Chapter XXVI — Bhakta Pant; Harishchandra Pitale's Epileptic Son; Ambadekar Saved from Suicide
Source: Shri Sai Satcharitra, trans. Gunaji
Marathi original: Sai Satcharita (archive.org scan) · Devotee testimonies: Narasimha Swami 1936 (Internet Archive) · Full bibliography: /sources.html
URL: https://www.saibaba.org/satcharitra/sai26.html
Sections
Preliminary — Inner Worship
Hemadpant opens with the doctrine of Maya: the universe is a play of the Lord's creative power; what really exists is the Real Absolute. As one mistakes a rope in the dark for a serpent, one mistakes phenomena for the Noumenon. Only the Sadguru opens the eyes of understanding.
Hemadpant then offers a "novel form of worship" — entirely internal:
- Hot water for the Sadguru's feet = tears of joy
- Sandal-paste = pure love
- Cloth = true faith
- Eight lotuses = the eight Sattwik emotions
- Fruit = concentrated mind
- Bukka (black powder) = devotion
- Waistband = Bhakti
- Chamar (fan) = devotion to ward off heat
The prayer that follows: "Introvert our mind, turn it inward, give us discrimination between the Unreal and the Real and non-attachment for all worldly things and thus enable us to get Self-realisation. We surrender ourselves, body and soul."
Bhakta Pant — "Stick to Your Bolster"
A devotee named Pant, disciple of another Sadguru, had no intention of going to Shirdi. Traveling on the B.B. & C.I. Railway he met many friends and relations bound for Shirdi. They pressed him to come; he could not refuse. They alighted at Bombay; he stopped at Virar, took his own Sadguru's permission, made arrangements for expenses, and went.
The party reached Shirdi in the morning and went to the masjid about 11 a.m. Seeing the assembled devotees, Pant suddenly suffered a fit and fell senseless. Pitchers of water were poured over his head; he regained consciousness as if waking from sleep.
The omniscient Baba — knowing Pant was a disciple of another Guru — confirmed Pant's faith in his own Guru:
"Come what may, leave not, but stick to your Bolster (support, i.e. Guru) and ever remain steady, always at-one-ment (in union) with him."
Pant understood at once. He never forgot Baba's kindness.
Harishchandra Pitale — the Epileptic Son and the Rs. 2 Mystery
Harishchandra Pitale of Bombay had a son who suffered from epilepsy. Allopathic and Ayurvedic doctors had failed. After hearing Das Ganu's Bombay-Presidency kirtans about Baba (around 1910), he made preparations and came to Shirdi with family, fruit baskets and presents.
He placed the sick son on Baba's feet. The son immediately revolved his eyes, fell senseless, mouth foaming, body perspiring profusely. Mrs. Pitale wept and likened her condition to a person who runs from robbers into a collapsing house, a cow fleeing a tiger into the hands of a butcher, a traveller seeking shade under a falling tree, a worshipper entering a collapsing temple.
Baba comforted her:
"Do not wail like this, wait a bit, have patience, take the boy to your lodging, he will come to his senses within half an hour."
It was done; the boy recovered exactly as Baba said.
When Pitale came again to thank Baba, Baba smiled:
"Are not all your thoughts, doubts and apprehensions calmed down now? Hari (Lord) will protect him, who has got faith and patience."
At parting Baba gave them udi and said to Mr. Pitale:
"Bapu, I had given you before, Rs. two, now I give you Rs. three; keep these in your shrine for worship and you will be benefited."
Pitale was puzzled — this was his first trip to Shirdi. Baba did not explain.
Back in Bombay he told the story to his old mother. She remembered: many years earlier, Pitale's father had taken him as a young child to Akkalkot for the darshan of Akkalkotkar Maharaj. Maharaj had given the father Rs. 2 to keep in the shrine and worship. The father had worshipped them till his death; after his death the worship was neglected and the coins were lost. The mother said:
"Akkalkotkar Maharaj has appeared to you in the form of Sai Baba just to remind you to your duties and worship, and to ward off all dangers. Now beware henceforth, leave off all doubts and bad thoughts, follow your ancestors and behave well… Sai Samartha has kindly revived the spirit of Bhakti in you; cultivate it for your benefit."
Pitale was convinced of Baba's all-pervasiveness and became careful in his conduct.
Gopal Narayan Ambadekar — Saved from Suicide at Dixit's Wada
Gopal Narayan Ambadekar of Poona served ten years in the Abkari (excise) department in Thana District and Javhar state, then had to retire. Seven years of unsuccessful job-search and misfortune followed. By 1916 his condition was at its worst.
He came to Shirdi with his wife for two months, having resolved to commit suicide there. One night, sitting in a bullock-cart in front of Dixit's Wada, he resolved to throw himself into a well a few paces away.
A few paces in the opposite direction stood a hotel. Its proprietor Mr. Sagun, a devotee of Baba, came out and asked Ambadekar:
"Did you ever read this Akkalkotkar Maharaja's life?"
He handed Ambadekar the book. Ambadekar opened it at a story whose match to his own situation was exact: during Akkalkotkar Maharaj's lifetime, a devotee suffering from an incurable disease threw himself in despair into a well. Maharaj immediately came, pulled him out by his own hands, and said:
"You must enjoy the fruit — good or bad — of your past actions; if the enjoyment be incomplete, suicide won't help you. You have to take another birth and suffer again; so instead of killing yourself, why not suffer for some time and finish up your store of the fruit of your past deeds and be done with it once and for all?"
Ambadekar was moved. He saw the timely hint as Baba's all-pervasive intervention; without it he would have been no more. His father had been a devotee of Akkalkotkar Maharaj; Baba was bringing him back to his father's lineage. His faith was confirmed. He afterward took up the study of astrology, gained proficiency, earned sufficient income, and passed his later years in ease.
Verbatim Sai Baba quotes documented in this chapter
- (To Pant on his Guru) "Come what may, leave not, but stick to your Bolster (support, i.e. Guru) and ever remain steady, always at-one-ment (in union) with him."
- (To Mrs. Pitale at the boy's fit) "Do not wail like this, wait a bit, have patience, take the boy to your lodging, he will come to his senses within half an hour."
- (To Pitale on faith and patience) "Are not all your thoughts, doubts and apprehensions calmed down now? Hari (Lord) will protect him, who has got faith and patience."
- (Parting blessing to Pitale) "Bapu, I had given you before, Rs. two, now I give you Rs. three; keep these in your shrine for worship and you will be benefited."