The Protecting Arms Source : Chinna Katha

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The Protecting Arms

 

Source : Chinna Katha

 

There was a judge who used to come to Shirdi; he asked his wife and child to

stay with Baba and left to go home for a couiple of days. He said to the boy

when he took leave, " This is God Himself " . After some days the mother left for

Manmad with the boy.

 

There, they fell in with a kathak who was reciting musically some Pur " nic story.

Within a few minutes, they heard him revile Sai Baba as a mad man and a cheat;

the child could not stand it any longer. He tugged at the sari of his mother and

forced her to return to Baba. Next morning, they approached Baba for His

blessings and He asked them why they had returned. The incident of the kathak

was duly reported.

 

The boy heard every one addressing Baba as the Lord. Remembering the harsh words

of the kathak, the boy wept, But Baba pacified Him humorously, " I am only a man.

What the kathak said is true; I am mad and I am cheating people of what they

consider very valuable, but what I feel is useless " . Then, even as they were

talking, one Mr. Patel came there and related how Baba had saved his child from

a serious accident.

 

Baba told him, " Yes, I held him when he fell, with My Four Hands " . Patel shed

tears of thankfulness, but the boy cried out, " Ah, I told you, You are God, You

have four hands like Vishnu " . Baba laughed, He took the boy inside and gave him

a vision of Himself, as having Four Hands.

 

That boy stayed on in Shirdi for 26 years after this and left only after Baba

'left'. He then took sanny " sa and became a great sage.

 

In the Service of Sai

Ram Chugani

Kobe, Japan