SRIMATI CHANDRABAI BORKAR

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SRIMATI CHANDRABAI BORKAR

Srimati Chandrabai Borkar is one among the few ardent devotees who had the

fortune of serving Baba during his lifetime. She first had the darshan of

Baba about the year 1898. She told in her interview with Sri B.V. Narasimha

Swami that she was a direct witness to some of Baba’s leelas, such as

‘lighting of the lamps with water’ and ‘sleeping on the wooden plank hung

with rags’. Baba used to call her affectionately ‘Bai’ and used to say that

she had been his sister for seven births. She preserved one of the sacred

teeth of Baba as a talisman. Impressed with her devotion, Baba granted her

the wish in her heart even without her expressing it to him, by blessing her

with a child. Reconciled as she was to being childless, she gave birth to a

boy - as predicted by Baba - at the age of fifty. Even though Dr. Purandhre

told her that it was a tumor and not a baby that was in her womb, pinning

her faith on the word of Baba she ignored the doctors’ advice to have an

operation to remove the ‘tumor’. The doctors were amazed when she gave birth

to a boy after nine months and both the mother and the child were in good

health.

Baba used to come to her rescue the moment she called out for him with all

her heart, whether in Shirdi or elsewhere. As this lady was serving Baba in

Shirdi, Sai saved her husband, Sri Ramachandra Borkar - an atheist - on many

occasions. Once, when he was down with a severe fever and slipping into

danger, Baba appeared in Chandrabai’s dreams and said to her, “Do not worry!

Give him udi and he will start sweating profusely and the fever will come

down.” Exactly as Baba told, his fever vanished in no time.

In 1909 Smt. Borkar was in Shirdi in the service of Baba when her husband,

Sri Ramachandra Borkar, was working as an engineer at Pandharpur. One day

Baba said to her: “Mother, you must go to Pandharpur at once. I will follow

you there, but I don’t need a carriage to come there you know!”

She readily obliged him and went to Pandhari taking along two other people

to escort her. But when she arrived she learnt that her husband had resigned

his job and left for Bombay. She was astounded! She hardly had any money,

certainly not enough for her to reach Bombay. She arrived at Khurdwadi,

together with her companions, as the money was just sufficient for the fares

up to this station. She was in despair and wondered what to do next, when a

fakir approached her and enquired, “What is it that you are brooding over?”

She didn’t answer. Then the fakir told her, “Mother, your husband is at

Daund station, go there immediately!” She told him curtly that she had no

money with her, so the fakir gave her three tickets to Daund. Before the

puzzled Chandrabai had a chance to question him, the fakir left, so she

boarded the train going to Daund. At precisely the same time, Ramachandra

Borkar, after sipping a cup of tea, lay down on a bench on Daund station. A

fakir came up to him and said, “Why do you disregard ‘my mother’? She is

coming here on the next train. Please take her home.” Sri Borkar got up with

a start and looked around, but there was nobody there. Just then the train

arrived and Smt. Borkar alighted, whereupon Ramachandra Borkar met her and

took her to his quarters. Atheist that he was, he had not looked even once

at the photograph of Sai Baba whom his wife was worshipping so much. Now,

after his experience, he asked his wife to show him the photograph of Baba,

and said in astonishment that the fakir who came to him was none other than

the one in the photograph. Smt. Borkar thanked Baba from the bottom of her

heart for bringing about the reunion with her husband, and for taking so

much care of her, just like a father.

 

(source www.saipatham.org)