G S KHAPARDE DIARY - JAN 18, 1912

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1912 18 January Thursday

Shiradi

There is much to record today. I got up very early, prayed & finding it yet

wanting about an hour to the dawn, I lay down and got up in time to see the

sunrise. I, Upasani, Bapusaheb Jog & Bhishma read Paramamrita. Tahasildarsaheb

Pralhad Ambadas, Mr Paté & his companion (Lingayat) returned to their places.

The latter two got permission just in time to start. We saw Sayin Baba go out &

again after he returned to Masjid. He treated me very kindly & while I was

serving, he told me two or three tales. He said many people came to take his

money. He never resisted but let them take it way. He only noted their names &

followed them. When they, got down for their meals, he killed them & brought

his money back. The other story was that there was a blind man. He used to live

near the Takia here. A man enticed away his wife, & eventually murded the blind

man. Four hundred men assembled at the Chavadhi & condemned him. They ordered

him to be decapitated. This order was carried out, by the village hangman who

did the work out of some motive & not merely as a piece of duty. So the murder

in the reincarnation was born as the son of the hangman.

He then commenced another tale. In the meantime a stranger Fakir came & touched

Sayin Baba ’s feet. Sayin Baba felt very angry or rather showed that he

was so and shook off the Fakir who showed great tenacity & persistence without

losing his own equanimity. At last he went out & stood near the compound wall

on the outside. Sayin Baba was angry & threw away the arti utensils and the

dishes full of food brought by his worshippers. He lifted up Ram Maruti Bwa who

declared afterwards that he felt very happy & as if sent sent off to higher

regions. One Bhagya & a villager were also roughly handled by Sain Maharaj.

Sitaram brought the arti and we finished the arti in the usual though a

somewhat hurried way. Martand son of Mahalapat showed great presence of mind &

prevented confusion by directing that the arti should be finished where it was

begun. He did so when Sayin Baba moved out of his usual place.Before finishing

Sayin Baba resumed his seat & all went much as usual, except that "Udi " was

distributed wholesale & not individually. He was not really angry of course and

did the whole thing as a "Lila ". The whole affair made us late & there was the

feast given by Tatya Patil for the death of his father as a part of the

obsequies So we did not finish our meals till about 6.30 P.M. It must have been

a bit later for after it there was no time to do anything and we went to see the

Sayin Maharaj come out for his stroll. He did so as usual & we saluted him as

usual. There was the usual Arti in the wada. Megha was too ill to stand up &

Sayin Baba foretold his end during the night. We then attended the Chavadhi

procession it being the evening for it. I held the morchal as usual,and

everything went on smooth. Sitaram did the arti. At night there was the Bhajan

of Bhishma & Ramayan of Dixit.

G.S.Khaparde

P.S..I forgot to mention above that during the torrent of hard words that Sayin

Maharaj poured out today he repeatedly said that he had saved my son Balvant,

and then often repeated the phrase "Fakir wished to kill Dadasaheb (meaning

me)but I would not permit it." He mentioned one more name but I can not recall

it now.

G.S.Khaparde

 

1912 19 January Friday

Shiradi

This was a very sad day.I got up very early &after finishing my prayers discovered that it

yet wanted an hour or so to day break. So I lay down and was aroused for Kakad

Arti by Bapusaheb Jog. Dixit Kaka told me that Megha died about 4 a.m. The

Kakad Arti was done but Sayin Maharaj did not show his face clear & did not

appear to open his eyes. He never threw any glances spreading grace. After we

returned arrangements were made for the cremation of Megha ’s body. Sayin

Baba came just as the body was being brought out and loudly lamented his death.

His voice was so touching that brought tears to every eye. He followed the body

up to the bend in the made road near the village & then went his usual way.

Megha ’s body was taken under the Bada tree & consigned to flames there.

Sayin Baba could be distinctly heard lamenting his death even at that distance

& he

was seen waving his hands & swaying as if in arti to say goodbye. There was a

good supply of dry fuel & flames soon rose very high.Dixit Kaka, myself

Bapusaheb Jog, Upasani, Dada Kelkar & all else here were there & praised the

lot of Megha that his body was seen & touched by Sayin Baba on the head heart &

shoulders & feet by him. After finishing the ceremonies we ought to have sat

praying but Bapusaheb Jog came & I sat talking with him. When later I went to

see Sayin Baba, he asked me how I spent the afternoon I was very sorry to

confess that I had wasted it in talking. This was a lesson to me. I remembered

how Sayin Baba foretold his death three days ago "This is the last

arti of Megha," how Megha felt that he had completed his service and was passing

away, how he shed tears to think that he could not see Sathé whom he regarded as

his Guru, and how he directed that the cows of Sayin Baba should be let loose.

He never expressed any other wish. We all admired his life of extreme devotion

& I was sorry that I did not rest in prayer but listened to meaningless

talk.Bhishma & my son Balvant are not well. So there was no Bhajan. Dixit Kaka

read Ramayan at night.Gupte his brother &their families left this morning for

Bombay.

G.S.Khaparde