LESS FAITH OR NO FAITH, BUT BABA'S GRACE IS GREAT

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LESS FAITH OR NO FAITH, BUT BABA'S GRACE IS GREAT

 

>From the very beginning, Sathe's appreciation of Baba was somewhat

defective. When Baba said that he was going to have a son if married,

he wanted confirmation from a famous astrologer about the correctness

of Baba's prediction. Then again on other matters also, he was not

sufficiently attentive to Baba's wishes. On one occasion, for

instance, he held a feast for which he invited everybody except his

father-in-law with whom he had differences. When he went to invite

Baba, Baba wished to rebuke him for harbouring such feelings of

hatred. Baba said when he came in `Fetch a stick', Sathe stood quiet.

Baba did not actually mean to club him and changed his mood and

said, "Never mind, I will come". But, of course, Baba did not go.

Sathe did not change his feelings towards his father-in-law for a

considerable time. One another occasion, Sathe went to intercede in a

marwadi's affairs. Factious spirit was rife at Shirdi. Baba did not

like that this high officer of the Government should interfere in

such matters. Baba expressed his displeasure at that also.

 

Baba pulled down Sathe's ideas of vanity and pomp on one occasion.

When the Wada was being built, the laying of the foundation stone was

the first question. But Sathe who went there accidentally wanted

formally to lay the foundation stone himself. Baba told him, "This is

the time for the foundation stone to be laid". Then Sathe took up a

hatchet and proceeded to lay the foundation stone. Baba stopped him

and asked, "Why do you go there? What have you to do with all this?

The masons and workmen will do it?"

 

Baba's help to Sathe was mainly on the worldly plane, though Baba

gave him repeated inklings of his antarjnana. But unfortunately Sathe

had not even a fraction of the faith which Chandorkar, Dixit, and

others had. On one occasion the Collector and several Settlement

Officers were to meet him at some railway station. So, Sathe wanted

to go from Shirdi. But Baba told him not to start. But still he

wanted to go, his official ideas of punctuality standing in the way

of appreciating and obeying Baba. He could not understand the reason

for Baba's stopping him. Then Baba told Kelkar, "Lock him up for

three days and then let him go." For three days he could not quit

Shirdi and then when he went, he discovered that Baba somehow knew

that the Settlement Officers and others had cancelled their programme

and there was no meeting at all that day.

 

In religious matters more than in others, faith is wanted, and Sathe

thought he should go to others for upadesa. For instance when others

were going to Sakori to Upasani Baba for upadesa, he also considered

why he should not go there to get upadesa. There was also a lady

called Attabai of Sangola. There was Ganapat Upasaka. There was the

yogi of Moregaon named Vinayak Patak Maharaj. These offered to give

upadesa to Sathe. Sathe consulted Baba about Upasani Maharaj in

person through Dada Kelkar in the latter two cases. Baba dissuaded

him. Baba wanted him to concentrate, Ananyachinta, and have firm,

exclusive faith in Himself, as he could look after every interest of

his, temporal and spiritual. Unfortunately, Sathe could not rise to

the full height of Ananyachinta. Like Upasani Maharaj, Sathe also got

mixed up with local clashes. There were a number of people at Shirdi

who were dead against him as they were against Upasani Maharaj, the

chief of them being Nana Wali, a religious ascetic, who was a bully

and a terror to most people there. The reason for Sathe's

unpopularity was mostly in connection with his starting a Dakshina

Bhiksha Sansthan. In December 1915, he had a call from Baba, and at

Baba's bidding, he formed a society of which he himself was the

president. It ran a journal called Sainath Prabha. The object of the

society was to collect or recover a part of the money distributed by

Baba daily and with it run the Shirdi Sai Sansthan. But this attempt

to control receipts from Baba made Sathe unpopular. Nana Wali thought

that he would be doing a good service to Baba and to the village by

getting rid of this unpopular man Sathe. Some of the leading

villagers on account of their bitterness against him held him

responsible for the loss to the Sansthan by theft of some articles

like silver horses from the palanquin and troubled him in other

similar trivial matters.

 

In January 1918, even lawyer's notices were served on him. Baba

advised him to be patient and give a suitable reply. Baba said that

he would protect him and that no proceedings would be taken against

him. Really no proceedings were taken against him. However, the

villagers still continued to regard this reserved and high placed

Sathe with dislike and on one occasion Nana Wali took up a huge axe

and stood at the entrance to the Mosque probably with a view to

attack Sathe when he entered the Mosque. Dada Kelkar sent word to

Sathe that this bully was standing with a big axe ready to hew him

down if he should go to the Mosque. H. V. Sathe beat a hasty retreat

from Shirdi and never visited it again.

 

Written by: HH Pujyasri B. V. Narasimha Swamiji

(Vasuki Mahal Shri Shirdi Sai Baba Trust, Coimbatore-641025, India)