THE PROGENITOR OF THE FORMAL WORSHIP OF SRI SAI BABA: SRI TATYA SAHEB NOOLKAR

[Guest guest]

THE PROGENITOR OF THE FORMAL WORSHIP OF SRI SAI BABA: SRI TATYA SAHEB

NOOLKAR

Chapter 31 of Sri Sai Satcharitra gives us a few sparse details about an

ardent devotee of Sri Sai Baba - Sri Lakshman Krishnaji Noolkar - known to

one and all as Tatya Saheb Noolkar. The Satcharitra has not given us any

elaborate information about this close and intimate devotee of Sri Sai Baba.

Lt Col (Retd) Nimbalkar has done a great deal of study of Sri Noolkar's

birth, his early life, his employment and spiritual progress. He has

collected old letters and other details of how Noolkar was pulled to Shirdi

by Sri Sai Baba. He has published a detailed account of his research

including the letters written to Noolkar by Shama (Madhava Rao Deshpande)

and others in the Sai Leela magazine in 1991. Another article about Sri

Noolkar, written in Marathi by Sri D S Tipnis was published in 1978 in the

Sai Leela Masik in Marathi. There are some discrepancies and slight

disagreements in both the above accounts of Sri Noolkar's life in Shirdi and

the worship done to Baba for the first time on Guru Poornima day in Shirdi.

We are making an attempt to combine both accounts together with the other

published material about Sri Noolkar and we are placing before you a

detailed account of Sri Noolkar and the origin of the worship of Sri Sai

Baba on Guru Poornima.

Sri Tatya Sahib Noolkar was born in 1862 or 1863. He was educated at Pune.

He graduated in Law and joined the judicial service of the government. He

earned a name as a man dedicated to truth and as one who is determined and

unselfish. He earned the praises of all for the balance and honesty he

showed as a judge. He had a spiritual bent of mind and studied the various

religious texts such as the Upanishads and Vedanta thoroughly. He frequently

used to visit noted spiritual figures and mahatmas and spend time in their

presence.

 

Source (source www.saipatham.org) Saipatham August 2002 Magazine