Devotee biography
Madhavrao Deshpande ("Shama")
Hemadpant calls him "Baba's Boy." Wrote letters Baba dictated. Carried out Baba's interventions across distance (the Jamner Miracle, Bapaji's wife's plague cure). Survived a poisonous snake-bite through Baba's spoken Mantra. Said to have been with Baba for 72 generations.
Profession
Village schoolmaster, scribe, intimate go-between. Whenever Baba wished to send instructions, money, or an article to a distant devotee, Shama was the natural relay. The Satcharitra preserves Baba's affectionate idiom: "Is not Shama our boy?" (Ch. 27)
Snake-Bite (Ch. 23)
Once Shama was bitten by a poisonous snake on his little finger. The pain spread; he thought he would die. Instead of going to the village deity Viroba (where such cases were customarily sent), Shama ran to his Viroba — Baba — at the masjid. Baba erupted in apparent fury, roaring: "Oh vile Bhaturdya (Priest) do not climb up. Beware if you do so. Go, Get away, Come down." The five-syllabled command was, Hemadpant's gloss explains, directed not at Shama but at the venom — ordering it not to ascend through his body. Baba then calmly told Shama to go home, eat what he liked, walk about, but not lie down. He recovered.
The Vishnu-Sahasra-Nam
In Chapter 27, Baba contrived a stomach-pain errand to send a learned Ramadasi to the bazar for Senna-pods, took the Ramadasi's copy of the Vishnu-Sahasra-Nam, and gave it to Shama: "Once I suffered intensely and My heart began to palpitate and My life was in danger. At that critical time, I hugged this book to My heart and what a relief it gave me! I thought that Allah Himself came down and saved Me." Shama, though a rustic and not at first comfortable reading Devanagari, eventually mastered the text and explained it to Professor G. G. Narke.
The Jamner Miracle (1904-05)
When Nanasaheb Chandorkar's daughter Mainatai was in obstructed labour at Jamner — 100 miles from Shirdi — Baba directed Shama to write out the Madhav Adkar Arati and gave it to Ramgirbuva with Udi. "God will give," Baba said when Ramgirbuva mentioned he had only Rs. 2. A mysterious peon-and-tanga at Jalgaon at 2:45 a.m. brought Ramgirbuva to Jamner; the Udi-water reached Mainatai; the delivery was safe within minutes. The Shama-written Arati was preserved in the Sai Leela archives. (Ch. 33)
Shama's Mother's Two Vows
Hidden behind Shama's ordinary service was a thirty-year story: in childhood Shama had been severely ill; his mother had vowed to Sapta-Shringi at Vani to dedicate him at the goddess's feet if he recovered. Later she suffered ringworms; she vowed silver-breasts to the same goddess if cured. Neither vow had been kept. On her deathbed she made Shama promise. Thirty years later, an astrologer reminded the family. Shama had silver-breasts made and travelled to Vani at Baba's insistence — arriving at the priest Kakaji Vaidya's house precisely when Kakaji was looking for a way to Shirdi. (Ch. 30)
"Seventy-two generations"
Once Baba pinched Shama's cheek after the noon meal. Shama feigned anger: "Deva, is it proper to pinch me?" Baba: "Oh Shama, during the 72 generations that you were with me, I never pinched you till now and now you resent my touching you." Shama's bantering reply preserved: "We want a God that will give us ever kisses and sweets. Let our faith unto Your feet be ever wide-awake." (Ch. 36)