Chapter 3 (Part 1) – Scribblings of A Shirdi Sai Devotee

Previously Posted

Chapter	Part	Contents
NA	NA	Introduction, Preface, Forward and About The Second Edition
Chapter 1	NA	Sai Baba – The Saint of Shirdi
Chapter 2	NA	Understanding Shirdi Sai In Baba’s Own Words

Sai Baba’s Coming Into My Life And Building Up Of Lodi Road Temple, New Delhi

Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi belongs to that category of Sages an Saints Who are born ‘Puma Siddha’ and Who are made to come down on this earth for a specific purpose. Their descend on earth is not governed by the ordinary rules applicable to human beings. So also, in the case of Sai Baba of Shirdi, nobody can say with certainty Who His parents were, where He was born, what creed or community He belonged to, where did He receive His early grooming and Who His Guru was. All such questions Baba allowed to remain buried in the garb of secrecy for reasons only known to Him. But when He told Madhav Rao Deshpande (Shama) that He had been living with Him for 72 lives past, surely He wasn’t referring to ordinary life as we live on earth. This statement had a deep significance. Baba had made similar such statements in the case of some other devotees also.

During my last forty two years’ contact with Baba’s name, I too have had a vivid feeling at times that this self also had some contact or the other with its Master in earlier births may be merely as a creature in the dust beneath His feet. It is my firm belief that on the spiritual path, what we are today is the result of sadhna in lives past. This is how I establish my relationship with my Baba.

I got the chance of seeing the picture of Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi for the first time in Nov. 1959, in the bed-room of my mother-in-law at Jaipur (Rajasthan), where I had gone to, a few weeks after the death of my mother on Vijai Dashmi, the 4th Oct, 1959. Sitting on the rugged stone, wearing a torn kafni, eyes full of compassion endeavouring to penetrate into the deep within you, Baba seemed to me the very epitome of Love and Mercy. My mind, however, refused to submit to Him. It was, however, left for January 1960 for me to know more about the great Saint of Shirdi, Who was to play a dominant part in the rest of my life and become the sheet anchor of my existence thereafter.

In January 1960, I had again to go to Jaipur on long leave to appear in an administrative service examination. One day while I was passing through the Chandpol Bazar with my brother-in-law, who was studying medicine at SMS Medical College, Jaipur, at that time, we stopped at a chemist’s shop to purchase some medicine. As we entered the shop, I found a big picture of Baba hanging in front. My brother-in-law told me that it was this chemist-Shri Kameshwar Nath Yagnik, who was instrumental in introducing Baba to their family. As Shri Yagnik, a short statured, fair complexioned, sombre looking, deep eyed, middle-aged gentleman, emerged from inside the shop, I asked him a straight question, “Who is this Saint”? Shri Yagnik looked at me with pensive eyes and quietly went inside the shop and after disbursing medicines to all the customers present, came out with a red book in his hand and told me, “You wanted to know Who This Saint is? Please read this Book and you shall know all about him.” Returning the book to Shri Yagnik, I told him that presently I had no time to go through the book. Hearing my words, Shri Yagnik said, “A time would soon come, when you shall know all about this Saint”.

Related: Fragrance of Sai Bhakti by Suresh Chandra Gupta

About 10 days after this incident, one evening at about 10 p.m. when I returned after a dinner with Professor Dr. Sarnam Singh of Rajasthan University in that cold winter night of January, I found a black car parked in the compound of my father-in-law’s house. He was then the Registrar of Rajasthan University. As I entered the verandah of the house, my father-in-law came out and informed me that Shri Yagnik had been waiting for me since 7 p.m. and was saying that it was Baba’s order that he should talk to Kunwar Sahib (in Rajasthan a son-in-law is addressed thus). That night from 10 p.m. to 12 p.m., Shri Yagnik kept on telling me about the life and leelas of Baba, His omnipotent and Omnipresent character but I refused to accept his words saying that there were already far too many gods and goddesses in India and that I would not like to add one more name to that list. While parting, Shri Yagnik gave me a small silver locket of Baba with a small packet of Udi and told me to remember Him whenever I found myself in some trouble and that Baba would come to my rescue.

It is a strange co-incidence that my mother died on the Vijay Dashmi Day in 1959 and so did Shri Yagnik on Vijay Dashmi 1962 – the day chosen by Baba himself for crossing the borders, on Vijay Dashmi, 15th Oct. 1918. When Shri Yagnik was leaving his mortal coil, we were holding Baba’s puja in a Dargah in New Delhi, which we had by then started performing in Delhi under his inspiration.

My First Experience of Baba’s Grace

A few days after my return to Delhi from Jaipur in Jan. 1960, my mother-in-law had to come to Delhi to see her ailing brother – Shri Guru Datta Govil of Khurja (District Bulandshahr), who had come to Delhi for treatment. Shri Govil was a known person of Khurja town of U.P. He was an M.A.L.L.B.; Head of the LawDeptt., N.R.E.C. College, Khurja; a land-lord and had also been the Chairman of the Municipal Committee, Khurja. At about 4 p.m., I along with my wife and mother-in-law, went to see Shri Govil. When we reached the place where he was staying, we found Shri Govil writhing in pain and gasping for breath. The whole atmosphere of the place was very gloomy. All sorts of medicines were being administered to him with no effect A thought came to my mind that if a person is to exhaust himself in this manner, what was then the use of living such an ostentatious life – full of deceit, untruth, acquisition and what not. Suddenly my eyes fell on my mother-in-law and I was reminded of the words of Shri Yagnik, “if you remember Baba in times of need, He shall surely come to your succour” Within myself, I implored Baba that if He existed any where, I shall also accept His existence, if Shri Govil stopped crying at once. Immediately after, I looked into the eyes of the patient and found that he was still gasping for breath. Next moment I reached the conclusion within myself that this whole talk of providing relief, whenever needed, was merely a tall talk. And within seconds thereafter, I observed that a rhythmic difference had started in the breathing of the patient. In a couple of minutes, his breathing became regular and he opened his eyes and exclaimed that he was now all right. He asked his son as to what medicine was administered to him which had acted so well. His son named the medicine but Shri Govil said that earlier also he had taken this medicine but never got the relief as he had that day. A few minutes later, he remarked that a miracle had taken place. All this while, I was sitting quietly contemplating on what all had happened, completely dazed at the incident. Quite some time later, I told Shri Govil the whole story. Listening to it, Shri Govil also developed faith in Baba and lived for 4/5 months thereafter.

This incident was the first of its kind experienced by me of Baba’s Grace but, as I found soon, it wasn’t enough to develop unflinching faith in me.

My Second Experience of Baba’s Grace

My first experience of the presence of Baba completely shook me and subtly worked on my whole being in a manner that the ‘Bhav’ (expressions) on my face started changing. Three to four days after this incident, I again found an occasion to call Baba. My younger daughter – 1 1/2 years of age at that time in I960, who was 12 1/2 years younger to her elder sister, got fever at night. She was sleeping with me. Some time in the night, when my sleep broke, I found she was running high temperature. Immediately, I thought of Baba and entreated Him to give the child relief. As I fell asleep again, I saw in my dream a tall bearded white complexioned old man, flying into my room from the sky, and telling me, “Why have you called me? Only because the child has fever. Lo! the child is all right”, And as I opened my eyes in a huff, I found the child had no fever at all. I did not at that time have any knowledge about the personality of Baba except that he had a beard.

This was second experience of my Baba.

My Third Experience of Baba’s Grace

Within 4/5 days of the second experience, I had a still more thrilling experience of Baba. A close friend of mine came to me one day and said that he wanted me to accompany him to Shahadra (a suburb of Delhi) to see a person with whose son he had fixed up his sister’s marriage. Since this person {whom I shall call Lala) was asking for more dowry in marriage, he wanted this relationship to be broken. I told him that normally I did not like to interfere in matters of this nature but since he had come to me, I shall do as he wanted me to do. Next day, I along with him and a couple of his other friends reached Shahadra and kept on trying to persuade the Lala not to insist on more dowry as human relationships mattered more than money in life. He wouldn’t, however, understand our point of view. The Lala did not even have the courtesy of offering us a cup of tea even though we had been with him for more than three hours. At last, I lost my calm and shouted at the Lala saying that normally a man of a son would not even like to talk to a person of his type and that all our pleadings have had no effect on him as he was devoid of basic human qualities. We decided to break up the relationship. It was agreed that all of us should proceed to a common friend’s house and there he would bring all that had been given to him from the bride’s side so far and hand it over to us to break the engagement finally. On our way to that common friend’s house, I felt extremely pained in my heart and prayed to Baba that this sort of world was not a fit place for me to live and implored His help to do something in the matter. By the time we reached the house of that person, we all felt very hungry and thirsty apart from feeling extremely aggrieved. We were offered tea and snacks. The Lala also came there some time later. Suddenly we found a person in white kurta and cap sneaking into the room. We told him to keep away for the time being as we were engaged in some serious matter. The gentleman, however, kept on sitting and asked us the reason for our being so unhappy. We told him that it wasn’t his concern. But on his repeated requests, I had to tell him in brief the reason for our feeling so aggrieved. He requested me to allow him to talk to the Lala. He did so and to our astonishment within 15 minutes, we found that the Lala had not only agreed to continue the relationship, even the date of marriage was fixed. We all asked this person who he was and what was it that had brought him to this place. He merely said that as he was passing that way, he felt like coming to this gentleman’s house whom he knew scantily and when he found us all in an agitated mood, felt helping us and the result was for us all to see.

By now I was completely aghast on all that was appening in my life, In fact, Baba was pulling this little bird with a thread tied to its legs, towards Himself.

---

© Shirdi Sai Baba Life Teachings and Stories – Member of SaiYugNetwork.com