Swami Samarth is a very powerful Master in the Datta Tradition, the perfect Avadhoota. We do not know many details of any Avadhootas, because Avadhootas just happen. They come from nowhere, we don’t know their parents, and we don’t know much detail. Even in Sai Baba’s case for that matter, we don’t know much about him, of his past, and he never explained also. Because when a person becomes a purpose, everything connected to the person becomes insignificant. That’s a transition from a person to a purpose. A person with a personality has all the other things connected to the personality. Which means he has to maintain his parents, the lineage, all those things. But, when a person becomes a purpose, it all dissolves.
Likewise, Swami Samarth of Akkalkot, we do not know much about him, but we know that he had been extremely powerful. One of the major things which I constantly remember is that he had this ability to bring back somebody after death, and give them a job or get them a job in the terrestrial existence, in the earth plane. Not many swamis or many saints have done that, as far as I know, not many Masters have performed that miracle. Usually what happens is, when a person leaves the body, when the soul exits the body, it is preparing for taking the next life. It will go through a process of assimilation and then it takes a birth in another body. That’s the usual process. So it’s not easy to retrieve a soul and give a job, or probably give a body for the time being to do a job, but Akkalkot Swami has done that, in his story, you can read this. He was walking along the banks of the river, and he saw a man and said: “What are you doing here? Go home! Your child was crying, so I’ve told your father to look after the child, and he’s taking care of the child.” The father of this man had already died, he was no more. So the man was surprised, how can he take care of the child! He rushed home, and saw his father attending to the child. And then, as soon as he came in, the father disappeared. I had an almost similar experience, when I visited Akkalkot for the first time.
The first thing was I visited the Samadhi where his body is kept. We prayed and came out. While I was coming out, there was an old woman who resembled Akkalkot Swami, exactly like Akkalkot Swami, but in a woman’s body, the face was similar. She was doing something on the steps, marking on the steps with vermillion and probably sandalwood paste. She looked at me, I bowed down and said: ”Is there something I can do for you” She said: ”No, it’s time for me to go inside.” And she walked inside and disappeared, probably into the Samadhi. I believe it was Akkalkot Swami giving darshan as a woman, and blessing us.
Then we came to the place where he had actually left the body, the tree. And while coming out, our car driver wanted to have darshan. He was sitting in the car until then. He said he will go and have darshan inside, meanwhile myself and my companion waited. The car was parked in a place where it was not a parking place; it was a place where the buses turned. I told my companion to go and tell the watchmen, the guard there, that we will take the car soon, we were just waiting for the driver to come. He came running and said, “No, you can’t park the car here” and stuff like that, which we expected. Meanwhile, he looked at us and said, “Oh! Swami had told me in the morning….” Every morning, he used to read the book, the story of Baba, i.e. Swami Samarth of Akkalkot. Swami Samarth came to him that morning and had said, ”My people are coming, my boy is coming, take care of him. Take him to the Dargah” (a place of a Muslim saint nearby). He said, “I’ll take you there.” Then the driver came and he took us all there. We drove to that place, we payed respects there. We were close to Akkalkot, the place where Swami used to reside, and he left us. We then went further to Narasimha Saraswati’s ashram in another location. And while we were coming back, we landed back in Akkalkot. I said, “Let’s meet this guy and give him some money.” Because I wanted to give him some money, and he didn’t wait for that. We wanted to gift him something. While we were hanging around, we saw a poster which resembled this man exactly, who had died about eighty years ago. That poster was about in memory of him, they were doing some programme. And the man who took us to the Dargah was the same guy! He resembled the same person. That means this person was non-existent! And then I remembered – typical of Akkalkot Swami! He does that. He would arrange some of his followers to come and do a job, so that’s probably why we didn’t meet the man again later. The whole process was typical of Swami.
His connection with Sai Baba, from the same lineage of course, is from the Dattatreya Tradition. When he left the body, a part of his soul merged with Sai Baba, and Sai Baba became more powerful. So his presence started spreading further. Akkalkot Swami’s presence is very, very powerful even now. Those who connect to Swami will know. After he attained Mahasamadhi, some of his devotees were coming to Akkalkot. Swami came in their dreams and said, “Go to Shirdi, I am sitting there.” When they came to Shirdi and looked at Sai Baba, they could see Akkalkot Swami also. So Masters are all one, it’s one Consciousness, different bodies. And if we are stuck with the frames, the forms, we fail to see the truth. It’s very important to understand. Like a Master as powerful as Akkalkot Swami, who could bring back somebody from death, get a job done, and then send him back. For that kind of a powerful Master, for him, every dimension is the same.
We have various living Masters today. Sometimes, during the time of their life we don’t respect them. We don’t appreciate them, we even criticise them, judge them, scandalise them, all those things. But after their death we realise that they had been very powerful. It often takes a few generations to understand the relevance of a living Master, it’s not always understood at that time. It’s very important that we connect to a living Master without any expectations. Also, not imagining that he is something else. You need to accept a Master as he is, because each Master is every Master.
I always remember that story of Akkalkot Maharaj (Swami), how he welcomed us, and we could feel at home in Akkalkot. And the man who took us to the Dargah and brought us back, and he was not there to receive anything from us. Later on, we had seen a picture of him on the wall, of this man who had left his body many years ago. They were doing a memorial service for him. In memory of him, they were doing some work there, some celebration or some service in his name. That’s the same person who took us to the Dargah! This is the relevance of that kind of powerful Masters.
Mostly because of our concepts, prejudices, and our notions, we don’t see the Truth. This is a very big tragedy. Many times we say, “Oh, there is no possibility for a Godman.” This is a Godman, Akkalkot Swami is a Godman. Somebody who is in the body, but is not bound by the body, is a Godman. Liberation is for those people who are bound. Liberation is not for those people who are unbound. They are existing in Liberation. Akkalkot Maharaj, Sai Baba, Shripada Shri Vallabha, Narasimha Saraswati, they were all existing in liberation. They were liberated all the time. There was nothing for them to be liberated from.
We must understand that all the Avadhootas are of liberated existence. They are neither connected to the world outside, nor connected to the world inside. They are existing as Supreme Consciousness in the body, as a reminder that this is possible. It’s a great possibility, it’s the highest of human possibilities, that awareness. What blocks this awareness, or what blocks this experience, is our mind matter – mind, intellect, and ego. They always trap us in certain boundaries, certain notions, certain concepts, and based on those concepts, we look at the whole world. We fail to see the subtle beings, these are all subtle beings. They operate from a plane of subtlety, they don’t operate from the plane of gross. We see the gross, but that’s not them. That’s only an expression which they create for the people, and how you are, that’s how they respond.
If you go to them with love and reverence, they will express the same. If you go to them with anger, they will express the same. If you go to them with a lot of frustrations, they will express the same. How you are, that’s exactly how they represent themselves. They become that. Just like a pure mirror. When you look into the mirror, you see how you are at that point in time. All these great Masters are like that. They all had their great relevance. They had their presence on earth, they walked this earth, and because of that, the earth became purified. The real India is the spiritual India, the real Bharat which had many such Masters walking this earth. Very, very powerful and transformative, just like Bhagwan Nityananda, for example. An amazing Master. We can’t even put him in any frames, in any boundaries. These are the Masters who have existed, and are still existing. They have not left, even though they have attained Mahasamadhi and their bodies are in the tombs. The places where their bodies are kept are still powerful, very powerful. They still work, sitting there.
Transcribed by Nada Rakovic
Proofread by Shyama Jeyaseelan