Anecdote taken from the book "De Sai au soi" where the authors recount their visit to this same temple : "I raised my eyes to the ceiling and discovered a portrait of Shirdi Baba, with a full gaze of sympathy. I think this is the most expressive portrait of Shirdi I've ever seen, but I'm surprised : the painter portrayed him with blue eyes. I then realized that this painting was signed 'Ajay'. I asked our friend the same evening if he was indeed the author of this painting and he replied that he did do it to thank Sai Baba, after his miraculous recovery. Later, I read somewhere that Swami revealed to his students that Shirdi was usually depicted with brown eyes, when in fact they were blue. Ajay was well aware of this detail ! "
HIS ILLNESS AND MIRACULOUS HEALING
1989 - 1992
EXISTENTIAL QUESTIONS - 20 years old
The young Ajay then moved to Rivière-du-Rempart in August 1989. As an adult, he held several positions and became in turn a mason, hotel cleaner... He then joined his elder brother Oudaye, a lawyer. He worked alongside him and his brother encourages him to " become someone in life ". He learnt the basics of law in the hope of making a career. Beginning as a messenger, he was then promoted as an attorney clerk and took specialized courses to become a baillif.
" Since my childhood, I always asked myself many questions. "
“ There is God, there was a God who existed and exists, who cannot be seen... it is possible that he is there, behind this blue sky, somewhere. Before, I had no religious practice: I prayed the name of God, nothing more. I knew that nature was God and that was enough for me. I only knew the Gayatri mantra. I didn't know God at that time but I felt that he was there, very close to me. We can feel his presence but we don't have enough knowledge to explain all this... But there are many things that happened in my childhood when I worked in the cane fields, and God worked through someone to help me every time I needed.
Today when I see all this, I am sure that it is Swami who helped me during my childhood to get here. I had never seen either Shirdi Baba or Sathya Sai Baba and until the age of twenty, and I did not know that a temple dedicated to Sai Baba existed at Cure Pipe. I sometimes helped people with Shiva temple maintenance or preparations, but I never participated in prayers. "
“ After arriving in Rivière du rempart in 1989, I started working with my brother as an attorney clerk. Until 1991, everything was fine... and then, I got ill. I started having pains all over my body, in my stomach… unbearable pain. So, I saw many doctors, many priests to heal me... My family also prayed a lot to try to help me. And the doctors said I had an ulcer in my stomach. Some said I had a hole somewhere in my body… and they tried to cure me with medicine. Through many methods, but they all failed. "
THE ILLNESS - 1991
It all starts with an unbearable pain in the stomach. Ajay fell seriously ill and stopped working at the age of 22. His pain stopped him from living... And the doctors were unable to explain the origin of his terrible stomach aches: they diagnosed an ulcer, although it was not visible on the X-ray. Ajay then consulted several private doctors, was taken from one hospital to another and joined the Salvation and Healing Mission along the way. But he did not recover permanently: the pain systematically came back and tortured him for a long period of time.
" At that time, I was living with my aunt and she helped me a lot. My health problems started in 1991: back pain, stomach pain and many others symptoms.
I went to several doctors who thought I had a stomach ulcer. Whenever I had a problem, my aunty took me to the doctor or to the clinic. For three or four months, I stayed in the hospital on weekdays and returned home on weekends. When I left, it seemed that I was better... but the sufferings started again and on Monday. I had to go back to the clinic. »
His health seriously deteriorates as time goes by. He decides to undergo an operation to remedy the problem, but the surgeon finds no dysfunction, his stomach and all the organs being perfectly “healthy”. Not only does the pain remain unexplained but it also gets worse… and so does the symptoms.
Swamiji explains: “ We went to see many doctors, priests and even witches to get the solution, to heal me. We spent a lot of money but I never felt any improvement, the pain was still unbearable. I couldn't eat or drink. Blood flowed through my ears, my nose, my mouth ; all of this for several months.
And then, the doctor said to me: " we are going to perform an operation because it looks like you have ulcers. "
When they performed the operation, there was nothing, everything was fine according to what the doctor explained to my aunt. However, after the operation I had even more pain than before. It was really difficult for me, but the doctor told me that I could go home. So two or three days after the operation, I came home to recover... but the pain started again. My Auntie was with me to take care of me. She always stayed close to me to monitor my condition. The disease continued to worsen... In addition, I suffered two disembowelments. That is to say, the stitches reopened themselves and I had to be rushed back to the hospital to be stitched up. The doctors ended up admitting that they didn't know what to do anymore. From that moment, my auntie and I consulted priests or people who practiced magic. I told them that something was tiring me and hurting me, so I asked them if they could take it off of me. I was given prayers but my condition did not improve, only the wallet was relieved! The pain would go away for an hour or two, in the best of scenarios, and then it would come back. One day, I heard the doctors telling my aunty that nothing could cure me and that I only had 7 days to live. It was hard to accept all that… "
The young man falls into a state of total and deep despair: exhausted, he tries to end his life. But the drugs (medicine), although absorbed in large quantities, remained without effect...
“ I tried to end my life because everyone told me that it was nearly impossible to heal, including doctors and family. At that time, I was in such a state of despair that I thought I could no longer recover. I didn't know what to think of the disease, I knew that something was making me very tired but I was convinced that I was not sick.
Before coming to settle in Rivière du Rempart, I had worked very hard until the age of twenty: cutting sugar cane, loading it, etc. I had never been sick. On the other hand, working as an attorney clerk was less tiring: leaving in the morning, sitting down at the desk, eating on time, coming home in the evening... I therefore told myself that it was impossible for me to be sick, but that something else was causing this state of fatigue, though the doctor who had done the X-rays certified that I had absolutely nothing wrong anywhere. "
SHIRDI BABA'S GRACE
Life goes on but the pain prevents him from working and living normally.
His aunt, who lives with him, is distraught. She decides to speak to him about Sai Baba and explains to him that he is well known in India, that he lived from 1835 to 1918 and that many devotees still venerate him today as a Divine incarnation for his universal teaching and the divine powers he displayed. His aunt then encouraged him to perform many prayers and sadhanas...
“ My aunty first told me: you have to watch some religious films because it will be good for you.
I went to a video tape rental store in Rivière du Rempart. I asked the shopkeeper what religious films he had and he showed me a movie on the life of Shirdi Baba (Shirdi Ke Sai Baba movie by Deepak Valraj Bij) .
" While watching it, I felt something happening in my body and I started crying. My aunt came and asked me:
- " What is going on ? "
- " I don't know, I am watching the movie and I start to cry..."
I asked my auntie to explain to me who Shirdi Baba was. She told me about Him. She told me that a temple dedicated to Baba existed in Cure Pipe, and this was the first temple dedicated to Baba in Mauritius. I asked to leave immediately to go there with her. In the Mandir, we met the pundit, the priest. I told him about all my health problems, about the failures of medicine and about my current despair. I told him that I no longer had any hope of recovery and that I was waiting for death... If I had come, it was because I had felt something within me while watching this film. "
SHIRDI BABA'S TEMPLE
The first temple dedicated to Shirdi Baba in Mauritius was founded in 1971. It was established in the small town of Cure-Pipe by Pandit Seeparsad Jassodanand (1913-1997), who was, at the time, a desperate father seeking to cure his eldest son Kumar. Hearing stories of a Holy Man in India who could cure people, he started to believe and put all his hope on Baba to cure his boy who had severe hearing and language deficiencies. The father prayed with all his heart for his son. On returning home, he applied fragrant holy ash he had received (called 'Vibhuti' or 'Udi') to the ears, throat and mouth of his son… who gradually began to hear and speak again, progressively but miraculously.
After this divine intervention, the father photocopied the photos he received in Shirdi and began to distribute them all over the island, explaining what God in the form of Baba had done for his 14-year-old son. He began to spread Sai Baba's message and teachings by building a small shrine in his house, which he later converted into a large temple dedicated to Shirdi Sai Baba. In 1973, he met two devotees from Kenya with whom he went on a pilgrimage for Prashanti Nilayam : he then met Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba. Upon returning, the small group began to sing Bhajans every day.
The Pandit worked very hard all his life to make the Sai mission in Mauritius flourish. The Sai Baba Mandir regularly witnessed manifestations of Vibhuti and Amrita on the frames. Currently, the temple is dedicated to the two incarnations of Sai Baba : Shirdi Sai and Sathya Sai. This temple also honors many forms of God like Jesus and Hindu deities, according to Sanathana Dharma. The Pundit explained that, with Baba's Grace, he had witnessed many healings and other miracles for over thirty years.
(Sri Sai Leela, sept-oct 1996)
“Leave! Start praying with this statue. Baba will help this child. Go and put all your faith in him... I also give you Vibhuti, holy ash. Use it to the fullest. Vibhuti means 'holy ash' which comes out of the statues of Baba in this temple or materialized by Him, Shirdi Baba himself, in his residence in India. People are cured by it... »
When the priest said all that, I felt something inside me.
I put all his words in my heart, I was sure that it was the only solution : to believe in Baba.
I took the statue in my hands and we went back home. I hugged the statue like a child…I traveled on the bus and cried the whole trip, people were looking at me and they were asking my aunt what was going on with this child. People looked at me and laughed at me. I was in pain but I didn't know what to do... I just wanted to talk to the statue, because I knew it was going to heal me. During the whole journey, I continued to talk to him, I held him in my hand as if it were a small child. I was talking to this statue, crying, saying that Baba was going to heal me, that I was going to bring it into the house and set it up really well.
MEETING WITH THE PANDIT
Swami Ajay : " My autine encouraged me to go to the temple. It was located in the south of Mauritius and we lived in the west of Mauritius, in Rivière du Rempart. There is a bit of a relationship with the priest and my aunt tells me that Baba does a lot of miracles : " he can help you if you believe in him, there are a lot of things, a lot of miracles which can happen."
I didn't know Baba. I know of Shiva, Krishna, Hanuman, yes... but not Baba. I had never seen him. I was very ill and my aunt took me to the temple. It took an hour and a half by bus. There was also a Bhajan Hall there, where they performed Kirtans and a lot of other prayers.
At that time, I was 20 years old and when I entered the temple, and I started crying a lot – I didn't know what was happening to me but I cried.
The priest came and he performed prayers, mantras over me. Then, he went inside the temple, he brought a small statue of Shirdi, put it on my head… he also brought some vibhuti and fruits telling my aunt that I would heal with Baba's grace:
The statue that the Pandit gave to Ajay was a small Murthi of Shirdi Sai Baba, seated. He knew deep within him that he had found his path, the right path. He made up a small altar on which he put the statue, and his Aunty bought a picture of Baba's feet for the altar. Ajay started to use Vibhuti… he was surprised to see that the quantity never diminished in the pot even though he used it every day. He drank the Vibhuti mixed with water, put it in his bath, even applied it as a poultice on his stomach. His wound healed quickly, until the operation scar gradually disappeared. He continued to use Vibhuti until his full recovery...
“ he gave me this holy ash and I took the statue of Shirdi Baba with the holy ash at home. I started to prepare a safe place to place the statue... in a small altar which is called in Hindi / Sanskrit: “Puja Room”. “Puja” means prayers and the place is a sacred place where all the idols and statues are kept. "
“And once I started talking to Shirdi Baba, I felt something blessed and holy inside me. A kind of happiness began to arise within me.
How ? - I don't know. But I felt a joy that I had never felt before. I feel this happiness in me... then, I started to cry every time I said my prayers! Because of this illness, I was forced to quit my job. And I suffered for 1 ½ years just waiting for the doctors to fix me, waiting for all these prayers to fix me… but after all these things happened, the statue came to my house and I started praying. For the first time in my life, I felt that something good manifested in me, inside! I felt a certain happiness I could not explain and this joy made me cry. I felt that “something is going to happen." and continued to pray!
I used this holy ash, putting it in water, drinking it. Applying it to my body and in my mouth… the family and I waited for the moment of my departure. Putting it in water…drinking…applying to my body…and after three days, I felt that something was happening to me. All he pain was coming to an end. I started to feel good inside. As if I'm getting this energy… and the days passed.
7 days passed, 8 days passed, 9 days passed. I continued my Puja and my prayers. After a month, only a month - that is 30 days – the holy ash healed me completely. Even my scars from the operation got healed. All the pain in my body was now gone. All negative thoughts in my mind disappeared. All the confusions, the problems… everything is gone. Once again, I went back to see my doctors. And when the doctors saw me, they were shocked! They accepted that it was the Divine grace of God, saying: “ it is a miracle. " "
A BREEZE OF HOPE
“ I installed everything on the table, my aunt explained to me how to pray for Baba and how to use vibhuti.
I started seriously, I had no other way to heal except to pray to Baba... and I left everything at his feet. I started to pray… and I don't know how, but something happened inside of me.
I knew it would be very difficult for me to survive because the doctors already gave me an end date. That I had little time left. I asked Baba to give me what was good for me. I started doing the prayers and at that time I did not know any mantra for Baba. But I continued to practice the Gayatri mantra as my father had taught me. I did not know Aarathi or Om Sai Ram. I was just repeating: “ Om Shirdi Baba, Om Shirdi Baba, Om Shirdi Baba… ”
At that time I did not know Sai Baba, I had never even seen him in a photo. Just the statue.
And I was always saying: “Om Shirdi Sai Baba, Om Shirdi Sai Baba ”. All the while, I was using vibhuti 3 times a day, it was always the same amount as it was not diminishing in the pot and I told my aunt:
- “Look at the vibhuti; the same quantity remains though I use it everyday! »
- "That's Baba. The person who believes in Him, who takes one step towards Him, He will take 100 steps towards him/her”.
And I put even more belief in Him.
But I wasn't praying to live... I was just praying: " God, give me a good place and help me go. " because I knew that science is another form of God. Doctors are another form of God. He manifested himself in the form of mom, dad, brothers, sisters… and also doctors. So I knew it would be very difficult for me to stay alive. But I was just praying to God to help me go… I asked God: “give me the power to prepare myself to leave and the strength to accept whatever is happening…”
“ Then Grace came, because I did a lot of prayers which my aunty had taught me.
I practiced them seriously every morning. This type of prayer is not easy to do, it takes patience and courage: waking up at four in the morning, taking a cold water bath, praying outside with wet clothes, waiting for sunrise...
These prayers last for twenty-one days and if you miss a single day, you have to start over from the beginning. Then, you have to do other types of prayers, penances and rituals: the prayer to Shiva in front of the Shivalingam for twenty-one weeks, the prayer of Kali, also twenty-one weeks, then of Durga (Chaak) for twenty-one weeks. I also did a ceremony to purify and transform my physical body by walking on fire. I did other ceremonies again, to change my perspiration and prepare myself for the next step. I did all that to get this far.
A year later, in December 1992, healing was complete. I went back to work in 1993 with my brother. ”
CHILDHOOD
from 1969 to 1990's
HIS ILLNESS
1989 - 1993
MIRACLES
year 1993
THE BEGINNINGS
years 1994 - 95
THE BHAJAN HALL
1996 - 2000
ASSIGNMENT
since 1997
These articles are reduced versions of the full story.
In this biographical collection, several works are quoted in chronological order, trying to reconstruct Swami Ajay's life story. It is important to understand that this does not replace the reading of original resources, which take on a whole different approach.