SRI TATYA SAHEB NOOLKAR
Chapter 31 of Sri Sai Satcharitra gives us a few sparse details about an ardent devotee of Sri Sai Baba - Sri Lakshman Krishnaji Noolkar - known to one and all as Tatya Saheb Noolkar. The Satcharitra has not given us any elaborate information about this close and intimate devotee of Sri Sai Baba. Lt Col (Retd) Nimbalkar has done a great deal of study of Sri Noolkar's birth, his early life, his employment and spiritual progress. He has collected old letters and other details of how Noolkar was pulled to Shirdi by Sri Sai Baba. He has published a detailed account of his research including the letters written to Noolkar by Shama (Madhava Rao Deshpande) and others in the Sai Leela magazine in 1991. Another article about Sri Noolkar, written in Marathi by Sri D S Tipnis was published in 1978 in the Sai Leela Masik in Marathi. There are some discrepancies and slight disagreements in both the above accounts of Sri Noolkar's life in Shirdi and the worship done to Baba for the first time on Guru Poornima day in Shirdi. We are making an attempt to combine both accounts together with the other published material about Sri Noolkar and we are placing before you a detailed account of Sri Noolkar and the origin of the worship of Sri Sai Baba on Guru Poornima.
Sri Tatya Sahib Noolkar was born in 1862 or 1863. He was educated at Pune. He graduated in Law and joined the judicial service of the government. He earned a name as a man dedicated to truth and as one who is determined and unselfish. He earned the praises of all for the balance and honesty he showed as a judge. He had a spiritual bent of mind and studied the various religious texts such as the Upanishads and Vedanta thoroughly. He frequently used to visit noted spiritual figures and mahatmas and spend time in their presence.
He was a judge at Pandharpur in 1908, the same period Sri Nana Saheb Chandorkar was the Mamlatdar of Pandharpur. As they were both the senior government officials at Pandharpur they used to make many calls upon each other. Chandorkar used to talk to Noolkar about the greatness of Sri Sai Baba and the many miracles he had wrought by his divine power. He urged Sri Noolkar to have the darshan of Sri Sai at least once. Sri Noolkar kept prevaricating and finally said that he had two desires and if they did come true by the grace of Sri Sai Baba, he would believe in him and certainly go to Shirdi for his darshan.
The first of his desires was that he should get a good Brahmin cook and the second was that he should get a hundred of the best quality Nagpur oranges to present to Baba. Sri Chandorkar, who had a firm, rock-like faith in Baba assured him that both these desires would be certainly fulfilled by Baba. Astoundingly, a Brahmin cook came to Chandorkar the same night searching for employment. He sent him to Noolkar. A hundred oranges of the best quality arrived from Nagpur the next day to Noolkar in a parcel. There were no details of the sender on the parcel. Noolkar now trusted the divine power of Sri Sai Baba and went to Shirdi accompanied by Sri Nana Saheb Chandorkar. Baba's saying "I will pull my devotee to me, wherever he or she may be, as a sparrow is pulled by the thread tied to its feet" came fully true in the case of Noolkar.
He first visited Shirdi in 1909. Baba presented him with a divine experience in his very first visit. As the small-built, stout Noolkar bent in obeisance and was saluting Baba's feet, Baba pressed his head gently with his fingers and shoved him back. Noolkar went flying and fell flat near the pillar at the masjid. He felt as if had fallen not near the pillar but into an ocean of joy. He felt that he had almost lost all consciousness and got an inexpressible, joyful, ecstatic experience from the touch of Baba. He then understood that Sri Sai Baba was his guru and that Shirdi is his final destiny and destination.
As he was sleeping in the Sathe Wada that night, he got up suddenly and told Nana Saheb Chandorkar that he wanted to eat pan. Nana did not have the habit of chewing pan, so he could not oblige him. At exactly this time, at the masjid, Baba called a devotee and giving him four pans told him, "Give these to the old man who has come with Nana and is staying in Sathe Wada with him." As Noolkar saw the man bearing pans from Baba he was astounded by the omniscience of Sri Sai Baba. Whatever remaining doubts he had had about Baba vanished, never to return again. He developed rock-devotion and total faith in Baba from that moment on. Even though he had to go back to Pandharpur, he started visiting Shirdi whenever he could for the darshan of Sri Sai Baba. He became an intimate devotee of Sri Sai Baba in a very short time.
Sai baba let your holy lotus feet be our sole refuge.OMSAIRAM
dipika duggal