Sai Baba the Master - By E.Bhardawaj

[Guest guest]

So saying, I started silently repeating Baba’s name. By the time I

repeated it some 40 times, the saint sat upright, took out something from

his pocket and gave it to me saying, “Take it!”. I stretched my hand for it

and he placed a cigarette and a match box. “Smoke it” he said. I never

smoked in my life earlier nor was I willing to do so then.

 

Just when I was about to say ‘No’ it occurred to me that it was I that

prayed for some token of grace from him and I looked on him as Baba. How

improper to reject what he deigned to offer me as a token of grace!

 

I took it and smoked it. He immediately offered me another and I smoked it

too. In the meanwhile, the hotel-keeper came out and asked the swami what

he wanted. “Serve idli, chilli powder and chutney to this swami”, he said

pointing at me. In a moment a bearer handed him the same which the swami

passed on to me. I almost panicked. How improper for one who was passing

the ninth day of relapse of typhoid to eat the stuff! Yet my feelings again

told me, ‘This is a test of your faith that it is Baba who responds to you

through the swami’. I at once ate what was given. Then came dosa, upma and

a glass of milk! Then followed two packets of cigarettes all of which I

smoked. It was 3-45 p.m. and I had to be in the hospital by 4 p.m. when the

doctor arrives there. As this thought crossed my mind the swami said, “You

may go, swami!”.

 

As I returned to the hospital in a rickshaw, I could not decide whether I

should tell the doctor what I ate that day or not, I decided to wait till

10 p.m. and tell him the same if necessary. Quite surprisingly there was no

fever any longer! It was evident that Baba gave me a great demonstration of

his grace, more than I had asked for. Subsequently, for about five years I

visited the swami as often as I could. Thus Baba had blessed me with the

darshan of one more great saint for which I had prayed him at Shirdi years

earlier. Further, he had won for me the blessings and prasad of this saint

and demonstrated that he was not different from the avadhuta.

 

 

(Source : http://www.saibharadwaja.org)