TATYA REMEMBERS HIS CHILDHOOD DAYS

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TATYA REMEMBERS HIS CHILDHOOD DAYS

Many of the devotees who served Baba saw the divinity and power in him and came

to him. As Madhav Adkar wrote in his arati, "Jaya mani jaisa bhava, taya taisa

anubhava" (As is one’s intent, such shall be our experience) - Baba gave them

of himself as their feelings were towards him. Unlike these devotees, there are

some who loved Baba for himself and not for what they got from his divinity.

Baba also showered them with his love and grace accordingly. These devotees

were a small group, and we can see in the divine form of Baba the thread of

love for them as a beautiful rainbow of love. Sri Tatya Kote Patil was the

first amongst these devotees who danced happily, fully soaked in the gentle

rain of Baba’s love.

Sri Tatya Kote Patil was the only son of Sri Ganpatirao Kote Patil and Srimati

Bayajabai, a middle-class farming family. Initially as a result of his hard

work, and later with the money given to him daily by Baba, Tatya became a big

farmer in the village. He had six pairs of oxen working in his fields, which in

those days meant a big land holding. Tatya was tall and strongly built, with

regular features. He had a helping nature and was very cooperative with the

other villagers. He took an active part in the village affairs and many people

came to him to solve their disputes. Some of the hagiographies of Sri Sai Baba

have described Tatya as the village officer (patil) which is inaccurate. The

name Patil in his case was merely an honorific term. The village police patil

and officer during Baba’s time was Sri Santaji Patil Shelke.

Tatya was six or seven years old when Baba first came to Shirdi. He reminisces

about his first introduction to Baba and of his first impressions: "When Baba

first came to Shirdi I was six or seven years old. I studied in the school

which was located first in the Maruti temple and later in our horse stables.

Sri Madhavarao Deshpande (Shama) was our teacher in those days. When I was in

school in the Maruti temple, Baba came regularly to our house for alms. I, my

friend Raghu Patil, and four or five other kids used to stand in front of the

mosque and tease him. Baba was only 18 or 19 years old then and had a thin

moustache. He always sat silently beside a pillar in the mosque. Raghu Patil

would stand at the gate of the mosque every day and throw stones at Baba. Baba

scolded us sometimes to which we used to retaliate by laughing even louder at

him and teasing him even more. The moment he took his satka (stick) in hand to

beat us, we all would scamper away. This

was our usual routine. After this I would go home for lunch.

Baba would normally come for alms to our house by the time my lunch was half

finished. He would shout with a voice as strong as a bell of bronze for my

mother to give him alms. ‘Abaad-e abaad, Bayaja mami roti lao.’ My mother would

graciously invite him to come and sit inside the house, but he never did as he

would only sit on the threshold of the house, and that also only rarely.

My mother would leave all her work and sit with him. I would climb on to his

shoulders and roll down into his lap and sit there. Baba never stopped me but

would watch me with a smile. When my mother, troubled by my unseemly behaviour,

scolded me or even had any sign of anger in her face, Baba would remonstrate

with her to leave me alone.

After staying for two to three years in the mosque, Baba changed his residence

to the area of dense vegetation between the Lendi and Sira rivulets. He stayed

there for two and a half years. During this period, one of his devotees would

take him food every day. Raghu Patil, and four or five other kids and myself

visited him there during this period, but by then we had given up our juvenile

pranks. Sri Nanasaheb Dengle and other devotees also came for Baba’s darshan in

those days.

(...... to be continued)