First-person testimony · Part II

Dattatreya Damodar Rasane

Context

Dattatreya Rasane was the son of Damodar Savalram Rasane (Damu Anna) — the wealthy Ahmednagar Kasar (brass-merchant) who is the subject of Chapter 25 of the Satcharitra. The Rasane family came to Baba around 1895 — the founding year of the Rama-Navami Utsava — and provided the ornamental flag for the festival annually. The four mangoes Baba kept in his kolamba for Damu Anna's junior wife — the Amra-Leela — produced four sons and four daughters, exactly as Baba had promised. Dattatreya is one of those children.

About the 1936 statement

Dattatreya's 1936 statement (page 144 of Part II) gives the second-generation perspective on the Rasane family's six-decade Sai-discipleship.

Verbatim excerpt from Narasimha Swami (1940s)

is it? What 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: Dattatreya Damodar. This is the canonical English excerpt; please consult the original PDF for context.