Sai Baba the Master by E.Bharadwaja

[Guest guest]

The Refuge of His Devotees

As is natural with every saint, the people that flocked to Baba were of

various kinds. Some came for alleviation of misery. Some wanted better

standard of living. Others wanted to know about him through first hand

experience and not from what others said of him. Lastly, there were the

ardent seekers after spiritual illumination. Naturally the first two

categories were the largest in number and the fourth were the fewest. We

shall see how all these people were received and blessed by Baba.

 

Gopal Rao Gund was a Circle Inspector at Kopergaon. He married thrice but

had no issues. He heard of Sri Sai Baba, sought his blessings and later

had a son. It was in gratitude for this blessing that Gopal Rao Gund

thought of celebrating the annual urs in honor of Sai Baba and had

actually started the custom in 1897. The District Collector’s permission

was obtained for the celebration but the devotees were confronted with the

problem of providing drinking water for the large number of people that

flocked there. One of the wells at Shirdi had very brackish water. The

water was miraculously turned into sweet drinking water when Sri Sai Baba

threw flowers into it. Then there was Damu Anna Kasar of Ahmednagar who

too had no issue even though he married twice. It was only with Sri Sai

Baba’s blessing that he had sons. He used to share the expenses of the urs

with Gopal Rao Gund.

 

Baba often helped his devotee out of tight corners in his own mysterious

ways. Uddhavesh of Dehnu left for Dwaraka along with a group of pilgrims

from Bombay. He had all the tickets of his party in his purse when they

boarded the ship. As the steamer was over-crowded, Uddhavesh had to stand

on the gallery. When he put his hand in his pocket, his purse with all the

money and tickets slipped and fell in the sea. He was embarrassed. So he

at once wrote to Baba of his plight.Even before his letter reached Shirdi,

Baba appeared in the dream of his son, Girdhar Gopal of Dehnu, as a

well-dressed priest, and told him. “Your father is at Dwaraka and he has

no money with him; so send it to him.” Girdhar awoke and finding it a mere

dream slept again. Again the priest appeared and commanded him to send the

money at once. Next day, money was sent by telegraphic money order and

Uddhavesh was surprised to receive it. Long after, when Uddhavesh went to

Shirdi, Baba told him, “I got the money sent for you.”

(To be contd....)

 

Source http://www.saibharadwaja.org)