogic or miracle power for a purpose. The purpose was moral upliftment of his disciples through punishment. To give only one example, a youth who was married by Balu-mama to a daughter of one of his poor devotees on the promise that he would take good care of her, neglected her after marriage and developed illicit, extramarital relations with another’s wife. He was once warned by Balu-mama to mend his ways. But he did not. The result was that he was made impotent and was deserted by that woman, due to nonperformance! He was restored his virility only on promise that he would remain faithful to his wife in future. Such were the purposes and functions of Balu-mama’s miracles!
Last Days Of Balu-mama :
Balu-mama talked about his coming end or finishing his duty as an avatar, two years before final departure. But nobody could correctly guess it or took it seriously. He talked mostly of vedant during his last years. Some instructions us to what the disciples were expected to do after he left this world were given through dreams or even explicitly to them. One was about the prospective temple building. The other was about his property. He asked his disciples to use his property, which consisted mainly of sheep for the public good. If and when they could not keep or maintain the sheep, they were advised by him to leave them to the hills to fend for themselves. He did not leave anything to his wife and relatives, who coveted his land and sheep. His thousands of sheep are still maintained by his disciples in good condition, as they multiply year after year.
His main message at the time of his departure from this world was that he was light and was going to merge into light which was Para-brahman. He breathed his last at the age of 74 at the Margubai Temple, which has now been renovated and has become the loving centre of his devotees. It was on the 4th of the dark (vadya) lunar day of Shravan, according to Hindu calendar, i.e. on 4th of Sept. 1966, that he left his mortal coil.
Balu-mama Is Still Here :
Balu-mama is no more physically but his benevolent spirit still looms large on his devotees and guides them in various ways. They get practical demonstration of his presence through boons that they get when they surrender to him heart and soul. Even those who have not seen him or heard of him are attracted to him through novel forms of experiences almost every day and as a result the number of people thronging to Admapur is increasing every year. Even foreigners, as for example Russians, have come to know of him as a result of a visit of Karnatak university professor. He paid a visit of Russia in a cultural group in 1989 and acquainted the Russians with this great Indian shepherd saint through the Russian as he was an expert in Russian language.
There is no main disciple of Balu-mama. He was not a founder of any religious sect, but a teacher of universal laws of morality and spiritual and moral truths are concerned. Whoever follows spiritual and moral laws, is his disciple and can claim him as his guru.
No comments:
Post a Comment