At first Sai Baba never allowed anybody to perform even his puja (worship). The first puja was allowed to be done by Mhalsapati. Then after sometime Sitaramji Dengle of Nimgaon came to perform puja, but although Sai Baba got angry, he was allowed to finish it. Later on the younger son, Mahadeo alias Babu, of Nanasaheb Chandorkar was complacently allowed to perform puja and later on all were allowed to do it, but at that time Sai Baba would not allow anybody to perform Arati. After sometime, the privilege of first performing the Arati was reserved for the late Laxman Krishnaji alias Tatyasaheb Nulkar. He was a sub-Judge at Pandharpur and as he was ill, he had taken leave and come to Shirdi; but his inner-most desire was to retire from service and spend the rest of his life at the feet of Shri, and that was what happened, Nulkar being very devoutly attached-to Sai Baba.
The services rendered by Radhakrishna were of various kinds. She twice swept the passages in the village through which Sai Baba walked. Of course, she removed, every kind of rubbish on these roads. Before her advent, this work was done by one Balaji Patil Nevaskar. He had come to Shirdi after renouncing the world and with complete resignation; many of his people had come to persuade him to go back to his place, but he declined. He always swept the roads and cleaned the masjid thoroughly and took Maharaj’s darshan from a distance and never went near. He would drink only the tirth of Sai’s feet or Sai’s bath water or water left in the vessel after Sai Baba had partaken of it from same. All his agricultural income he would place before Shri and would only take back whatever Shri give him; of course.
Shri returned almost the whole of it. After two years’ stay, Balaji Patil was ordered by Sai Baba to go home and he went accordingly; still he came to Shirdi off and on and offered his entire income. He died some years later.
The daily routine of Sai Baba was very rigidly maintained by him. He got up very early and sat by the fireplace (Dhuni). After a while he finished answering nature’s call and then he sat quietly for a while. In the meanwhile one Bhagoji Shinde came, and undoing the bandages wound round Sai’s right hand, massaged the hands and the whole body. Then he prepared the chilim and gave it to Sai Baba who smoked it and gave the same to Bhagoji for smoking. After the chilim had passed hand to hand five or six times, Bhagoji left. This Bhagoji was an outright leper and still Sai Baba not only did not shun him but on the contrary associated himself with Bhagoji in a manner as if the latter was the healthiest person. After Bhagoji had gone Maharaj sat for a while, when a few selected persons came and did seva (i.e. massaged his feet etc.). Then Maharaj got up for washing his mouth and face. This was a sight worth to see. He put plenty of water on hands, feet, mouth, ears and Sai Baba cleaned all these parts of the body in a very delicate manner. The same process Baba followed at the time of his bath. After washing the mouth, Baba went out for Bhiksha to five fixed places and stood in each particular place to receive the chapatties and whatever other food was offered with them, but ate very little of it on returning to the masjid. After this Chhota Hajri, Baba held a darbar at which most of the Bhaktas assembled, when Shri gave advice in the form of (by narrating) stories. At times during this darbar Baba purchased guavas, plantains, mangoes and distributed the fruits among the Bhaktas, or served them with his own hands i.e. he peeled off the plantains, cut guavas into pieces with his hands, softened mangoes by rolling them between both his palms. After this darbar Maharaj went to Lendi. The Lendi garden was purchased by Rao Bahadur Moreshwar W. Pradhan, J. P. etc., one of the first life Trustees of the Sansthan, a few months before Sai Baba’s Samadhi, and presented to the Shirdi Sansthan, when the same was formed and sanctioned by the District Court of Ahmednagar.
In this garden in the middle of the western side, touching the Nagar Main Road, Sai Baba himself, with the manual help of his devotees, both rich and poor, dug and built a water-well. The water of this well became famous in the vicinity for driving away fevers & Rao Saheb Yeshwantrao J. Galvankar, B.A., one of the five life Trustees of the Sansthan, built in this garden, in January 1942. around Baba’s Pimpal tree – his place of daily visit – a quadrangular masonary stage or ‘Par’, over which is now continued the ‘Nanda deep’; this place, therefore, has now become an ideal one for making ‘Japa’, Tapa’ and ‘Dhyana.’ At Lendi, Baba stayed for about an hour. After returning from Lendi, Baba remained in the masjid till 2 p.m. during which interval Baba allowed himself to be worshipped by various Bhaktas through individual pujas, and a general Arati. Then Maharaj had lunch and again went to Lendi, and after about three quarters of an hour sat in the masjid till sunset when he went out a little and was again seated in the masjid. As a rule there were three general or common sittings or darbars during the day. First one in the morning after breakfast, second after Baba’s return from Lendi, and the third at about 5 p.m. During all these sittings Baba gave general advice which was universal in character and which improved the characters of several devotees. The sum and substance of his advice was to have strong faith in God and patience for His realisation; to love all creatures alike; not to wound the feelings of others; to be straight- forward and honest in all our actions; not to take the services of others without due payments, etc. At times he gave advice through stories, which stones used to solve the different questions and anxieties of the different Bhaktas, without the Bhaktas having to utter a single word. What a miraculous effect such a process of meeting the wishes of a large number of people, used to have on each individual Bhakta can better be imagined than described. And there was such an unique way of narrating a story that sometimes, one story used to create different impressions on the minds of different Bhaktas, and those for whom it was not meant would invariably not understand it, or follow it, or miss it. But it would go straight home to those for whom it was meant and restore calm and contentment within their ruffled and distracted minds. Just as Ramdas Swami wrote Dasbodha in Marathi for the salvation of ordinary Marathi knowing man, so also Shri Sai Baba never gave any advice in a language which his audience would not understand. Nay, Sai Baba did not stop at giving mere wordy advice. Once a person entered his masjid, whether he was good, bad or indifferent, Sai Baba made it his own concern to get that person gradually to the realisation of himself from within himself. And this Sai Baba did by subjecting that individual to several personal experiences, and off and on showing Sai Baba’s hand in those experiences of the individual in marvellous ways, at times through dreams of the individual himself, or of his friends or relations and so forth. And the Bhaktas of Sai Baba frankly admit, that that was so not only in the life-time of Sai Baba, but that it has been equally so even now after his Samadhi. This has been entirely borne out by the innumerable experiences of Bhaktas far and wide which they devoutly wish to be published in the Shri Sai Leela for the edification of the rest of their brethren. Even the ‘Udi” of Sai Baba has continued to work wonders upto the present day. That Sai Baba’s ‘Dhuni’ in the Dwarkamai at Shirdi has the same austerity and potentiality as before, has been clearly indicated by Sai Baba to one of his Bhaktas a few months ago. It is no joke that a very serious illness or a hopeless case should be cured by the mere touch of the body of St. Francis Xavier, every ten years. The same are worked day and night incessantly by the sacred ‘Udi’ of Shri Sai Baba, the Saint of saints known in modern times. A very large proportion amongst the devotees of Sai Baba went to him for the fulfilment of their worldly desires. In working out the fulfilment of such desires Sai Baba invariably led gradually such votaries to the realisation of the Self within. And there can be no doubt that the unmistakable projected Self out of the material body of Sai Baba, was meant for the guidance, protection and salvation of humanity at large. That Sai Baba, was a clear sample of Existence – Knowledge – Bliss in body corporate, has been convincingly proved by his lifelong, acting, teaching and care-taking of the nonsidha, some of the instances of which have been happily sung by the late Annasaheb Dabholkar through his prasadic Sai Satcharitra’. Those taking interest in the above brief sketch of Sai Baba’s Lilees will do well to visit Shirdi once and see for themselves whether Sai Baba’s Samadhi’s darshan itself puts them on the right track of Self-realisation or not. “Man! know thyself.” Because, many Bhaktas of Sai Baba are aware that he often used to say that his Turbat’ (i.e. place of his Samadhi) will speak. An instance of the Turbat speaking has lately appeared in the Shri Sai Leela, the Sansthan’s monthly Magazine of personal experiences day after day are being brought to the notice of the Editor of this Magazine which is ever ready to publish the same; and innumerable as they are, their total publication would be very voluminous indeed! But what matters is the lessons they contain and not their volume.
