Chapter L — Kakasaheb Dixit (1864-1926); Shri Tembye Swami; Balaram Dhurandhar (1878-1925)

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/sai50.html

Sections

Preliminary

Hemadpant: as sandal-wood trees on the Malaya mountains ward off heat, as clouds pour rain to cool, as flowers blossom in spring enabling worship — so the stories of Sai Baba come forth to comfort readers. Hundreds of sadhanas fall short unless a Sadguru's grace falls.

Kakasaheb Dixit — Birth, Education, Profession

Hari Sitaram alias Kakasaheb Dixit was born in 1864 in a Vadnagara Nagar Brahmin family at Khandwa (C.P.). Primary at Khandwa and Hinganghat; secondary at Nagpur; higher at Wilson College and Elphinstone College, Bombay; graduated 1883; passed LL.B. and Solicitor's; served at Govt. Solicitors Messrs Little and Co.; then started his own firm.

How Dixit Came to Baba

Before 1909 Baba's name was unfamiliar to Kakasaheb. While at Lonavla he met his old friend Nanasaheb Chandorkar. Kakasaheb described his London accident: boarding a train, his foot slipped and was injured; hundreds of remedies failed. Nanasaheb advised: see Sai Baba. He gave particulars and quoted Baba's dictum:

"I draw to Me My man from far off, or even across the seven seas, like a sparrow with a string fastened to its feet."

Nanasaheb added: if Kakasaheb were not Baba's man he would not be attracted. Kakasaheb replied: he wished Baba to cure not so much his lame leg as his lame, fickle mind.

The Mirikars, Shama, and the Portrait

Some time after, Kakasaheb went to Ahmednagar to canvass votes for a seat in the Bombay Legislative Council, staying with Sirdar Kakasaheb Mirikar. Mirikar's son Balasaheb Mirikar (Mamlatdar of Kopergaon) was also there for the Horse Exhibition. After the election Kakasaheb wished to visit Shirdi and the Mirikars sought a fit guide.

Baba was arranging things at Shirdi. Shama received a telegram from his Ahmednagar father-in-law: wife seriously ill. Shama went with Baba's permission, found his mother-in-law improving. Nanasaheb Panshe and Appasaheb Gadre met Shama on their way to the Exhibition. The Mirikars and Dixit were informed.

That evening Shama came to the Mirikars; introduction made; agreed they would leave for Kopergaon on the 10 p.m. night train. Balasaheb Mirikar then threw aside the cover from Baba's big portrait — Megha's portrait, brought to Mirikars for repair of the broken glass — and showed it to Kakasaheb, who was deeply moved to find the one he was about to meet already there to greet him. He prostrated before the portrait. It was decided the portrait would return with Kakasaheb and Shama.

The Train Journey

At the station the second class was overcrowded. The guard, an acquaintance of Kakasaheb, put them in first class. They alighted at Kopergaon — and found Nanasaheb Chandorkar, also bound for Shirdi. After bathing in the Godavari they started together.

At Shirdi, Kakasaheb's mind melted at Baba's darshan; eyes filled with tears. Baba said:

"I also was waiting for you; I had sent Shama ahead to receive you."

"He Will Take Him in Air Coach" — Kakasaheb's Death

Kakasaheb passed many happy years in Baba's company. He built a Wada in Shirdi which became his nearly permanent home. (His full experiences are in Shri Sai Leela magazine Vol. 12, No. 6-9 — a special Kakasaheb Dixit issue.)

Baba had comforted Kakasaheb saying: "In the end I will take him in air coach (Viman)" — meaning a happy death.

The promise was kept literally. On 5 July 1926 Kakasaheb was on a train with Hemadpant, talking about Sai Baba, "deeply engrossed in Sai Baba." Suddenly he threw his neck on Hemadpant's shoulder and breathed his last — "with no trace of pain and uneasiness."

Shri Tembye Swami — Saint-to-Saint Greeting

Shri Vasudevananda Saraswati, known as Shri Tembye Swami, encamped at Rajamahendri (Andhra Country) on the Godavari. He was a devout, orthodox Jnani-Yogi Bhakta of God Dattatreya.

Mr. Pundalikrao, pleader of Nanded (Nizam State), visited him with friends. Hearing the name Sai Baba in casual conversation, the Swami bowed with hands joined. He took a coconut and gave it to Pundalikrao:

"Offer this to my brother Sai, with my pranam, and request Him not to forget me, but ever love me."

The Swami noted: Swamis do not generally bow to others; an exception was made. Hemadpant's gloss: the Swami called Baba a brother because both were Agnihotris — the Swami maintained Agnihotra (sacred fire) day and night in his orthodox fashion; Baba kept the Dhuni perpetually burning at the masjid.

The Broken Coconut at Manmad

A month later Pundalikrao and party reached Manmad, thirsty. At a rivulet for drinking, they took Chivda (flattened rice with spice) as refreshment. The Chivda was pungent; someone suggested mixing coconut scrapings. They broke a coconut and ate. It was Tembye Swami's coconut.

As they neared Shirdi, Pundalikrao remembered. He came to Shirdi trembling. Baba — who already knew "by wireless" — asked him first for "the things sent by My brother." Pundalikrao held Baba's feet, confessed, offered another coconut as substitute. Baba refused:

"The worth of that coconut was by far many times more than an ordinary one and it could not be replaced by another."

Baba added the chapter's central teaching:

"Now you need not worry yourself any more about the matter. It was on account of my wish that the coconut was entrusted to you, and ultimately broken on the way. Why should you take the responsibility of the actions on you? Do not entertain the sense of doership in doing good as well as for bad deeds; be entirely prideless and egoless in all things and thus your spiritual progress will be rapid."

Balaram Dhurandhar — Sixty Generations

Balaram Dhurandhar (born 1878) belonged to the Pathare Prabhu community of Santacruz, Bombay. Bombay High Court advocate; sometime Principal of the Government Law School, Bombay. The whole Dhurandhar family was pious. Balaram served his community, wrote and published an account of it, then turned to spiritual study — Gita, Jnaneshwari, philosophical works. He was a devotee of Vithoba of Pandharpur.

He first met Baba in 1912. Six months earlier his brothers Babulji and Vamanrao came to Shirdi for darshan; on returning to Bombay they shared their experiences with Balaram and other family. The whole family decided to come.

Before they arrived, Baba announced at the masjid:

"Today many of my Darbar people are coming."

The Dhurandhar brothers were astonished when others repeated this — they had given no previous intimation. At their arrival Baba told the company: "These are my Darbar people to whom I referred before." To the Dhurandhar brothers:

"We are acquainted with each other for the last sixty generations."

All the Sattwic emotions — tears, horripilation, choking — moved them.

The Chillim and the Six-Year Asthma

After meals and rest the brothers returned to the masjid. Balaram sat near Baba massaging his legs. Baba was smoking a chillim; he advanced it and beckoned Balaram to smoke. Balaram was not accustomed to smoking; he accepted with difficulty, smoked, returned the pipe with a bow.

Balaram had suffered from asthma for six years. The single smoke completely cured the disease. It did not return — until a particular day six years later, when an attack came. That precise day was the day of Baba's Mahasamadhi.

The Chavadi and Pandurang

The Dhurandhars' visit fell on a Thursday; they had the good fortune of witnessing the Chavadi procession. Balaram saw "the lustre of Pandurang on Baba's face" — and again at the Kakad-Arti the next morning, the same lustre of his beloved deity Pandurang was visible on Baba's face.

Mr. Balaram Dhurandhar wrote in Marathi the life of the Maharashtra saint Tukaram but did not live to see its publication. It was published by his brothers in 1928; a short biographical note on Balaram in the book's opening corroborates the Shirdi-visit account (p. 6).

Verbatim Sai Baba quotes documented in this chapter

1. (Recurring saying, as Nanasaheb relayed to Kakasaheb) "I draw to Me My man from far off, or even across the seven seas, like a sparrow with a string fastened to its feet."
2. (At Kakasaheb's first darshan) "I also was waiting for you; I had sent Shama ahead to receive you."
3. (Through Tembye Swami's coconut-instruction — recorded saint-to-saint) "Offer this to my brother Sai, with my pranam, and request Him not to forget me, but ever love me." (Tembye Swami's words; recorded because Baba received them.)
4. (To Pundalikrao, refusing the substitute) "The worth of that coconut was by far many times more than an ordinary one and it could not be replaced by another."
5. (To Pundalikrao, the central teaching) "Do not entertain the sense of doership in doing good as well as for bad deeds; be entirely prideless and egoless in all things and thus your spiritual progress will be rapid."
6. (Announcing the Dhurandhars' arrival) "Today many of my Darbar people are coming."
7. (Greeting Balaram and his brothers) "We are acquainted with each other for the last sixty generations."