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·SHRI SAI THE SUPERMAN
Ву
Swami Sai Sharan Anand
With a Foreword by
Shri P. M. Mody, M. A., Ph D.
SHIRDI SANSTHAN PUBLICATION
Price Rs 5-25

·Contents. Page iiܐ I Foreward Preface viii Chapters Birth, Race and Family 1 II Shri Sai’s Guru, Shri Sai's Manifestation 16 III Sai Baba's Mission 31 IV Supernatural Powers 44 V Knowledge of Previous Births 50 VI Removal of Calamities 60 VII Material Gains 71 VIII Embarrassments Removed 89 IX Divine Love 99 X Bodily Manifestations 111 XI Reform and Regeneration 125 Illustrations panel Picture of Sai Baba II Swami Sai Sharan Anand III While going into Lendı Bag IV Sai Samadhi Mandir ·Foreword (By-Shri P M Mody, MA., Ph D., Retired Professor and Principal, Shamaldas College, Bhavnagai ) Works on Sai Baba are not many. Looking to the vast number of the followers of Sai Baba who belong not only to the different States of India but also to so many countries all the world over, this new contribution in English to the Life and Teachings of Sai Baba, is most welcome A book like the present one, written, not by a mere student of Sai Baba, but hy a lawyer-philosopher who has been a direct disciple of Sai Baba and who has renounced all worldly glory in pursuit of his discipleship of the Saint-God, the authority of a Gospel of the saint-God of Shirdi. Pujya Swami Sai Sharananandji has done well in adopting the style of nanating, as it were. short stories as they happened. It gives a living touch to the characters and the view-points of Sai Baba's Teaching, illustrated by the facts recorded. The work appeals to the reader without any further argument than the mere fact of its being a record of facts. The reader of this book will also find here for the first time some stories of Baba's devotees both contemporary with Baba and later found in other similar work in English. Pujya Swamiji has ·iv first land knowledge of these and they would at once convince the reader that Baba is even now and always with us In this sense the present work is an up-to-date account of the teaching of Babu. Baba's Teaching has many aspects. It is Universal and free from any distinctions of caste or communily or creed or sect Baba's devotees belong to all Religions and all communities, as is amply shown in this book Baba leads His devotee in and through his wordly difficulties of multiple variety, which He solves for him in Iris Own Mystic Method Baba's help comes to him who merely seeks His help sincerely. Though there cannot be degrees of sincerity, ļet Baba's iesponse to the devotee's call for help is as eager as ardent and as urgent as the devotee's cal itself Once a man is Baba's devotee, He looks after him life after liſe till he qualifies himself for Eternal Peace under His care. Baba has shown by practical deinonstrations how there is ONE LIVING SPIRIT in all, apparently distinct and diverse beings, not of any particular caste or creed, nor even all human beings, but in all beings that breathe. This is real Universal Brotherhood. In this respect Baba's mystic demonstrations were more practical, more complete and more perceptıble than that of any scientist like Sir Jagadishchandra Bose Shirdi was the Divine Centre proving with positive proofs main philosophical ·V and religious truths taught in the Scriptures of All Nations, not by any commentaries on the Scriptures but by practical, visual, convincing demonstrations of these truths before all who wanted it sincerely and devoutly and even before those who wanted to test it belore believeing it. After Baba's departure from Shirdi He has made His demonstrations available to all seekers in all places. It must be added that Baba never hked any intermediary between Himself and His devotee. All the above aspects and many more of Baba's Life and Teaching and His Blessing of mankind are amply biought out in simple language and are illustrated by examples in the various chapters of this fresh contubution to Sai Baba Literature We find full justice done in topics like (1) Supernatural Poweis utilised by Sai Baba to bestow spiritual welfare through material welfare upon His devotees (2) His contiol over the Elements of Nature (3) Sai Baba showing the Unity of All Religions and all religious sects by manifesting in Himself all forms of Godhend and at the same time retaining all of them instead of denying their usefulness for the benefit of humanity (1) Exlubiting physically how all life in all beings is one and how the devotees should practise this fundamental doctrine of the highest religion There is no end to the kinds and numbers of diffi·vi culties and discascs which could be and can be even now solved and removed by simply sceking Baba's help with full selt-surrender and sincere praveis offered to Baba, as will be seen from these Chapteis. One Chapter (XI) is devoted to the implied meaning in the various items of the daily routine of Baba's life and the distubuliou of Udi by Baba as well as in Bahai's ciemandme moncy gifts from llis-Devotees. That Babu's daily life establishes the Unity of the sites and ceremonies of Ill Religions of the world and also the happy Ilaimony of Gnan, Kaima, Blakti and Dhvana is means to spiritual Progress; that Baba's play-song “ Ramte Ram Ayoji, Udiyanki Gonia Layoji " suggests the ularling ellect of the l'di, just as Rama's ariow never failed to hit the aim, that demand of money-gifts had different meanings in the case of different devotees: those views of the author would, I believe, be acceptable to many of Baba's devotees. All these fresh records of Baba's life and fresh explanations of the inner meanings of His Mystic actions and utterances come from the pen of one who is best fitted to descube the events and cxpress his views in such matters, boy luis clicct contact with the Saint God, by his spuitual and intellectual achievements iesulting from that con·vii tact, and by his sanctity, and piety of life Thus, the book is an important contibution to world's religious literatuie. The above words of mine, please note, are not from a judge who certifies, but they come from an humble devotee of Sai Baba, seeking shelter from Sai Baba and offering this Pushpanjali (Gift of word flowers) at the lotus — like feet of His Holiness Shri Sai Baba May it please and propitiate Sai Baba and also the devotees of Sai Baba the readers of this Gospel With Pranamas to all, P. M. Modi.

·Preface.
“Shri Sai Baba” has to-day become a
household word throughout the length and breadth
of this country of pristine glory. Shri Sai Baba
sacrificed His life to save a scion of the family
of his ardent devotee as far back as the year 1918
and yet even 10-day after a lapse of more than
43 years, He still continues to be the living force
guiding the lives of millions and millions, helping
them in their difficulties and saying them from all
types of miseries, material as well as spiritual
which beset wall finite human beings. His devotees
have ever been feeling His presence in all that
they do and as a result thereof they enjoy that
supieme bliss and peace of mind, the object of
pursuit of people of all times and countries. This
book cites a few of tlie numerous such experiences
of His devotees bespeaking of His Supernatural
powers and it is this that stands at the rngt of His
present day eminence
Shri Sai Baba's devotees belong to all races,
castes and creeds, their faith and devotion are the
indispensable factors earning for them the benigi
experiences they are having, devotional fervour
and love of God as well have drawn Baba to them

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Shri Sai Sharan Anand Swami
( Vamanrao P Patel )

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·ix and these elements have been securing to them the succour they always need in their lives. Persons who have never contacted saints of this Highest class of supernatural beings are likely to doubt the genuineness of the experience of the devotees described in the books. To them I might state that, all that I had seen heard and experienced during my eleven month's continuous stay at Shirdi in the year 1913 stand as sure gurantce of the veracity of these experiences; but if these are not deemed sufficient in the eyes of a real truth seeking lover of sciences, we may point out to him, that Doctor Connon, Monsieur Coho the spiritualist as also the New Laboratory and Nation Laboratory of England have as a result of their psychical research proved that persons who have human divine powers-supermen--can contro! not only the human finite beings but also the gross elements constituting this would Our Yoganushasan and Patanjali's Sankhya also point to the same truths. Even to-day though Shii Sai Baba has cast off His moital coil, people worshipping Ilim and running down to Shırdı have the same experiences. This book is therefore an invitation, so to speak, to all seekers of Truth to place themselves in spiritual contact with Sai Baba and hy unfaltering faith in and devotion towards 'Him to attain that

·X
oneness with Him which shall enable them to
alleviate and remove the sufferings of thousancis
and thousands of persons of this universe
I owe a debt of gratitude to Shri Babubhai
Dixit for furnishing me necessary typed copies of
the manusciipts of this book free of charge. May
the Almughty shower His Blessings on him for
this
Sai Sharan Anand
Kalupur Khajuri Pole,
"Sharda Sadan'
Ahmedabad-1.
April, 1962.

·PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION We are glad to place in the hands of the Sai levotees the long awaited second edition of the book "Shri Sai the Superman” written by Shri Sai Sharan Anand. The first edition of the book was published in April 1962 and is out of print. Sai devotees have been constantly enquiring about thus book We are sure that this book will be earnestly welcomed by all Sai devotees Due to modesty, which is bound to be a part and parcel of such a great personality as Shri Sai Sharan Anand, he has not written anything about himself in his pielace to the first edition It will 110t, however, be out of place to write here a few words about the illustrious author of this book Shri Wamanbhai Patel is the original name of Shri Sai Sharan Anand, which name he assumed after taking Sanyas in 1953 He was born in 1889 in a small village in Bardoli Taluka of the Gujarat State. His family resources were not plenty, still the family was much advanced in learning. All the members of his family were well-educated As a boy of seven to eight years, Shri Wamanlyhai had the opportunity to visit the temple of Somnath. There, outside the temple, he saw one Fakir. Thereafter in the region round about the temple, he saw that same Fakir several times. Ultimately, when he visiter Sludi in 1911 he was ·xli surprised to find the identity of Shri Sai Baba to be the same as that of the Fakir, he met at Somnath. Shri Wamanbhai was married at the age of thirteen, as per the custom of those days After that he prosecuted all his higher studies in Bombay. In 1910, he passed the B.A. Examination from the Elphinstone College. He likewise passed the LL B. Examination in 1912. As mentioned above. Shri Wamanbhai had already visited Shirdi in 1911 and from that time he became a constant visitor to Shirdı. After passing the LL.B. examination. Shri Wamanbhai had the ambition to become il Solicitor. Hence he joined a Solicitor's firm. In 1913 when the courts closed for the May vacation. Shri Wamanbhai went to Shirdi. After the vacation' was over he wanted to return to Bombay. but Shri Sai Baba did not allow him to return to Bombay for nearly a year. In 1916, he had once gone to the station to wish some of his friends who were going to Shirdi. but at the station he had inspiration to go to Shirdi and he went there only with the clothes he had on his body. He stayed there for twenty-one days and to his surprise he found that Shri Baba was waiting for him During this stay at Shirdi, once when he was standing near Buty wada, one ·stone came rolling from above and hit Wamanbhai on the head. He became unconscious for some time. When Baba knew about this, He immediately sent a medicine, which helped Shri Wamanbhai to come to senses immediately. For three to four years after the aforesaid incident, Shri Wamanbhai worked as Principal of the Model High School at Ahmedabad. However, this service could not attract him, so he came back to Bombay in 1921 and took the job of the Managing clerk in the solicitors firm running under the name of M/s Kanga and Sayani Though Shri Wamanbhai was thus having ups and downs in his life, still he always continued to visit and pray Sai Baba. During the period from 1911 to 1918, till the time of Baba's Samadhi, Shri Wamanbhai had ample opportunities to have Baba's company of which he took the best advantage. With a view to spreading the devotion to Shri Sai Baba in Gujarat, Shri Wamanbhai wrote in 1946 a book of nearly four hundred pages in Gujarati under the caption “Shri Sai Baba”. This book is so popular among the Gujarati speaking community that as many as six editions of this book have been sold out so far. In order to encourage the spread of religion and righteousness among the masses, Shri Wamanbai Patel wrote a ·xiv number of books on cligious and philisophical subjects, which were published by "Tlie Sas:11 Sahilya Wardhak" publishing instilulion of Alunec. abad. Shankaracharya, Manushvadharma, Sali Savitri, Shri Prahlad, Amharish, Slukadeo, Gajendr. Moksha, Saint Dnyan.deo, ele alle a few of his books. Shri Sai Sharan mand 15 il sturench devolve of Shri Sai Baba lle has lience mastered fully the teachings of Shri Sai Baba viz. faith and saburi. Ile therefore kept complete faith in Shri Sai Baba. continued all his multiſerious activities and awaiter to attain his goal vir to become a Solicitor. In 1923, Shui Vamanbliai passed the Solicitor's cxamination and started to work as a Solicitor, Foi some time he also worked as a leclurer in the Lan College at Ahmedabad The Sai devotees had decided to install a marble statue of Shui Sai Baba in the Samadhi Mandir at Shirdi. The work of carving the statue was, therefore, entrusled to the famous sculptor, Shri Balaji Vasant Talim of Bombay. This stalue was installed in the Samadhi Mandir at the auspicious hands of Shri Sai Sharan Anand (i.e. Shri Wamanbhai Patel, B.A, LL.B., Solicitor) in 1952 Though Shri Sai Sharan Anand has completed eighty-five years of his age, he is quite active and ·XV devotes a lot of time in reading, writing and thinking . In 1953, he took Sanyas and started using the saffron-coloured garments. He now lives only for the good of others. The authorities of the Shirdi Sansthan wish Shri Sai Sharan Anand a very long life and express their heartfelt thanks to him for having placed the entire rights of this book in their hands. In his Foreword, Dr. P. M. Mody, retired Professor and Principal, Shamaldas College, Bhavnagar, has fully dealt with the merits of this book and has pointed out its utility in a scholarly manner. It would, therefore, be redundant to express our opinion about the contents of this book. We, however, hope that it will be welcomed by the Sai Devotees very gladly. K. S. Pathak, Court Receiver, Shirdi Sansthau Of Shri Sai Baba.

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·Shri Sai The Superman Chapter One BIRTH, RACE AND FAMILY Though I am unborn, whole soul, Lord of all creatures, taking to my life-nalure, I manifest myself by my powers. Bh. Gita 4-6. The self same soul has transformed Himself principally into the Sun, the Moon, Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the protector, Shiva Shakti the Destroyer with His Goddess. I bow to that excellent light of lights. My salutations to that Bhagwant, Lord who is free from anger, attachment, above Maya and devoid of three states of wakefulness, dream and slecp. The best of gods, ascetics do not know the farther end of Your Maya Power. The demons were most powerful, vou forced them to give up their egotism When the world is beset with woist calamities, vou manifest yourself and conie pon this earth, Oh Lord Vallabh Bhagwat IV, VIII Chis T & 17. The Primordial, original, perfect Reality, the Thing-In-Itself beyond name and form inspired SS 1 ·2 by the force of devotee's religious merit automatically manifested itself as Sai Nath, Sai Baba for the purpose of leading the lost souls to the path of Truth When asked. His only ienlv ivas "Brahma is my father, Mava is my inother and this Universe is my house.” That He descended on this earth through some human mortals has not vet heen established through reliable sources. NO conflict of opinion exists however as to His being an extra-ordinary incarnation of God or the highest of perfect beings. Brahman by His Maya Power manifests itself as a human being, when irreligion stalks uncherked in this world. He comes and places religion on sound ſoundations dispelling the clouds of doubts and dogmatism He descends in patholar to protect ihe good, the saintly and to destroy the bad and the wicked. Though beyond (above) limitations of time, space, causation, body, mind, intellect etc pure Brahman, has by his Maya power the capacity of assuming such form-male or female as would satisfy the devotees' desires and their ideals. It is ever ready to please its real devotee in this respect and even serves him incognito. Saints who have attained oneness with this Brahman that is who have ceased to be bodily minded, who have without their knowledge transformed themselves ·3 into Brahman by constant meditation on the same are Bialıman with all its Powers. स यो बै etc. (Mundak Up. 3-2-9). Shri Sai Baba falls in this category and so His devotees have seen in Him their ideal of God realised and so they have described Him in as many different ways as their ideals of Guru or God have differed. To staunch devotees of Shri Ram, Shri Sai appeared as Ram, to those of Shanker, Maruti, Krishna, Vithoba, Akkalkot Swami, Gholap Swami and Ali Shri Sai appeared in the form of Shanker, Maruti, Krishna, Vithoba, Akkalkot Suami, Gholap Swami and Ali irrespective of their race, caste, creed or religion. They all look upon Sai as their God, Saviour, or Prophet and worship Him as such in their own way, propitiale Him and clave blessings from Him As an oul-come of this propitiation each one of them feels and realises that he has been lucky enough to find in Ilım his benign father, protector, benefactor, a helper in distress, a safe refuge amidst the turbulent waters of this world. Each one has realised He is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. Recipients of such experiences seldom care to ascertain how and whence this rarity descended upon this earth, who His blessed parents were, who llis master or teacher was, and yet there are amongst intelligent educated devotees soine per- ·4 sons who have bestowed much labour and done a deal of sesearch to hit upon proper and satisfactory usweis on these points Vedanti devotees of Baba Shri Sai look upon llim as the manifestation of knowledge incarnate. The ovlul Brahman, the giver of highest hapomess liee from dualities, ether like, knowable by the low Maha Vakuils (Ke-Sentences) of Vedas the sole, the permanent, the pure, non-changing the Universal witnessing Intellect, the one beyond emotions and the three gunas--pue, mixed, and impure-lendencies, the Master, teacher of Roalroy The non-Mohamaden devotees of this class firmly believe that if Shi Baba had adopteri Hindi Mohamaden mixed ways of life and players. It was simplı for the purpose of drawing the attention ? these devotees to the cardinal truth. that the soul has no caste oi race; that their object of prope) worship is not of any caste, and what are casteso They ale not skin, blood, Aesh nor boues, but these castes are fived for the purpose of the smooth numg of this world Hindu devotees of Babu particularly, Brahmins and other Dwijas behere That if Baba had donned Mohamaden gaib and adopted some Mahomaden wars of worship (without giving up the ways of the purest of pure Bahmin sages) it was for the pupose of killing or semoving the wiong interpietation of Veda and ·5 drawing attention to the truth that avui vihinu-- all without exception-is Brahman; that difference or diversity or duality does not exist; that if Veda says that Brahmins are God's mouth, Kshatriyas His hands, Vaishyas His body and Shudias His legs, the intention of the Vedas is not to show the inferiority or superiority of any one of these castes but to draw attention to the fact, that each is a pait and parcel of the same Holy body of God Similarly about the genesis of races; if one Upnishad states that Non-Aryans came from the nether part of God, it is to root out the hatred and bitterness that might have been raging between these races and to rivet the attention on the oneness of the Holy Body from whom the Non-Aryans have also emerged. Vedas and Upnishads teach us to look at the unity in diversity and preach only oneness of Soul, no difference. disseution, discord but unity. Peace and accord is the burtheil of the Veda, Upnishads and Vedanta Veda and Upnishads have no doubt prescribed worships of different Gods, but these are only for persons who hanker after material happiness and are not satisfied with mere realisation of Truth. Baha called upon persons of the latter class to follow 'His directions to achieve the ends of their material desires and they had their desires fulfilled. His guidance and His sole worship have obtained for these ·6 devotees what they desired and in this way also Ile encouraged one worship and not multiple worship. Viewing Vedas, Upnishads and Baba's ways, Vedanti devotees have always believed that to root out the ego of caste pride and to teach them the oneness of all pervading all-knowing, all powerful God, irrespective of race, caste, or creed, Baba adopted the special ways of life that He did. In fact His life laid stress on the essentials of religions, discarding the non-essential parts thereof. Most of the devotees of Shri Sai Baba fall under this class. The late Hon'ble Hai Sitaram Dint BA, LL.B., solicitor, the late Shri Nana Saheb Chandorkar, B.A., Ex-District Deputy Collector, the late Shri Anna Saheb Dabholkar, the learned author of Shri Sai Satcharit, the late Rao Bahadur Moieshwar Pradhan, JP, ex-member of the Bombay Legislative Council, the late Shri G. S. Khaparde, B.A, LL.B., ex-member of the Bombay Legislative Assembly, the late Rao Saheb Yeshwantrao G. Galvankar BA Shri M. B Rege, Indore Judge as also the Sai Baba Sansthan Committee members of 1953 held and hold this view. There are other devotees who have been worshipping some other deities or are followers of some other religious teachers-all these see in Sai Baba their own deity, or their own religious teacher and worship Him for the realisation of ·7 truth through Him, Sai Baba. Worshippers of Shiva, Vishmu, Krislina, Vithal, Pandurang, Ramchandra, Goddesses, Guru Dattatraya, Swami Akkalkot. Swami Gholav etc., all come under this category. Baba actually assumed the form of these gods and goddesses and satisfied the devotees of these gods and goddesses. For the disciple of Gholap Swami, He assumed the form of the Sanyasi Gholapswami and of that intent of His, He gave an inkling to his other devotees by asking them to fetch for Him (Gerua) redochire clay. Devotees of Swami Akkalkot identify Him with Akkalkot Swami from what He said to Shi Pitale of Bombay, “I have already given you Rs. 2, take these three more, keep them safe” Pitale's father had been given Rs 2/- by Akkalkot Swami, and so the reference that Baba gave those two i upees, unequivocally stating that He Himself had giren him those two rupees, clearly goes to indicate that He Himself was none other than the Swami of Akkalkot Some Devotees of Guru Dattatrava trace the nedigree of Akkalkot Swami to Guru Dattatraya through Nrisinha Swami, the last incarnation of Guru Dattatraya Other devotees of Guru Dattatraya state that Shri Akkalkot Swami was the contemporary of Shri Manik Prabhu, the well-known incarnation of Gạru Dattatraya and that it is an undisputed fact that ·8 Shri Sai Baba was none other than Swami Shri of Akkalkot Shri Baba was therefore an incarnation of Shri Guru Dattatraya We have nothing to state against this theory of Shii Baba being an incarnation of Dattatraya but we simply state that a person is what he is not because he can be shown to be a member of the high pedigree of certain Gods or gurus, since they are born great, the high pedigree could not in any way go to make then greater Apart from this as well they are great, not only great but none in human form could be greater, none can surpass them These remarks equally apply to devotees who trace Sai Baba to the Nine Masters, Matsyendranath, Corakhanath and others Some of Baha's promiment devotees hold the same view. (1) One Shii Ganpatrao Dattatrya Sahasrabuddhe alias Das Ganu actually seeing the holy Ganges trickling down from Shri Sai's feet in a small stream, just when he desired to have a dip in the holy liver, in the fervour of his love for Baba, composed a prayer describing Baba as Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh (ie Gods of cieation, protection and destruction). (2) Another personage of this class is the great Upasani Mahara). In the course of his three years' stay at Shirdı, he was fully convinced that Shri Baba had not only realised Brahman but had been ·9 >> (become) perfect Brahman and so in the feryour of that enthusiasm he composed a prayer of several hymns on Sai Baba, the first verse of which said, “Baba was the original Sat Chit Anand Swarup, the primordial cause of original existence and destruction of the Universe and that Baba had appeared (Manifested Himself) as a human being as the outcome of the ardent desire of His devotees to see Him as such." The recurring burthen of the eight verses of this prayer is, “I bow to that God-Sadguru Sai Baba In the eighth verse of the said prayer he declares Sai Baba to be "The unborn, The veritable Brahman.” Looking to the most important task of moulding and regenerating the lives of thousands of males and females (hy imparting to them godly knowledge) that awaited him in future Shri Sai Baba got him to practise severe penance for three years at Shirdi and awarded him in return powers of clairvvance, assuming all forms at will becoming invisible, at will etc. etc. which subsequently drew to him people in thousands. He did appreciate all this and to show this, going to Benaras with his devotees he performed the obsequial ceremony of Baba and other bygone saints spending thousands of rupees. (3) Another great devotee is the late lamented Shri B. V. Narsinha Swamiji, a law graduate and ·10 an ex-member of the Legislative Council, author of the lives of several saints, who had dedicated the last 29 years of his life to spieading the name and fame of Shri Sai Baba throughout the length and breadth of Madras IIc declares that Baba was born of Brahmin parents of Pathri--a village of Nizam Hyderabad and then he was given over to a Fakir for being trained. (4) Shri Sathya-Sai-Baba, who claims to be a 10-incarnation of Shri Sai Baba of Shiidi, states dat as Slui Sai Baba of Shiidi, he was born at Pathri on the banks of the Godavari of very pious parents and that as a result of Shri Shanker's boon they got Him, but that at the time He was born, both the parents had got so much detached from the world that they left the Sai Baba child under a tree to the mercy of God and went away to practise penance. A childless Fakir couple passing by the way picked up and brought Him up as their child When however the little Sai Baba grew up, He was found so much attached to the worship of Shanker's Shivalıng that the Fakir diove him away, so he came to Shiidi and settled down there. (Life of Shri Sathya Sai Baba Pait I by N Kasturi, Pages 210 to 216, 2nd edition) (5) Another personage Madhvanath a great saint also told his disciple that Shri Sai Baba was the eldest of the three sons of a Yajurvedi Deshasth ·11 Biahının of Pathii and that he was handed over lo a Fakır, for the parents thought that the sons born to them were the outcome of the blessings that the then childless parents had ieceived from that Fakir in lieu of the services iendered by them foi him. Shui Sai Baba's own utteiances in this respect should also be considered. (1) The oldest, most pious and revered devotee of Shri Sai Baba the late Shri Mhalsapati, who had the unique honour of sleeping with Baba on every alternate night for 30 to -10 years in the Dwarkamayi said that Baba had once told him, "I am a Brahmin of Pathri and when young, my parents gave me over to a Fakir for being trained under him.” (2) In December 1912 when the writer went to Shirdi, he was anxious about his father's life, as the father had dropsy and dropsy was in those days considered to be a fatal disease. Unasked Baba said, “Bring that big belliccl man here." I said to myselt. “How is it possible when he takes you to be a Mussalman?" At once Baha asks me, “Am I not a Brahmm?" This clearly show's Baba considered himsell to be a Brahmin. Another time in 1916 when one Shantaram Nachne Dehnukar went to Shiidi and he forgot to ·12 pay to Baba a two-anna piece that his friend V. S. Samant had given for Baba along with a coconut etc., and he asked Baba's permission to return home, giving him coconut etc., Baba had reminded him of the said two anna piece by saying, “You may go, but why have you been retaining the two anna piece of this Poor Brahmin?” Whereupon Dehnukar at once paid the two-anna piece requesting Baba to parcon him for the lapse of his memory. When on the behest of his master Shri H. V. Sathe one Alegha came to Baba, taking Baba to be a Mahomaden, Baba became angry on seeing him and did not allow him to mount up the steps of the Dwarkamayee threatening him with a stone, that if he came up to see Him, He would assuredly kill him with the stone, and bawled oul, "I am the lowest of the low, a Yawan (Mahomaden) and you are a Brahmin of the highest caste.” This clearly shows Baha's dislike for those who considered him to be a Mahomaden Baba putting His hand on His chest said to His Kashibai Kamthal of Poona, "This is a Buahmin. This Brahmin will lead lacks of people to the Shubha Maiga (The White Path as opposed to the Black Path of demons) and take them to the goal right upto the end. This is a Brahmin's ·13 Masjid.” (Baba's Charters and Sayings Page 57. Nrisinh Swami.) All this clearly shows that if Baba was really born, He was born in a Brahmin family. Born or unborn Baba thought He was Brahmin and got offended with all those who thought Ile was a Mahomaden. We may therefore say with the late Shri Nri- Spidi Swami "The birth and parentage of Sai Baba are wrapped in mystery. We have not come across a single person who has any direct knowledge of them." It is however common knowledge that the people of all castes, creeds, races and religions Hindus, Mussalmans, Parsis, Christians and others—come to Baba and soon become attached to Him They all gradually recognise Him to be their long-lost philosopher, friend and guide They seem llim their God, theu Prophet. their Son of God, their Saviour or their best and dearest friend. They realise that Sai Baba is always present He controls their hearts and knows all their actions good, bad or indifferent They are also convinced that Ile knows their most secret thoughts and their wicked actions and vet He is full of mercy and never gives up those who remember Him He cares not to look at the family.

·14 caste, ceed or religion or even the action of His devotees; but as soon as the devotces reinember Him, he runs up at once with oi without assuming a form and defends them against fell diseases. calamities, worldly difficulties, ill-repute etc. etc. For instance, He assumed the foim ol a farmer for His devotee Balakram Mankai and handed over to him a rail ticket for his destination, Poona. Foi another devotee Nanasaheb Chandorkar, He became (assumed the form of) a tonga, horses and a coach-man, when Shri Sai Himself dispatched His Udi with one Ramgir He had taken that Ramgir to Nana's house and saved by that Udi Nana Saheb's daughter from a moital delivery. Even after He left His body, He has been helping devotees in the same way Thus he put Dhumal's hand-signature on about a thousand Municipal papers one night when Dhumal was unable to find time for the purpose for another devotee Vachne. of Prabhu caste, He assumed the form of a peon called Himself Ganpatishankar, attended on him till he reached Nasik and thereafter also he helped him in the performance of the obsequial ceremonies of his wife for three days and as soon as the ceremonies were over, He left him saying His services were wanted by His Mastes. Persous visiting Shirdi have known that if only they would remember Him, He would without fail stretch His ·15 helping hand and render such help as they would require. These devotees look upon Sai Baba as then own God, Prophet, Saviour and as such they try their utmost to draw or attract Him to them by propitiaing Him and by rendering such services as they can. The sole yearning of these devotees is to obtain His grace, for they know that therein only lies their material and spiritual welfare, they little care to know His parentage, family, race, or His Guru They have ever believed that the kind and merciful God though ever formless has for their benefit assumed a form and so if they are wise they should without delay try their level best to ohlain His grace, the root cause of all earthly and heavenly happiness, leaving all other matters about His family etc to logicians, the worldly wise and wiseacies They definitely believe and assert--God is only one, there are no separate Gods for the various races, castes and creeds and yet He has powers to assume such forms as His devotees yearn for and ardently desire to behold with their material eyes. And the living testimony of this is Shree Sai Baba ·16 Chapter Two SHRI SAI'S GURU, SHRI SAI'S MANIFESTATION IN SHIRDI (1) I manifest myself in every age, lor the protection of the good, destruction of the wicked and the foundauion of religion. (13h. Gita, Ch 1-5 (2) Little in statue, great in valom. Subclued tenible Cobia Kali, held aloft a week the Goverdhan Mount and saved people from the fuy nt God Indra (Bhalan) (3) Some are born Great. "I was only cight years old when I left my parents and came to the Ganges (Baba always named the Godavari as the Ganges) Then I came to Shij dı," This was what Baba said (unaskerl) lo the writer He continued, “I found my master in the Chawdi here His calm, peaceful, cheerful and meditative face attracted me, chumed me, almosi hewitched me so much so, that my cycs, were evei rivetted on his face and that cven a moment's separation from him made me uneasy. In bus company I used to forget all my hunger and thirst I seived him with all my heart for years together for more than 12 years. The duties I had ·17 imposed on myself for him were very arduous Ho never left his seat for any purpose, not even to answer calls of nature. Merged in meditation for ever, he entirely forgot that he had a body, mind etc He ate, passed urine and stool etc., there and theie-on his seat. I fed him, changed his clothes, swept and kept his seat always clean. As a reward of this he awarded me his blessings saying, “Wherever you are, here or even beyond the seren seas, I will be ever with you to guard and protect you." Right at the start he had asked me to pay his fees; and on my asking what his fros were he coolly said “his fees were only two pice," and these pice were not the government curiency I had been using hut his two pice fees consisted of two things, Nishta faith-absolute faith and Saboori-Fatience. I readily gave him these two pice and though I was very eager to obtain from his holy mouth some holy spell or formula which I could could go ou chanting and repeating, he utleied nothing into ears He simply said, "y shall cver be with you, protecting vou hy my mcie loving glance in the manner of a tortoise protecting his young ones by mere glance. The entire ciedit of all this glory of mine goes to this Guru mastei It is the outcome of his blessings" On another occasion He said to this wrter 'My Gu's (Master's) name is Roshan Sha Mian.

·18 When Baba uttered these words, I took them als advising me to take to the Sun worship, as I am by caste a Brahmin and Brahmins arc by their scriptures required to worship the Sun, tlırce times a day at sunrise, at noon and the Sunsct wd repeat the Suni's Gayatri foi mula for at least 324 limes a day. Subsequently Baba made me repeat this Gayatri several thousand times for expiation of certain sins committed by me in the past and also asked me to offer a few rice oblations in thic fire and set apart certain portions for goils, que cows, dogs etc. by performing "the Vaishwdeva" ceremony before taking dinner. All this confirmed me in my belief that Baba's intention in telling me the name of His Guru was to impress on me the necessity of performing the six duties enjoined on Brahmins by scriptures. Subsequently I marked that Shri Baba was from time to time also using the word 'Roshan'. He used it particulaıly when he told some parables. Then he had used that word in the sense of light meaning knowledge as opposed to (the darkness of) ignorance. In Shrimad Bhagwat Gita, the Celestial Song of Lord Shri Krishna, Gnan is described as “Jvotishan api tadjyoti,” The light of all the luminous And Upnishadic praver also reads. "Tamaso ma qvotirgamay,” “-Lead me to light from darkness” uses this word Jyoti or Roshan in the sense of know- ·19 ledge. Applying the same sense to “Roslan m 'Roshan Sha', the name Roshan Shah would me.mn the Lord of Knowledge, the Universal Soul sellluminous, self-evident, omnipiesent, omnipotent, omniscient as the only Truth, the only Realiti tirs only (100t of) knowledge properly understood the world being Its evanscent reflection Samts aspire to attain oneness with this Absolute tiuth oi Lord God in order to be of some help to the rullemg humanity and in their efforts to do so the len sacrifice their body. Sai Baba thus cast ol! llis body to save Tatya Patil to whom He was indebled for the services rendered by him, his mothcı and father. Jesus Christ and Lord Kuisluna sacıificed themselves to save the erring humanity Iron Thus Shui Sai Baba by His sacrifice taught humanity that the beauty of life consists in subduing oi sacrificing the Lower selt for the Higherself Latterly these words ieminded me of what the Lord Shu Krishna said to His pet disciple Arjun on the battlefield of Kuru Kshetia (Panipat). embodied by Shri Vyas in Bhagvad Gita or the Celestial song of Slui Loid Krishna The fust line of the Fourth Chapter of that book says that the Lord taught this method of realisation to Vaivaswat, meaning the Sun. As the giver of light to the world Baba must bave called him Roshan, Shah Lord Krishna recites in this line the sins ·20 geneology of the disciple and states the order in which He taught this way of realisation. The firs! to receive this instruction from Him was the Sun, He said, and as the Sun or the Roshan Shalmia was Sai Baba's instructor (as in the case of the wellknown Shri Yagnya Valkya) Sai Baba received all knowledge from Lord Krishna thorough His first disciple the Sun. We do not however mean to suggest by the above interpretations that a person of the name Roshan Shahmia did not materially exist, on the contrary we, by these interpretationis desire to draw the attention to the peculiar characteristic of the life events of such a superman is Shri Sai Baba This peculiarity is that all the events of Supermen's life can always be interpreted metaphorically as well as literally. As examples of this we may draw the attention of the readers to the various biographies of Shri Ram and Shri Krishna, some of which have always shown the plulosophical (mctaphorical) 1911- ficance (aspect) of almost all the incidents of the lives of these Supermen Accordingi, one should not be astonished if we say that Roshan Shah spoken of by Baba did exist in flesh and blood and Baba strenuously served him for over twelve years It seems Roshan Shah thereafter cast off his mortal coil-his body-

·21
and Baba entombed him under or near the nimb
tree at present found in Shirdi Navalkar's Vada.
When the previous owner of this Wada R S Sathe
wanted to put up a storey and terrace, at the tiine
of putting a stair case he unearthed a tomb with
an under-ground cellar or a cave uuder the tree,
Baba was asked as to what should be done about
the tomb and the cave? Baba said that, “that
place belonged to His elders and it should neither
be disturbed nor opened but it should be covered
up with a stone as before.” Persons and some boys
plaving a hide and seek game removed the stone
and found under it several steps leading further
down They said that the cave was dark but
jather long, Baba once told the writer pointing to
a pillar near His Dhuni (the sacred fire) in the
Dwarkamai, "that there was a cave there. Ile always
confined Himself to that cave: thal once his heard
had grown so long that it reached the ground and
swept, that He never came out of the cave unless
to meet some boli and religious mall
It seems
this cellar or cave referred to by Baba started
from under the nimb tree and extended upto and
even beyond the Chowdi This cave was in fact
Baba's place of penance After years of such
penance in the cave, people caught sight of Him
one day when He had come out for water It
seems He had finished His term of penance then,

·22 for thcicafici Ile did not return to the cave. but made the nimh tiec llis abode. And what an abode it was! Situate on the outskirts of the village in the deliis of the old village wall. ucie people nised to heap their rubbish, where a stream of village filthy stinking water ian and the thorny cactus abounded wchecked, Baba stayed lincaicd for and unnoticed by the people of the village loi about it year or two With only a Kafni on the body and a rag covering the head He lived on. Digging a pit Ile slept in it. lIow he fed himself no one knows but from the admonition He had once administered to Sagurao M. Naik -it ippears He had lived only on Margosa lcaies for more than 12 years. He had said to Sagun, “What! You can't put up with a day or two days' stai vation? I myself had lived on Margnsa leaves loi as many as twelve years Mi valsapati was probably the first to introduce himself to Shri Baba; he was so mudi immessed with conversation he had with Baba that he thereafter saw Him daily and introduced Baha to his other friends Kashinath tailor and Ippa Jogle, saying that a Fakır Sai Baba has made a sudden appearance on the outskirts of the village near the debris of village wall, that He is far far ahove the common average man, a pure and holy man worth paying respects, from that time on- ·23 waid He came to be kuown as Sai Baba. This Tirs-ol Alhalasapatı, Kashinath and Jogledaily visited him and paid their respects to Him and supplied whatever little requirements He had. The news that one Sai Baba had manifested Himself near the nimb tree on the outskirts of the village, reached the ears of the late Appa Patil Kote and one day he with his wife went to Baba to pay respects. It is said that when Baba saw them coming He left His seat, got up and cordially welcomed Appa and told his wife that she had been veritably His sister. The lady Bayjabai, on sceing Baba was so much impressed that she there and then resolved never to take her food without first feeding Baba. At the start Sai Baba prescribed and medicine but never charged nor accepted any money for the same. Not only that, but if he found that there was none to look after or nurse His patient, He would Himself be his nurse and serve him. Once it so happened that His patient failed to observe the rules of diet etc He had prescribed and as a result thereof he died. Since that day Baba gave up administering medicine and gave only His Udi-holy ashes for their relief. In this counection Baba once said, “I used to give medicine before but thereafter giving up everything I went on chanting (taking) the name of gave ·24 upon Ilini Hari, and by a ceaseless muttering of that loly name I actually became Hari.” After giving up the physicianship, Baba was seldom found at his abode under the nimb trec. He moved about in the village fields in the jungle amidst thorns etc apparently idling away His time but virtually utilising each minule of His time in remembering and meditating on God lle was in lags and village people looked as and called Him a mad Fakir. Ile begged His food once, twice or at times even a dozen times in a day. Without caring for the adverse opinion of the village folks Bayjabai however never failed to give alms whenever Baba went to her for the purpose and never failed to observe her selfimposed rule of feeding Baba before she fed herself And for the observance of this rule slic had at times with a basket on her head to wande'ı in fields and jungle for hours to find Him out and if she found Baba was merged in ineditation, she would slowly wake Him up, serve the dish, persuade Him to take a morsel or two (if not more return home and then take her meals Baba i turn amply rewarded her services by doing everything in His power for her weltare and the welfare of her whole family In particular, Baba treated her son Tatya Patil with tende care and aſſection, regularly paid him to look after this ·requirements, and even after the educated, the cultured, the rich and the wealthy, multi-millionaire came to Him, He would not give over his charge to any one else, nor would He ever leave for Chawdi unless and until this Tatva came and accompanied Him; but as if all this was not enough return for the services rendered by Bayjahai, He cast off even His body to save this Tatya. As Shirdi was on the way to many places of pilgrimage of southern India such as Rameshwar, Pandharpur etc, several saints visited Shirdi and amongst them there were two, who ultimately thought it fit to settle down in Shirdi. One of them was Devdas who came to Shirdi when he was only 10-11 years old. He was well built and had lustrous eyes. He had put up in Maruti Temple. He was a man of knowledge Shirdi people looked upon him with respect. Appa, Mhalasapati, Kashinath and others were his daily visitors and they supplied all His wants. Kashinath and Tatya Patil had accepted him as their Guru (Religious Master). He usually taught Vyenkatesh Stotra (a composition of hymns on Gorl Vvenkatesh). Ten-Eleven vears after he came Baba appeared in Shirdi Baba saw him from time to time. Another Saint Jankidas, highly advanced, had also come and settled down before Baba's appearance When Baba came He spent long long hours in the company of this Jankidas.

·26 Baba did not accept any money gift from any body these days; so when Kashinath offered Him some money-gift He flatly refused to receive il. This refusal brought tears in the eyes of Kashinath. Moved by this He started taking money gifts (Dakshina) from him, at first He used to take only two pice as Dakshina but gradually He increased that sum. However, from the clay Baba started accepting His Dakshina, Kashinath's financial position grew weak and weak till he became ahjectly poor and people refused to give him even a loan This set Kashinath thinking. He asked himself, “How could charity made to the most holy and the pure reduce him to such a miserable state?” Then after a little introspection he found that it was not his Charity that reduced him to this miserable state but it was his pride that blinded him to the fact that the giver was not he but God Himself; Unless God gives who can dole out Charity? In fact as he knew Baba to be God, he now understood that the truth lying under this unhappy event of his life was that both the giver of Charity and receiver of Charity were one viz; God Himself From thic day he realised this true state of affairs, his condition started improving, and very soon he regained his lost wealth and reputation. This Kashinath dealt in cloth and wherever ·27 weekly bazaars were held, he would go and put up a temporary shop. Once when he was returming from some such Bazaar of Narur he was accosted by a band of armed dacoits. Kashinath lianded over to them all the cash that he had, Lut he would not part with a small bag. Dacoits thought the little bag contained some moie precious article and so they demanded the delivery of the said bag. He refused and so the dacoits tried to snatch il away from him but he opposed and su a tussle ensued Taking the sword of one of the dacoits which lay there he killed two of them and so the third one coming from behind dealt on Kashinath's head an axe-blow. This blow stunned Kashinath and he lay prostrate on earth as if dead. Taking Kashinath to be dead the other dacoits escaped leaving Kashinath there After some time Kashinath regained his consciousness and people pressed him that he be allowed to be taken to a hospital But his faith in Baba was so unshakeable that he refused and returned to Slirclı in that condition and recovered under Baba's care The Government was pleased to award him a sword for the valou he had shown in facing these lacoits and while the fiay between the dacoits and Kashinath was going on, Baba at Shirdi had been shouting, abusing, bawling aloud, People accustomed to Baba's ways at once understood that some dear ·28 devotee of Baba had been in some trouble and to tide over the calamity of that devotec He was roaring, shouting, abusing etc. Kashinath lived long after this and passed away on the 11th day of the lunar month which is considered to be very auspicious for death, Appa Jogle also passed away on the same day---some time after this, cnjoying a long lease of a happy life. The third of the trio Mhalasapati worked as a goldsmith, but was not so financially happy as the other two; he was abjectly poor and it seems Baba did not want that he should have affluence or plenty of riches. Once a rich person presented to Baba a dish filled with Gold and Silver coins. Baba returned it to the donor in lact. Thalas.jpati was present there at the time for his daily worship of Baha The donor seeing Mbalacapari. clesired that he be permitted by Baba to give over that dish of coins to Mhalasapati Baba emphatically disallowed it, saying, “Real royalty is renunciation. That alone lasts for ever. Riches (or Plenty:) arc evanscent. Though unlucky in money-matters Shri Mhalasapati was very lucky in havina Baha's constant company on every alternate night at the Dwarkamai Both of then then kept as it were night vigil but mainly it was Baba who would be awake all night, not allowing Mhalasapati anel 3 ·29 Tatya (when the latter also attended the Dwarkamayi to go to sleep by night He would very often ask Mhalasapati to keep his hand on His (Baba's) heart and see that His utterance of the holy name did not stop, that as soon as it stopped he was asked to wake Him up; but Baba very often complained that instead of watching the sound of the holy name emerging from Ilis Ileart, he himself would fall asleep, his hand would become heavy and He was required to wake him up feeling the heaviness of his hand This clearly shows what the cbject of Baba in not allowing Mhalasapati (and Tatya) to sleep in the Dwarkamayi was, that He wanted them to chant the holy name by keeping awake. We have already mentioned that it was Mhalasapati who dubbed Shri with the name of Sai Baba and Sai Baba also willingly retained it till He left His body. But Mhalasapati had to his credit a still greater service to posterity of which we shall now speak. Baba had been suffering from Asthma and He had a very severe attack of it in about the December of 1885. He said to Mhalasapatı, “I am going up into a superconscious state for a period of 3 days. Take care of this body exactly for three days, and if by the end of that period I do not return to bodily consciousness, then pointing ·30 to a placema corner of the present chowkilave a Samadhi prepared, bury me there and put up two flags as a token of my being there. But till then do not disturb me; and do not leave me unguarded, unwatched. Saying this, Ile drew up llis breath upto the tabernacle and fell senseless, (11 the lap of Mhalasapalı It was 10 P.M. He had no breath, no pulsation, the whole body was functionless; people gathered together but finding Baba in a super-conscious stale, none said anı. t}ing at the time, two days after, some Molvi (Mahomedan Fakir), Appa Kulkarni, and Kashinath seeing that life had left Bahar's body entirely. proposed to have a Samadhi built for Ilin for His burial Thanks to Mhalasapati he did not change his posture, noi budge an inch lest Baba should get disturbed for thuec clays, without a break and simply heard out the proposals coming from Various quarters about the disposal of His body asking them to wait till the time-limit fired by Baba was over Pending the discussion ahout the disposal of Shuri's body, the time limit of three painful day's had at last cuired On expiry of that period at 3 AM. liſe gradually returned 10 Baba, His eyes also opened bye and bye, breathing started and the belly also moved His face then appeared to be joyful, winking of the eyes started, știffness of the limbs had gone and the ·31 whole body started working as if nothing had happened But foi Thalasapatı’s firm devotion, futh in Baba's words and his marvellous courage in adhering to the same in the face of people's opposition, the posterity, nay millions of people, would have been deprived of the innumerable benefits that they derived and are deriving from Him Chapter Three SAI BABA'S MISSION your path, if “But for Guru, who can show the right path? Millions of Suns, Moons and stars inay simultaneously put forth their best light. And yet the Darkness, the impenetrable Darkness will be there to block you have no Guru.' “Know Gun to be God, serve him with all vour heart, then the fetters of worldly bonds will fall off and the fruit of absolution will be yours.” "Surrender unto the Guru, meditate on Go:l's reality; obtain release—the all pervadıng joy” say's Bramananda Few seem to have even the faintes! idea of the immense powers of a perfect man, of a man who has by constant meditation wholly identified himself with Brahman. Scholars and Pandits, Teachers and Professors of Indian Philosophy.

·32 particularly of Brahma Sutra know this full well, but immersed in their own worldly affairs they seldom care to look up for a person fully answering the description of such a man. The last chapter of thus Brahma Sutra clearly slates that a realised soul has the powers to assume any form he likes, that he may not, it he so wills take any form, that he can by his mere will not only assume one form but as many as he wants, that he will create and uncreate luis own world, that by his mere will he will have all he wants, that he can move in the whole of the universe material and spiritual.by that power, and wherever he goes he will be adored and respected by people Sai Baba fully answers to the description of the perfect soul given by Brahma Sutra and this is and was the reason why He could inaniſest Himself in as many forms as he deemed necessary either to satisfy the loving hearts of His deyotees or to show to the real aspirant that He is the same, in no way different from the God, whom the aspirant worshipped. We shall quote a few experiences of the devotees in illustration of this. À Sai devotee Mamlatdar was very friendly with a doctor who was a staunch devotee of Shri Ramchandraji. In 1909 Christmas the Mamlatdar informed his doctor friend that he had ·33 determined to spend his X’mas at Shirdi and that he would be very happy to have his company if he could give it. The Doctor was a Brahmin, strictly adhering to the mandates of scriptures and regularly discharged all the duties enjoined upon Brahmins therein; over and above this, he was a staunch devotee of Shri Ram and would never bow to a Mahomedan The doctor therefore said, he may give his company if he so desired but he would not how to Baba The Mamlatdar having assured him that none in Shirdi, nor Baba Himself would ask him to prostrate himself before Baba, the Doctor accompanied the Mamlatdar to Shirdi. On reaching Shirdi both the friends went to Dwarkamavee; the Mamlatdar as usual prostrated himself before Baba and offered Him fruits etc. The doctor stood witnessing all this. When lo! in place of Sai Baba the doctor saw his own deity Shri Ramchandraji. At once he prostrated himself before Baba, on coming out of Dwarkamayee, when Mamlatdar asked the doctor, why he had prostrated himself before Baba though uone had asked him to do so, he at once declared that he prostrated because in place of Sai he saw his own deity Shri Ramchandraji I was lucky enough to have my deitie's Darshan and that was the reason why I lay at the feet of Shri Sai Baba. Another man Mule Shastri, a palmist also got a similar experience. The Shastri was a disciple ·34 of one Gholap Swamima Sanyasi, and be never bowed to anyone else but his master Gholap Swami. During the Shaslii's stay in Shirdi one day Baba called him at the artı (The waving of lights) ceremony, fearing pollution he stood at a distance and threw some flouers on Baba fiom there; but to his great surprise he saw in Baha's place is own Guru Gholap Swami in his usual Bhagwa (red-ochre) coloured dress; so he at once rushed to Baba and while Sai devotees were reciting at the time Shi Sai's Arli he rccited his Gholap Swami's Aiti, when he finished arti recitalion be opened his eyes and saw Sai Baba seated in his usual place, demanding some Dakshina froni him. Mule Shastri prostrated himself before Sai Baha as if to thank Him for the favour He had shown in procuring for him his Guru's Darshana after a lapse of many many years. Shri Sai Baba convinced one Harishchandra Pitale of Bombay that He was the Swami of Akkalkot, by giving him three rupees at the ume of his departure from Shirdi and asking him to deposił and woiship them with the two rupees Ho had previously given him. Pitale visiting Baba for the first time could not understand when the said two rupees were given to him; buł subsequently on inquiring of his mother he learnt that Swami of Akkalkot had given his father Rs. 2/- ·35 spoken of by Baba. In this way Baba clearly told him, He was none else but the Swami of Akkalkot. For another staurch devotee of Shanker named Alegha He assumed the form of Shanker, when that devotee went to a Shanker's temple of his native country and convinced him that He was veritably his own deity Shanker in the form of Sai Baba The priest of the goddess Sapt Shrangi temple, also was shown that his goddess and Baba were He was directed in a dieam by his goddess to go to “Baba” in reply to his fervent prayer for ielief from worries he suffeired on account of worldly calamities. Misunderstanding the word "Baba” used by the goddess the priest went to Trambakeshwar and staying there for ten davs tried to propitiate Shanker by constant prayer etc, but he found no improvement in his harrowed (troubled) mind. Returning home, he rebuked the goddess that she had sent him to Trambakeshwar without any purpose and again prayed her for relief. The goddess again appeared in the priest's dream and said, “by 'Baba' I meant ‘Baba of Shirdi.' Why did you run upto Trambakeshwar in vain?” The priest was altogether ignorant of the whereabouts of Shirdi; nor had he heard of Sai Baha. While he was in this embarrassed predica- ·36 ment, Baba asked one of his favourite devotee Madhavrao to go to that Sapt Shrangi temple and fulfil the vow of giving two gold teats long since outstanding in respect of his mother's illness. The priest was very much pleased to see Madhayrao of Shirdı, for from him he got all the information about Shudi and Sai Baba; so when Madkavrao had finished his work of fulfilling the vow and prepared to return to Shirdi the priest of the Sapi Shurangi temple accompanied him. So as soon as the priest prostrated himself before Baba his worries left him; his ruffled mind calmed down; and he enjoyed peace Neither the priest spoke nor Baba; mere sight of Baba sufficed to supply what he wanted; this convinced the priest that Slıri Sai Baba was in charge of Sapt Sluangi's work then Even after he left His body, in response to the earnest prayer of one Mrs Kumudben B. Raval (of Bhau's Pole, Alimedabad Maha Gujarat) Baba manifested Himself in the form of Goddess Ambika. Similarly all such prayers of devoices of Mahomedans and Parsis were responded to by Baba by manifestations of such forms as the devotees worshipped. Very lately for a Parsi doctor of Kopergaon (Dist Ahmednagar Maharashtra) He assumed the form of his Paygamber- Zarthostra. To another Mahomedan devolee ·37 named Gulam Hussein Jaffarally Surendranagar (Maha Gujarat) He was pleased to appear as his Prophet Alli on horse To native Christians He showed that He had that heavenly divine power which they believed in Thus Chakranarayan, a Police constable, who kept an eye on the income and outgoings of Baba expressed his wonder saying, "Baba distributed hundreds of rupees per day and yet very often He received a much lesser amount Really he has got the divine power.” A native Christian nurse yearning to go to Shirdi after His Maha-Samadhi, was at first refused leave by the head-nurse but on the first one's constant chanting of Baba's name, she was able to bring about a change in the mind of the latter, as a result of which she sanctioned her leave and enabled the first one to fulfil her wish Another Christian Miss Mirabai Satyavir, a teacher in Baroda Methodist school, says that this (the writer’s) book inspired in her an unshakeable faith, and in the couise of her reading she had Sai Baba's vision in the form of a globe of Light and thereafter she has visited Shirdi more than once; Baba is her only refuge or shelter He has been helping her and always saving her from irreparable losses It is therefore clear that rendering of help in all matters material, spiritual to every person irrespective of his caste, creed, race, merits or demerits i ·38 has been Sai Baba's daily routinc, His very nature, Mis joy. He knew that amongst the people of the Tarjous races, who visited Him, something like Hiereditary antipathy subsisted particularly between two major laces, Hindus and Muslims and thuis very oílen bust out in riols, murders, arson, loot and it scems that iſ He had elected to adopt some of both their ways of life and religion, His object was to diaw to Him people of both these races to provide for them a common ground for meetin.com and worship so that all mis-understandings would vanish and their attention would be drawu and fired on the one universal feature of devotion, common to both icligions, that differences between them in the foims and formalities of the religions of both would not be made much of, would be Lolerated with a liberal mind on both sides, that slifes and feuds would give place to unity and friendly feelings and relations. With this object in view, when therefore the leaders of Shirdi village Copalao Gunde and others approached Baba with a request to fix a day for holding annual fare at Shirdi, He said, "fis up Ramnavmi, the birth day (date) of Shij Ramchandra," for He knew that it being a Hindu holy day they would surely run upto Shirdi to attend the fare and as to Mahomedans, they would also ·39 + come, as this was the only day fixed for annual fare; the object of their common worship being Baba in order to please Him at any rate, they would sink all their differences of 200-essentials, methods of worship and meet as friends or brothers-sons of a common father--and for ever forget their prestine enemosity, hatied, antipathy. In due course this hope was fulfilled, though at first fanaticism of one party took an ugly form and might have burst out in undesirable fends and fights or riots but for Baba's holy and powerful i presence The narration of a few of such incidents would not be out of place here The difference in the forms of worship of one and the same God between Hindus and Muslims coupled with ignorance of His real nature and want of toleration is the root cause of all their dissensions, disputes, strifes etc, Liberal minded educated Muslims understand this and they thereſore do not join their orthodox section which cannot look upon Hindu wavs of worship with the equanimity and toleration of really educated cul- In Shirdi as well, the orthodox Muslims believed that Hindus by their anointing Baba with sandal paste, ceremonial worship and the noisy waving of lights before Him were compel. ling “the Mahomedan” Baba to commit what they thought to be a 'Sun' according to the tenets of tured men ·40 Muslim religion If therefore these Hindus were stopped from coming to Baba all this irreligion would be checked for ever. They therefore many a times spoke to Baba, tried to persuade Him to prevent Hindus from carrying out such noisy programmes before Him but Baba seemed to turn a deaf ear to all that they said. In the year 1894 therefore the ignorant Shirdi Muslims brought to Shirdi a Kazi (a religious teacher) from Sangamner (of Ahmednagar) and arming themselves with canes and Lathis under the leadership of that Kazi, stood at the Masjid entrance to prevent all Hindus from approaching Baba and worshipping Him with their materials of worship, such as sandal paste, flower, lamps etc As per his daily routine, Mhalasapati came there to offer his worship to Baba but seeing the mob armed with lethal weapons at the gate of the Masjid he stood at a distance, mentally offered Him his Pooja and was just retracing his steps home when Baba Himself called him and asked him to carry out to the finish his daily worship The Muslims stood aghast; and could do nothing, they then slowly dispersed and since then never thought of obstructing Hindus from worshipping Baba in their own way. Twenty years after, a Pathan fanatic of the same orthodox, ignorant section came to Shirdi. He hated the Hindus for the same reason as above ·41 mentioned and so one mid-night when some Hindus were sleeping by his side in Chawdi, he said to Baba, “If you are being spoilt, it is hecause of these sleeping Hindus. I will make short work of them (kill them) if only you will permit me to do so," Baba replied, “the fault, if any, is not theirs but mine; instead of killing them, therefore kill me so that all the things you hate would end But the Pathan could not muster courage to do that and so the sleeping Hindus were also saved. Another Pathan, whom, on account of his bustling shouting prayers and wild manners people called Rohilla, worshipped Baba as his prophet and adored Him as such But one day in the fit of his fanaticism, he forgot all this and thinking that he should stop Baba once for all from going astray in the way that He did by allowing Hindus to anoint Him, worship Him in the noisy way, he rushed upon Baba with a 'big stick to murder Him. Baba simply cast a glance at him and caught his wrist. This slight gestue of iesistance of Baba rendered him powerless and he fell to the ground and was able to get up only with the help of two persons. The wonderful strength that Baba showed in iesisting him fully convinced the Rohilla that Baba was the real prophet and theieafter let off examining the piopriets or impiopriety of Baba's actions.

·42 A much respected Mahomedan Fakir was in Baba's constant company but was ignorant of the principles of true religion One day he thought of converting Baba's Hindu Devotees 10 Mahomedanism; so when Baba went out to Lendi as per His daily routine, le polluted the water kept ready for Hindu's drink by dropping in each tumbler the residue of the water he had drunk. In huis ignorance he thought that the conversion of the Hindus would be complete so soon as they diink the residue of the water drunk by him, he never thought that foi real conversion of religion the heart has got to be converted. However that may be, by His omniscience Baha knew the trick the Fakir had played to carry out his progiamme of conversion of Ilindus in a mass; so on his rejurn from Lendi He became mighty angry and lus angei reached the lughest peak, He broke the earthen drinking pot, threw away all the tumblers filled with polluted water and went on abusing for a long long time say an hour or two Al last the Fakir's conspiracy of the conversion of Hindus in il mass leaked out and the Fakı got asliamed of the childish ignorance he had shown But the above unpleasant incidents of Muslim fanaticism were not thereafter iepealed at all, for the annual fair of Ramnavmi gave the Muslims and Hindus an opportunity to meet and to under- ·43 stand one another and as a result thereof each gave up the disgust and hatred he had for the other and looked upon each other's ways of worship with eyes of equanimity and toleration when therefore the Hindus started celebrating thc Ramnavmi Festival by Katha, Kirtan, Arti with Band, Diums, Cymbals etc., and Mahomedans took out their sandal procession the same day and went to the Dwarkamayee, each party joined the other in their worship of Baba Thus llindus joined the sandal procession and Muslims also took part in the celebration of Ramnaymı-festival Particularly when in the evening two big flags were taken in procession to the Dwarkamayee by tivo Hirdus and put up on the Dwarkamayee the Muslims joined the procession and jointly hailed the putting up of these flags on the Dwarkaniayee The flags that were and are being so put up annually seem to he a standing testimony of the Hindu-Muslim unity at least in Shirdi, and, if we may say so, amongst Baba's devotees of the whole of India.

·Chapter Four
SUPERNATURAL POWERS
Powers Supernatural
Are God's Gifts
Saints use them
For God's purposes
And Sinners
Use them for their own.
Seekers of God rightly suppose that, if they
use such supernatural powers as they have, their
spiritual progress would, for ever, be retarded
Shri Sai Baba stands far far above the category
of seekers He has already reached the goal. Not
only He has realised God; He has by His constant
meditation attained oneness with God. The idea
that He is an entity apart from God has entirely
left Him He lives, moves and acts in God and
when any of the supernatural powers is being
exercised or used by Him, He never thinks that
He has been doing anything extraordinary, the
erercise of these powers being so natural to Him.
We shall recount heie a few of such incidents for
the enlightenment of our leaders
Baba had all the eight great powcis a Yogi
possesses He can become small, big, light, heavy
assume any form, go and move without barriers,

·45 control, fire, air, earth, water, rains, storms etc. Once he hung up to the worn out Masjid's ceiling pıllars a plank 2 Ft. long and 1/2 Ft. broad with rags. He appeared to be sitting on that plank with His head bent down or sleeping on it, with lamps burning both near the head and the feet, No one saw Him climbing up or going down this plank and all wondered how He managed to pass His nights comfortably over that small plank supported only by thread-bare rags Seeing that people crowded there to see Him aloft on the plank, He removed the plank and again started sleeping on the floor. Shirdi people first came to know of this ‘mad' fakii's super-natural powers, when Shopkeepers unitedly refused to dole out oil for His lamps and He kept the lamps at the Dwarkamayi burning for the whole night with water in place of oil. The shop-keepers and Shiidi people stood amazed and this news spread like wild fire in the whole of the Ahmednagar District. Next time when hay stacks in a Shirdi field Caught fire and the crops of Shirdi people, massed in that place, were in danger of being buint down, at the camest entreaties of the Shiidi farincis, Baba went there and drew round the burning hay-stack i circle of water, stating, the fire would not then pread beyond that line, the farmers found that ·$6 Baba's control of fire was unique, for the fire stopped so soon as the hay stack marked by Baba was burnt down. Thereaftor people also marked that whenever Baba prepared some medicinal decoction, He dipped Ilis hand in the burning liquid and never used a spoon for the purpose. Another instance of His control ovci elements occurred when one day He was taking His meals at the Dwar kamayi and some peisons were sitting by, He bawled out “Stop” and when afler finishing His meals He had all Ilis belongings removed outside the Dwarkamayı the ceiling cracked and at once came down with a crash, spreading mortar bricks etc all over the Dwar kamayi More than once Baba at the request of people or for the safe reti eat home of His devotees stopped the fierce winded ceaseless oul-pouring of rains. Thrice were devotees' little giils saved from being drowned in the waterfull foundations of some Shirdı buildings. When Baba gave permission for holding annual Ramnavmi Fair, water problem was the stiffest for solution and so when the management committee requested Baba to help them in the matter, He asked them to take away, after He had ·47 finished His meals the leaf-dish used by Him for His meals and throw the same in the dried up well. So soon as that was done, water streamed into the well and since that day this wcll has been serving the needs of the people of Shirdi. Hindu metaphysics states that a human body has in it everything that the universe has; this seems to be true in the case of a soul who has heen in unison with Brahman or God When Das Ganu asked Baba for permission to go on a pilgrimage to Singaba for a bath in the holy Godavari, Baha did not permit him saying, “the Godavazi is here" But Das Ganu could not feel so. Hence Baba asked him to draw near and to hold out his joint palms near His feet. So scon as he did this, water trickled down Baha's feet and within a few minutes, his palms were filled overflowing with water. He was over-joyed, he sprinkled this water on his head and on the heads of those others who were there, and composed a song narrating this incident This incident clearly indicates what the body of a realised soul is or contains At times Baba gave to his devotees dieams the veracity of which the devotee could not doubt. Thus being pleased with the devotion of a childless woman, Baba appeared in her dream, blessed her and handed her a coconut saying, "Take this,

·No text on this page.

·49 sons obeying and overstaying the periods fixed by courts or of leaves and departing from Shirdi on the days fixed by Him have never suffered. Simply through Baba's grace numerous devotees have obtained male issues though their wives had long since passed child bearing age and doctors had declared its impossibility. The names of a few out of the many such devotees are:- Nana Saheb Dengle, Gopalrao Gund, Damodar Savlaram Rasne, Rao Saheb H V. Sathe, Sakharam Aurangabadker, Narayan Govind Shinde of Harda, Rao Bahadur Moreshwerrao Pradhan, Saptnekar Vakil and others But the greatest of all great supernatural powers Baba had was the one of restoring to life a dead person He erercised this power in the case of the late Mrs. Malanbai the late D R. Joshi Devgaonkar's daughter and a close relative of VS Ratanjanker. She suffered from T B. but all medicines having failed, she insisted on her heing taken to Shirdi When brought to Shirdi Baba asked her to lie down on a blanket and take nothing but water. She carefully followed these instructions but after a week or so she died one carly morning. Baba was then in the Chowdi. and for the first time in Shirdi history Baba did not leave Chowdi though it was past 8 AM The daughter's parents, with heavy hearts were pre

·50
paring for the funeral when Malanbai appcared
to breathe, opened her eyes and looked round
about, as it much fughtened. Then she said,
“A black person had been carrying me away, very
much fughtened, I cried out w Baba toi help,
Baha took llis stall and gave him good culyelling,
snatched me away hom his hand and carried mo
to Chowdi Without secung Chowdi she give
correct description of the Chowdi. Just at this
time Baba loft Ilis Chowdi bod bawling out,
stuking his stall against the giound and came
shouting to Diut's Vaca whicrc the girl had put
up. Sceing Malanbai ieslored to lie there was
joy all round
Chapter Five
KNOWLEDGE OF PREVIOUS BIRTHS
>>
"I and you have passed through many rounds
of bulbs, I remembei them all, but you do not
know them.”
Bhagawad geeia IV-5
The dificrence between an ordinary man and
å Superman usually consists in the latter's haviug
al knowledge of the past births of all creatures.
Once while Baba was returning from Lendi, His
eyes fell on a flock of goats From oul of them,
Ile purchased two she-goats for Rs. 32/- in all,

·51 inspite of the protests of the near-bye devotees, who informed Baba, that the price he paid for the she-goat was extravagant as ordinarily a she goat can be had for Rs 2/- only, and at the most Rs. 4)- may be paid foi each. Hearing this Baba said, "Go to that shop-keeper, puichase two scel3 (aboul 187 Kg) of Cham pulse and feed each with one seer and ietum the shc-goats to the Vendor” The transaction angered those worldly minded devotees, when Baba told them the following hustory of the past births of these goats "These goats were human beings and used to be with me always. They were two brothers Ar the start they had great affection for each other and were joint; but thereafter the greed of noney made them hostile; the younger worked hard and earned a lot but the elder could not can being idle, becoming jealous of the younger. He hatched a plo! lo murder the other; the plot howeve? leaked out and this iesulted in a sculle in which each killed the other. I few days after their death they were born as slie-goats Recognising them, I thought of purchasing them and providing them with a life of ease, but as their ll-luck would have it, you protested and so I had to retum these goats to their owner. Another time Baha revealed Ilis knowledge of the past births slating, "After bieakfast I stirred out and wiien walking fatigued me I came ·52 upon a nivci bank. The river was small but was lull, I had a bath in it, and the scenery round about cheered me up I was thinking of having iny chillam pull when I heard the painlul croaking of a frog. Takmg such sound to be the usual fealue of watery places, I made my chullam icady Wien a traveller came to me and bowed to nic. I shared my chillam pull" with him and ho invited me to his house with a request that I should have my noon-ical with him, and then iclurn aller resting In the meanwhile the frogs croaking grew loude and louder; so the traveller said, “I will just go and see whal thuis is". The diaveller said on velunn, "a big black serpent has caught a frog and will soon swallow it". Baba said, “Do you think I have come all this distance for nothings I shall sce that the hoog is saved." Wc then went to the spot where the serpent was, when Baba nearing the scipent said, “Oh Virbhadrappa, this Chanbasappa jom enemy las been boin a fiog and you a serpent to wicak vengence on him; Shame! Shame upon you, now at least give up hostility and rest in peace. So soon as these words were ullered by Baba the serpent gave up the frog and each went its own way. Seeing this the traveller requested me to tell him who these Vibhadrappa and Chanbasa- Ppil weie. Baba thercupon said, "Fou or five niles away from my residence was a Sbanka's temple; your ·.. 33 it required repairs; so a fund was started arid the subscribers appointed one of them a Banker as their Manager to get this work done. The Banker was honest bul was miserly; he did not misappropriate the fund but he did not spend a single farthing of his own; so though the repair work was started it remained incomplete; a second time the fund was therefore collected; but the Banker would not get the iepairs resumed His wife in the meanwhile had two dieams in which Shankar asked her to contubule hei mite for the repairs, saying, “As slie sincerely loved hun (Shankar) even one pice contribution of hers would be taken by him worth a lac of Rupees” Determining therefore to sell off her ornaments, she requcsted her husband to sell away her onaments and Carry out the temple iepairs from the sale proceeds thereof The Banker instead of selling his wiſe's ornaments purchased these ornaments himsell for a sum of Rs 1,000/- and in lieu of that consideration lie conveyed to his wife a piece of land mortgaged to hum hv a helpless widow (for only Rs 200) and advised his wife lo donate that land to the teinple priest as a gift The wife accordugly made a gift of that land to the temple priest The Banker, his wile as also the helpless widow mortgagor all died m due course "Thereafter the banker's wife was born as a daughter to the temple priest of Shankar's temple ·54 and was benamed Gaui and the helpless widow mortgagor was born as a son also to the same Shankar's temple priest and was named Chanbasappa The banker was born as the son of a poor Brahmin and was named Virbhadrappa To make a living, Virbhadrappa left his home and moved about from one village to another eking out his living by begging, working as a cooly etc During these peregienations he came to this Shankar's temple and put up there. As God would have it, the priest and the inmates of his house liked him and with My consent Gouri was married to him. The priest was so fond of Gouri that he put Gouri in the sole possession of that (mortgaged) land with rights to enjoy the incomo thereof in perpetuity Through God's Through God's grace that fallow land had purchaser and he bought it for a lac of rupees paying half the amount of Rs. 50,000/- on the spot and agreeing to pay the balance by instalments of Rs 2,000/- each All liked the idea except Gouri's brother Chanbasappa, who demanded half the sum agreed upon as the legal heir of the priest, on the ground that his father the priest was the real owner of that land Virbhadrappa opposed this demand of Chanbasappa On their referring this dispute to Me I said that the sole owner of that land is Shanker, All this money therefore should be spent for Shankar Gouri alone is the sole and rightful ·55 - 27 owner, Virbhadrappa 'and he abused Me. The same night Shankar appeaied before Gouri in a củeam and said, “All this money is yours. Give nothing to any one, and as to the appropriation of this amount I have full trust in Chanbasappa and so pay lum such sum as he demands for the temple management and the balance should be appropriated as per Baba's (My) instructions When theiefore she came to Me for advice, I told her to have the whole amount foi herself and to pay half of the interest on that sum to Chanhasappa The account of the dream, his wife had told, had no eflect on Vubhadiappa Ile abused every body and then went mad In a fit of insanity he very often threatened Chanbasappa that whenever he found Chanbasappa alone he would cut liim to pieces This theatening haun'ed Chanbasappa day and night and allowed him 10 peace of mind, though I very often told him," he has nothing to lear about ” Both died thereafter Vibhadiappa was born 2. serpent to wreak his vengeance and Chanbasappa was born a fog, for though he was my devotee, he had no futh in Me and stood in constaut diead of Virbliadiappa, inspite of Miy assurance to him Over and above the knowledge that Baba had of the past births of human beings, (le had also full knowledge of the births and Butivities of beasts, animais, insects etc, and Inok care :

·56 sce that they did not unjustly suffer at the hands of the wicked. Once while a devotee was seated near Baba, a lizard went chirping so loudly that, that de otec asked Baba, “what made the lizard chirp so louch and whether it foieboded some evil" Baba told him not to entertain any fear of it, and that hei chirping was simply an expression of her joy, for she knows her sister was coming from Aurangabad to meet her. The devotee thought Baba had simply humoured him by that reply and so he attached no importance to what Baba had said. Soon however he was dısıllusioned. A gentleman on hoi seback came to Shirdi from Aurangabad to meet Baba but Baba was taking His bath and he had therefore to wait outside for about half an hour. As he had to proceed farther from Shirdi, he thought of uulising his time by feeding his hungry horse with giams Ile therefoie took his small gunny bag, whipped it twice oi thrice and then luned its inside out to clean it properly, when a small lizard fell down from the bag. Fughtened as she was by her being thrown down like that, she heard her sister's chirping so she was put at ease, she therefore stiutted in eclat and pomp to meet her sister. The sisters had met after a long long time, so both were overwhelmed with joy, they kissed and caressed eaclı other and had a very happy time The question- ·57 ing devotee who was watching all this was amazed at the supernatural oneness of Baba with such little creatures as the lizard even Another day at breakfast time Baba said to Mis. Jog, “Mother prepare to-day plenty of pulse puddings, apply plenty of clarified butter to them, and after the noon arti (waving of lights) feed with them the buffalo whom you will find at your Lack door.” She accordingly prepared the puddings, applied clarified butter to them in' plenty, took a part of it for Baba and opening the back door after Arti actually saw a bufialo waiting there. She was overjoyed at this and fed the buffalo with those puddings The buffalo heartily enjoyed this mcal and doing justice to them, rested there with ease Strangely enough however the buffalo soon died. This frightened the lady devotee, who looked up all the vessels used in the preparation of the pudding to assure herself that no poisonous substance had, without her knowledge, found its way into the cooking utensils She stood aghast at the idea that she had leen instrumental in bringing about the bufalo's death and that not only she had committed a sin this way but shie had made herself liable to a prosecution by the buffalo owner Terified at this idea she rushed to Baba aud nai rated to Him how unhappy she was at what had happened. Baba emphatically told her, “Xother, you have ·58 donc no wrong. the only desire that the buffalo had in that body was, this eating of the sweet pudling, in satisfying this desire of hers you have cained religious meril, since she has now ohlained a ielcase from the animal body. She has now gone into a superior body, so do not worry and as to you fear ol prosecution, resi assued, no one is going to come to claim (lus bulalo at all. This was enough to sel al iest the troubled mind of that lady clevotce Mus. Tog Next time Baba saved a bull from a butcher's hands. Oncc il so happened in Shiidi that a bull cledicated to God Shivji oamed about in the village gardens and fields and destioyed the plants, standing crops etc. So people nel together and decided to send away the bull to Pania Pole (an asylum for old beasts) al Yeola and collected some fund for the pun posc They entrusted this work to Bhikhoo Marwadi of Shirdi, m all good faith; but the saud Bhikhoo proved ticacherous, he did go to Yeola as direcied, but instead of taking the bull to that asylum he sold it !0 a butcher for a sum of Rs. 14,- Relwuing to Shirdi howevei he calmly reported that he had taken the bull 10 Panjia Pole and kept him there Baba know how the bull was dealt with, so HC appeared mone Bayoji's dieam and said, “You have been enjoying sound sleep of ves! Haven't you placed me in a butcher's handlp” Bayoji 1c ·59 poited this to the village people, who, growing suspicious of the bonafides of the Marwadi, de puted Bayoji to Yeola for investigation Bayoji went to Yeola Panjra Pole nok full and complete search of it. Not finding the bull there. he went to the butcher's lane and looked about here and there Foituitously at this very line the bull had laised up its head above a butcher's compound wall; Bayoji saw this, he at once recognised the bull, so he approached the butcher and requested him to return the bull, but he would not part with it, as he had purchased it for Rs 14/- cash Baroji thereupon got the bull rcleased by paving to the butche Rs 14!- and then took him to the old beasts' asylum and kept him thcie. On his ietuin to Shirdi he acquainted the people with what Bhuikloo had done, and so to set a lesson to such sinful, faithless people as Bhıl:hco, Baba inspired them to piosecute him, and Bhikhoo had to 1 il in Jail for two months for his heinous act These instances show that Baba had His bemgn protective cres not only on the people of Shirdi but also on all creatures, large and smallbull, buffalo, lizard etc of Shirdi.

·Chapter Six > 1 "Saints are the best of benefactors.” “Unlıke man they live not for themselves, but for others, God's crcatuies whom He loves Baba had His own ways of relieving people from such fell epidemics as Plague and Cholera. When the writer first went to Shirdi in December 1911 Baba had on His body seven plague hubos. Devotees asked Baba as to what iemedies they should adopt to relieve Him from these hubos' pains Baha said, “Notłng needs be done Seven bubos on My body bespeak deaths of only seven people, that no more plague” fatalities would occur in Shirdi thenceforth, the devotees however pressed Baba to name the medicine, the application of which would relieve Him from bubo pain, so He prescribed for Himself the application of burnt cotton soaked in oil and the devotees went on applying this during my stay of ten days in Shirdi. So soon however as seven fatal plague cases had occurred, the plague, it was reported, left Shirdi, and bubos also disappeared from over Baba's body Another time, when Cholera broke out in Shirdı and several people fell victims to it, one morning Baba took out large quantity of wheat from the gunny bag He had at the Dwarkamayi ·61 and turning the hand-mill Himself, ground them and had that wheat flour spread out on the banks of the stream, two, three furlongs away from Shirdi. When some devotees asked Baba what all that was for, He emphatically stated it was to stop Cholera and as stated by Him, Shirdi people were freed from the lavages of Cholera since that dav Several educated devotees of Baha attempted to find out from scientists without success the connection, the spread of Wheat Flour had with Cholera epidemic Similarly, when a millionaire devotee suffer - ed from constant motions and vomitting for a fortnight Baba called him to His presence and by a simple wave of His 4th finger, cured him of stools and vomitting So soon as Baba by His finger crdered Bapu Saheb not to go to privy nor to vomit, the mouons and vomittings stopped and Bapu Saheh felt allright On being asked by his doctor what diet should Bapu Saheh be given, Baba said give him almond Rabadi which is usually considered to be too heavy to digest for a man of Bapu Saheb's weakened health. Bapu Saheb did not stop to weigh this common belief but with faith implicit in Baba took the prescribed Rabadi The result was marvellous; Bapu Saheb at once iegained his lost energy and health Another cure by Baba was more wonderful than the pieceding one. One Patil even ·62 bis cuic Your Bhimaji of Naiayan village, Talula Juniner, Dist. Nasık had lubciculosis of a most advanced stage. Every five minutes hc vomilled blood. All medicines had failed and his life was despairrel of lle was very intimate with Nana Saleh. who advised lum to go to Shirdi, and cave Baba's mace for So he came to Shirdi and supported by two three men, he got clown from the cart and was seated in front of Baba. Bhimaji laid his head on Baba's icct and prayed, “Save this help. less soul” Baba was moved by these words and Paul's pain subsided at once, and yet n finding that the Patil thereafter felt a bit mucasy, Baba told him, “I say, give up all worry now. stepping into Slurdi has ended vil vour pains and miseries. Go you will have a complete cure within a day or two Put up at Bhimabais place now vacant Blood vomiiting, he had every five minutes, stopped ili Baba's presence and he felt as iſ he was slowly regaining his lost energy, so he slowly walked upto the place where Baba had asked him to put up. The ground there appeared to be quite wet as it had very recent rubhle filling and cow dung plastering Tonight he had two fearful dreams, in the first of which his primaiy school teacher went on caning him and making him iepeat some poetiy lines and in the other, a fierce looking man went on rolling a heavy stone roller on his chest with such force that he felt as ·63 iſ he was passing through the last moments of his life But thereafter he got sound sleep and when he awoke in the moining he found himself com. pletely cured, much iefreshed, he had now 110 coughing, no voniitting Ile was agreeably surprised to see that the fell disease had, for ever left him. He therefore all alone went to Baha, piostrated himself beſoie Hiin and cypressed his gratefulness to Him with tears in his eyes Baba blessed him All without exceplion admitted that Baba liad cuued the Patil of T. B. in advanced stage within a day and that too without medicine simply by the exercise of His divine super natuai powers Patil then left for home Another time when Madhavrao was stung hy a poisonous serpent in the evening, He stopped the spread of poison of the serpent's fang simply by his command to the serpent and keeping Madhaviao awake the whole night chewing nimhleaves. Next morning Madhavrao was all right; the finger stung by the serpent had only a buriing sensation for a few days. Of wliat moment is a scorpion sting to one who can stop the poison spiead of a poisonous snake simply by the word of His mouth? Bapu Saheh Jog had that experience, when he had one evening a scorpiou sting and he complained to Baba about it and Baba simply said, "Go, go, the pain will soon vanish.

·64 A mere prostration before Baba and the procuring of His blessings cured Chhotubhai Paralkar of S years old Dispepsia, and Mrs. R. A. Tarkhad of six years old bad head-ache An agent's prayer in the event of the patients' disability to attend in person was also found to seive the purpose. This was seen in the case of Madhaviao's brother's wife, who had a plague fever with two bubos and so soon as Madhavrao infoi med Baba of this, praying for her recovery she recovered within twelve hours. A mere decision to come to Shirdi and starting for it cured one Mrs. Rangari of her inability to eat, drink etc. on account of her tiroat swelling. Bombay Law College Principal Shri Dhurandhar was cured of seven years old Asthama by one puff of Baba's Chillam offered to him hy Baba Himself. Though Baba has cast off His mortal coil, even now His devotees are having such experi. ences One Doctor Kathe's two years old son Vijay was unable to take even milk and emitted particles of stone through bladder coming to Shidi Vijay's mother asked Vijay to take some of Shri's food and to their wonder Vijay took that food with his own hand and was able to digest it, and emission of bladder stones also stopped for ever. An educated wife of an educated husband On their

·en genot
tuwe na
Shri Sai Baba on his way to Lendt from Masjid.

·ܫܙ ·65 had been ailing froin a disease which doctors, physicians and Hakims were unable to diagnose and cure. The lady would swoon, close her teeth light and remain unconscious for hours together. At last thic doctor's father asked him to take his wife to Shirdı; “Just take a trial,” he said. To salisfy the father both of them went to Shirdi but the wife would not go to Baba Samadhi temple; so with the help of a friend she was dragged to the Samadhi and made to prostrate herself before Samadhi. Baba's sacred ash and Samadhi water were thrust into her mouth On the second day's evening after bowing before Samadhi she fell on the ground and the spirit within started speaking, "I had pounced upon the lady and possessed her while she was returning from her parental house and standing under a tree. I am a female Bhil ghost; the holy water and the holy ash sprinkled over me have vanquished me So I am leaving this body for evei and going away This ended the lady's sickness; and she returned home safe and sound. Nine years after Baba's Maha Samadhi ie in the year 1927 a devotee's wife was miraculously saved by Baba from the jaws of death. The husband and wife were returning home after celebrating Ramnavmi at Shirdi The wife got down at Thana Rly Station to fetch water and just when SS. 3 ·66 with a water full vessel she was boarding the train, the train stated, and the woman fell down under the liain. The husband and other passengers combined, shouted to the guard to stop the train, but the train having already started stopped only after it had gone some distance, the husband and the passengers had feared the woman inust have becn ciushed under the wheels but when they rain up to the spot of the accident, to their utter amazement they saw the woman standling there unscathed, uninjured. In eply to the inquiry of all, the woman said, as soon as I fell, I remembered Baba, He at once appeared, stood in front of me pressed me hard against the platſon till the tram passed away and saved me Baba disappeared se soon as the train had left the platform, what sort of body Baba had assumed to save this womall, one can hardly know, foi usually theic is no 100m enough to stand for two persons between the train wheels and the platform, and yet what is inipossible to a Superman like Baba ? So also Baba saved His devotee Nagesh Atmaiam Sawant, a Police Sub-Inspector, from death in the year 1929 during the Bombay Hindu Muslim riots While on duty Sawant had fever and bad head-ache, an European officer in his sound stelle that Sawant was really ill, relieved him saying he would inform the Superintendent of this Unluckily an hour after Sawant was relieved, the riot ·67 reached its highest pitch and the officer was killed in it Had not Baba inspired the European Officer to relieve Sawant from duty probably death would have taken his toll and not the officer's One Sakarlal Keshayram Bhatt, a shop keeper of Bombay, who had been lame by one leg, tried all means to cure his lameness without success; hearing of Baba's wonderful powers, he came to Shirdi in 1911, prostrated himself before Baba and obtained His blessings. As a result thereof on lus jeturn journey as he walked a few steps in the sand to go up the ferry (ship) the clogged up leg nerve loosened itself and to his surprise he was able to walk erect. His lameness had His lameness had gone foi He was so pleased with this that he broadcast this news of Baba's superhuman powers amongst all his customers and persons connected with him. ever. Another cure of lameness was of a school mistiess widow's only son in the year 1956. The boy appeared for the S. S C. Exainination but when lie returned from the Examination on the last day he was found to have a bad attack of fever. Pioper medicines cured him of the fever, but he was not cuied of the lameness of legs brought on by the fever; the boy had always to be liſted up for being taken to any place. All possible remedies were tried but when they proved ineffective, hearing of ·68 Shirdi Sai Baba's powers, the school misti ess took the son to Shirdi On account of his lameness the boy felt so shy that rather than going to Baba's Samadhi on the shoulders of a coolie, he preferred staying at the Shirdi Vada The mother alone therefoie had to go to Shui's Samadhi to pray for her son's cuie for two days. She was to leave Shirdi on the third day, so she went to Samadhi Mandır to attend Aili and offered hcı last obeisance before leaving In the meanwhile Baba appeared before the boy and said, “Have courage He then lent him his hand, led him to the temple and kept him standing against the temple pillai On ieturn from the Arti when the mother did not find the son in the 109m, she again appi cached the Samadhi and with teais in her eyes most piteously prayed for the recovery of the boy When she was just returning from the temple her eyes fell on the boy standing agams the pillai She inquired of the boy how he had managed to come there, the boy nairated how Baba had helped him to come, but the mother would not believe it However when she saw that with her support the boy was able to walk up to their room she was mightılv pleased The boy fully recovered within a month thereafter and was able to move and walk freely. Now a few cases of the wonderful cure of blindness by Baba's supernatural power inay be ·69 son cited. The grandfather of Shri Baba's devotee Vithalraɔ Yashwant Deshpande pressed his son devotee to send him to Baba for His blessings, so Vithalrao arranged to send hiin to Shirdi with his Led by the grand-son the grandfather went to the Dwarkamayi, prostrated himself before Baba and sorrowfully said to Baba, “I am unable to see.” Baba said, “You will be able to see So soon as Baba uttered these words, the grandfather had his eye-sight iestored to him He was able to see everything Blindness left him entirely. Never was anybody's prayer for relief granted so All wondered at it Another blind devotee went to Baba and prayed to Baba, “I have lost my eyesight I do not feel its loss, for want of eyesight keeps me away from many undesirable things, all the same I am eager to see the human form in which you, my lord, have manifested you self Please therefore giant me eyesight till I satiate my eyes by beholding your human form, and you may withdraw this giant of eyesight so soon as that is done ” Baba at once granted this request, he saw Baba with his own eyes and then he lost vision and became blind S001) A stark blind man was found singing in the tuile of his cymbals befoie Baba, the one sacied formula “Ramkrishna Hari” (names of incarnations Ram and Krishna, Vishnu), in the year 1913-15.

·70 The waiter found the same man in Shirdi in 1942-43 Irurting Chapters of Shri Bhagvad Gita of Lord Krishna and poems, verses from the well-known Maharashtra Saint Gnaneshwer's Amratanubhava. I asked him “TVhen did you get your eyes?" He said, “Through Baba's grace he had blured vision during Baba's time and thereafter a clear vision Through His grace he is now able to read, write and more about frcel.” To assure the writer of this he read out to the writer scveral verses from the said Amiatanubhava that he had with him Even after Baba left Ilis body; He has been wielding His Powers for the benefit of His devotees Thus He gifted speech to the speechless daughter of His devotee RS Maniar of Kumbakonam, Madras. The said daughter Rajkumari ijas duml; clown from her birth; all possible means were uued to cure her of hei dumbness, but when all of them proved fruitless Mr. Maniar took to Baba's worship. Some days afte!, Baba asked him to bring her speechless daughter to Shirdi for paying her respects to His Samadhi Vaniar brought the daughter to Shirdi and made the daughter place flowers etc on Baba's Samadhi and pay her respedts to Him As soon as she did this she started speaking “Sai Baba" "Sai Baba” and then she started speaking freely Parents were naturally very much pleased to see the instantaneous cure of their daughter.

·71
1
A Bombay (Andheri) devotee had a similar
experience. His little daughter, run over by a
motor car, was saved, but was injured and took
a fortnight to recover in the hospital. Though the
hospital treatment restored her health, the speech
she had lost was not re-gained, she became dumb
and though several remedies, medicines elc were
tried all of them proved ineffective At the last,
the holy ash of Baba's sacred hands was tried and
she started speaking as soon as she took its firt
dose All were startled at the powers the holy ash
of Baba's hands.
Chapter Seven
MATERIAL GAINS
Necessities have no law.
“Aged parents, Chaste wife, infant son must
be maintained at any cost lanu.
I take upon myself the burden of getting and
protecting the wealth of those who worship me,
mecitite on me and see nothing but Vívselſ in this
would
B Gita IX-22
It seems Baba did not like that any of His
able-bodied devotees shoull iema! idle and he
a burden on society or his kith and kin lle always

·72 preached, “A man should always be doing something” He Himself never sat idle but was always busy doing something. In the noon when no work was at hand IIc would just take a needle and icpair His loin out Dholi or Ilis robe etc, and iſ at such a time somebody would turn up and question Baba, “Why should you take this trouble when we all are icady and willing to do this for you?" llc would at once reply; "One has to be always busy doing something and so far as possible he should avoid troubling others for his own piece of work How a man secking to escape the discharge of luis worldly cutics by running away for gond from it on the excuse of going on a pilgrimage, was persuaded by Baba to jetun home and in shoulder bis responsibilities like a man, is best seen in the life of one Janadan Noicshwer Fanse alias Ilaribhau Fanse. Wearied with carrying on the buden of his wouldly cales, informing his mother Haribha'i left his home foi Rameshwar; however as Shirdi was on the way to Rameshwar, with a view to have the blessings of the fai famed Shu Baba he came to Shidi and felt so much atliacted by: Baba, that he stayed at Shirdi for a week. When thereafter he asked Baba's permission to go to Rameshwar. Ile ordered him to go home, saving his mother had abstained from food since the day he had left home and if he failed to leturn hoine she might die The mother was very much pleased to see 7 ·73 her son back at home and was convinced that Baba was omniscient. In the meanwhile a person of his village being attacked with Cholera approached him, he administered to him Shri Baba's holy ashes and he was cured This led the people to believe that he was a physician The holy aslies were however soon exhausted and so Haribhau was embarrassed as to how he should deal with another Cholera case, if he got one But luckily for him Cholera left his village since that day Thereafter he happened to go to a nearby village and casually met some Marwadi merchant known to bum The merchant seeing that a simple devotee had come to meet him, told Haribhan, “Look here, my brother is seriously ill, all physicians, doctrs have tried their utmost to cure him but they have all failed, now since you die Sui Sai Baba s devotel, if your Sai Baba is jeally z sami, lle mugi ('ulle my brother thiough you Iaubhall saw the patien. found the case to be seuous, was thieietore vous to slip away but as it was night, he could nxt lente for home At mght when Jaribhau', Bhajan (prayer) time became due, the patient self made the necessary preparations foi Bhuan and throughout the Bhajan sat concentratmg om Baba's Photo. This surprised all and the Alaivadi now said, “Whether the patient dies or smiles I will have his medicine foim none but you” To luuk the responsibility Haribhau pm posely quoted his ·74 fees in excess of those of the Civil Surgeon, at Rs. 200/- The Mai wadi agreed to that. That night Baba appeared in Haribhau's drcam and told him what the discase was and the medicine to be piesciibed for it. Jlaribhau prescribed the said medicine and the patient started taking this medicme; the patient fully recovered after a time and so the Marwadı offered Rs. 200/- the stipulated fees to Ilaribhau, but Harbhau would not accept il stating he had done nothug, it was his Guru's woik. Marwadi could not rest satisfied till he requited Haribhau's labour in some form or other so lie bought a scaſ worth Rs 200/- and going to Haribhau's house when he was out, left it there. Haribhau could nol now refuse the acceptance but he felt that the price-amount of the scarl should be sent to Baba However as he was penniless and Baba had also lelt off Ilis body in the meanwhile, while oſlering his usual night prayers, tears rolled down his eyes That very night Baba appeared to him in his dieam and said, "There is famine all jound at present, so sell oll the scarf and purchase uce from this amount of Rs 200/-, sell it at underprice for the present, carry on this rice business till this amount of Rs 200/- runs out Then sell uice at profil and you will be able to make a livmg" Following these instructions IIaribhau prospeied, became happy and then never thought of deserting home ·75 Baba did not and does not even today want that His devotees should starve; of course He discouraged greed but He wanted that His devotees should have a proper living and so He helped most of them up to a job or provided them with facılıtıcs for business To mention a few of the thousands of such instances of every day occurrence. In the year 1915 one Shri R. A. Tarkhad had to be without service for a pretty long time after he gave up the Mill Manager's post he had held; so he came and stayed at Shirdi with his wiſe. When he had stayed for very many days he asked Baba's permission to return home Baba permitted them to return but asked them to go to their Bombay home via Poona and not via Manmad; as this route was a little longer they had to spend a As Mr Tarkhad was without a job for many many days his wife lelt it inconvenient but Mr Tarkhad knew the significance of Baba's instructions, so overi uling the objection of Mrs thev took the Poona route and put up at their friend's for night Learning from Mi. Tarkhad that he was in search of a proper job for himself his friend informed him that a mill owner there was in lad need of a Manager able to control labour, immediately Mr Tarkhad saw the Mill owner and the Mill owner was so much impressed with the conversation he had with Mr Tarkbad that there and litlle more ·76 then he appointed lli Takhad as his Mill Manager Mi and Mis Takhad were naturally vent much pleased with this, and this had brought home to hei the importance of Baba's instruction to them about taking the Poona route. Another time one Ganpatiav Naike, who after graduation had spent three years at Manchester foi specialısation in Geology and Mining went to Shudi to see lus father-in-law Shumant Booty Being of a spiritually inquisitie tuin of mind he saw and paid his respects to Baba and soon became so much attached to Ilim, that in all important matters he would not do anything without Baba's permission for some years he could get onlı job work for a few months and that too in chſleient provinces Being tned of this camp liſe when he heard of a vacancy of a Professor - post at Benaies College carrying a salary of Rs. 300/- per mensem, he sought Baba's permission to accept it, but Baba asked him to clesist fiom such an attempt and continue the job work he had been doing Till then there was no chan for Geology and Imig at Poona College, but in 1917 an advertise. ment appe'ued calling for applications for such a post in the Pyona Engineering College With Baba's consent Ali Varke applied for it and was appomted a Piolessor of Geology and Alining on a salary of Rs. 600/- P M Why Baba had pre- ·77 Vented Make from taking up Benares University professorship for Rs. 300/- P. M. only was now understood and appreciated by Narke and consequently his faith in Baba grew stronger But it was not always that Baha took care lo guard the interests of persons with high academic qualıfications, he took equal interest and care of eren non-qualified persons provided he had the Necessary devotion and faith in Hin One Cholkai Towed that if he would be able to pass his P.Sc Evamination and get a teacher's post he would go and pay bis respects to Sai Baba, lle piepared for his examination, took it and passed out and oblamed a teacher's post as well thiough Shu Baba's giace, but as his salary was meagie, he was not able to spare money enough for going in Shudi He therefore took another ow that he would not take sugar until he was able to go to Shirdi At last he was able to spue the necessary money so he left for Shudi and one morning he saw Baba and paid his respects to Ilim Just at that umc Bapu Saheb Jog tuned up Baha said to Mr Jog, Take this man to you place and give him a sugartul cup of tea, Bapu Saheb accordingly took Cholhar with lum and learnt from him that Baba had added “Sugaiſul” to a cup of tea, to show to Cholkar that IIe was fully aware of his vow of abstaining Trom sugar ull he bad seen Baba Thus pleased ·78 Cholkar and he felt that he had met one who was ready to be his guide, philosopher and friend it he stuck to Him, with faith. In another casc, a young man named Bapurao Boiavke who went to Sbiidi on fool with only three annas in his pocket eained lakhs of Rupees through Shu's grace Boiavke had lost his parents when he was almost an infant, and taking advantage of his age, his relatives squandered away his ancestial property with the result that Bapurao was forced to look up foi a job so soon as he had gone upto the entrance (S. S c) class. The only relative he had, was his maternal uncle, 1 devotee of Sai Baba at Shirdi, so he went upto Kopeigaon by railway but the funds that he had, had run out and with only three annas balance in his pocket he could nol get a seat on the Tonga, so he went to Shirdı on foot and paid his respects to Baba He was well received by his maternal uncle, so he staycił with him looking after his sugai cindy field Unce his care his maternal uncle's sugar ciop improved so much that the neighbouring field owner took Boravke into partnership. Boravke now looked after both the fields Next few years they got bumper sugar candy ciops, the prices also went up considerably, and so within two years Bapurao made a lac of Rupees, he realised that, all that was due to Shri Baba's grace and so pul- ·79 chasing a piece of land at Shirdi lie now grew Oranges, Mosambi in it, built a bunglow for himself and settled down there to be able to pay his iespects to Baba everyday. Even today we are reminded of Shri's powerful grace when we see this bunglow with his fruil garden on the way to Rahata a few furlongs from Shirdi. One Christian Police Inspector Joseph of 46, Turner Road, Bandra, having failed to get any clue about culprits in a criminal case prayed to Baba to help him, Baba was pleased to appear in his dream and to give him the necessary instructions for investigation Following Shri's instructions Joseph was able to find out the proper culprit. Again Baba helped the late Mr. Tendulkar Raghunathrao in obtaining a fairly good pension. Both Mrs. Savitribai Tendulkar and Mr R Tendulkar were ardent devotees of Baba, both of them jointly and severally composed songs on Baba's glory. Raghunathao had grown grey in Bombay Graham & Co.'s service and had then attacks of epilepsy fits and dimmed vision He put in an application for pension and in the usual course of crents his pension would have been fixed at Rs. 75/- the one half of his salary. So Savitubai felt a bit embarrassed as to how she could cope with the expenses of her large farnily in Rs 75!-. To set her at rest the all knowing Baha appeared ·80 in Savitribai's dream and said, “I have a mind/tu fix up you pension at Rs. 100/-. Will that satisfy you?” Savitribai said, “We have full faith, that you will do the needful for us.” A lotnight after the dieam, the Company considered Tendulkar's application and going beyond the usual iule, fired his pension at Rs. 110/-. This was enough to satisfy the husband and wife who the caſter spent the rest of their lives in singing songs of God's glory. Not only did Baba provide money to his devotees but He also saw to it that they did not by their thoughtless ventues run into losses An old devotee of Baba Shu Damuanna Kasar at the instance of his Bombay friend, thought of going in for a purchase of cotton bales; he therefore sought Baba's advice on the point, thiqugh another Shirdı devotee. Baba replied, “Sheth seems to have lost his sense He should jest contented with what little he has got, he should not iun after lakhs” Seeing that the cotton prices were gomg up everyday, Sheth said to himself, the devotee who has obtained Baba's advice for me in this matter does not seem to have pioperly put before Baba all the facts, so he ran down to Shirdi, paid his respects to Baba and started massaging His legs While doing so, it occurred to him that if he reserved a certain portion of the profits foi Baba in that transaction Baba would permit him >> ·81 to enter into the proposed contract Without being asked, Baba at once said, “I would never be a party to any body's business”. Hearing this Sheth looked down and entirely gave up the idea of the purchase. His Bombay friend again wrote to lum that in following the advice of a Fakir, Sheth was committing a gross error of judgenient; but the Bombay friend was soon disillusioned, when the cotton prices went down and down and he suffered a heavy loss in that transaction, Damuanna now realised how he was saved by following Baba's advice in preference to his friend's and thanked Him from the bottom of his heart Thefts and robbery are well known sources of loss to people, Baba saved several of His devotees from such inroads on their purse A cook who had put in thirty-five years of service under a Baba's devotee bored a hole in his master's wall treasury and removed Rs 30,000/- currency notes, which was all, the master had saved in his life Inqunies and investigations were all made but they bore no fruit Once the master was sitting Outside liis house on his Otta ruminating over his loss, when a Fakır passed by him; beckoning him he nariated the loss he had sustained by theft, the Fakir thereupon advised him to swear that he would go to Shirdi of Kopergaon Taluka in Ahmednagar District and there pay his respects to the great Saint Sai Baba and that he should give ·82 up one of the foods he liked most till he was able to fulfil his vow of going to Shirdi The master took the vow and gave up a food of lus liking Even before a fortnight had elapsed, the cook thief thought better of the matter, so with all tlic currency notes of Rs. 30,000/- he approached his master, returned the currency notes and emorsefully requested the master to pardon him. The master was natwally overjoyed at the turn the cook's mind liad taken and then fulfilled his vow by going to Shurdi and paying his thankful respects to Shi Sai Baba One Ganpat Dhond Kadam was saved from a gang of Bhil robbcis in the vear 1914. Mr Kadam was procceding to Shirdi with his family. After he had left Nasik a gang of Bhils boarded the running train and entered into the compartment where Kadam was sitting with his wife and children Kadam was reading a book of holy songs. Thinking the Bhils were interested in listening to the songs he started reaching them louder The gang waited there for about five minutes and then left the running train one by one in the same wav as they had enter.d into it The wonderful part of this story was that Air Kadam saw a Fakır sitting in front of him, as the gang boarded the running train and then as soon as they left the train the Fakır disappeared, no one knew where When Kadam reached Shirdi and paid hus respects to + ·83 Baba, He asked him, “Well, have you come safe, well guarded?” Kadam at once understood that Baba had appeared before him in the compartment on the entrance of the gang into the compartment and it was only as a result thereof that the gang of Bhils got frightened and left the train leaving him safe and unscathed. Another Vakil Devotee Vainan Chintaman Muke of the village Basant of Taluka Nifad, staying in his field-house escaped the loss of all his property, though a party of four trespassed upon his house after mid-night and boring a hole in the northern wall, one of them had entered into it. A small trunk under the cot, where the Vakıl slept, was removed by the inside thieſ and passed over to one of his companions outside. That small trunk had some promissory notes and Rupees Two IIundred in currency notes. When after that the said thief tried to remove a big trunk containing ornaments, silver vessels, documents worth about Rs. 10,000/- the Vakil's sister-in-law suddenly awoke and seeing the intruder called out, “Thiel! Thief". The Vakil was fast asleep, he could not hear his sister-in-law's shouts; but Baba appcairng in his dream said to him, "You are robber of vour trunk, awake, awake At once the Vakil awoke and ian frightened with a cudgel shouting “Thief! Thief!”. The thuef in the house made his way through the hole they had bored and all of them 93 ·84 caped. The only loss the Vakil thought he had „ustained, was that of a small bag but even this bag which the thieves had thrown away through fught in the neighbouring field was brought in tact to the Vakil by a farmer of that field. So ultimately it was found that the Vakil had lost nothing at all through Shii's grace. So“ also when a thief broke into the rail quarters of a Railway Telegraph Master Ratanlal of Vani (Nadiad-Gujarat) and was fumbling for valuables here and theic a child cried and the thief's leg dashed itself against a bucket so Ratanlal awoke and with a stick in his haud ran after the scampering thief; on return home the Rly. Mastei found that through Shri's grace he had lost nothing Sakhievadi Sugar Mhill Doctor A. 1 Tagare had a similar experience in 1914. He was procceding to Kopergaon post office with a bag in a bullock cait, to encash his war Bonds of Rs. 2500/-. While he was busy talkıng with a fellow passenger, the bag containing the bonds slipped down the cart unnoticed by the Doctor. As soon as he noticed that this bag had dropped down on the way, leaving the cait he ran helter skelter a mile or two in search of it without success Uneasiness on account of this loss allowed him no sleep till about mid-night, when he thought of sitting ·85 niear Sai Baba's photo, he had in his house and praying to him. While he was so praying he seemed to hear someone telling him, 'Cease worrying”. This brought him peace of mind and he could then sleep. Next morning he had to attend upon an ill friend at a nearby village; so he went there, examined his friend, gave him medicine, aud casually talked to him about the loss of his bag containing the said war bonds. A girl who was standing by listening sympathetically to the Doctoi's talk, at once ian out and retuined with a bag saying that it was found lying on the road the previous day. Looking up the bag, the Doctoi found that though the papers had all been disturbed and turned up and down, the finder finding nothing valuable in his eyes, had removed nothing from the bag, that the war bonds were in tact The Doctor was overpleased and heartily thanked Baba for His favcur and grace Again a cashier of a well-known Bombay firm had made away with a large sum and caine to Shirdi to save himself from airest etc A warranc was obtained and the work of executing the waiiant was enti usted to the firın inanager, a Baha's (levotee The manager tricd his utmost to tracc the culprit cashier but he could not find him He was al a loss to understand whether he should continue the search or return to Bombav, so he came to Baba to have his decision in the matter.

·36 To his surprise, he found there the cashier seated shampooing Baba's feet. On seeing the manager, the cashier got nervous, prostrated himself before Baba and earnestly prayed to Him for saving him. Baba advised him to accompany the manager to Bombay, to confess his crime to his master, and to request him to pardon him. The cashier camed out Baba's instructions in toto and was saved from criminal prosecution and the manager also recened his master's thanks for dexterously handling this affair Though Baba's grace His devotees were able to secure necessary loans for their personal use, for business, for getting a son educated and trained in foreign countries So also through His grace loans were ieturned asked to Shu's devotees to enable them to go to Shirdı. Bapusaheb Jog lad a loan of Rs 1,400/-, advanced 10 his wife's relative, returned to him after a lapse of We quote here only two such instances out of the innumerable that are extant. A farmer was very anxious to obtain from Govt a loan of Rs 500/- for a well on his farm and he applied twice to the Government but both his applications were refused. The farmer approached Baba in the matter, and He spoke to Nanasaheh the then Collector's Chitnis about it. Nana said he would certainly present his applica- 14 years ·87 tion, as required by Baha, though he had no hope of the application being granted. The farmer therefore applied to the Collector again and Nanasaheb presented the application to the Collector informing him at the same time that two similar applications of his were rejected previouslv. The Collector thereupon asked the farmer, “Why do you press the Govt. for a loan?” The farmer himself clearly put his case before the Collector. He said, “Sır, I owe Rs. 500/- to Governinent. I am anxious to repay the loan I cannot do this until I have a well to water my land, and to get better crops. I have started digging the well, but the work had to be stopped owing to the intervening big rocks; unless they are fired by Dynamile and removed, the well work cannot be completed and I can't have water. Without water, I can't have crops enough to return the Government loan and so I press this application The Collector at once granted the application and the farmer obtained the loan he badly required through Baba's grace. In another case Baba enabled a disciple of Gadge Maharaj to pay to his Master (Guru) a sum of Rs. 100/- he had promised hun. The disciple Shri Ramchandra Maharaj was required by his master to defray a day's expenses of the Yagna, a sacrifice the Guru was performing, so Ramchandra went to Belapur and round-about places perform- ·88 ing Kirtans (recitations of God's glory accompanied by music etc) and obtaining promises of the sum required. More than the sum required had been promised, so he thought he had nothing to worry about; when therefore a very few days were left for sending the promised amount to the Guru, Gadge Maharaj, he once again repaired to Belapur, for it was from that place that he had received promises for the largest portion of the required amount, but as usually happens the Belapur people evaded payment of the promised sums. This set Ramchandra thinking; he could not understand how to make up the amount sequired; he therefore offered up an earnest prayer to Baba to help him keep his promise to Gadge Maharaj and Baba ever ready to grant the just prayers of his devotees, inspired one man to pay the whole of the promised sum of Rs 100/- to Ramchandra during the Kirtan the next morning. Need it be said that this strengthened Shri Ramchandra's attachment to the ever kind Sai Baba ? Domare ·Chapter Eight EMBARRASSMENTS REMOVED Many and Mysterious are the means, A Superman takes, To save his men, From Situations, Unwelcome, unpleasant, His knowledge Infinite, Powers unlimited, Piesence all Pervadıug; All, all are Pillars, To the permanent Monument Of glory He erecis, For the eternal happiness: And Life-Long Joy, Of the men He loves. Numerous experiences as illustrations of the above lines have been recorded in magazines and books on Shri Sai Baba The narration of a few of them however will, it is hoped, be deemed sufficient by the readers for this purpose. Rao Saheb H. V. Sathe's father-in-law Kelkar had puichased for Shri Sathe a piece of land, adnieasuring 20 Acres, in Shirdi. When Shri Sathe lappened to come to Shirdi thereafter, he proposed to Mr. Kelkar that the latter should accompany him and show him the said land. He also asked

·90
his wife to go with him to see that land and she
consented to do so without consulting her father
Kelkar however did not approve of the idea of
accompanying Shri Sathe for the reason that he
had in his house at the time a widow of Sathe's
deceased brother and he feared that if she came
to know of that purchase, she might demand a
portion of the land as her share. Kelkar therefore
declined to accompany Shri Sathe; so Sathe asked
his wife to go with him but on the advice of her
father she also now refused to do so. This irritated
Shri Sathe so much that taking a whip from his
coachman he was just on the point of starting
whipping his wife, when Shri Baba's devotee
Megha rushed in, bawling out, “Saheb, Saheb, you
are wanted immediately by Shri Baba;” Shri Sathe
throwing down the whip at once rushed to Baba;
when Baba asked Shri Sathe, “Well, Well, what
has happened?” Sathe knew at once Baba had
known all that had happened and that he was
preparing to whip his wife, so he shamefully hung
down his head Baba then said, “Why do you
want to see the land? It is there Your going
there would not change it a bit.” On hearing this
Shri Sathe calmed down and returned homem
thanking Baba for saving him from the cruelty he
was to perpetrate; the wife also sincerely thanked
Baba for saving her from being whipped,

·91 Was Mrs. Nanasaheb Nimonkar also had a somewhat similar experience. Her son was ill at Belapur and so she wanted to go there to see how he Her husband permitted her to do so, but he insisted that she should return the very next day. As that day was considered to be so very auspicious that none would be allowed to leave on that day, she feared that she would not be able to reiun on that day as per her husband's wishes (or order). She was in a fix; she would not disobey her husband, nor could she displease her son low, Nanasaheb was always in attendance upon Baba and accompanied Him to Lendi. Tust when Baba was proceeding to Lendi with Nanasaheb llis Nanasaheb prostrated herself before Baba and asked for permission to go to his son at Belapur Baba at once said, “Yes, Yes, go there at once, stay there for three four days and then return Thus Mrs Nanasaheh's fear of displeasing her husband by not being able to return the next day was averted, as Nanasaheb had listened to the instructions Baba gave to his wife in that matter. Bapusaheb Jog lost his mother, there was no such Brahmin at Shirdi as he should have to get the obsequial ceremonies of his mother duly perfoi med, so he requested Baba to permit him to go to Nasik for the purpose, hut Baba went on ad- Journing the day of his departure from day to day 9) ·92 till at last only a day was lefl to the day on which thosc ceremonies should be starled. Bapusaheb infoi med Baha accordingly and stated that he must that day start foi Nasik, Baba cooly replied to him, "We will start this noon”; Bapusaheh was in a fix; he could neither disobey Baba nor evade the performance of ceremony on the day fixed However, just at 11 A.M. that very day a learned Brahmin versed in lore of the family clan came up This satisfied Bapusaheh who was now fully convinced that the faith le had reposed in Baba was nol in vain. Nanasaheb Chandorkar got into a fix in certain family matters. His father Govindrao Chandorkar had also been like him, a District Deputy Colldector and stayed in a house built hy him at Kalyan. Lately some unpleasantness had grown up between him and the local Musalmans and so he had ordered all the members of his family to desist from having any connection whatsoever with Musalmans in general. When Nanasaheb happened to return home he was informed of what had happened and his father's standing order about having no Musalman connections. Nana was now puzzled. He was prepared to give up all connections with Musalmans but he was not prepared to dissociate himself from Baba. If his father took Baba to be a Musalman, naturally he would expect Nana to give up Sai Baba; this em- ·93 raj, but barrassed Nana; so he spoke to his father about his connection with Sai Baba. In the meanwhile Baba had alieady given proper turn to his father's mind in the matter; so he at once said to Nana, “My Guru (Religious Teacher) is Sakharam Mahayour Guru is not Sakharam Maharaj so even if Sai Baba may really be a Mahomedan, He is your Guru, and you may most willingly continue going to Him without the least objection from me On hearing this Nanasaheh was overjoyed and heartily thanked Baba for the happy solution of the puzzle he had to face. So also when once Nanasaheb with a party of friends, started for a pilgrimage to Ganesh Temple, about ten to twelve miles away from Pachora Rly station, in Khandesh District and feared that he would be so late that he would not be able to see the temple priest and have fooding arrangements made for all, though they were all very hungry having taken nothing after leaving home at 11 A M., he praved to Baba that if He would be pleased to provide him and his party at least a jugfull of tea, he would be satisfied With the supernatural powers that Baba had, He appeared before the temple priest while he was meditating and informing him Nana was coming with his friends, asked him to prepare a jugfull of tea for them So when Nana and his friends reached the temple he found the temple priest ·94 awaiting to receive them with a jugfull of tea in his hand. Nana and his friends were therefore surprised when on reaching the temple, the temple priest said, “Nana have you come safe? IJere is a jugfull of tea for you and your party.” They all wondered how the priest knew of their coming and their requirements and questioned priest how he had known of their coming. The priest narrated how Baba had informed him. So they all heartily thanked Baba for His timely favour. Baba has helped several of his devotees in the matter of their daughters' and sons' marriages by informing them the names and whereabouts of the would be husbands and wives through dreams and through supernatural sounds or voices. In some cases, He has accepted devotees' challenge and by fixing up the marriage within the time limit prescribed by the devotees shown them His powers of match-making. In other cases, the people who had taken a vow to see Baba on the marriage taking place had also their desires fulfilled. In several cases He has also made arrangements for the necessary ornaments and funds required by the devotees for the marriage celebrations and helped them in diverse other ways, say, by calming down the differences and dissensions that spring up on such occasions. Out of fear of prolixity we refrain from the detailed narrations of even a few of them, ·95 A devotee clerk in customs office, once got into a fix when some customs bills once seen and checked by the customs office were recalled and could not be found in the office inspite of allround search he made for these. The Clerk therefore feared not only his superior's reprimands but also dismissal from office and prosecution as well, a day passed away and though the bill bundle could not be found, some how or other his superiors clean forgot this matter and made no inquiry, naturally the clerk was much worried, so he prayed to Baba to save him The next morniing when he went to the office, he found the required bundle of bills on huis table The clerk was very much surprised for he was always the first to attend office and the last to leave it. Who could have kept it there after the office was closed, but Baba, he rightly thought He therefore thanked Baba from the bottom of his hcait for saving him. A servant drawing a monthly salary of Rs 36/- named Bhikhaji Maledji had a sister Chhaboo She had been ill for about 4 months. On 5-12-51 her illness took a critical turn, so he was very anxious to get foi her the benefit of good doctor's advice and medicine, but within the meagre salary he was drawing, it was not at all possible for him to get these Heaving sighs upon sighs, bemoaning his lot, he carried on his ·96 office duties chanting Sai Baba's name, when suddenly there came in a doctor for some inquiry. Though Bhikha could not recognise him, through Shri's grace the doctor himself reminded Bhikha of his previous connection with him. So Bhikha narrated to him the difficulty he was beset with in the matter of his sister's illness and requested him to examine her and prescribe the necessary medicine. The doctor ieadily complied with Bhikha's request; Bhikha thus got over his worries and felt assured that Baba was ever ready to shower his grace even on a poor man like himself. Another devotee Shyamdas alias Ilddhvesh of Dehnu left for Dwarka, with a party of pilgrims by steamer from Bombay. Uddlıvesh had with him all the tickets of his party: It was usual to issue one ticket for both the steamer and boat journeys, Uddhvesh kept ready in his pockct the boat part of tickets and put the other part of steamer tickets in his money-purse. The steamer being overcrowded, Uddhvesh had to be standing in the gallery For reasons best known to him he thought of taking out his purse. In doing so the purse slipped out of his hand and fell in the mid- The puise had all the steamer tickets and all his money. As to the steamer tickets, on showing to the Ticket Checker the boat counter part of the ticket the T. C allowed him and his party to pass, but all his money were in the purse, and sea

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·97 as a greater part of the pilgrimage yet remained to be covered, he was embarrassed. He never begged for alms. His only shelter and resort was Baba. So he wrote to Baba at Shirdi about it, but * before even that letter had reached Shirdi, Baba appeared in the dicam of the late Girdhar Gopal of Dehnu, as a neatly dressed priest and said, "Your father at Dwarka has no money, so send it to him Girdhai awoke and sat up foi more than an hour trying to understand the meaning of the dream he had; but he could make out nothing; feeling drowsy he then went to sleep. Again the same priest appeared in his dream but he now seemed very very angiy, again he ordered Girdhar to send money to Divarka at once without fail. Again he sat up; he awoke his wife, opened liis door, looked here and there, but ſound none After some time he remembered that Uddhesh had gone to Dwaika and so he must have been in due necessity of money Ile now felt convinced that this surmise of hus was correct, so next morning he went to the Post Office and semitted a sum of inɔney duly insured to Uddhesh by Telegraphic M. O. Uddhvesh was very much surprised to receive the Telegraphic M. O and only came to know from Girdhar, how he was ordered by a temple priest to send him money etc When thereafter Uddhvesh went to Shirdi, Baba told him "'I also had money sent to you”, he felt convinced SS 4 ·98 that it was Baba alone who had relieved him from his worries and so he felt assured that he had at least One, whom he can ever look to for proiection in the midst of all sorts of difficulties. How Baba by restraining Ilis devotees from a hazardous step protects, is best illustrates hy an incident of one R. B. Purandhare's life. IIe was a Railway scivant. Ile applied for Irave as he wanted to go to Shindi with his family. The leave was sanctioned and Railway passes for free Rail Journey were also given to him. Adav previous to his clepaituie the Pailway workmen were ieported to be planning a strike, so his superioi officer requested Punandhare to adjourn lus going to Shirdi for some time; bul Purandhare was adament; he said that he would never change the programme for Shirdi he had fixed, cven though the officer promised him, he would see that he gets his leave and also the Railway passes after the crisis had been tided over. Puandhaic retuned home and made all preparations for starting. That very nighị Baba appeared in his dicam with a staff in his hand. He was mighly angry, strongly admonished him, and finally ordered him, "Don't come to Shiidi, why should you he coming to Shirdi over and over again?” So Purandhare dropped the idea of going to Shirdi and attended office the next day as usual. This pleased his superior; the little doubt that he hall about ·99 Purandhare's complicity in the Railway men's strike at once vanished. So a month after he granted him his leave and reprocured Railway passes for him. When he went to Shirdi Baba said. “Don't go mad, we have as yet many responsibilities to discharge; so stay at home chanting mv This clearly shows Baba's disapproval of His devotees' running down to Holy Saints shoving aside one's duties and responsibilities. name. Chapter Nine DIVINE LOVE LOVE selfless pure DIVINE, Consecrates the human mind, This LOVE DIVINE is surely blind, Ser, Race. Cieed it does not mind, Dispels the duality of MEUM and TEUM, And leads all unto the Universal One, We propose to give in this Chapter a few out of the many instances showing how Baba requited the LOVE DIVINE of His devotees. It was a 1914 Ramnavmi day -a day of annual fair at Shirdi; about sixty to sixty-five thousands of people had come to pay their respects to Baba The Police party with their officers, big and small, was also present for (proper Bandobast), keeping the crowd in order. Baba had sat ·100 up since early morning, and so when it was past 11 a. m devotees round about asked the police to stop the coming visitors for a-while to enable Baha to have His bieakfast. Baba said, “I have no appetite for food to-day. The bustling crowd was rushing to the Dwarkamayi jostling one another and pushing its way towards Baba In the meanwhich an old woman aged about 60-65 years, seated away from the Dwarkamayi, was howling out without a break, requesting Baha, to have merev on her and to favour her with His benign sight. Shri R. A. Tarkhad passing through the crowd heard her shouts and so being cut to the quick. led her to Baba through the surging crowd. As soon as she saw Baba, she fondly caressed Him; tears rolled down her eyes and she stood speechless for a few minutes. Baba blessed her by keeping His blissful hand on her head and inquired of her in minutest details the well-being of her familv, then He told her, “I have been waiting for you: tell me what you have brought to me for my food?” She said, “I had brought a loaf and two onions with but when I came half way I felt so very exhausted and hungry that sitting bv a stream, I paitook half of the loat and one onion The other half of the loaf and one onion are left unused; please do justice to them. Baba eagerly ate that loaf with onion saying, “Ah! how swee! these aie" Devotees sullounding Baha and me, ·101 listening to what passed before their eyes were very much struck with the reception accorded by Baba to the loving old poor woman. . Baba was in the know of all that His devotees outside had been sending Him, and if one forgot to deliver it to Him He would remind that one of it and would not rest till it was given over to Him Master Mankar was given a piece of sweets by Afrs. Tarkhad at the time of his departure for Shirdi Reaching Shirdi, he went to Baha and paid his respects to Baba hut clean forgot about the Sweetmeat Baha did not say a word to him at the time. When however in the afternoon he again went to Baba, Baba asked him whether a devotee had given himn something for Him. Even this much was not sufficient to wake up his memory and so he at once replied in the negative Then Baba again said, “Has not the mother given you a sweetmeat piece at the time you started for Shirdi?” The lad was at once reminded of the sweetmeat piece, and feeling sorry for luis forgetfulness at once ran upto his abode; he returned with the sweetmeat piece and handed it over to Baba, who at once devoured it with the zest of a hungry man "In or about the year 1914 June, before going into seven days' retirement, the writer had kept hefcie leaving for Bombay an empty Compass ·102 1 Box with some coins in it for Baba's use, at Radhakrishna's beneath her cup-board, without informing her of it. Soon after the writer reached Bombay he learnt that Baba had got Radhakrishna to look up her room carefully to find the said box and deliver the said sum to Him. Radhakrishna on taking search of the room did find to her amazement the said box with coins. She immediately sent the same to Baba and this appeased Him.” Two friend devotees of Bombay suburhs went to Shirdi, paid their respects to Baba and stayed at Shirdi for two three days. At the time of leaving, they purchased two copies of Baba's photo and started journey. Thereafter on the way one of them remembered his brother and felt sorry that he has omitted to purchase one moie copy Shri's photo for him On reaching home when he untied the package of photos, to his wonder he lound three copies of Shri's photos instead of the two they had purchased. Ardent devotees as they both were, they ascribed this to Baba who had by His super human grace, requited their love by giving one more copy of his photo for his brother. The late Shari Moreshwar Pradhan and his wife Chhotuba loved Baba from the bottom of their hearts and carefully followed every word of Baha, Baba in His turn took care to look after their welfare Once all their children had chicken pox; of ·103 all of them except the youngest got over that illmess; but the youngest, who was the weakest of all, did not and one day huis illness took a serious tuin. Doctors gave up all hopes of the child's recovery, all the symptoms of a collapse appeaidd on the child's face; parents soriowfully waited upon the child, chanting Baba's name; when suddenly Chhotubai fell asleep and in the dieam she saw Baba appearing before her and saving. “What is all this? The child is allright, safe and sound. Je would ask for something to eat at' 6-30 A M. Give that to him without fear.” At once Chhotubai woke up and was surprised to see the child showing symptoms of good health; the child was fast asleep; his fever had left him and the persons in attendance were all in a very happy mond At 6-30 A. M. the boy asked for his meals as Baba had predicted, and the mother at once gave him all he wanted. A few days after, he fully recovercd. Another time Baba got all preparations made for another child from Chhotubai by appearing in her dream at 11 P. M. and telling her, “Why ale you sleeping? Get up. This child will soon have an attack of cramps Hearing this Chhotubai got frightened. She looked at the child. It was fast asleep. It had no ſever neither coughing. She was in a fix. All the same as she had full faith in Baba's words, she made all preparations for the ·104 predicted catastrophe. Warm water was always kept ready so it was there and all the medicines usually administered at the time of such attacks were taken out from the cup-board and kept on the table ready for use All preparations were made and yel the child showed no symptoms of the feared attack. And yet as she had full faith in Baba's words, she sat up and did not go to sleep At about 2 a m. the child suddenly raised its hands and began to be unconscio:15 So Chhotubai wakened up the members of the family, who seeing the child had its usual attack of ciamps inn up hither and thither to make the usual preparations, when to their surprise they were informed that at Baba's instance she had made all the necessary preparations, they need not be running about for that Half an hour after, the child regained its consciousness; the Doctor came the next morning and gave him the proper treatment. Within four or five days the child fully recovered and thereafter through Shri's grace the child had no more attacks of cramps. A third time Chhotubai was at Shirdi with her infant child As As per her usual routine she went to Baba with flowers etc to pay her respects. Aş preliminary to anointing Baba's feet and forehead with scented sandal paste she was just washing Baba's feet when Baba stopped her doing so saying, “The proper zituals for your woiship, are at ·105 present in the Wada, go there" On going there she found her infani child was billerl; crying, and none was able to quiet it She at once took the child on her lap, trealed it in the way she knew best nad then ieturned to Baba Baba then allowed her to carry to the finish lier rituals of worship thus teaching lier, that duties towards one's children have to be first discharged bclore attending to one's worship routine outside home. One Lakshmichand of Delhi who was fond of seeing and paying his respects to saints was drawn by Baba to Him by appearing before him in a dream Lakshmichand could not know who He was. It was only when he attended Das Ganu's Kiitan and looked at the photo placed by Das Gamu in front of Inm, that he iecognised that the saint lie had seen in the dicam was exactly the same as the saint of that photo He then came to know that, that was the photo of Shirdi Sai Baba whose glors Das Ganu was chanting Das Ganu's Kirtan impressed him so much that he borowca a loan. went to Slurdi and paid his respec's ! Baba ll once he enjoyed peace of mind. Then Baba said, “What was the necessity of coming here by bonowing a loan?” Lakshunichand wondere:) at Baba's supernatural knowledge. During buis bly, one day Lakshmichand had incruciable pain in the back and so when as usual he went to Baba Baba of IIis own accord said, “You have a pain in ·106 ) the back, the necessary medicine for its cure, Semoliva puddling, is being prepared, as soon as it is recewed and you take it, this pain will go off” So soon as Bibi said this a drolen brought Semolina pudding to Baba Baba gare some of it to Lakshmichand on his eating it, his pain left him. These tro cyperiences fully convinced Lakshmichand of Baba's supernatural powers and of His love for himn and enchained him to Ilis fcet for cver'. Ilow Baba arranged for a devotee's coming to Ilim, icmoving all obstinctions from his way, is best sren in the case of a bor. Ganesh Gopal Mahajan of Samantwadi, Thana. The boy was very weak and so from time to tine hic suffered from some illness or other. His des out mother therefore very much wished that iſ the boy could go to Shirdi and pay his respects to Ilim, his health might impove. The boy was also anxious to go to Shirdi, but he was mere clerk of Rs. 15/- P. M. at Khalau Makance's Alills. The Mill Manager R. A. Tarkhad Wis Baha's devotec As a water pump at Shirdi required repair very badly he arranged to send an Engineer to Shiidi. The Engincer determined to utilise this opportunity by taking his family with him Alrs. Tarkhad also seeing that the Engineer was proceeding to Shirdi with his family joined them. Coming to know of this, the boy Ganesh went to the Victoria Tei minus with some flowers ·107 and fruits to be sent to Baba with the party going. Mr. Tarkhad was there. A few minutes before the train was to start. Mr. Tarkhad asked Ganesh if he would go to Shirdi. On the boy's replving in the affiimative he handed over to him a Railway Ticket say ing that one member of this party had not turned up and so the ticket was a surplus. The boy sent word to his motber about his going, with some Thana passenger and procceded to Shirdi, thanking Baba for the arrangement that He had made for his going to Shirdi and paying his respects to him How Baba by His supernatural knowledge and merciful natuie appeased His angry devotee is also seen in the case of a Rao Bahadur's son-inlaw Mr. Joshi of Thana All the members of his family and all his friends had been lucky enough to go to Shirdi and pay their respects to Balia but he was not able to do so. He then clore became angry with Baba and declared that if Baba was really a saint, he would bless him with His sight even without going to Shirdi Nothing was beyond Baba's ken. It seems that Ile accepted his challenge and satisfied him. When soine gentleman from Konkan had gone to Shiidi with his wife and children and was returning home. Baba asked him if he would do a piece of work for Ilim. When he said, he would do it most willingly, Baba gave him a little packet of llis holy ashes and ·108 said, “You go by Mail and give this IIoly ash (Udi) packet to him who requests you to give him a span-full space for his accommodation in the train.” The gentleman issued Baba he would discharge IIis trust without fail but that il le me! no such gentleman he would immediately write to lIum. Assenting 19 il Baba gave liim Udi packet. The gentleman started by Mail but no such yenileman as descubed lı Baba tumer up till the train left Kalyan, the gentleman had thought that the train did not stop at Thana and so taking out a postal caid he was preparing to write to Baba, when to his suiprise the train stopped at Thana and just after the whistle for the train to start had gone, in rushed a gentleman running diencheck with perspiration. He appioached this Konkani gentleman and said to him. “Please take up this child of youis, and give me a span-full space to sit as I am feeling giddy”. The surprised gentleman at once made room for him and handed over to him the little packei of Udi sayıng that it had been given by Sai Baba for being handed over to a person who asked me for a span-full space in the tiam. As you fully answered to that descuption, with great pleasure I give this Shri's packet of holv ashes to you. Mi Joshi most respecifully received it and wondered at Baba's wonderful knowledge and the grace he had conferred on him-His angry child.

·109 -ܝܪ ܚ Baba showed equal mercy to all His devotees nich or poor. A tailor named Martand of Shirdi Hell ill; he was abjectly poor; he had none to look after or serve him. He was lying on the public road Baba passed by that ioad specially on that day and said to him, “You go to Nanasaheb Dengle of Nimgam, he will look after you, and serve you” When thereupon Martand went there, he was welcomed by Nanasaheh. Sanasaheb told him, “Baba had appeared to him in a cheam and asked him to serve Martand tailor sent by Him. So please make this your home, stay here Peacefully without'worrying, Baba will see to your health Please go on telling me all your needs without reserve etc Thrvugh Shu's grace and Nana's careful treatment the tailor soon recovered and resumed his business. How Baba continues to satisfy the godly desires of His devotees years after He cast off His mortal coil is clearly seen in the case of an Honorary Magistrate of Harda, Shri Krishnarao Narayan Paralkar For several years he had been celebrating Shri Datta festival usually falling in December and feeding a hundred Brahmins on that occasion and whenever for some reason or other he was not able to do so, year after that on the said celebration day, he would feed double the usual number, that is two hundred Brahmins. As per that self-imposed rule, he was to feed two ·110 hundred Brahmins in respect of that celebration in the year 1925. Saturday was fixed for holding this dinner, only when five days were left to it, that is on Monday. On Tuesday when Shri Paralkar was merged in meditation as per his daily routine, he heard a voice saying, “If you desire that on the day you are feeding Brahmins I should come and dine with them, you call Shri Dixit from Bombay”. Paralkar however thought to himself, whether il was proper for him to request Shri Dixit to come such a long distance simply for taking a dinner. While he was in the midst of such conflict of thoughts he again beard the voice, "Why are you puzzled? Write to Shri Dixit; ſeed him along with all the Brahmins, and when you have done so, know it for certain that I have joined the party taking dinner at yours.” So Paralkar wrote to Shri Dixit on Wednesday requesting him to attend the dinner on Saturday. Failing to hear from Shri Dixit till all preparations were made for serving the dinner on Saturday, Paralkar with tearful eyes requested Baba to set matters right and then taking his bath, so soon as he started doing his mid-day routine prayers, he got a telegram from Shri Dixit informing him, that he and Madhavrao Deshpande were on their way to Harda. All were gladdened to receive the news; they all went to the station to receive them, accorded them a hearty welcome and gave them a sumptuous feast in the ·111 company of the two hundred Brahmins Shri Paralkar was overjoyed and he now felt that Baba is still there to satisfy all the godly crayings of his heart. Chapter Ten BODILY MANIFESTATIONS A Superman by His will, Transforms Himself into Forms numberless at will, Space He surmounts, Barriers none to Block His movements free. At one with the Universal soul Sai Baba is fully aware of the movements of all, paiticuarly of all His devotees and prevents all mishaps overcoming them. Three days before one Samvat New yeai, Sainath was calmly sitting near His fire casting fuel into it; the fire was buining bright when suddenly He thrust His hand into the fire and sat calmly as if nothing had happened. However a servant named Madhav caught sight of this. He as well as Deshpande, who was nearby, ran upto Baba put their arms round Baba's waist and pulled Him away from the fire. Seeing that Baba's hand was nearly burnt, bewailing what had happened they asked Baba why He had purposely and inten- ·112 tionally thrust His hand into the fire. Bala then narrated that while He was in a superconscious state, He saw that at the hehest of a blacksmith, his wife with a child on her waist, started blowing the Kiln forgetting the child's being on her waist. The listless child slipped down into the fire: so soon it slipped, I caught it and saved it from instantaneous death; if in so saving the child, my hand has been burnt, it matters very little Baba's devotee Chandorkar knowing of this ran down to Shirdi with a doctor expert, but Baba inspite of the earnest and repeated requests of the doctor and Chandorkar did not unloose the bandage nor showed the hand to the doctor. He however went on getting clarified butter applied to it and getting it covered with a betel leaf and having it bandaged by one leper Bhagoji who was even in His attendance every morning Some days after burns were all cured; but still massaging His hand with clarified butter, covering it with betel leaf and bandaging the same was allowed to be continued till He cast off His moital coil, no one knew why. Long before this Baba had run upto the rescue of one of his devotees' three steamers during the Russo-Japanese War. The devotee Shree Jehangirji Framji Daruwala served as a Captain. When he found that his steamers save three were all sunk by the enemy and that the rest of the steamers including his own would soon meet

·113
the same fate, he took out Baba's photo from his
pocket and with tears in his eyes prayed to Baba
to save him and his three steamers Baba at once
appeared on the scene and towed all the sinking
steamers to the bank. Just at the time Daruwala
offered up his prayers, Baba bawled out "Ha", and
then seated as He was in His usual place in the
Dwarkamayi, he had His Kafni and head cloth
completely drenched, dripping with water for
more than half an hour, with the result that the
Dwarkamayi was transformed into a pool of
water. The devotees could not understand what
all that was; they simply removed water from the
Dwarkamayi and dried Baba's clothes. On the
third day after this Baba received a telegram from
Jehangirji narrating how Baba had saved him and
offering Him a thousand thanks for his inarvellous
rescue of himself and the three stearners with
passengers Immediately on his return to India he
came and paid his respects to Baba He has
retired now from his service, but in appreciation
of his services, Governdment has provided him with
some job. He is taking keen interest in Baba's
affairs 'even to-day Lately he donated about two
thousand two hundred rupees in two instalments
and got the ‘Mandap of Dwarkamayi repaired to
his satisfaction
When once Nanasaheb Chandorkai, who was
in Shirdi, went to Kopergaon to have a bath in the

·114 holy Godawari on the occasion of an eclipse and paid a four anna piece to a Pariah, Babą at that very time showed to the devotees sitting near Him a four ann piece, stating that He had received that four anna piece from Nana. When Nanasaheb returned to Shirdi and those devotees inquired of him what he had spent in charity at the time of the eclipse and he corroborated Baba's statement of his having paid a four anna piece to a Pariah, the devotees as well as Nana felt assured that, Baba though present in Shirdi, had actually gone to receive Nana's charity by his supernatural yogic powers With the supernatural knowledge that Baba had He saw the devotees' calamities ahead and took all the steps to ward them off. Nanasaheb's daughter Menatai suffered from excruciating delivery pain and so they all remembered Baba and prayed for her safe and immediate delivery. How could Baba be ignorant of His devotee's trouble? When therefore one Ramgir (whom Baba called Bapugii) asked Baba's permission to return to his native country Khandesh, Baba asked him to go to Jamner on the way and deliver to Nana a packet of Udi He was giving, and a copy prayer for his daily recitation Ramgir said, “I have only two iupees on hand; how would it be possible for me to cover the expenses of going there?” Baba said, “Don't worry; you will have all arrangements ·115 'made for you.” With full faith in Baba's words, , Ramgir therefore left Shirdi and booked a ticket for Jalgaon for Rs. 1/14, as in those days there were no Railway lines upto Jamner. Now Rangir had only a balance of two annas, so he wondered how he would reach Jamner with that little balance. When however he got down at Jalgaon Railway station he found an office Patewala shouting, “Who is Bapugir of Shirdi, who is Bapugir of Shirdi?” Hearing this Bapugir told him he was the person he wanted. Then the peon said, “I am waiting for you, Vanasaheb has sent a Tonga to carry you to Jamner. So please come on, I will take you to Jamner”. So Bapu started in the Tonga at about mid-night. The Patewala stopped his Tonga in the morning near a stream to water his horses and to give them a little rest. The Patewala washed his face, asked Bapugir to do the same and then said, “Looking here, Nanasaheb has given me sweets for breakfast, so let us have our breakfast. Bapugir consented and they had their breakfast. After breakfast they resumed their journey and reached Jamner. Just at the entrance into the town Nanasaheb's office was sighted, so the Patewalla halted his Tonga to rest his horses. Bapugir also got down to pass water. Returning thereafter to the spot where he had left the Tonga, Bapugir stood amazed at the sight. There was no Tonga, neither the Patewalla. Nanasaheb's house ·116 was very near and he found it on the people showing the same to him He saw Nanasaheb and told him “Baba had sent for him a copy prayer for recilation and Iloly ashes' packet. Here they are” Just at that time his daughter was passing through a critical stage of delivery and was fainting but as soon as Nana iecited the prayer and his wile diopping the holy ashes in a cup of water laised it to the daughter's lips, the daughter was immediately relieved of all pains and had a safe delivery. Nana's anxious moments were now over and his whole family was once again assured of Baba’ımceasing care and protection of all of them. When the crisis had been lided over, Bapugir asked Nanasaheb, “How is it that the Patewalla, who biought me the Tonga and the breakfast you had sent, is not seen here at all? Nanasaheb was taken aback by the inquiry Bapugir made and said, “Oh what do you say, I knew nothing at all of your coming, so how could I have sent a tonga and breakfast for you with my Patewalla?" Nanasaheb at once understood that Baba by His supernatural powers had transformed Himself into the tonga, horses, Patewalla, etc.; and brought Bapugir to his house just in time to save his daughter and Nana.aheb's eyes streamed with joyful tears. Another time when Nanasaheb went on a pilgrimage to Harishchandia mountain and had gone only half-way, his thoat was parched by ·117 اسمم thirst, he felt exhausted and said to his companions, “I can't walk a step further without water, had my Sai Baba been here, he would have given me water, (just at that time Baba in Shirdı said to the devotees near Him: Nana is dying of thirst but would I see him dying that way?) His compamions tried to persuade Nana to stand up and try moving forward as his Sai Baba was not there to help him. Just at the time a Bhil with a bundle of fuel on his head appeared on the scene and on inquiry he informed Nanasalieb that just under the stone Nana was sitting on, there was a stream of pure water, so Nana's companions removed the stone and as stated by the Bhil they found thero a stream of water; they all quenched their thirst and then reached the mountain top and completed the pilgrimage Several days thereafter when Nanasaheb went to Shirdi, he was asked by some devotces whether he had to pass through some critical situation some time back, for Baba had so declared here; referring to his diary: he found that Baba had referred to the crisis he had to face on the Harishchandra mountain and Baba there had saved him by taking up the form of Bhil cari ying a pile of fagots on his head Baba similarly saved another devotee Udhavesh by supplying him water in the form of a Goswami, when he had fainted away on Girnar ·118 and when thereafter he went to Shirdi Baba had told him he had supplied water to him. To prevent a devolce from coinmitting an crror ruinous to his health and to preach a lesson of kindness towards all creatures by showing his oneness with them, Baba assumed the forms of a dog, and a cat several times. We shall mention here only two such instances. A lea merchant of Bombay suffering from Asthama went to Shirdi with his wiſe, hired a house and attended upon Baba twice a day for the cure of his disease. Baba once and again advised him not to take curds and his wife accordingly tried her best to persuade him to refrain from the use of the curds, but Hansraj found it impossible for him to take his dinner without curds, so he ordered his wife to keep curds icady Obeying the husband the wife always kept curds ready. To force him to do without the curds, Babı assuming the form of a cat, always devoured it when the couple was away for attending noon Arti prayers at the Dwarkamayi. When Hansraj saw this, with a view to detect and punish the thief robbing him of his pet food, with a stick in hand instead of attending the noon prayers at the Dwarkamayi as usual, he sat at home watching. Just when the noon prayers started at the Dwarkamayi, Hansraj found a cat going up the loft devouring the cuids; he allowed the cat to finish the curds and then as she was leaving the house he ·119 1 gave her a severe stick stroke, leaving on her body a mark of the same. When in the afternoon Jlansraj as usual went to Dwarkamayi and paid his respects to Baba, Baba uncovered His back and showed a weal on it to the devotees there inclusive of Hansraj, stating that, that was the reward this perverse Hansraj had awarded Him llansiaj lealised the mistake he had been committing and since that day gave up curds. Similarly when the venerable old devotee of Baba, Mhalasapati gave a stroke or two to a dog entering into his house, leaving the marks thereof on his body, Baba showed Mhalasapati the said marks on His own body, since that day Mhalasapati gave up inflicting such cruelty on dogs tresspassing upon his house. \Vhen Dev Mamlatdar of Dehnu invited Baha to allend the dinner party he had at his house in iespect of a religious festival, He informed him that he would attend the same with two others. On the day fived Baba saw Dev, informed hun Jle with Ilis companions wanted dinner. Not recog: nising Him he asked them to come exactly at 12 noon. So Baba went there with his two companions, took dinner and then taking betel leaf etc., left When Dev wrote to Jog saying though Baba had piomised him, He did not attend the dinner, without even hearing the contents of the letter, He asked Jog to write to him in reply, “Baba did ·120 attend withi (wo others; why did you invite Me if you had not the insight to recognise Me? This Baba would rather sacrifice His life than break a promise once given.” Assuming also the form of an old man Sai Baba prescribed to Shri Upasani Maharaj warm water for the cure of his breathing disorder: this cured him and when Shri Upasani went to Shirdi thereafter Sai Baba had ieminded hirn of the same Even after leaving His body Baba has been protecting His devotees by manifesting Himself in several forms A few of the numerous such instances may now be cited. One Sheth Ratilal Chamanlal Shah of Ahmedabad carrying on on business at Adoni (Madras) leſt Adoni for Alimedabad on the morning of 22-5-48 in a second class compartment with his wiſe. He had with him ornaments and cas! worth about 10 to 12 thousands. There were in the same compartment Shri K. M Munshi's son Jagdish witły his wife and also Shri Gopalrao, the President of the Cotton Market Committee and Shri Naidu, the Central Bank Agent. Till about 4 P.M. all these passengers passed their time merrily in playing cards An undefinable fear however then suddenly seized Shri Ratilal, and so he dissociated himself from the rest of the passengeis playing cards and sat chanting Shri Sai's name.

·121 These passengers tried to set at rest Raulal's (what they considered to be his) baseless fear, but he turned a deaf ear to all of them, continuing taking Shri's name But half an hour had hardly passed and they sighted Gangapur Railway station, when they were disillusioned, for then to their dismay they found a band of armed Razakars ready to pounce upon their train. As the train was just coming to a halt at Gangapur they seized the Railway Station Master, bound him to a station pillar with a rope and started their ruthless campaign of harassing, looting and killing passengers Shri Raülal's companions also, finding no other way of escape from this attack, started chanting Sai Baba's name, shutting fast their windows and doors; then these passengeis saw from doors' crevices that a Pathan standing close to their compartment was directing the Razakars to proceed either left or right leaving them and their own comparlment saſe unrobbed, unscathed. They were all thus saved simply by chanting Shri's name. The Razakars had not their attention drawn to this compartment through Shu's grace. Need it be said that they then all heartily, thanked Baba for their miraculous escape from this danger? Again one Shri S. B. Nachne's little son of about nine months, named Harihar alias Sai Nath was playing with his brothers and sisters. Other grown up children had been firing crackers near- ·122 by igniting coloured matches. One of these thiew a burning match on the child's clothes. Sai Nath's clothes caught fire but the litile boy could not understand the risk this involved. The mother was busy doing something outside there but her mind was away from her children. So Baba appeared at once before her in the form of a Fakir and pointing to the burning child said, “Look there, see what is going on there.” Thereupon the mother at once ran upto the child removed its burning clothes in proper time. After Harihar was thus saved, the mother looked for the Fakir but during the confusion that followed on the running of the mother to the child, He disappeared altogether, no one knew where. The devout parents of Harihar rightly attributed this to Shri Baba's grace and prayed for such anxious care of them whenever so required. The self-same Nachne lost his wife in 1929. She had died leaving a three years old child. This almost broke Nachne's heart; and so he became so very listless to the necessities of his body thal when he left Bombay for Nasik to perform the obsequial ceremonies of his wife, though it was dreary cold, he took neither a blanket nor a shawl to guard himself against it. Though he grew listless about himself, Baba could not be so; like an anxious father that He is, He assumed the form of an office peon and perched Himself just opposite ·123 to the seat, which Nachne was to occupy in the train. When Nachne got into that compartment and sat down He started asking "Well, where are you going? How is it you have no bedding?" Nachne replied, “I am going to Nasik to perform the obsequial ceremony of my wife. I have now grown quite indifferent to my body, and care very little for the bedding." Hearing this the Patewalla (Peon) sent a friend of his to get a blanket for Nachne Seeing that he brought the blanket in ne time, Nachne remarked, “Oh it seems you live very near.” The Patewalla replied, "I am a Patewalla (a peon) in Bombay Arts School and my quarters are very near. My name is Ganpatishanker. My Saheb has gone to Simla, so I have seized this opportunity for going to Nasik. If you now want to go to sleep, I will wake you up in proper time you may do so. However if you have any cash, beware of pick-pockets; if you have nothing to keep the cash safe, and if you hand it over to me, give it to me. I'll keep it safe in my trunk.” Nachne thereupon gave over his cash to Ganpatishanker and slept. Ganpati woke him up at Ghoty; they there washed their face and had tea. Ganpati defrayed the expenses of tea. Then they got down on Nasik Railway Station. On the way to Nasik proper in a bus Ganpatishanker said to Nachne, "Do not go to any of these Brahmin priests, they will charge you exorbitantly. I will make all arrangements for the ceremonies; come with me.'

·124 Saying so, he brought to him a priest, explained to the priest what and how these ceremonies had to be performed. He also pointed to Nachne a cavity in the river and asked him to stand theie dipping his wife's bones there in water. As Nachne did so the bones melted away like sugar in water. As soon as the ceremonies were all over, Ganpatishanker received a telegiam from His Master asking Him to resume His duties So he took Nachne's permission to leave, gave over to him the account of Nachne's money spent by Him to the very pie, handed over to him the balance and left Nachne saying, “I will meet vou in Andheri” On return to Bombay Nachne made all efforts to find him out but he could not succeed He then made inquiries al the Ait School, asked the Patewallas, the Professois and even the Principal. but when all of them gave one uniform reply "that there is no such peon and there was never in the service of this Art School a peon of the name of Ganpatishanker,” he realised that the peon was none other than Baba Himself He Himself had for him assumed the form of a patewalla to relieve him of the stunning stioke of the misery of his wife's death and to assist him in the performance of the obsequial ceremonies He felt extremely sorry that he had got Baba to discharge a menial's duty for him but he was now helpless and could only requite Him by his steady and unfalling devotionz for Hun ·Chapter Eleven REFORM AND REGENERATION Change in out look, On human life, life values, Reform and Regeneration, For Life Divine, Is major portion Of the life work Of a Real Superman Many and mysterious are the ways a superman adopts for the regeneration, leform and amelioration of this world. It is proposed to describe a few of the many such methods of Sai Baba known to the devotees; for it must he admitted that it is not possible for any one to claim a perfect knowledge of all of these. It is righty said that an ounce of action is better than tons of speeches. Shri Sainath seems to have strictly followed the truth inculcated in this adage. He made no speeches but he led a life, which in itself was a lesson to the many who had the eyes to see and study. One Mrs. Chhotubai Pradhan once remarked, “If we minutely observe Baba we would find as if He had two personalities, the one was completely merged as it were in God ever chanting His name while the other personality at the same time seemed to be ·126 busy looking after the devotees' welfare, speaking to them, and moving about like ordinary man. Whatever that may be, His daily routine in itself was a sufficient lesson and guide to all sincere aspirants of God. His life teaches one great lesson--namely, that not a minute, nay 110t even a second should be allowed to pass without the remembrance of the all-kind, all-powerful God. lle once said to Shri Mbalasapali, IIis night attendant, to keep his hand on His heart and to wake Him up so soon as he ceased hearing the name of God being chanted there. Then there are accounts of how Baba, Mhalasapati and Tatya Patil rested at the Dwarkamayi for the night and how Baba would not allow any one of them to go to sleep. What in fact He wanted to preach thereby was that sleep should be avoided as far as possible and that the time unnecessarily spent in it should be utilised in prayers and remembrance of God. There are devotees who rightly believe that He never had any sleep at night. His daily routine was equally instructive. He left His bed of gunny bag and coarse cloth pieces with a bed sheet over it of the same cloth at about 5 a m. After easing Himself and washing His mouth, He sat leaning against a Dhuni Pillar meditating for nearly two hours. Then coming out of the Dwarkamayi with slow steps Ile went upto the Chowdi and thence upto the back door or Naval- ·127 kar's wada (Guru Paduka Temple), saying prayers; lle then returned to the Dwarkamayi in the same manner muttering prayers. Occupying His usual seat for a while taking a Chillam puft with His lepous seryart at about 8 a.m., He would wash His face and hands upto the clbow with tender care-fearing lest He should in that act displace or tear off llis skin-hair and then with a Dhoti dangling down Ilis shoulders and with a tumbler in hand He would go to the five houses He had fixed upon for alms. He would receive the Jwari breads in His dhoti and vegetables and all, liquids in the tumbler. Returning to the Dwarkamayi He would olles a part of His bread alms to the Holy five as oblation and then have llis bicakfast After breakfast and meeting His devotecs and speaking to them at times in parables He would leave for Lendi, (which later on Ile devcloped into Mr Pradhan's garden) accompanied by His leper servant. The leper servant carried a tumber of water in his hand, and in later life He had on each side a devotee holding His arms to assist Him. Ile spent about an hour oi moie there and then leluned to the Dwai kamayi where till twelve noon He received all the devotees allowing them to pay their respects to Him in their own way, without allowing any one clse to disturb them in this--their worship. Then followed the arti the waving of lights. After distributing the several ·128 dishes of food received from devotees, He would spend some time with the devotees and then' bade them adieu giving to each His holy ashes, applying the same to their forehead and blessing them keeping His hand on the head of each. Thereafter He again came out, went upto the Chowdi and thence to Guru Paduka temple muttering prayers as in the morning. Later in life He also went to Lendi in the noon at about 2-00 p.m. in the same way as in the morning, and returned al about 3-00 or 3-30 P.M. He closed the day by going up to the Chowdi thence to Guru Paduka Mandir muttering prayers as in the morning, with this difference that returning from Guru Paduka Mandir, He would stand facing west to receive the iespects of all the devotees there; and when that was over He would stand at the compound wall asking people to go with a wave of His hand Baba took particular care to see that the Holy fire He had started kept burning without a break and at times He therefore asked the devntees to provide faggots for the same. He strictly followed the above routine without a break till almost the last day of His worldly existence. It is said that only during the last two or three days owing to His failing health He omitted going to Lendi. Now let us ponder a while and see what this routine of His wants to teach. A person of perfect realisation as He was, ·129 He had nothing to gain or lose by cariying on these religious practices and yet he carried them on to set a lesson to others (B. Gita III-22 to 25). His Dhuni-Holy fire-that He kept ceaselessly burning reminds the Hindus of a pure Brahmin's Agnihotra and the Parsis of their Fire-temple Both these keep the fire ever burning He meditated, prayed, offered oblations to fire, went in seclusion at Lendi for about 2 hours a day, and not only that but He has asked some of His devotees to offer such oblations before taking food This part of His routine seems to show that He wanted His devotees to adopt all the three ways of Gnan, Bhakti and Karma (knowledge, devotion and action) for attaining Godhood or the Realisation of Soul A fortnight before He left His body He got a devotee to read out to him Ram Vijay (a holy book of Hindus) for 12 days showing how a person should die Besides the example that He set to others by His own life, He had for the devotees' welfare a most potent and effective weapon in the form of the holy ashes of the ceaselessly burning fire. He had kindled. In His light mood He sang “The sportive Rom has descended on earth bringing with illed with holy ashes." What He sang to be verbatim true exp is devotees had ashes av paralysis, SS 5 ·130 Typhoid, Eczema, Hair lice, Boils, Bladder Stones. Small pox, Appendicitis, intestine troubles, insommia, serpent and scorpion poisoning and all sorts of other diseases left their prey so soon as these ashes were administered to the sufferers. Not only human beings but also animals such as cows and buffaloes of devotees were cured of their diseases by these ashes These ashes have proved successful even in knotty cases of pregnancy and delivery Even though Shri has left Ilis body, the holy ashes of the fire that He had lighted and has been kept burning as yet endow the same cure and benefits to His devotees as they did when He was in body. Another such weapon that He used for His devotees' welfare was His demands of money gifts By such demands, sometimes He merely indicated the benefits that the devotee had received or was to receive. Thus Baba once demanded a sum of Rs. 50/- each from the late R. B H. V Sathe and Shri Daji H Lele when each had received a promotion of Rs. 50:- in his salary. In another case he demanded the exact sum of the promotion the Gazette had announced Another time when one Narvekar was laid up with fever he sent his son Vamanrao to Baba with a sum of Rs. 500/-. On Baba's receiving the said sum Baba was laid up with that fever and Narvekar got rid of that fever. Seeing this Vamanrao felt uneasy about Baba's health when ·131 Baba solaced him saying “He would soon get over the fever.” Very soon Baba's temperature became normal to the agreeable surprise of Vamanrao. It may be noted however that Baba did not demand money from all those who visited Him. Very often He would decline the inoney offered. If the money sum demanded was not given or refused, He would not on that account change His usual kind and parental treatment of that devotee. Again very often He strictly followed the rule prohibiting hoarding Very often He received very very large sums of money but by evening He would defray the whole of that amount reserving nothing for the next day. He gave away all that He had obtained during the day to fit and deserying persons and at times even got some religious ceremonies performed for the benefits of the donors of those sums without letting the donors know how He was defraying their amounts. The Police constable on the spot wondered, how Baba did not fail to make His minimum daily disbursements of about Rs. 80/- (eighty) eventhough he did not at times receive that amount, and though every evening He had nothing left with Him for the morrow. To draw the attention of a devotee to a certain religious principle of truth Baba would repeatedly demand the same sum from a devotee every time that He visited Him, nothing less, nothing more. This would set the devotee a-think- ·132 ing and lead him to ask Baba what Ile ineant to convey. Baba would then say what actually Ile wanted to teach him. Every time Raghuvir Bhaskei Purandare visited Baba, He demanded only two Rupees from him. He could not understand why Baha asked for that fixed sum; so one day he requested Baba to explain to him what He meant by the Rupees Two He had been ever demanding from him. Baba at once replied, “I do not want these coins, I want the first Rupce of absolute FAITH and a Rupee of PATIENCE.” Purandare al once said, “Baba, I have already given these to you.” “No you have not done so, your faith has been wavering; henceforth stick to truth. Be always trulhful. If only you act upto this principle in liſe, rest assured I shall ever be with you.” From another devotee the late Shri Naike HIC had been always demanding a surn of Pis. 15/- every time he went to Baba at Shirdi Narke had then just returned from Europe and was at Shirdi, without a job, for about a year and still Baba asked him to donate Fifteen Rupees every day so one day Narke humbly said to Baba, “Baba you know I am here so many months without a job, entirely dependent on my father-in-law Shrimant Booty; you have been seeing the wom-out almost tattered clothes I have been pulling on with. In ·133 in these circumstances how do you expect me to give you such a sum of Rupees Fifleen?” Baba told him in reply, "I know your condition thoroughly well, but you are at present reading Yog Vasisth Maha Ramayana. I want from you that you should fix in your mind the great principles therepropounded; live upto them, though living in this world you should not get entangled in the world and worldly objects Ever be non-attached.” A third devotee Uddhavesh of Delinu, also had a lesson taught to him under circumstances of a different type. We have seen how his purse with all his money and steamer tickets had slipped down from his hands into the mid-ocean while he was on his way to Dwarka, with a party of friends His mind was greatly ruffled, so to restore it to equanimity he thereafter took out his Kunte's Gnaneshwari and started reading it; he however was not able to understand it at all, so he closed the book and took a vow that unless Baba asked him to read Gnaneshwari he would not read it Though on return from Dwarka he went to Shirdi to pay his respects to Baba, Baba said nothing to him about it at the time. Later on however Baba called him to Shirdi; and for the first ten days He always asked him to pay Him Rupees eleven. Uddhavesh went on paying the said suin for ten days; when on the eleventh day Baba again asked him to pay eleven Rupees he said, “I have already ·134 dedicated to you my eleven senses (Five senses of knowledge, five of action and one mind).” Baba ieplied, “Who are you to give me these, they are already mine. Baba now saw that Uddhavesh had his mind then drawn away from material things to his own self, so he asked him to fetch from Bapu Saheb Jog, Eknathi Bhagwat and when the said book was brought to Him, He turned over a few pages, opened the book at the eleventh Chapter thereof and asked him to read it care fully. He also asked him to read the book daily saying, it was a Brindaban Book wherein He Himself was talking to him (Uddhav) etc. Once while Shri Dixit was reading with a few devotees, a well known verse on the dedication of senses from Eknathi Bhagwat to draw Dixit's attention to the one more internal sense of human body mentioned by Eknath in his commentary, He sent Shrimant Booty to Shri Dixit to fetch from him Rupees sixteen and a half. Dixit at once understood that Baba did not want from him the material coins but that He was drawing his attention to the several senses mentioned in the verse he was reading. Counting up these senses however the total he arrived at was fifteen and a half, at first in this way; Body-l speech-1 mind-1 senses-10, Intellect-1, Egoism-I, and Prakriti one's own nature-1/2 = 15%. These were all that were mentioned in the verse; so Kaka Dixit was at

·$
135
a loss to understand why instead of 154 Rupees
Baba had demanded 164; so he got up, stood
before Baba's photo he had and prayed for the
solution of his difficulty; at once it occured to him
that Eknath's commentary should be referred to
for this purpose, doing so, he found that Eknath
had mentioned one more sense viz. Chitta, the
sense of thinking though there was no mention
of the same in the verse itself; adding this to the
15% above mentioned, Shri Dixit found to his joy
the propriety of Baba's demand for 16% Rupees.
Another time Baba asked Kakasaheb Dixit
to pay Rs. 100/- when Kakasaheb was a bit
puzzled on reading illustrations of these two types
in Vedantic texts: (1) The world is described as
a mirage on a desert land; also it is said-it is
like the deceptive appearance of a serpent in a
string. (2) Name and form should not be given
any importance; it is the matter --substratum
that matters; that is the most important thing to
look at, not the forms and names Kakasaheb
said though ornaments and their various names
may be discarded, gold does exist; earthern pots
may be disregarded and yet earth is there; so in
one form or another matter does exist; how can
it be supposed then, that the world is a mirage ?
On praying to Baba before the photo he had, he
hit upon the right solution of his difficulties. It

·136 was this :- Vedantic texts do not mean to say that the world does not exist at all; it simply says it does exist in a sense, it is everchanging, assuming limitless numberless forms and names but the substratum, the thing-in-itself Reality, does not vanish, does not change; its support, its absolutely necessary for this changing phenomenal' world; the phenomena cannot exist without--this noumena. This noumena is the real one that runs through the whole universe. While the phenomenal world of forms and names being ever changing has not that existence which Reality has. Vedantic texts therefore declare that this ever changing phenomenal world of names does not exit at all. Whatever does not exist is as good as a zero. The phenomenal world mainly consists of two such Zeros of naines and forms. Thus Reality and phenomenal world of naines and forms 00 make up Rs. 100/- the sum that Baba had asked for Kaka Saheb was mightily pleased when this truth dawned upon him on Baba's significant demand for Rs. 100/ . v .

·Conclusion
We have now said enough lo convince the
leader of Shri Sainath being a superman, wielding
supernatural powers for the material and spiritual
welfare of His devotees. We have seen how by
His order He stopped the crumbling ceiling of
llis Dwarkamayi till He had finished His meals,
how he checked fire from working havoc in the
devotee's fields, how he kept burning for the whole
ught lamps with water in place of oil, how he
checked stoi my lains to save Shirdı people with
their cattle and to enable His devotees to return
home in comfort, how he assumed the forms of
deities of gods, goddesses and the late deceased
Ichansa's (Master) form to satisfy the pious
munded devotees of His, how he thrust His hand
mto the fire and saved a child slipping down into
a blacksmith's kiln, how He ran upto the rescue
o! a steamer Captain in the mid-sea and saved
bum and his steamers, how He saved Ilis devotees
from dying of thirst, how He saved devotees'
children sinking in ditches and from burning, how
He helped a frustrated man suffering from
disappointment by serving him as Patewalla etc
etc.
Is it possible for an ordinary finite human
bemg to do all this or any of these ? You will
certainly agree with me and say from all these
that unless a man has ceased to be a ſmite human

·138
being and attained perfect realisation it is not
possible for him to do what Sai Baba did and the
wonderful part of Him is that though He cast of
His body as far back as 1918, even to-day His
devotees have been getting the same type of His
beneficial experiences. They at times visibly see
Him, speak to Him, obtain help and guidance
from Him in need, nay some of them have been
feeling He is ever with them taking care of them
and watching their actions and interests. Nothing
more needs be said to prove that He was a
Superman, of supernatural powers who manifested
Himself upon this earth for the benefit of the
whole living world irrespective of their genera,
species, castes, creeds or religions.
And in conclusion let me say with the late
Revered Shri Bhagwandas,
Since we have learnt the alphabet of Love,
None other text than this can we repeat;
;
With the heart's eyes, wide-opened now behold,
Whatever Thou see-est, as but form of His !'
Since we have seen the secret past the Screen,
With every breath the song springs to our lips;
Whatever Thou see-est now with the heart's eyes
Thou know'st is but a form Divine;
One Cosmic Brotherhood,
One Universal God,
One Source, One sway,

·139
.
One Law beholding Us,
One Purpose moulding Us,
One Life en-folding Us
In Love always
Lust, Greed, Fear, Pride, Envy and Hate,
Long made us Desolate
Their reign is done.
Race, Color, Creed and Caste,
Fade with the Nightmare Past,
Man wakes to learn at last,
All Life is One !
May peace and prosperity return among Men,
May co-operation unite them. Love bind them,
Brotherhood entold them Patience possess them
Self-control strengthen them,
The Past be forgiven them,
The Future be sanctified from them,
May Peace and prosperity return to them !
AMINI AMEN I AUM TAT SAT