DIVINE GRACE - SAIBABA IS YOUR GURU

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DIVINE GRACE – SAI BABA IS YOUR GURU

Vinayak Daji Bhave, Brahmin, aged 37, Shirol Kolhapur State says:

I was a clerk in 1932 in the B.B.C.I.Rly Co., on Rs. 90 per month. I was anxious

to find a guru and read Guru Gita from 13-4-1932 for one month. I had not found

any guru or obtained a vision of Datta in that period as I had hoped to find.

Then, one Thursday sacred to the guru – I went to Datta temple. There is an

image of Datta in that temple. But, when I went there in the place of that

image, a samadhi neatly sculptured was what I saw. Next morning, I went to a

friend’s house and opened Anna Dabolkar’s book on Sai Baba and my eyes lighted

on the picture of Sai Samadhi found in that Book – a picture I had not seen

before. That was an exact picture of the tomb I saw in Datta temple. So, I

inferred that Sai Baba was to be my guru. For a time, I took his udhi and read

some books about him. But I soon got dissatisfied. A tomb is not a guru. I

wanted a living guru to go to and to commune with. So again recognising that

the devoted study or parayana of Guru Gita was the

surest method of obtaining a guru, I began my parayana once again and went on

with it for a week. Then I saw Narayan Maharaj of Khedgaon in my dream.

Inferring that he was to be my guru, in I went to Khedgaon. There, at night, I

had a dream in which Narayan Maharaj appeared and told me, "I and Sai Baba are

not different from each other. Why do you go there?" I replied that there was

none to direct me. I woke. Later, I went to Shirdi and took Sai Baba as my

guru. One sadhu read my palm and he said, "Sai Baba is your Guru." In 1933, my

son had plague and he recovered by the use of Baba’s udhi alone.

My sister had given a silver cup and Rs. 100 to one Datta Maharaj, who promised

that she would have ram darshan. She did not get any Ramsakshatkar and she

feared that the Maharaj would not return the silver cup. I told her that if she

vowed to make a gift of it to Sai Baba’s Sansthan, in case the Maharaj returned

it, Sai would make the Maharaj return it. She vowed so; the cup and Rs. 100

were returned and her vow was fulfilled by presenting it to the Sansthan. Her

name is Durgabai Kakatkar. I know of Sai Baba even in 1916. My mother

Annapoornabai Daji Bhave went to Shirdi. There when she tried to enter the

mosque, Sai Baba prevented her saying it would pollute the mosque. When she

returned to Yeola, she received a card from Yootmal that her daughter-in-law

(i.e., my brother’s wife) had died on a particular date – which was the day

before my mother’s visit to Shirdi mosque. She had to observe ten days

pollution from that day and was under 10 days’ pollution when she

was at Shirdi. She did not know it then. But Baba knew it evidently.

At my mother’s death, we offered the rice ball ‘pinda’ but no crows would touch

it. My sister then vowed that she would send 50 Rupees to Sai Baba’s tomb if

crows should come and take the pinda. Then the crows came and ate the pinda.

(Written by: HH Pujyasri B V Narasimha Swamiji in Devotees Experiences on 10th June 1936)