This of course exposed him to some risks on some occasions

[Guest guest]

……“ Purandhare was anxious always to be with his object of love. That is

the characteristic of love. So, he tried to go to Shirdi as often as possible.

Baba objected to that and told him that he need not go to Shirdi so often. Baba

told him to work in company with H. S. Dixit, and the two generally went

together. Dixit was at the top of the ladder, rich, influential, famous, highly

learned and commanding respect from everyone. Purandhare was the exact opposite

of all this and yet Purandhare in his anxiety, would try to go along with Dixit

every time the latter went.

 

This of course exposed him to some risks on some occasions. Baba detained him at

Shirdi far beyond the extent of his leave. On one such occasion, the Foreman of

his office asked him for an explanation and threatened him. Purandhare's defiant

reply was, ‘Here is my resignation. Take it’. Purandhare was so sensitive.

His superior Mr. Wilson knew all about his relations with Baba and asked him

where he was overstaying his leave. Purandhare’s answer was, ‘With Baba’.

Wilson knew at once that without Baba’s permission neither Purandhare nor

anybody else should leave Shirdi and so he tore up his resignation and told the

Foreman that Purandhare was not his subordinate, much to the chagrin of that

Foreman.

 

On one occasion, Purandhare was anxious to run to. Shirdi. But during the night

Baba appeared in a dream and told him, 'Beware, if you come I will hit you. Do

not come. Why should you come so often; I am not away from you. I am with you.

Do not play the fool'. He was wondering why Baba forbade his visit. But he

obeyed the order.

 

The next morning there was a strike among the labourers in his mill, and he

discovered that Baba was right for, had he gone away, the superior officials

would think that Purandhare was at the bottom of the strike and had got away to

hide the fact. But as he remained at the station, he was not suspected and he

was obviously innocent of any sympathy with the strikers. Instances of this sort

in which Baba conveyed advice and warning are too numerous to be fully

described. They all tended to confirm Purandhare’s idea that his living God

was this Shirdi Baba and that he was perfectly safe in following his advice and

directions. " .....