DIVINE GRACE - BALA SAHEB & KASINATH

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DIVINE GRACE – KASINATH GARDE AND BALA SAHEB BHATE

Kasinath Kanderrao Garde, B.A., LLB., 65, retired Sub Judge of Nagpur, Congress Nagar, Nagpur says:

Our family guru is a Ramachandra Tikotkar. My own personal guru is Ramanand

Bidkar Maharaj. He was deep in wisdom and possessed marvelous powers and

knowledge. After giving me upadesh, he told me that I should go round seeing a

number of great souls, i.e., saints, that he had seen in his tours, and he gave

me a list of them. He told me that all these saints would feel they are one

family and they would recognise me as connected with their stock and accord me

a hearty welcome. That would confirm me, he said, in the belief of the truth

and value of his instruction to me.

One of these saints that I was ordered to visit was Sai Baba of Shirdi. My guru

Bidkar Maharaj in 1898 told me to visit him, saying he himself (Bidkar Maharaj)

had seen that saint (Sai Baba) 25 years back i.e., about 1873. I went to see Sai

Baba in 1912 or 1913 during May vacation, as I was then Sub Judge at Kopergaon.

As soon as I went and saw him, without any introduction or announcement. Sai

Baba welcomed me heartedly saying i.e., "Welcome Ramdas". Ramdas is not my

name. But, the hearty welcome he gave me was in accordance with that my Guru

Ramanand Bidkar Maharaj asked me to expect and the word "Ramdas" I took to be

reference to that guru, by whose order I went to Shirdi and also to the earlier

family guru, whose name was Ramachandra. I stayed there with my college chum (of

Deccan College) Bala Bhate, who lived there, at Shirdi, a life devoted to Sai

Baba. Each succeeding day, I tried to go but the journey was put off, for 6

days as Baba said "Wait till

tomorrow". Meanwhile, I had kept with me Rs.6 or 7 for the expenses of my return journey.

Sai Baba asked me first time a dakshina of Rs.2 and Rs.1 each day for four days

thereafter. On the next day thereafter, when I had got Rs. 0-3-6 left in my

pocket, Baba said of his own knowledge, "Why keep that Rs. 0-3-6 with you> Give

that up as dakshina. god will provide you with plenty." I at once gave up the

Rs. 0-3-6 I had. Before I started for Shirdi, I was at Poona Reay Market and I

purchased three excellent ‘Payari’ mangoes for presentation to Sai Baba, and as

soon as I saw Sai Baba, I presented them. Sai Baba then took them up, eyed them

with joy and said they were nice looking and ordered them to be cut up and he

distributed the pieces as prasad (taking a piece himself). Before cutting the

fruit, Sai Baba, out of his own vast knowledge, said "Hallow! These fruits he

(i.e., Garde) had purchased in the market for me and has brought the whole lot

to me, without tasting any part of it. This is the opposite of what a pandit

did the other day. Pandit had got a

whole pocket of laddus intending to give them to me. But, on the way after

bathing at Godavari River, he got hungry and ate away some of the laddus and

brought me the remainder. These fruits are not or sesha like that."

This narration showed us (1) that he appreciated the pure and strong bhakti that

we, devotees, should have towards the guru, avoiding the slight involved in

presenting him with sesha and (2) that by his (Sai Baba’s) knowledge, even of

unseen events taking place far away from Shirdi, he deepens and strengthens the

faith and reliance we place in him and in our guru. My faith in my guru’s

teaching, and my adherence to him was deepened by all that Sai Baba said and

did.

On 8th day, I got Sri Sai’s permission and left Shirdi with money lent me by

Bala Saheb Bhate. Once, during those 8 days, I saw a strange sight. Hari

Sitaram Dixit had returned, after conducting some big case and with a trunk

full of solid silver rupees which were his fees, it may be Rs. 1000. He placed

the trunk before Sai Baba as an offering to Sai Baba. Baba dipped both his

palms into the silver heap and gave away palmful after palmful of rupees from

the trunk to fakirs and others, who were gathering in crowds waiting for such

windfalls. The entire money was in a few minutes thus gifted away. H.S. Dixit

felt in no way disconcerted at the disappearance of his hard-earned cash.

A few words on Balasaheb Bhate may next be mentioned. At college, he was a free

thinker, a free smoker, a veritable charvaka, whose creed may be thus summed

up, "Eat, drink and be merry to day, for tomorrow we die." Karr yatra Bhante

tatra Dhumaha. I used to remark jocularly at his inveterate smoking being

myself free of the tobacco habit. He became Mamlatdar and was a very efficient

officer much liked by his collector. He was Mamlatdar of Kopergoan for about 5

years (1904-1909). All that time he was scoffing at his educated friends (who

met him on their way to Shirdi) having any respect for Sai, whom Bhate

described as ‘a mad man’. The friends asked him just to see Sai Baba once and

then form his judgement. In 1909, Bhate camped at Shirdi and saw Sai Baba day

after day. On the fifth day Sai Baba covered him with a gerua garment. From

that day, Bhate was a changed man. He did not care for earnings or work. From

that day up to his death, he only wished to be at

Shirdi, to do seva to Sai Baba, to live and die in his presence. Sai Baba made

his friend Dixit draw up an application for leave for one year and with Sai

Baba’s help, Bhate’s signature was got to it. The Collector gave him one year’s

time to see if he would return to his old self. But, at the end of the year, he

still continued to be ‘mad after his guru’ and was granted compassionate

pension of about Rs. 30 as one afflicted with ‘religious melancholia.’

Asked for the reason of his change, Bhate told me the putting of the (Bhagawa)

gerua garment on him by Sai Baba marked the crisis. ‘By that’ he said, "my

original frame of mind was removed and in its place quite a new frame of mind

was put in." After that attending to worldly duties, especially official

duties, became unthinkable. He then lived at Shirdi, attending to his Nitya

Karma, Upanishad reading etc., before Sai (Sai would offer remarks on that

reading occasionally). His wife and family came to Shirdi and lived with him.

I have written a short account of my visit to Sai Baba. The reasons for the

visit and the reception I got at his hands are published in the Mahratti

biography of my guru.

(Written by: HH Pujyasri B.V. Narasimha Swamiji in Devotees Experiences on 26th May 1936)