DIVINE EXPERIENCES - Sri. Madhavrao Despande (Shama)

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DIVINE EXPERIENCES – Sri. Madhavrao Despande

Sri. Madhav Rao Despande alias Shama, Brahmin, aged about 80, Dixit Wada, Shirdi, says:

Upasani Baba when he came to Shirdi first was sleeping and boarding here. He was

still unwell. He cried in his sleep, "I am dead", and he asked me to request Sai

Baba to help him. I told Sai Baba that Upasani Sastri was expecting death and

getting frightened. Sai Baba replied ‘maranakunaitaranakuye jaga’ that this

place Shirdi is for saving and not killing people. At first I (like others)

took Upasani Maharaj for a detective. But he assured me he was not one. Sai

Baba at the first visit asked him to stay on or return within eight days.

Upasani did not agree and pleaded distance from Dhulia, etc., as his reasons.

Finally he put up in this (Dixit) Wada for 21 years. Sai Baba told him to

remain four years in Khandoba temple, and promised him Khandoba’s grace at the

end of that term. This was said by Baba about 15 days after his second arrival.

G. S. Khaparde held his reading classes downstairs. Upasani Sastri, etc.,

attended it. Upasani Sastri would spend much of his

nights in talk upstairs, when he lived at Khandoba’s.

Sai Baba’s statement that he was four years younger than myself cannot be

understood as relating to this life. He looked my senior in point of age. He

told me of my relations with him in previous births. Once he said to me, "You

and I were living in the same lane, in a former birth." The little girl of

three, Santi Kirvandikar who fell into a well and was upheld by Baba’s hand,

slowly left in the water and thus saved from any hurt by Baba’s grace and who

called herself sister of Baba is now alive. Her father Baba Kirvandikar (now

dead) was then living here. When she fell into the well, H.S. Dixit, G.M. Buty

and others were here. That might be about 1915. She is married and is now

living with her husband at Malegaon, which is 30 miles off Manmad.

I was an Assistant teacher in a school which was located in the place where

Baba’s horse is now stabled. A window of that always looked on the adjoining

mosque. Through that I occasionally watched Sai Baba who was taken by people to

be a mad fakir. I had no regard for him then. I remained a teacher five or six

years. I gave up the place, as I was transferred. Ganu Master then took my

place. Nana Ratna Parkhe was my Headmaster and supervisor. One Laxman Master

was another teacher above me. Our family belonged to Nimon, where I was born.

But my father came and settled here, when I was two years old. Ever since, I

have continued here. I studied here. After resigning my place, I used to visit

Sai Baba off and on. In five or six months thereafter, I was convinced that Sai

Baba was God. How my faith grew even when I was a teacher. I shall mention. I

used to sleep in the school. Baba was the sole occupant of the mosque. Yet I

could hear English, Hindi, many languages being

spoken in the mosque (at night) evidently by Baba. I inferred that he had

remarkable powers and began to have faith in him.

When I was still at school, Chidambar Kesav Gadgil came to Shirdi and asked me.

"It is said a great sadhu is here. Where is he?" I replied that there was none

at Shirdi and from the school I pointed to the mosque and told him. "There is

only this mad Fakir." Mr. Gadgil went to the mosque. Sai Baba showered abuse on

him. But the abuse was productive of faith and joy. Gadgil had worshipped or

paid his respects to a saint living at Bhima Shankar temple at Pune. That saint

had asked him to go and see the said at Shirdi. That was why he had come to

Shirdi. Now Sai in his abuse referred to that and Gadgil felt sure that Baba

was a Gnani, a great saint. Thence forward he frequently visited Baba and

became his staunch devotee. At the first visit of Mr. Gadgil he was a Chitnis,

and with him came Vaman, a Special Munisiff, and Sitaram Patwardhan, an

Educational Officer, and a tongawalla. I went with these up to the steps of the

Mosque, Baba forbade us from climbing the steps

and began his shower of abuse. Therein he said "I am a Moslem, Go and fall at

the feet of the sadhu at Bhimashankar temple, etc."

Ananda Swami (Anandanath is not the correct name) was a devotee of Akkalkote

Maharaj (who passed away about 1878) and has established a mutt at Savargaon (6

miles off Yeola) where he lived. He was about 95 years old in 1885 when I and

Nandram Marwadi etc. went to see him, at his mutt. He wore only a langoti and

was a great Sakshatkari. At the close of our visit Anandaswami came with us to

Shirdi to see Sai Baba. Sai Baba and he saw each other but exchanged no words.

Thereafter Anandaswami returned and told us his opinion of Sri Sai in these

words "here is a diamond on a dung hill." Bala Chopdar (now aged 60) was then

aged only 7 years.

Gangagir came to Shirdi and conducted grand Saptha repeating with numerous

people mantras etc. for 7 days with Homa and fed large numbers, at the close of

the Saptaha. He did so only once. That was long after Anandaswami’s visit.

Gangagir also saw Sai Baba and expressed his very high opinion of Baba.

(Written by HH Pujyasri B V Narasimha Swamiji in Devotees Experiences Vol.3 on 09-03-1938)

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

"The wheel of life moves on. It is overwhelmed by decrepitude and grief, and it

has diseases and calamities for its progeny. That wheel relates in time and

place. Day and night are the rotations of that wheel. It is characterised by

production and destruction going on ceaselessly. When one’s time comes, one

cannot escape. There is none dear or hateful to time. Youth, beauty, life,

possessions, health and the companionship of friends, all are unstable." -The

Mahabharata, Santi Parva

Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya....

Question: many visitors here tell me that they get visions or thought-currents

from you. I have been here for the last month and a half and still I have not

the slightest experience of any kind. Is it because I am unworthy of your

grace?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Visions and thought-currents are had according to the state

of mind. It depends on the individual and not upon the universal presence.

Moreover, they are immaterial. What matters is peace of mind.

What is realisation? Is it to see God with four hands, bearing a conch, a wheel

(disc) and a club? Even if God should appear in that form, how is the

disciple’s ignorance wiped out? The truth must be eternal realisation. The

direct perception is ever-present experience. God Himself is known when He is

directly perceived. It does not mean that he appears before the devotee in some

particular form. Unless the realisation is eternal it cannot serve any useful

purpose. Can the appearance of God with four hands be eternal realisation? It

is phenomenal and illusory. There must be a seer. The seer alone is real and

eternal.

Let God appear as the light of a million suns. Is it Pratyaksha (direct

experience)? To see a vision of God the eyes and the mind are necessary. It is

indirect knowledge, whereas the seer is direct experience. The seer alone is

Pratyaksha.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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