Baba as guest on Thursday

[Prasanthi]

Yes, Baba came, dined and conversed with me (Twenty
six years after His Maha Samadhi)

It was about noon and Thursday too By force of habit,
I looked towards the gate for some Fakir or Sadhu who
might turn up for biksha. Ever since the advent of
Baba into my life two years previously in '42 through
the sacred contact of His Holiness Swami Kesavaiah, I
had come to observe Thursday as Baba's day. You see,
it was through swamiji's initiation into devotion to
Baba and doing His 'Nnamasmaranam' that I was
reclaimed from imminent death. On further being
advised to fast every Thursday night for nine months
and gave my meal to the first Fakir that might turn
up, (which I accordingly did) I was gradually restored
to health. Since then, I had made it a rule to feed a
Fakir before taking the noon meal on Thursdays.

But this Thursday was unique, a red-letter day in a
long life of sojourns on earth (punarapi jananam
punarapi maranam) a culmination of persistent
'tapasya' through recurrent janma of some one in the
family, in all probability my wife, or one of the
children or may be my own imperfect self for
his'Saakshaatkaara. For, to my utter surprise and
astonishment, Baba Himself with His beatific smile was
entering front enclosure! He was in same Bikshapathi
pose as He manifested Himself the previous day as
'Mrutyanjaya to revive my dead son, almost within a
split second of my denying His divinity and declaring
Him to be a false deity! I eagerly hastened up to Him.
After welcoming Him with all my heart, I begged Him to
condescend to stay for food. He asked me with a
twinkle in His eyes whether there was anything special
that day, I said that it being a Thursday, it was our
custom to offer food to a Fakir before our noon-meal.
With the faintest flicker of a smile at the corners of
His lips He wondered whether I would do so on
Thursdays only.

Being rather academic and literal in my ways, I
replied, rather obtusely, that it was so. I am not
ashamed to confess that it look years for me, chewing
the cud of it off and on, to sense the gentle
admonition enshrined in His benevolent query, as if
half in jest and half in earnest, 'Why not daily', and
begin doing so.

Be that as it may, I offered him a seat and ran inside
with the glad tidings of Baba's visit and His gracious
condescension to have food at our humble adobe. I
beseeched my wife to round off the cooking forthwith
and start serving the food, since 'Athithi's,
especially holy ones, should not be made to wait
unduly (Athidhi Devo Bhava) and, all the more so,
because it was BABA HIMSELF How can one describe the
signal good fortune so divinely bestowed upon my wife,
Kamala, of personally serving food cooked by her to
the Master of all CREATION (as described my Meherbaba)
except to say that it is the cumulative fulfilment of
all the good deeds of all her previous 'janmas at ONE
STROKE! The whole beauty of it lay in the fact that
she did not as a matter of course, characteristic of a
'gruha dharmini' fulfilling her obligation and to at
this day not at all conscious of that greatest good
furtune that can ever accrue to her. That is, indeed,
as it be for "there is no vanity so damaging to one's
character as pride over one's good deeds". 'SUCH are
the chosen of God, the humble and the good at heart
who it is that "inherit the kingdom of Heaven".

As Baba was graciously taking the meal, I put Him the
stupidest of questions! I had the foolish temerity to
ask Him where exactly at Vizianagaram (he was staying)
This episode took place at Vizianagaram in
Visakhapatnam dist. In March, 1944) imagine asking Him
who had repeatedly given proof of His EXISTENCE at
different places to different persons at one and the
same time both during His incarnate stay at Shirdi as
well as after His Mahaa Samdhi, either in a clearly
recognisable manner of incognito, to be recognised,
later on, both subjectively as well as by cumulative
evidence, as none other than Baba Himself.

How puerile and vain can man be that, not withstanding
the show and pomp, penance and ostensible devotion
with which he invokes the Lord, when He does appear,
he fails to recognise Him! Even tapasvins were
occasionally not exempt from such an woeful lapse.

The all-knowing Baba, speaking at my level, gave me an
apt and satisfying reply. He said that he was staying
at the Sri Subrahmanya Temple near the railway
station, which, as will be seen presently, was true in
a literal sense as also applicable universally
according to His own proven assertion to many a
devotee in respect of His identity with any idol or
image or worship. I, of course, took His words
literally and said, "All right Baba, if so I will
surely go and see you". "Do come!", He confirmed and
went back letting me accompany Him up to the gate.
Indeed it is a misnomer to say he went back, for, how
and where can He, the 'Sarvantaryamee', ever go to
come back again for that matter? However, such wisdom
was yet a long way from me.

Here it should be noted that Baba and I were
conversing in Telugu, my mother-tongue, which He spoke
with ease and in our dialect. I wonder why and how I
had started talking thus. It seemed the natural thing
to do. I now realise the question does not arise at
all. I am sure any one in my place would have
naturally spoken in his own language and Baba would
have answered in it or vice versa. Mahalsapati (the
earliest devotee of Baba at Shirdi) has vouched that
many a time in the night while all were asleep, Baba
used to converse with some unseen agent(s) in some
foreign tongue(s)

Soon, I must unblushingly admit, I lapsed into the
humdrum routine of existence, and all thought of the
incarnate Baba receded to the back of my mind, though
my daily worship went on as usual. About a month
later, as I was about to take my noon-meal, the
thought of my defferred visit to Baba in the temple
flashed across my mind. At once, grabbing the hand of
my convalescing son, I rushed out like one possessed
and trotted along to reach the temple, about a mile
away. I had often passed by it and noted it to be a
transit camp for the Sadhus to and fro on their
pilgrimage. Reaching the portal sweating and panting,
I accosted the first person I saw and enquired about
Baba's stay there, describing His person and dress in
exact detail. To my great disappointment, he curtly
replied there was none answering to that description,
implying a muslim ascetic. I begged him to recollect
and tell me or refer me to others whose sojourn might
be longer than a month, insisting that the SADHU I was
after had come and received biksha at our house and
had averred that this was His abode at Vizianagaram.
This rather annoyed him but, seeing my crest-fallen
countenance, he softened a bit and assured me that
none like the ONE I described had ever stayed at the
temple since over a month during which period he
himself had been staying there. That was it. It was
enough to deflate me completely. I was on the verge of
tears.

In this repentant and chastened mood, I decided that
we might as well go in and worship Lord Subrahmanya
and seek His blessings, for, I had learnt to see Baba
in all deities (and vice-versa). As we went round and
turned the corner to reach the front again, I came
across an improvised minor sanctum common in temple
premises. I casually looked inside. I was overwhelmed
to behold a life-size portrait of Baba in exactly the
same pose as He designed to visit our abode on two
consecutive days first as 'Mrutyunjaya' and the next
day as Divine 'Athithi1! In a flash, I understood what
the 'Dayaa Sindu' had meant, both literally and in a
metaphorical sense, when He told me that I could find
Him here, as, indeed, anywhere one wants and needs, if
only with all one's heart and will. Now, the flood
gate burst open and I poured out my heart to him.
Tears of joy welled up in my eyes flowing as if in an
unending stream, and my heart melted away into secret
raptures. I then remembered having heard some year ago
while at Waltair that one Sri C. Rangaiah Naidu, under
the inspiration of Sri D. Durgaiah Naidu, a pioneer
devotee of Baba and well known to the Shirdi Sansthan,
had installed a portrait of Baba for worship at
Vizianagaram, This was it.

My heart leapt as I felt reassured that Baba was, as
He continues to be with me and I was not bereft of His
Grace, that He is enshrined in every image and
portrait of His, ready to manifest Him self at a split
second's notice, or none at all, even as "the gentle
rain from heaven upon the place beneath". It can be as
His re-incarnation, or incognito as a person or an
animal, or in a vision, or as subjective (or call if
sub-conscious, superconscious or subliminal)
realisation of His being 'BHAKTHA PARAADINA" ever
alert to fulfil Himself according to His charter to
give His children whatever they want so that they will
being to want what He wants to give them, blessed is
he who thus qualifies.

"Such man is free from servile bands of hope to rise
or fear to fall, Lord of Himself though not of lands
And having nothing, yet hath all."

- Sir Henry Wotton (A Happy Life)

Glory be to Shri Shirdi Sai Baba - Grace be to all

Source: DIVINE MIRACLES OF SHRI SHIRDI SAI BABA

(A RECORD OF THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF (LATE)
DR.P.S.RAMASWAMI)

www.saileelas.org

Prasanthi