First-person testimony · Part II

Bhikubai

Context

Bhikubai is one of the named female devotee-witnesses in Part II (page 182). Narasimha Swami took care to include women's testimonies alongside the predominantly male civil-service and merchant statements.

About the 1936 statement

Bhikubai's statement preserves a household-female perspective on Baba's interactions.

Verbatim excerpt from Narasimha Swami (1940s)

e and got udhi from his hands. We went there; Jog, Madhav Rao Despande, Kaka Dixit, Buty etc., were there. Baba addressing them referred to my husband and said “There is an (i. upantiya e., one who does the reverse of what he is asked to do) who wants to die by eatin g sour and pungent things. But I would not allow him to do that. To day I went to him in the form of a cat. That fellow has given me a caning on the back. See here.” Then Baba exposed his back from under the Kupni; and there we could see a weal or stripe such as caning might cause, what a wonder! Thereafter my husband wanted no more curds to be prepared and no more acids etc., to take. This accelerated his improvement very probably. Baba was not for giving him any medicines. First I gave my husband daily some medicine for the asthma. Baba then said that he also had Asthma and that as I was giving medicine to my husband he had thousands of women who would give him medicine; “ But what is the use?” He added “Allah Malik hai” (God is the Lord). So I stopped giving medicines. It is without resort to any medi- 168 cine that Baba got my husband’s asthma cured. That cure lasted for a year or so.

Source: B. V. Narasimha Swami, Devotees' Experiences of Sri Sai Baba (All India Sai Samaj, Madras, 1940s; reprint Akhanda Sainama Sapthaha Samithi, Hyderabad). PDF on Internet Archive · OCR full text. Excerpt matched on the term: Bhikubai. This is the canonical English excerpt; please consult the original PDF for context.