Shri Sai The Superman By Swami Sai Sharan Anand-Part 18

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7. MATERIAL GAINS - Continued...

Baba did not and does not even today want that His devotees should starve; of course He discouraged greed but He wanted that His devotees should have a proper living and so He helped most of them up to a job or provided them with facilities for business. To mention a few of the thousands of such instances of every day occurrence.

In the year 1915 one Shri R.A. Tarkhad had to be without service for a pretty long time after he gave up the Mill Manager’s post he had held; so he came and stayed at Shirdi with his wife. When he had stayed for very many days he asked Baba’s permission to return home. Baba permitted them to return but asked them to go to their Bombay home via Poona and not via Manmad; as this route was a little longer they had to spend a little more. As Mr. Tarkhad was without a job for many many days his wife felt it inconvenient but Mr. Tarkhad knew the significance of Baba’s instructions, so overruling the objection of Mrs. they took the Poona route and put up at their friend’s for night. Learning from Mr. Tarkhad that he was in search of a proper job for himself his friend informed him that a mill owner there was in bad need of a Manager able to control labour; immediately Mr. Tarkhad saw the mill owner and the Mill owner was so much impressed with the conversation he had with Mr. Tarkhad that there and then he appointee Mr. Tarkhad as his Mill Manager Mr. And Mrs. Tarkhad were naturally very much pleased with this, and this had brought home to her the importance of Baba’s instruction to them about taking Poona route.

Another time one Ghanpatrao Narke, who after graduation had spent three years at Manchester for specialization in Geology and Mining went to Shirdi to see his father-in-law Shriman Booty. Being of a spiritually inquisitive turn of mind he saw and pain his respects to Baba and soon became so much attached to Him, that in all important matters he would not do anything without Baba’s permission. For some years he could get only job work for a few months and that too in different provinces. Being tired of this camp life when he heard of a vacancy of a Professor’s post at Benares College carrying a salary of Rs.300/- per mensem, he sought Baba’s permission to accept it; but Baba asked him to desist from such an attempt and continue the job work he had been doing. Till then there was no chair for geology and Mining at Poona College, but in 1917 an advertisement appeared calling for applications for such a post in the Poona Engineering College. With Baba’s consent Mr. Narke applied for it and was appointed a professor Geology and Mining on a salary of Rs. 600/- P.M Why Baba had prevented Narke from taking up Benares University professorship for Rs. 300/- P.M. only was now understood and appreciated by Narke and consequently his faith in Baba grew stronger.

But it was not always that Baba took care to guard the interests of persons with high academic qualifications; he took equal interest and care of even non-qualified persons provided he had the necessary devotion and faith in Him. One Cholkar vowed that if he would be able to pass his P.Sc. Examination and get a teacher’s post and he would go and pay his respects to Sai Baba; He prepared for his examination, took it and passed out and obtained a teacher’s post as well through Shri Baba’s grace, but as his salary was meager, he was not able to spare money enough for going to Shirdi. He therefore took another vow that he would not take sugar until he was able to go to Shirdi. At last he was able to spare the necessary money so he left for Shirdi and one morning he saw Baba and paid his respects to Him. Just at that time Bapu Saheb Jog turned up. Baba said to Mr. Jog, "Take this man to your place and give him a sugarful cup of tea, Bapu Saheb accordingly took Cholkar with him and learnt from him that Baba had added "Sugarful" to a cup of tea, to show to Cholkar that He was fully aware of his vow of abstaining from sugar till he had seen Baba. This pleased Cholkar and he felt that he had met one who was ready to be his guide, philosopher and friend if he stuck to Him, with faith.

In another case, a young man named Bapurao Boravke who went to Shirdi on foot with only three annas in his pocket earned lakhs of Rupees through Shri’s grace. Boravke had lost his parents when he was almost an infant; and taking advantage of his age, his relatives squandered away his ancestral property with the result that Bapurao was forced to look up for a job so soon as he had gone upto the entrance (SSc) class. The only relative he had was his maternal uncle, a devotee of Sai Baba at Shirdi; so he went upto Kopergaon by railway but the funds that he had, had run out and with only three annas balance in his pocket he could not get a seat on the tanga, so he went to Shirdi on foot and paid his respects to Baba. He was well received by his maternal uncle, so he stayed with him looking after his sugar crop improved so much that the neighbouring field owner took Boravke into partnership. Boravke now looked after both the fields. Next few years they got bumper sugar candy crops, the prices also went up considerable, and so within two years Bapurao made a lac of Rupees; he realised that, all that was due to Shri Baba’s grace and so purchasing a piece of land at Shirdi he now grew Oranges, Mosambi in it, Build a bunglow for himself and settled down there to be able to pay his respects to Baba everyday. Even today we are reminded of Shri’s powerful grace when we see this bunglow with his fruit garden on the way to Rahata a Few Furlongs from Shirdi.

Continued...


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