DIVINE EXPERIENCES - SRI. H. V. SATHE (2)

[Guest guest]

DIVINE EXPERIENCES – Sri. H.V. Sathe (2)

Rao Bahadur Hari Vinayak Sathe, Retired Deputy Collector, Deccani, continues saying:

In the darbar of Sri Sai Baba and when he issued out in solemn pomp, I carried

the mace before him. Many were jealous of me on account of the distinction I

enjoyed. These and the villagers leagued together and used nana Wali to molest

me and drive me away from Shirdi. Once as I was carrying the mace before Baba,

Nana Wali came up and scratched the back of my head with a sharp point of a

broken glass. In the self defence, I had to seize him and press him down on a

pile of logs lying on the roadside. Sai Baba cried out "Saheb, do not do so." I

notice how the wind was blowing at Shirdi and kept careful watch. One day, as I

intended to go to the Mosque to offer Naivedya to Baba very early (as I had to

proceed on a particular trip) my father-in-law rushed in and adjured me to

desist from going to Mosque, as Nana Wali was standing at the entrance, hatched

in hand, with deadly intention, and as he would make short work of me. So

without taking any leave, I went away and

left Shirdi for good. Evidently Sai Baba did not want me to reside there at

Shirdi any longer. As Sai Baba did not protect me from the attack of Nana Wali,

some people called upon me to give up my faith in Baba. But I pointed out that

the same argument could be used against Vittal of Pandharpur. Gangadhar

Shastri, the lawyer of Gaekwad, was a Vittal Bhakta and sought help and refuge

in the Temple of Vittal. But there right in the Temple itself, before the face

of Vittal he was murdered by his enemy, I find that leaving Shirdi and settling

here at Poona ultimately have been for my good. Sai Baba is protecting me here

as he did at Shirdi.

When I had boasted that I was the only devotee of Baba who had not got a beating

at his hands. Madhav Rao Despande communicated this to Baba in my presence and

asked him the reason. Baba said "Why should I beat him? There is his

father-in-law to beat him." Baba evidently conveyed thereby the idea that I was

being constantly ‘Fined’ by my father-in-law’s excessive demands and collections

of money from me. Baba’s help to me on the spiritual side was often to keep me

off from vanity, pomp or sin in thought or action. Here are some instances.

At the time, when in the Wada (i.e.,) Sathe Wada), the foundation stone was

laid, there was no previous intimation of the date to me. I was however on a

Poornima day. Myself and Bere started the previous day to go to Shirdi without

previously intimating our intention to go there. At Kopergaon which we reached

in the evening. Bere induced me to halt for the night as Baba could not easily

be visited by us at night. Next morning we went to Shirdi, Baba was then coming

from Lendi. There was a crowd of 80 to 90 spectators waiting to see him. We also

went and prostrated. Baba told me "You have come just in time. The foundation

stone is to be laid." I faced that I must go through the pompous ceremony in

high style. I took up a hatcher to dig up a bit of the foundation and stone.

Baba stopped me at once and said "Why do you go there? What have we to do with

all this? The masons and other workmen will do it." So no formal ceremony of

laying the foundation stone was gone

through. My father-in-law told me that he knew the previous day that I was

arriving at Shirdi on the Poornima day and so fixed up that date for laying of

foundation stone. When asked how he knew of it, he said that Baba was saying

the previous day as the Saheb is coming tomorrow. The washer woman told me of

this as Saheb’s tent had come to her for washing". In fact there was no tent

sent and no washer woman could have got intimation of our arrival. Bere’s

stopping me at Kopergaon was useful.

Another instance of his watchfulness over my conscience and morals was this. I

was once proposing to visit for the first time the residence of a female

devotee of Baba out of mere curiosity. Just before the visit, Baba asked me if

I had gone to such and such a place. I did not understand the names of places

and missed the point of his question. Baba then dropped the subject. I then

went to her lodgings and was engaged in some conversation. Very soon evil

thoughts began to invade my brain. Suddenly Baba appeared in front of that

house and pushed open the door which had been closed, but not bolted. He made

some ironical signs to me to convey the idea. "What an excellent thing you are

now launching into!" and disappeared. His timely interference before any evil

was definitely lodged in my mind or could take shape in action saved the

situation. Consciences asserted itself; tendencies to evil were definitely

checked and I retreated from the place at once and never visited

it again. Some time thereafter I learnt that the place I visited was locally

known by the very name mentioned by Baba in his question that day.

(Written by HH Pujyasri B V Narasimha Swamiji during October 1936 in Devotees Experiences Vol.3)

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

There are times when you have to obey a call which is the highest of all, i.e.

the voice of conscience even though such obedience may cost many a bitter tear,

and even more, separation from friends, from family, from the state to which you

may belong, from all that you have held as dear as life itself. For this

obedience is the law of our being.

Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya.......

Question: Is it improper to pull up children when they commit mistakes so as to train them properly?

Answer: In my opinion anger never helps anybody, it only harms you and others.

Anger causes tension, aggressiveness and other evils-which adversely affect the

body and mind. Instead of getting angry, or punishing the children, divert their

attention from something wrong to something right and more attractive. Anger is

the sign of Dvesh, of duality, of attachment. It is by unselfish love, above

attachment, that children are properly trained. By sacrificing your rights and

upholding those of others you can conquer anger.

(-Swami Premanandaji Saraswati )