TATYA SAYS....

[Guest guest]

TATYA HAS THE FOLLOWING TO SAY ABOUT THOSE DAYS

"Every day Baba spent 15 to 20 rupees on fruit or sweets to give as prasad to

the devotees who had come for his darshan. Every night I took some roti or

cooked jowar to the mosque for him to eat. I would crumble about a third of the

rotis and mix them in the milk and jaggery (unrefined palm sugar). Baba would

eat a little and then push the plate away. Kondya would take the leftovers and

the cooked jowar as Baba’s prasad. Later I would give the other food to Baba.

He would eat a little and place some in my mouth. Kondya would then get some

bidas (a mixture of betel leaves, areca nut and lime) and offer it to Baba.

Baba would eat some of the bidas and throw the rest to the devotees present,

which they would eat with delight, as his prasad. Baba used to drink a lot of

water after eating the bida. He really liked them so much that he would eat a

lot of bidas regardless of

the time of day or night. Hence, Kondya used to keep a stock ready for Baba.

Later it was Radhakrishna Ayi who performed this seva. There were two cows and

goats which some devotees had given as presents to Baba. Baba would drink milk

and eat curd only sparingly. Later, all the devotees except for Mahalsapati and

I would take their leave and go away from the mosque.

Baba would keep his head to the west (where the large photo of Baba is kept at

present) and his feet towards the dhuni and go to sleep. I would keep my head

to the north towards the nimbar and feet towards the steps of the mosque and

sleep. Mahalsapati would sleep to the south of Baba by his left flank, with his

head in the same direction as Baba and feet towards the dhuni. In deep sleep,

our feet would get entangled with each other. By the time we woke up in the

morning the state of our bodies would seem so funny, that we would burst out

laughing. We could never make out whether our legs were really getting

entangled on their own, or if Baba was purposely entangling them while we were

asleep. Sometimes Baba’s feet would be on ours, but if it happened the other

way round and our feet came on top of his, we would feel guilty of a great

desecration. This was the way we slept in the mosque. Normally we would be

asleep by 9 or 9.30. After a while,

Mahalsapati would get up, fill the oil lamps with oil, trim the wicks, and put

the lid on the kolumba in which Baba kept the food, and put some firewood in

the dhuni. Later, when Mahalsapati fell sick for a period of three to four

years, I took over his work in the mosque including getting the chillim, Baba’s

clay pipe, ready for him

(Source: Saipadham Magazine)