Pages from History :
by Prof. A.V. Narasimha Murthy
I was recently reading ‘Rosary of Saints’ by Meera S. Sashital and published by BVB, Mumbai. It is an interesting book and acquaints the readers with many saints who are normally not known to most of us. The life-sketch of a saint, Gudidi Baba of the 19th century, appealed to me the most and I thought of sharing it here.
The word Gudidi means a thin light cotton blanket stuffed with cotton. It is stitched by joining small pieces of cloth of different colours. It is generally known to us kaudi or datta. It is also called comforter. This saint always used to carry this kaudi or gudidi and people began to call him by that name as Gudidi Baba as they did not know his original name. This Baba used to wear a loin cloth even during winter. He always carried a small brass vessel and a bamboo shell to eat food and drink milk or water. The bamboo shell was also used as a musical instrument whenever he went on singing in praise of the divine. He would normally sing songs written by Kabir, Nanak, Tulsidas, Dadubaba and others which were quite popular. He had a rich and melodious voice to attract people. He used to get into ecstasy that would turn into trance. All these qualities endeared him to the crowd in the town Pilkhuva.
People liked him, his songs and talked to him with respect and affection. But nobody knew his name, caste, age and personal details. Slowly he became a mystic saint. People would throng to see him and get blessed. Even non-believers used to visit him out of curiosity and most of them became his devotees. Some admired his yogic powers. He used to bring people to the divine path. This became well-known and made him famous as a miracle man.
All these attracted more number of people to his fold. Pilkhuva was a great centre of the movement of Arya Samaj and they criticised him for his teaching which would bring religious chaos. They insisted that religion should function within the purview of social and religious traditions of the society.
Though Gudidi Baba differed from them, he never went into any arguments with them. He always said people should have religious freedom. At times he preached devotion to Krishna (Krishnabhakti), Vedanta which meant advaita or non-dual philosophy. He would declare “I’m alone there and there is no second or other person.” This is closer to the philosophy of ‘I am Brahman’ (Aham Brahmasmi) the traditional saying of ancient India. He knew that this concept was very difficult to comprehend and hence avoided such topics.
Baba chose to perform miracles to drive home his philosophy because common people believed and understood miracles. Once Baba called some children, removed some threads from his kaudi, gave each of them a thread and asked them to keep them in their fist. After sometime he asked them to open their fist and to their utter pleasant surprise, they found grapes, almonds and dry fruits and this made great news in the town. Children began to follow him and their parents would also come behind to see this miracle. Thus, more people began to walk around him making him more popular.
People, who did not like the Baba, called him a black magician and accused him of cheating the simple-minded devotees. Once they poured milk into his bamboo vessel and asked him to turn it to grapes. Baba closed his eyes for a minute and took out grapes from the vessel and distributed it to the people assembled there. On many occasions he drew grapes from the vessel and distributed to devotees. On another occasion, a non-believer came to test him. Baba asked him to shake the empty glass and people heard some sound and on examination, it was found to be a one-rupee coin. Then Baba asked him to shake it five more times and five more coins were seen in it.
Atmaram Maharaj came to stay in his ashram. He was an atheist. He wanted to test the Baba. Baba understood this and asked him what he wanted. Atmaram, who wanted to test him, asked for pomegranate grown in Kandahar. Baba smiled at him and closed his eyes and raised his hands and got the pomegranate fruit. Atmaram was surprised and became a devotee of the Baba. A person by name Lala Jagannath was going go Ghaziabad. Baba, who saw him, put his hand into the well and got a bottle of oil and a piece of soap and gave them to Jagannath. On another occasion, a devotee came to him and lamented that he was not blessed with a son. Baba gave him gold ash (Suvarna Bhasma) and asked him to take it. After some time, he came to Baba, prostrated before him and showed him his son and requested for his blessings. Baba was happy to do that.
Gudidi Baba had a good knowledge of medicine. He was capable of extracting oil from sulphur. Others also tried but failed. Baba said that it requires a combination of mantra, tantra and devotion. Thus Baba had cured many patients in whose cases the local doctors had failed. He used to say that God is the healer and he was only an instrument. Baba was familiar with leaves and herbs and he himself would bring them from the forest and give it to patients. Thus he became a Siddha Purusha.
Baba was active serving the people in various ways. He used to visit Pilkhuva often for almost thirty years. Whenever he went to any place, he was helping the people. In 1951, he came to Pilkhuva and understood that this was his last visit as God wanted him to leave this old body and change to a new one. He called his devotees and told them about this and asked them not to weep but to be happy as he is going to adorn a new body. He told them the date and time of his departure. He cast-off his body on his way to Meerut at the (6.3.1951) exact time. His body was then consigned to mother Ganga at Garmuktesvar where his Samadhi can be seen even now.
Thus Gudidi Baba led a life of activity which included mainly serving the people and showing them the right path of ethical principles. This he did living in the midst of the people and transformed the people who came in contact with him. This was the greatness of Gudidi Baba, a good example of simple living and high thinking.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / Saturday – March 28th, 2015