Sai Baba the Master

[Guest guest]

Baba had only one long-sleeved loose shirt, kufni at a time and it was

very old and torn in many places. He personally used to patch it again and

again at noon and wear the same. Once in a way he washed it in water,

wearing a bright yellow dhoti at the time. He dried it by holding it over

the dhuni and wore the same again. All the persuasion of devotees to put on

a new kufni fell on deaf ears. Tatya who took great liberties with him used

to tear the already tattered kufni further so as to compel Baba into

accepting a new one. Finally he did succeed sometimes in making Baba accept

one. Occasionally, say once in three or four months, he changed it and

consecrated the old one to the holy fire. Very rarely he gave away his old

shirt to a devotee as a token of grace, to be preserved as a memento.

 

Baba did not take his bath daily. But on some occasions he even bathed

twice a day. A devotee kept a stone seat for Baba to sit on while bathing,

but Baba never used it. He used to sit on the floor while bathing. This

stone can be seen even today in the mosque.

At first, Sai Baba used a brick as a pillow and gunny was his bed. He

slept with his hand on the brick under his cheek. Mahalsapathy pressed his

feet daily at night. Whenever Mahalsapathy stopped pressing his legs by

dozing, Baba woke him up saying, “Are you sleeping?” For years continuously

Mahalsapathy never slept but kept awake, serving Baba like that. The latter

did not allow Mahalsapathy to get down the steps of the Dwarakamai even to

make water. Whenever he was about to go out, Baba used to stop him saying,

“You’ll die, don’t get down!”

 

The most commonly seen photograph of Baba shows him sitting on a stone with

his leg poised across the left knee. This stone is even today found in the

frontyard of the mosque, just opposite to the nimbar or the niche in the

main wall. Originally that stone was used by Madhav Fasle, Abdul Baba and

other devotees to wash their clothes. Once Baba sat upon it. Henceforth the

devotees stopped using it for that purpose. And the stone became an object

of worship.

 

 

Source: http://www.saibharadwaja.org