WHO IS SRI SAI BABA OF SHIRDI?

April 6, 2008

19. One noticeable feature of Baba’s life after

his return to the body was that he began to encourage

the arrival of bhaktas to his feet. Evidently the

object of his return to his body was to carry out his

mission more fully and for a longer period on earth,

especially with reference to the devotees and others

bound to him by former ties, rinanubandha. This is

well illustrated by his call to Narayana Govind

Chandorkar, B.A., Personal Assistant to the Collector

of Ahmednagar, to come to his feet.

20. When N.G.Chandorkar or ‘Nana’ as Baba

affectionately called him, was halting at Kopergaon,

Baba sent word to him repeatedly to come to Shirdi for

a visit. Nana after much hesitation came up to Shirdi

and asked Baba why he was sent for. Baba replied that

for four previous births, Nana had been intimate with

Baba and that therefore in this life also, he should

get into similar close contact. Again Nana hesitated.

But Baba, by the exercise of his wonderful powers and

his kindness especially, filled Nana’s heart with

faith and gratitude for numerous miraculous favours

showered upon him. On one occasion when Chandorkar

was stranded on a hot day on a waterless hill

(Harischndra Hill) unable to climb up or get down, he

suddenly exclaimed; ‘If Baba were here, he would give

me water’. Baba who was then at Shirdi, forty miles

away, mentioned to the people there that Nana was

thirsty and should be provided with a palmful of

water. At that time, a Bhil appeared on that hill and

pointed out a palmful of water to Chandorkar, under

the very rock over which the latter was seated. Later

when Nana visited Shirdi, Baba informed him that it

was ;he who provided water on the waterless rock.

Similarly, on another occasion, when the thirsty

Chandorkar prayed to Baba in the midst of a forest for

tea being given him after he should emerge from the

forest, tea was suddenly provided in the middle of the

night in a forlorn place. Again when Nana’s daughter

was undergoing the tortures of prolonged parturition,

Baba sent a gosavi from Shirdi with udhi to be used

for easing the parturition. The gosavi wanted to know

how he could go to Jamnere, which was N.G.C’s camp,

across thirty miles of country road from the railway

without funds, Baba simply answered that everything

would be provided. At the station, the gosavi found a

tonga and a liveried peon waiting for him, professing

to have been sent by Sri Chandorkar. When the gosavi

went up in that tonga and delivered the udhi, its use

was quickly followed by safe and comfortable delivery.

Then he mentioned the tonga, the horse and the

liveried peon to Chandorkar, who wondered, as he had

not sent any of these and nobody else could have sent