BABA'S LOVING CARE

[Guest guest]

BABA's LOVING CARE TO HIS BHAKTAS

 

Baba's watch over the pilgrimages of Mahlsapathy and his other

movements show Baba's great and mysterious power and His wonderful

love and guardianship of the bhaktas. These are well illustrated in

many instances of which a few more may be mentioned. On one occasion

when Mahlsapathy and party reached Jejuri, 150 miles from Shirdi,

plague was raging there, and Mahlsapathy sat down dejected leaning

against his palki (kavadi), not knowing what to do. Suddenly he saw

Baba behind him; and Baba vanished. Then he got emboldened and told

his companions: `Baba is with us and we need not worry'. Accordingly

the pilgrimage was satisfactorily over, and there was no loss of

life. When he returned to Shirdi, Baba told him, `I found you leaning

against the palki at Jejuri.' Mahlsapathy was convinced that his eyes

did not deceive him at Jejuri and that Baba was everywhere guarding

his bhaktas.

 

On another occasion when Mahlsapathy and his group had gone for an

annual Jejuri pilgrimage, they were returning followed by another

group i.e., Malam Bhagat Pilki. Then they met thieves who were armed

with axes and who wore masks or were covering their faces with thick

blankets. As they approached the Palki to rob it, Mahlsapathy

courageously took a handful of Bhandar, i.e., coloured rice and

sandal and threw it at them as prasad. Then they quietly retreated to

an adjoining wood. Then Mahlsapathy and his friends went on followed

by Malam Bhagat Palki, and they noted that there was no image in

their own palki. All the party looked into it (i.e., Mahlsapathy's

palki) to see whether all their images were there. They found none.

Then some one said, `Are we to carry an empty palki to Shirdi?' That

day was a Sunday, which is Khandoba's day. At the very outset,

Mahlsapathy said, `No pilgrimage on Sunday'. But the others

disagreed, and now Mahlsapathy told the others, `There is the evil of

doing pilgrimage on Sunday'. Suddenly Mahlsapathy got in to a trance

and Khandoba talking through him said, `Arre, what day is this? Is it

not my day? Why are you carrying palki? Today I am busy hunting out

on a hill. After hunting is over, I will come to Shirdi. You had

better go now'. The he woke up from trance, and the palki went on and

came to Khandoba's temple at Shirdi. People at Shirdi, for instance,

Shakaram Kandulkar and others came to the palki to take a darsan.

Shankaram looked into the palki and found all the images there. `What

is the talk of all images missing?' he asked the people. He showed

them, and said `Here are all the images'.

 

Mahlsapathy's case is an excellent instance of Baba's method of

unifying religion and creeds successfully. Mahlsapathy was only an

ordinary, conservative, orthodox worshipper of Khandoba. Sai Baba, he

considered a Muslim and even objected to his entry into Khandoba's

temple when Sai Baba came to Shirdi with Chan Bhai Patel's party.

This same man became Baba's ardent devotee and worshipped him. In

fact not only was he the first in point of time amongst the

worshippers, but he was also the foremost in excellence. Mahlsapathy

felt that Baba was God. Whatever may be the difference in name and

form, Scanker, Scani, Ganapati, and Khandoba are all one, and Baba

with divine powers was the same. Mahlsapathy also went to Pandharpur

to worship Vittal (a form of Mahavishnu) and had no sectarian i.e.,

(Siva Vishnu) prejudices. He and his group honoured all saints, Hindu

and Muslim, and they applied Tukaram's famous saying `Jo Sant, Toch

Dev! Jo Dev, Toch Sant', meaning `God is the same as the Saint and

the Saint is the same as God' to fakirs as well as Hindu saints. He

was the first to do puja to Baba and even applied sandal to him.

Baba's objection to his being worshipped in that fashion melted away

under the keen sense of Mahlsapathy's love and devotion.

 

Courtesy: HH Pujyasri B. V. Narasimha Swamiji

(Vasuki Mahal Shri Shirdi Sai Baba Trust, Coimbatore, India)