DEVOTEES' EXPERIENCES OF SRI SAI BABA BY H.H.NARASIMHASWAMIJI - PARTS II

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thought Sai Baba was hitting at me for going to Him, with such notions

linger­ing in my head. Between two stools I was coming to the ground. My

scholastic idea of not worshipping any human being had been undermined and

practically sacrificed; but I had not been accepted as a devotee by the Guru as

I expected - from my visions. I felt deeply mortified and continued to sit for

some hours. Then all had cleared of, leaving Baba alone on the floor of the

mosque. That was in the afternoon. It was believed that none should go to Baba

at that time, lest any serious harm should be inflicted as a penalty for the

intru­sion. But in my state of mind, such harm did not deter me. The main or

single hope with which I had gone to Shirdi seemed to be

blasted. What more was there to fear? He might beat me and crack my skull.

Let Him. With such ideas, I went nearer and nearer to the place where Baba

sat. While I was some yards off, Baba gently beckoned to me to approach Him.

Thus encouraged I went and placed my head on His feet. He at once hugged me,

made me sit close to Him, and thus addressed me. "You are my child. When

others, i.e. strangers are in the company, we keep the children of. My

apparent rejection or expulsion earlier in the day having been thus

satisfactorily explained, I felt the full force of His deep and intense love

for me and my heart responded to

it. There was my Saviour, my Guru - the man of my destiny, found at " Baba

told me to go and put up with "Ayi". "Radhakrisha Ayi as he called her. I went

up. Ever since that date, up to , end of her life, whenever I went to

Shirdi. Ayi's was my residence. And except to go to Sai Baba, I would never

leave Ayi's residence while I was at Shiridi.

MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; TEXT-ALIGN: justify;

mso-layout-grid-align: none">Ayi was a noble and affectionate person - an "Ayi"

or mother indeed. She was from the very first treated by me as my mother and

she loved me as if I was her son. She used to get a roti (bread) from Baba as

prasad - on which alone she was living; and Baba used to send her an additional

roti for me, Sometimes the extra roti received at Ayi's would indicate to her

that I was on the way to Shirdi and would soon arrive. Ayi's devotion to Sai

Baba was very intense and passionate. She lived only for Sai Baba, and her

delight was to carry out everything that he wanted or was needed for his

samasthan,

i.e., institution and devotees. I find that Baba's instruction and help to me

came through Ayi, in a peculiar way. Ayi was so open hearted and kind that from

the first day I could confide all my views and plans to her; and she revealed

her ideas and plans to me. As for religious progress, she said that we should

so act that no other persons should guess what we were doing and how we were

getting on. Secrecy is essential for the success or perfect fruition of

spiritual effort. This was, of course, Baba's practice and precept.

Devotees can be read this book from the Book

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