SHIRDI SAIBABA`S TIMETABLE - PART 7 OF 8

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THE TIME TABLE OF BABA’S DAILY ROUTINE - 7 Sometimes Baba would cook food himself and feed his devotees. He had two vessels which were big enough to cook for fifty to a hundred people. On the day that he decided to cook for the devotees Baba would go to the market and get all the condiments and groceries himself. He would do all the work such as lighting the fire, grinding the herbs and condiments and the cooking all by himself. (We can see the fireplace used by Baba to cook food at the mosque to this day). He would cook sweet rice pudding or milk rice pudding or mutton pilau. He would insert his bare hand instead of a ladle in to the boiling cauldron and stir and mix the food while it was cooking. Astoundingly, his hands were never burned. Sometimes he would cook gravy and add rotis to it. Other times he would cook gruel and

serve it to the devotees together with buttermilk, or he would grind wheat and cook large rotis on the fire of the dhuni. Those rotis would be large and have many layers and one roti would satiate even the hungriest.

He would never let the vegetarians draw near when he was cooking with meat. Once the food was ready he would have the maulvi offer it to god and later send a little to the houses of Mahalsapati and Tatya. Later the remainder would be distributed to all the devotees. After 1910, the number of devotees increased and the offerings also grew, so Baba stopped cooking food. The food offerings given as naivedya to Baba would feed 150-200 devotees daily at the mosque. Once all had finished their meal, Sagun Meru Naik would clean up the place. As Baba sat in his place, he would offer him betel leaf and nut along with a glass of water and two rupees as dakshina.

No one would be allowed to stay at the mosque after the noon meal. Baba would send everyone away and stay alone at the mosque between 1.00 and 2.30 pm. Baba always had a brick with him which he used to look after very carefully. He would say that the brick was a prasad from his guru. He would keep the brick under his head when he slept. Whenever he sat down he kept the brick to his right and rest his right hand on it. Baba never slept during the day and never rested his back on the wall when sitting. He would sit alone unobserved by all and take out an old cloth bag. There would be some old worn out coins in it. They were of various denominations such as four annas, two annas half a rupee, one paisa and so on. (A rupee had sixteen annas in the currency of that

time.) He would take out these coins and rub them vigorously saying, "This is Nana’s; this is Kaka’s, this Somya’s and this Damya’s". If he heard anyone’s footsteps nearing him, he would at once hide the coins in the bag. What those coins indicated or why Baba rubbed them thus was an unfathomable mystery. Baba never told anyone about those coins. It was also during this time of solitude that he would repair the holes in his old and worn out kafni Baba would again go at 2.30 pm to Lendi garden and return. He held court once again at the mosque after he returned from the Lendi garden. After this, in the evening, Sri Sai would walk about the forecourt of the mosque. He would stand next to the boundary wall of the mosque and talk to the passers-by. Sometimes he would talk in some coded words that only he could understand. He used to say things like, "Ten snakes have left, and many more will come". "Vani (the merchants) and Teli (the oil sellers) have troubled me too much. I am not going to stay in this mosque any longer. I am going away from here." Sometimes he would really start to go away from the mosque and Shirdi. This would be conveyed to Tatya who would come running to Baba and pacify him saying, "I will punish those who have

troubled you. I will not let you leave Shirdi and go away. In any case do not go today. We will see about your departure tomorrow." Only Baba knows why he threatened to leave Shirdi. After allowing him to be cajoled into staying by Tatya, Baba would sit as usual in the mosque and talk to the devotees as if nothing was amiss. One can see small padukas, which have been placed where Baba used to stand at the boundary wall of the Mosque to talk to the passers-by. Padukas have been placed on the wall where he had rested his hand. It is said that Baba used to stand there sometimes and watch the sunset.