First-person testimony · Part II

Damodar Savalram Rasane (Damu Anna)

Context

Damu Anna's own first-person 1936 statement is one of the most-cited in Narasimha Swami's collection. He is the protagonist of Chapter 25 of the Satcharitra. The full Satcharitra record includes: (1) the cotton-speculation Baba refused via Shama ("The Shet has gone mad… let him be content with the half loaf he has now"); (2) the grain-trade Baba blocked ("You will be buying at five seers and selling at seven seers a rupee"); (3) the four-mango Amra-Leela — four mangoes from a 300-mango parcel from Goa, set aside in the kolamba, given to the junior wife with the promise of four sons and four daughters — fulfilled in time, against the astrologers' prediction of childlessness.

Crucially, the Satcharitra preserves Damu Anna's own two silent-question answers from Baba (in his 1936 statement):

Look at the mango tree in blossom. If all the flowers brought fruit, what a splendid crop it would be. But do they? Most fall off by wind etc. Very few remain.

I will be with you when and wherever you think of Me.

Damu Anna's 1936 gloss: "That promise He had kept up before 1918 and has been keeping up after 1918. He is still with me. He is still guiding me."

About the 1936 statement

Damu Anna's full 1936 statement (page 149 of Part II) extends the Chapter 25 material with additional episodes: the theft of his wife's jewel-box (including her auspicious Nathi) by a 30-year friend, returned the next day after Damu Anna wept before Baba's photo; the consolation Baba gave after his sister's death (a Pooran Poli feast at Appa Kulkarni's house, sandal-paste applied).

Verbatim excerpt from Narasimha Swami (1940s)

confusion and struggle for this? The pot is mine and I am the pot’s.” Baba once spoke thus: “My mother was greatly rejoicing that she had got a son (i.e., me). I was for my part wondering at her conduct. When did she beget me? Was I begotten at all? Have I not been already in existence? Why is she rejoicing over this?” Once at Shirdi, somebody had prepared “Sira (i.e.., sweetened semolina pudding). Baba asked me if I had been given ‘Sira”. I then said that I was not on good terms with B.a and that I had not been given ‘Sira’. Baba then gave me 135 instructions. “Who gives what to whom? What is this ‘Sira’? Who eats it? Do not say of anyone that he is inimical. Who is whose enemy? Do not entertain any ill feelings towards anyone. All are one and the same.” That idea is brought out at the end of Ch.II of my commentary on Amritanubhava. A religious person of Satara once offered to teach me Vedanta but I said that I could rely on Sai Baba’s help in taht mater. Then that person jeered at Baba and said taht as a Moslem he knew nothing and could teach nothing of Vedanta.

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