Sai Baba the Master by E.Bharadwaja

[Guest guest]

Madhav Rao Deshpande who was to be very dearly loved and addressed by Sai

Baba a little late as ‘Shama’ records his observations of the great saint

during the early years of his stay at the musjid:

 

He was an assistant teacher in a school….A window of that always looked on

the adjoining mosque. Through that I occasionally watched Sai Baba who was

taken by people to be a mad fakir. I had no regard for him then…I used to

sleep in the school. Baba was the sole occupant of the mosque. Yet I could

hear English, Hindi and many languages being spoken in the mosque (at

night) evidently by Baba. I inferred that he had remarkable powers and

began to have faith in him”.

 

There arose a problem due to the spread of Sai’s fame. One Mohiddin Tambuli

having a good physique with strong muscles, was selling betels and

talismans in Shirdi. The natives of the village honoured him thinking that

he had some divine powers. When the greatness of Sai was unfolding, unable

to bear it, one day he quarreled that either he or Sai should be in Shirdi

and said that the same should be decided by a wrestling contest between

them. He fought with Sai and won the fight. From that day onwards according

to that condition, Sai stayed in the garden at the bank of Lindi Lake.

Devotees like Tatya took his darshan there itself. Sai did not come to the

Village in spite of their repeated requests. One day suddenly there was

some transformation in Tambuli and having decided to live near the tomb of

a mahatma, he left Shirdi. His physical strength was conquered by Baba’s

spiritual strength and his hatred by Baba’s love. Then Baba returned to the

musjid.

 

Henceforth Baba changed his dress and mode of living. He donned a kafni or

a long shirt, and used a piece of sack cloth for his seat and bed and was

content to be dressed in rags. He always declared that fakiri (holy

poverty) was far superior to wealth. For Allah is always the friend of the

poor. Baba answered only when he was addressed. By day he always stayed in

the mosque or under the neem tree or under a babul tree outside the

village. In the afternoons he used to wander towards Neemgaon or Rahata. At

Neemgaon he used to visit one Triambakji Dengale. Baba once blessed his

brother with a son and henceforth people started coming to him in small

numbers for his blessings. He wore no shoes or sandals. The cloth tied

around his head and twisted into a flowing plaint dangling behind his left

ear was not washed for weeks. He always kept a fire burning before him in

the mosque and this is the famed dhuni which is still kept burning by the

Sai Samsthan.

 

(To be contd....)

 

Source http://www.saibharadwaja.org)