Baba came to us By Prahfad B. Huliyatkar

[Guest guest]

Baba came

to us

By Prahfad B. Huliyatkar

 

Fishing for

FAILURE

Man swims in

the sea of self-satisfaction,

Nibbles at the bait of procrastination.

Swallows the

hook of mediocrity, and

Ends up in the net of failure.

 

There are some experiences which are beyond

explanation. They exist as sunlight. The manifestation of divinity is beyond

all our limited perceptions. As for myself, I cannot explain the cause of

incidents; but they exist as clear as sunlight. I humbly try to catch the

spirit.

 

My parents and grandparents were indeed blessed

to see Sai Baba when he was physically alive. One day

Baba gave to my father a coconut, some sweets and two silver coins to my

grandfather, who was then working as a Deputy Collector at Nasik. He asked my father to give him a

'Dakshina' of nine rupees and also gave

him a chillim to smoke. Both my father and

grandfather started worshiping Sai Baba even after we

shifted to Jamkhandi in Karnataka. The elders in the

family objected to this worship and in order not to hurt their feelings, my

grandfather put the photo of Sai into a suitcase.

They worshipped Sai Baba mentally till the last

breath of their lives. As I was a pet grandchild, my grandfather used to

narrate miracles of Sai Baba. He became Dewan

of Bhor, later at Ramdurga

and finally at Jamkhandi till it merged in the

independent India. In his retired life he spent on spiritual quests and I remember

Mr. B.D. Jatti (who later on became Vice-President of

India) visiting him now and then.

 

During this time, Gurudev

Ranade, who was then the Vice-Chancellor of Allahabad University frequently called on my grandfather at

Jamkhandi.

My grandfather died in 1958.

 

Then the problems started for us. I graduated at

Poona and had got into the Law College when my grandfather passed away. Since the financial position

became critical after his death, I had to leave the Law college

and work as a teacher at Malvan. Here due to a

strange coincidence, I came in contact with a girl, I liked her and

subsequently we married.

 

After marriage, I learnt that my wife was a very

quiet devotee of Sai Maharaj

and as any other young man, in order to please the newly married spouse; I also

started worshipping Sai Baba. She had a photo of Sai Baba with a horse. Along with her, I started reading 'Sai pothi'. I felt this was more

pretence than devotion!

 

In 1965, we were blessed with a son. My son was

healthy but gave indications of dumbness. We did not know what to do. We took

him to Shirdi when he was two-year old. He virtually

slept off on the’ Samadhi’. When we returned home two days later,

he was saying 'Baba- Baba'. He picked up vocabulary and he became normal in all

respects. This miracle changed my attitude towards Baba and I accepted him as

my God!

 

We shifted to Goa in 1960. On seeing our worship of Sai

Baba a good number of neighbors also became His devotees. We hold ‘Satsang’ and the number is ever increasing. In 1977,

a devotee by name Avinash went to Shirdi

and brought a small bag of Udhi. My wife told him:

" Avinash! You came from Shirdi.

Why did you not bring Baba with

you " ? He answered: " Baba is coming - Baba is coming. He is on His

way. " Avinash's word turned out to be prophetic.

On 9th June 1977 my

wife had a dream: " Your brother-in-law is coming. Do not allow him

straightaway. Take out ‘Dristi’ (evil

eye) and then allow him to meet your husband " . My wife saw in her dream Sai Baba in orange robes climbing the footsteps and herself

taking out ‘Dristi’ with a piece of bread

and then Sai Baba entering the house. The dream

ended. I did not attach any importance to her dream but she had implicit faith

that Baba is coming to us:

On 22nd June 1977, in the afternoon, someone tapped the front door. I opened the door and noticed that two cars were parked

close to my house and around 20-30 people were standing near the cars. A Sai devotee by name Sri Abajee Panshikar greeted me and said: " We have brought Sai Murthji to install in the

temple tomorrow. In the temple, arrangements

are still to be made. So we would like to keep the idol in your

house for tonight " .

 

We agreed. Baba's idol was brought inside and

kept on a table. In the night, we performed 'Arathi'

and sang Sai-bhajans. My wife said: " Baba- you

really belong to us. You should not leave us. " I laughed at her request

and said " Baba will go away to the temple. "

 

Next day, around noon people started gathering near the temple. Sai-devotees Kulkarni,

Kishore Sahoo, Jaya Rao came to my house. News came that there was

some difficulty in installing the idol in the temple. Ultimately the crowd came

to my place and in a chorus said: " Let the Murthi

be here " . They performed Ganapathi pooja, Sathyanarayana pooja and then the idol was installed on a table in my

house. Baba has stayed permanently with us since then! In our own humble way we

worship Him. People from different parts of the world have attended ‘arati’ and ‘pooja’

in our house and everyone has got some experience or the other. Prayers have

been answered. Sai Baba is blessing us and is close

to us in every moment of life. Thus Sai Baba came to

us in an incredible manner.

 

(Source Sai Padananda April 1993)