Baba's love for his devotees part 2:Nachne's story

[SS91]

One Shri S. B Nachne's little son of about nine
months, named Harihar alias Sai Nath was playing with
his brothers and sisters. Other grown up children had
been firing crackers near by igniting coloured
matches. One of these threw a burning match on the
child's clothes. Sai Nath's clothes caught fire but
the little boy could not understand the risk this
involved. The mother was busy doing something outside
there but her mind was a way from her children. So
Baba appeared at once before her in the form of a
Fakir and pointing to the burning child said, "Look
there, see What is going on there." Thereupon the
mother at once ran upto the Child removed its burning
clothes in proper time. After Harihar was thus saved,
the mother looked for the Fakir but during the
confusion that followed on the running of the mother
to the child, He disappeared altogether, no one knew
where. The devout parents of Harihar rightly
attributed this to Shri Baba's grace and prayed for
such anxious care of them whenever so required.


The self-same Nachne lost his wife in 1929. She had
died leaving a three yeas old child. This almost broke
Nachne's heart; and so he became so very listless to
the necessities of his body that when he left Bombay
for Nasik to perform the obsequial ceremonies of his
wife, though it was dreary cold, he took neither a
blanket nor a shawl to guard himself against it,
Though he grew listless about himself, Baba could not
be so; like an anxious father that He is, He assumed
the form of an office peon and perched Him self just
opposite to the seat, which Nachne was to occupy in
the train. When Nachne got into that compartment and
sat down he started asking, "Well, Where are you
going? How is it you have no bedding?" Nachne replied
"I am going to Nasik to perform the obsequial ceremony
of my wife. I have now grown quite indifferent to my
body, and care very little for the bedding." Hearing
this the Patewalla (Peon) sent a friend of his to get
a blanket for Nachne. Seeing that he brought the
blanket in no time, Nachne remarked, "Oh it seems you
live very near." The Patewalla replied, "I am a
Patewalla (a peon) in Bombay Arts School and my
quarters are very near. My name is Ganpatishanker. My
Saheb has gone to Simla, so I have seized this
opportunity for going to Nasik. If you now want to go
to sleep, I will wake you up in proper time you may do
so. However if you have any cash, beware of
pick-pockets; if you have nothing to keep the cash
safe, and if you hand it over to me, give it to me. I
will keep it safe in my trunk." Nachne thereupon gave
over his cash to Ganpatishanker and slept. Ganapati
woke him up at Ghoty; they there washed their face and
had tea. Ganpati defrayed the expenses of tea. Then
they got down on Nasik Railway Station. On the way to
Nasik proper in a bus Ganpatishanker said to Nachne,
"Do not go to any of these Brahmin priests, they will
charge you exorbitantly I will make all arrangements
for the ceremonies; come with me."


Saying so, he brought to him a priest, explained to
the priest what and how these ceremonies had to be
performed. He also pointed to Nachne a cavity in the
river and asked him to stand there dipping his wife's
bones there in water. As Nachne did so the bones
melted away like sugar in water. As soon as the
ceremonies were all over, Ganpatishanker received a
telegram from his Master asking him to resume his
duties. So he took Nachne's permission to leave, gave
over to him to him the account of Nachne's money spent
by him to the very pie, handed over to him the balance
and left Nachne saying, 'I will meet you in Andheri.'
On return to Bombay Nachne made all efforts to find
him out but he could not succeed. He then made
inquiries at the Art School; asked the Patewallas, the
Professors and even the Principal; but when all of
them gave one uniform reply "that there is no such
peon and there was never in the service of this Art
School a peon of the name of Ganpatishanker", he
realised that the peon was none other than Baba
himself. He himself had for him assumed the form of a
Patewalla to relieve him of the stunning stroke of the
misery of his wife's death and to assist him in the
performance of the obsequial ceremonies. H felt
extremely sorry that he had got Baba to discharge a
menial's duty for him- but he was now helpless and
could only requite him by his steady and unfailing
devotion for him.



Souce:Shri Sai The Superman by Swami Sharan Anand.

subhasrini
OM SAI SRI SAI JAYA JAYA SAI!!!
Let us pray at the feet of Sai Baba who is the incarnation of all gods and protector of all, to show mercy on us, and increase our devotion towards him.

[SS91]

A devotee Shyamdas alias Uddhvesh of Dehnu left for
Dwarka, with a party of pilgrims by steamer from
Bombay. Uddhvesh had with him all the tickets of his
party. It was usual to issue one ticket for both the
steamer and boat journeys; Uddhvesh kept ready in his
pocket the boat part of tickets and put the other part
of steamer tickets in his money-purse. The steamer
being overcrowded, Uddhvesh had to be standing in the
gallery. For reasons best known to him he thought of
taking out his purse. In doing so the purse slipped
out of his hand and fell in the midsea. The purse had
all the steamer tickets and all his money. As to the
steamer tickets, on showing to the Ticket checker the
boat counter part of the ticket the T.C. allowed him
and his party to pass, but all his money were in the
purse, and as a greater part of the pilgrimage yet
remained to be covered, he was embarrassed. He never
begged for alms. His only shelter and resort was Baba.
So he wrote to Baba at Shirdi about it, but before
even that letter had reached Shirdi, Baba appeared in
the dream of the late Girdhar Gopal of Dehnu, as a
neatly dressed priest and said, "Your father at Dwarka
has no money. So send it to him." Girdhar awoke and
sat up for more than an hour trying to understand the
meaning of dream he had; but he could make out
nothings; feeling drowsy he then went to sleep. Again
the same priest appeared in his dream but he now
seemed very very angry; again he ordered Girdhar to
send money to Dwarka at once without fail. Again he
sat up; he awoke his wife; opened his door, looked
here and there, but found none. After some time he
remembered that Uddhvesh had gone to Dwarka and so he
must have been in dire necessity of money. He now felt
convinced that this surmise of his was correct, so
next morning he went to the post office and remitted a
sum of money duly insured to Uddhvesh by Telegraphic
M. O. Uddhvesh was very much surprised to receive the
Telegraphic M. O. and only came to know from Girdhar,
how he was ordered by a temple priest to send him
money etc. When thereafter Uddhvesh went to Shirdi,
Baba told him "I also had money sent to you", he felt
convinced that it was Baba alone who had relived him
from his worries and so he felt assured that he had at
least One, Whom he can ever look to for protection in
the midst of all sorts of difficulties.


           

subhasrini
OM SAI SRI SAI JAYA JAYA SAI!!!
Let us pray at the feet of Sai Baba who is the incarnation of all gods and protector of all, to show mercy on us, and increase our devotion towards him.