The grinding stone and bag of wheat

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The grinding stone and bag of wheatA grinding stone a common household item in rural India is kept in the north corner of the western wall. Baba apparently had two or three such stones another is on display in the Samadhi Mandir, which he occasionally used for grinding wheat. The most famous of these became the inspiration for Hemadpants celebrated Sri Sai Satcharitra. It is described as follows One morning, some time after the year 1910, while I was in Shirdi, I went to see Sai Baba at his mosque. I was surprised to find him making preparations for grinding an extraordinary quantity of wheat. After arranging a gunny sack on the floor he placed a handoperated flour mill on it and, rolling up the sleeves of his obe, he started grinding the wheat. I wondered at this, as I knew that Baba owned nothing, stored nothing and lived on alms. Others who had come to see him wondered about this too, but nobody had the temerity to ask any questions.As the news

spread through the village, more and more men and women collected at the mosque to find out what was going on. Four of the women in the watching crowd forced their way through and, pushing Baba aside, grabbed the handle of the flour mill. Baba was enraged by such officiousness, but as the women raised their voices in devotional songs, their love and regard for him became so evident that Baba forgot his anger and smiled.As the women worked, they too wondered what Baba intended doing with such an enormous quantity of flour... They concluded that Baba, being the kind of man he was, would probably distribute the flour between the four of them When their work was done, they divided the flour into four portions, and each of them started to take away what she considered her share.Ladies, have you gone mad Baba shouted. Whose property are you looting Your fathers Have I borrowed any wheat from you What gives you the right to take this flour away Now listen to

me, he continued in a calmer tone, as the women stood dumbfounded before him. Take this flour and sprinkle it along the village boundaries.The four women, who were feeling thoroughly embarrassed by this time, whispered among themselves for a few moments, and then set out in different directions to carry out Babas instructions.Since I was witness to this incident, I was naturally curious as to what it signified, and I questioned several people in Shirdi about it. I was told that there was a cholera epidemic in the village, and this was Babas antidote to it It was not the grains of wheat which had been put through the mill but cholera itself which had been crushed by Sai Baba, and cast out from the village of Shirdi.To this day, a grinding stone is kept in the mosque with a sack of wheat beside it, as it was in Babas time. This tradition goes back many years to the time when two devotees a farmer Balaji Patil Nevaskar and his landowner came to Baba

for arbitration. Although Nevaskar had been cultivating the land for decades, the owner wanted it back.7 Baba advised him to comply with the owners wishes, but instead of giving the crop to the owner he sent the whole of it to Baba, keeping none for himself Baba took a small protion of it, which he kept beside him all year, and returned the rest. In this way the custom was born and the ritual was repeated every year. These days a bag of wheat is kept in a glass case by the grinding stone throughout the year, and is replaced annually on the festival of Ramnavami.The ChillimsIn the corner by the grinding stone you will see a cupboard. It was in this niche that Baba used to keep his chillims. He was fond of smoking tobacco through these clay pipes and used to pass the pipe around to this close devotees. At such times he might tell stories and the atmosphere was one of good humour and friendliness.As with many of the apparently ordinary things around

Baba, there was more to the chillim as a means of bestowing grace. G. S. Khaparde observes in his Shirdi Diary that one day Baba was very gracious and repeatedly gave me smoke out of his pipe. It solved many of my doubts and I felt delighted. There are also reports of Baba using the pipe for healing purposes. Hari Bhau, for example, suffered from asthma. He had never smoked before Baba offered him the pipe one day. Because it was given by Baba, he took it and smoked. From then on, his asthma was cured and never bothered him again.None of the pipes can be seen in Dwarkamai now, but a few are on display in the Samadhi Mandir. Baba received many pipes in his lifetime and would often give them away.Babas portraitBaba would spend much of his time in the mosque sitting in front of the dhuni, often with his arm leaning on a little wooden balustrade. A large portrait of Baba, sitting in the same posture, is now to be found here. The picture is kept on a

thronelike platform and is the focus of worship, just as Baba himself was when he sat here. Baba sits relaxed and calm, looking out at us with a warm, welcoming, almost amused expression at the same time the gaze is both penetrating and searching. On seeing the finished work, Baba is reported to have said, This picture will live after me.Something of that freshness is evident when we look at the portrait here. No matter how many times we take its darshan, we feel that Baba is greeting us a new. For that, we are indebted to the artist, S. R. Jaikar, from Bombay. The original picture was painted under commission from a close devotee M. W. Pradhan. At first, Baba did not give permission for the work, claiming that he was just a simple beggar and fakir and what was the point of painting such a person. It would be better for Shama who relayed the request to Baba to get his own portrait done, suggested Baba. Luckily for future generations though, Baba later relented

and Jaikar actually painted four pictures, one of which was touched by Baba.The picture was installed in Dwarkamai after Babas mahasamadhi. The painting that we see now is a recent copy of Jaikars original, which has been moved to a Sansthan office to preserve it from the drying effects of the dhuni.In front of the portrait is a pair of silver padukas which was installed later. Here it may be worth adding a note about the significance of padukas. They are used throughout India, but particularly in the Datta8 cult in Maharashtra. Padukas may be a pair of carved footprints or a pair of shoes used by the saint. It is the former which we mostly see in Shirdi. Padukas signify the presence of the saint wherever the feet are, the rest of the body will be and thus they are revered.In Dwarkamai alone, there are five sets of padukas, symbolizing Babas presence and giving us the opportunity for remembrance and worship. Taking the lowest part of the saints

body, we touch it with the highest part of our own the head as a gesture of obeisance and respect, in an act of namaskar. When we bow down we are adoring our Beloved, affirming our hallowed connection, and in this way, asking for continued blessings. Baba has told his devotees, I am a slave of those who always remember me in their thoughts and actions and do not eat anything before offering it to me. If you are in Dwarkamai around midday, you may see people offering food to the portrait. After being offered, the food is then taken back to the persons house and shared as prasad or distributed among those in the mosque. The Sansthan also offers food to Baba here as well as at Gurusthan and the Samadhi Mandir. Afternoon arati, it is given out to all those present in Dwarkamai.In the context of offering food to Babas portrait, we may recall the story in the Sri Sai Satcharitra of the Tarkhad family. Mrs. Tarkhad and her son were planning to visit Shirdi, but

the son was reluctant to go, as he was afraid his father would not properly carry out the daily worship to the large picture of Baba he lovingly kept at their house in Bandra. His father assured him that he would, and mother and son left for Shirdi. For three days all went well, but on the fourth day, although Mr. Tarkhad performed the puja, he forgot to offer the customary few pieces of lump sugar. As soon as he remembered his omission, he postrated before th shrine, asked for forgiveness and wrote a letter to Shirdi. Meanwhile, around the same time in Shirdi, Baba turned to Mrs. Tarkhad and said, Mother, I went to your house in Bandra to get something to eat, but the door was locked. I managed to get in somehow, but found that Bhau Mr. Tarkhad] had left nothing for me to eat so I have returned unsatisfied. Mrs. Tarkhad did not understand what Baba was talking about, but the son immediately realized and asked Baba if he could go home, Baba refused, but let him do his puja

in the mosque. The son wrote to his father imploring him not to neglect the puja and the two letters crossed in the post and were delivered the next day. This shows that in a mysterious and inexplicable way, when we offer something to a picture of Baba, it is not merely symbolic, but we are offering it to Baba himself.om sai ram

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