‘This was a true devotee of mine’ - Baba

[Guest guest]

……“There was no special celebration of Guru Poornima,

and each person worshipped separately with that Arati

song. There was no congregational worship. As for Guru

Poornima, Baba told Dada Kelkar on a Guru Poornima

day, “Don’t you know that this is Gurupoornima Day?

Come with your worship materials and do your Guru

puja”. So from that day, every year Guru puja is being

conducted by all devotees at Shirdi. And still, at

other times, it was individual puja alone. The

occasion for its developing into congregational puja

was the sending by H.Y.Sathe of a Brahmin named Megha

to Shirdi.

 

Megha was a very peculiar orthodox Brahmin. He did not

even know his Gayatri. But he did not wish to go near

Muslims or have anything to do with the worship of

Muslims. Sathe found him living at Viramgaon when he

was Deputy Collector there. He found Megha repeating

‘Namas-Sivaya’ always. So, finding that he was

sufficiently pious, Sathe taught him Sandhya and

Gayatti and sent him to Broach to worship Siva there.

After he did Siva worship at Broach, Sathe sent him to

Shirdi telling him that Siva was in flesh and blood at

Shirdi in the form of Sai Baba, and gave him the

necessary money.

 

But at the Broach railway station, Megha learnt that

Sai Baba was a Muslim, and he was horrified. “What?

Have I to go and bow to a Muslim and pray?” he

thought. He requested Sathe not to send him to Shirdi.

But Sathe insisted and gave him a letter to Dada

Kelkar who, he said, would introduce him to Baba and

make him understand Baba. But when Megha went to the

Shirdi Mosque, Baba got angry and would not allow him

to get into the Mosque. Baba said ‘Kick out that

rascal,’ and asked ‘What a fool is this Saheb (meaning

H. V. Sathe) to send this man here?’ Megha then went

away to Triambak and worshipped Gangadareswarar for a

year and a half. He suffered there from severe pains

in his abdomen. During that time he got faith in Baba

and came back to Shirdi. Dada Kelkar interceded on his

behalf, and Baba allowed him to stay at Shirdi and

worship him at the Mosque.

 

Baba’s work on Megha was purely internal. Baba did not

give him any oral instruction at all. But by that

internal change, Megha became the most remarkable

bhakta of Sai Baba, whom he considered really as Siva.

Megha being a hardy man, would daily go to Godavari,

which is locally called Ganga (5 miles away from

Shirdi en route to Kopergaon -station), bring Ganga

water, and pour it on the head of Siva, Siva being Sai

Baba.

 

Sri R.B. Purandhare, an Ankita of Baba, mentions here

one chamatkar of Baba. In his anxiety to pour Ganga

water on Baba, Megha had brought a whole pot. Baba

told him, ‘Arre, the head is the chief thing; so put a

few drops on the head, and that will suffice’. But the

impetuosity of Megha’s bhakti made him take up the

whole pot and turn it upside down over the head of

Baba. Strangely, not a drop of water fell on the body

of Baba. The whole pot of water had fallen on the head

and come away without touching Baba’s body. So, just

as Siva had tied up Ganga in his own tuft (kabadha),

Baba also used his head for retaining and throwing

away the water so as not to touch his body or clothes.

 

Megha was treated by Baba very kindly, and Baba suited

himself to Megha’s taste. As he specialised in Siva

worship, Baba gave him a Pindi (or lingam as we call

it), that is, an elongated round stone which is

worshipped as Siva, when placed in the hollow of

another stone, which is called yoni. Somebody had

brought a pindi to Baba, and Baba presented it to

Megha and asked him to go on with its worship. This

was installed in Sathe Wada, and Megha worshipped

Sivalinga there.

 

Just immediately before this pindi came, Baba appeared

in Megha’s sleep and told him ‘Draw up a Trisul’ (i.e.

Siva's Trident). Megha wondered how Baba’s voice could

be heard inside the wada. So, he went to the Mosque

and asked Baba whether he gave the order. Baba said he

did, and when asked how he could get entrance into the

wada when the door was bolted, Baba declared, ‘Bolted

doors do not bar access to Me’. Megha also was given a

huge picture of Baba by H. S Dixit to be placed by the

side of his pindi so that he could worship the

Sivalinga there and Sai Baba’s picture together.

 

Baba noting his peculiar idiosyncrasy to worship all

the gods in the temples of the village, that is, Devi,

Sani, Siva, Maruthi, and Khandoba, told him, ‘After

worshipping all these, come and worship Me’. Megha was

regularly doing so. Megha was impressed with Baba’s

omnipresence by his directions on some occasions.

 

One day when he went to Khandoba’s temple, Upasani

Maharaj, who lived there, had bolted the door from

within, and he could not enter into the temple and

worship Khandoba. So he returned to Baba. Khandoba’s

temple is a very long way off from Baba’s Mosque and

is not visible from there. When Megha went to worship

Baba on that day, Baba told him, ‘You have not yet

done worship at Khandoba’s. If you go there now, you

will find the door open. Do the puja of Khandoba and

then come here’. (B.C.S. 158). Megha then went to

Khandoba and saw the door then open as stated by Baba.

After doing that puja also, he went to Sai Baba for

puja.

 

Megha died in 1912 at Shirdi. Baba’s appreciation was

shown by his coming to the corpse and placing his

hands over it saying, ‘This was a true devotee of

mine’. Baba bore the expenses of the funeral dinner,

and Kaka Saheb Dixit carried out his order. ”……

 

 

Source - Sri Sai Satcharitra