First-person testimony · Part III

Cursetji Shapurji Pestonjamas

Context

Cursetji Shapurji Pestonjamas is a named Parsi witness — the Parsi (Zoroastrian) community had multiple Sai-devotees, most famously Ruttonji Shapurji Wadia of Nanded (the wealthy Parsi mill-contractor of Chapter 14 of the Satcharitra who received twelve issues, four of whom survived, after his Rs. 3-14-0 / Rs. 5 Dakshina episode).

About the 1936 statement

The Pestonjamas statement (page 220 of Part III) is among the named Parsi-witness testimonies.

Verbatim excerpt from Narasimha Swami (1940s)

i Baba is your guru’. In 1933, my son had plague and he recovered by the use of Baba’s udhi alone. My sister had given away a silver cup and Rs. 100 to one Dutta Maharaj, who promised that she would have Ram darshan. She did not get any Ramasakshatkar and she feared that the Maharaj would not return the silver cup. I told her that if she vowed to make a gift of it to Sai Baba’s Sansthan, in case the Maharaj returned it, Sai would make the Maharaj return it. She vowed so; the cup and Rs.100 were returned and her vow was fulfilled by presenting it to the Sansthan. Her name is Durgabai Kakatkar. I knew of Sai Baba even in 1916. My mother Annapoornabai Daji Bhave went to Shirdi. There when she tried to enter the mosque, Sai Baba prevented her saying it would pollute the mosque. When she returned to yeola, she received a card from Yootmal that her daughter-in-law (i.e., my brother’s wife) had died on a particular date- which was the day before my mother’s visit to the Shirdi mosque. She had to observe ten day’s pollution from that day and was under 10 days pollution when she was at Shirdi. She did not know it then. But Baba knew it evidently.

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: Cursetji. This is the canonical English excerpt; please consult the original PDF for context.