THE SAI TEMPLE OF VILLE-PARLE, WHERE A HOUSE BECAME A SHRINE

[Guest guest]

My mother-in-law was present in the mosque at the time of Baba’s death. She

poured some water into Baba’s mouth and later washed his feet. After Baba’s

mahasamadhi she became busy with her newborn baby son and decided to settle

down in Mumbai and so built a large house in Ville-Parle.

There is a big portrait of Sri Sai Baba at our Ville-Parle residence,

painted by Sri Jayakar. Even though Sri Jayakar didn’t have any formal

training in the art of painting he became an expert artist by the sheer

grace of Baba. As his family also lives in Ville-Parle our family-friendship

is still thriving to this day and the portrait he painted is still hanging

in our house.

My mother-in-law used to celebrate Vijayadasami and Guru Poornima in grand

style. Banubai Duhkhande used to come to sing the devotional hymns and

people used to attend the celebrations from far and wide. Once, during a

festival, a devotee called Vasantrao Gorakshakar had a great experience of

Baba’s power, which he later told my mother-in-law. Immediately she had a

divine impulse to install and consecrate an idol of Baba there. She told us

of her wish and we gleefully took part in the efforts to install the statue.

This was around 1954, when the wonderful marble statue of Baba was installed

in the Samadhi Mandir in Shirdi. The famous sculptor Sri Thalim sculptured

this amazing statue. A replica of that statue was installed at ‘Sai Dham’ in

Congress House Street.

We went and met the trustee of that temple, Sri Malpekar and he introduced

the famous sculptor, Sri Vasant Rao Govekar, to us. So when we consulted one

of the trustees of the Shirdi temple - Sri Malpekar - on the matter of

making a similar idol, the latter introduced Sri Vasantha Rao Gowekar to us.

We commissioned him to make a two-foot tall statue of Baba, and fixed a

price for it. Later, when we went to see the statue we were amazed to find

that he had made it life-sized. We were concerned that it would cost much

more than we were able to pay, but by the grace of Baba, Sri Govekar

accepted the price we had negotiated earlier. The statue of Baba, made from

a mixture of powdered marble and white cement, is so well- made that it is

as if Baba is sitting there in the flesh again.

Our financial position in those days was not so good, so we were not in a

position to build a temple. Therefore, we decided to install the statue in

our house and convert it into a temple, and thus our residence at

Ville-Parle became a temple of Sri Sai Baba. We brought the statue to the

house with great ceremony and an impressive procession, and the consecration

ceremony went off spectacularly under the guidance of Sri Paley Sastry. My

mother-in-law’s joy cannot be described. My brother Sudhakar built with his

own hands the sanctum where the statue of Baba sits. Unfortunately, a few

days later, my mother-in-law died.

 

(to be continued)

 

Mrs Mangala Borker, Ville-Parle, Mumbai

Courtesy of Sai Prasad Magazine, Deepawali Issue, 2000

 

(source www.saipatham.org)