First-person testimony · Part III

Laxman Bhatt Joshi (Laxman Mama Joshi)

Context

Laxman Mama Joshi is one of the Satcharitra's quietly important named witnesses. He was the village astrologer of Shirdi, an orthodox Brahmin who daily worshipped Baba in the morning first, then all the village deities. He was the maternal uncle of Shama (Madhavrao Deshpande).

His decisive moment in the Satcharitra is Wednesday morning, 16 October 1918 — the morning after Baba's Mahasamadhi. While the village debated whether Baba's body should be interred in an open field or in Booty Wada, Baba appeared to Laxman Mama in dream, drew him by his hand:

Get up soon; Bapusaheb thinks that I am dead and so he won't come; you do the worship and the Kakad (morning) arati.

Laxman Mama came at once with the puja materials and, ignoring the moulvis' protests, performed the Kakad Arati with full formality. At noon Bapusaheb Jog came with the others and performed the noon Arati as usual. The simple dream-message broke the deadlock and assured that Baba's worship continued unbroken into the post-Mahasamadhi era. See Chapter 43-44.

About the 1936 statement

Laxman Bhatt Joshi's own 1936 statement at page 287 of Part III is the witness-side documentation of this episode.

Verbatim excerpt from Narasimha Swami (1940s)

of it in a pot (Kolumba) for the use of Baba and throw the remainder to the dogs. For 5 or 6 years when huge crowds were daily flocking to Baba, I ran a busy hotel here, and engaged some Brahmin cooks to cook and serve food. In October 1919 when the crowd had fallen doff, I closed down the hotel. 260 I know Upasani Maharaj. He had arrived here at Shirdi shortly before me. After I came he was living at Mr.H.S.Dixit’s wada and being fed for 5 or 6 months at Mr.Dixit’s expense. This was when Mr.G.S.Khaparde was here. Madhav Rao Deshpande (H.S.Dixit’s agent) and U.Maharaj then had a quarrel and the latter removed to Khandoba temple to live there. In the middle of 1912, the marble stone paduka of Sri Sai Baba was installed at the foot of Baba’s favourite margosa tree in he Sathe Wada. Bhai Alibagkar, a Mahratti vendor of Udhibattis started the idea. Practically the whole of the expenses were borne by Ram Rao Khotare of Bombay. Baba Ali was too poor to pay for this Baba himself gave Rs.25 as his contribution. Four Brahmins, representing the four Vedas, were brought from Kopergaon for performing the ceremony.

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