నాచ్నే3
Baba
blessing Nachne’s wife with a coconut for children
In 1915, Santaram had a set of calamities in his
family. His wife gave birth to children who died in infancy. Then his wife went
alone with Shama to pray to Baba for long-lived children. Then as usual, she
took a coconut with her. She gave the coconut to Baba and Baba threw that
coconut back into her padar. Baba’s eyes were brimming with tears as he
gave away the coconut. He made Santaram sit at his feet and massage his legs.
During that time, Baba passed his hands over Santaram’s back in a token of his
blessing and Santaram felt happy, and expressed his thanks for being saved from
the murderous mad man. Baba said, Allah Malik Hai meaning, '‘That is all the
order of Allah'’ Then Santaram embraced Baba and Baba embraced him, showing the
intimate love Santaram bore to Baba and Baba bore to him.
The reason for tears in Baba’s eyes when giving the
coconut to Santaram’s wife was not understood at that time. But in 1919, after
Baba passed away, a son was born as promised by Baba at the time when the
coconut was gifted. This child was called Kalu Ram. Kalu Ram lived just for
eight years, and his mother lived for only 2 years after his birth. So, both
the deaths were obviously seen by Baba at the time of his gift.
The
story of Kalu Ram:
This boy Kalu Ram was a wonderful genius. At the age of
3, he was always in the habit of repeating Ram Hari Ram. It was then that his
mother expired. This was said to be the effect of Mula Nakshatram in
which the boy was born. This boy stunned the imagination of all their
acquaintances. Hegde, a neighbour, said, “The boy’s knowledge of Krishna Lilas
seems to be so good that the boy himself should have certainly been one of the
playmates of Krishna in the Dwapara Yuga”. The boy himself occasionally said, “Krishna
used to tease me, I caught hold of Hari’s legs and pinched them. I looked up
and then Hari upset the curd pot over my face. Then the lady of the house
turned up.”
Hegde used to read Hari Vijaya and on some days the boy would
mention the story that would be read in Hari Vijaya later on in the day. One
day, the boy was seated motionless in a corner. His eyeballs were upturned. He
had a cloth over his head as a cowl, and when Santaram asked him why he was
covering his head, he laughed and said, “That is our usual course of sadhana”.
Everything was suggestive of a high proficiency of Yoga about him. From
a journal, he cut out the pranava Om and stuck
it on the wall next to him.
As regards the picture in His Master’s Voice, Kalu Ram
asked his father, “What is this?” The father said, “It is the advertisement of
a gramphone”. Kalu said, “No, it is a special message of Krishna .”
The father asked, “What is that message?” Kalu replied with a counter question.
He asked, “What is the dog in the picture hearing?” Santaram said, “It is the
music from the gramphone record.” Kalu said, “No, the dog is hearing his
master’s voice. Look at the dog – he is intensely concentrated and intensely
listening. We must be equally firm and concentrated and sit. See how I sit. You
also should sit like that and listen. Then you will hear Baba’s voice.”
Santaram asked, “How do you know Baba’s voice? You were born after he passed
away.” The boy replied, “I know it, but I will not tell you.”
Kalu then took to written japa of Ram, Hari Ram, in
addition to oral japa he did a huge mass of Ram, Hari Ram japa. In 1926, Gadgi
Baba came to see the boy, because of his precocity. Kalu then had dropsy and
low fever. He was only given Baba’s udhi. The disease continued for a while. On
Kartik Suddha Ekadasi, a day so piously celebrated by
thousands of pilgrims at Pandharpur, Kalu Ram approached his end. He called
Santaram to his bedside and asked for Jnaneswari the family heirloom. It was
produced at once. He opened it himself and picked up chapter XIII. Kshetra
Kshetragna vibhaga. At that time Santaram was feeling heavy with the
sadness of the approaching end – the bitterness of parting with Kalu Ram. But
Kalu Ram cheered him up and said, “What is there to cry for? Read this. Read
aloud for me. I am going today”. Santaram’s heart was sinking under a load of
grief and he could not read. The boy kept the book in front of him and breathed
his last. In this way it was a fitting departure on a Karthik Ekadasi
day for such a life. But yet how sad was such an early death! No wonder that
Baba wept in 1918, when he gave the coconut, and clearly perceived that such an
early death was to crown such a life.
Sri Santaram’s experience will make a special appeal to
the reader, especially for two reasons. The first is that in point of spiritual
preparation and spiritual effort, he was not at all above the ordinary run of
men that we meet with everyday life. Secondly, his experiences cover many years
after Baba’s Mahasamadhi and during this period, the protection and help
he and his people enjoyed were the same as before. That is, Sai Baba showed to
him frequently even after his Mahasamadhi I 1918, that he was still
there, always watching him and his people, always ready to help, and help in
every direction not only for him and his family but for others also on whose
behalf he earnestly put forward any prayer or effort. Step after step, he
reader ought to note how his unquestioning faith and simple heart were
responsible for Baba’s gripping him completely as ‘Mine’. Tat is how Baba
treated this man as his Ankita or his own child. This Santaram had married
three times, one after another, and had a large family of children. Therefore,
the occasions on which trouble and danger arose in the family were numerous.
instead of his being worried on that account, Baba’s help enabled him to
maintain placidity and confidence, which sweetened his life. His powerful faith
in Baba enabled him to live a happy life and virtuous life on earth with the
assurance that Sadgati would be given to him and to all his people. We
shall take up a few accidents and dangers to which his children and family were
exposed.
Baba
protecting Nachne’s kids:
We will take first an incident that occurred in the year
1935 as regards fire. A two year child of Santaram, Ananda by name, was very
active and very mischievous; he ran up against the stove on which milk was
boiling. He dashed against the whole stove and vessel, and would have expected
that his clothes would have caught fire from the stove and the skin scalded by
the boiling milk. But nothing happened. The milk vessel fell on one side and the
stove flew on the other side. The boy was safe. This is Baba’s vigilant eye of
supervision.
We will take another instance of fire. This was in 1926.
Sai Haranath, his little child of nine months old, was along with the other
children, playing upstairs. The mother, the only caretaker, who ought to have
been present, was down on the street. It was deepavali (festival of lights) time.
One of the older children lighted a squib or cracker and flung it. It fell upon
Haranath. None of the children noticed it or considered it serious. Ordinarily
the child, who wore two clothes, one under the waist and the other above waist
close to the skin would have been burnt to death. But what happened? In the
street, suddenly a fakir appeared and shouted to the lady. ‘Go up. See what is
there. Without knowing what it was, she ran up, just as soon as the incident
occurred. She was amazed to see that he was safe and neither the cloth nor the
frock of Sai was burning. With her hands she boldly extinguished the flame. She
found that the child’s clothes on the upper portion and nether portion were
mostly burnt out. Yet what happened to the child? Wonder of wonders! Not a bit
of scar or burn was on the child; she had come very early to the child’s
rescue. Now how could she come from the street just in time to extinguish the
flame? Who could the fakir be? When she got down with a view to thank the
fakir, the fakir had gone. This again is the watchful eye of supervision, ‘on
those that love Me and those that belong to them’.
There was another incident connected with the same child
Sai, when he was two years old. He, like rest of the children, was active,
healthy and vigorous. He was playing upstairs. At one end of the terrace, there
was a broken wall – a portion of the wall, which ought to have been there, was
recently knocked down for purposes of repair. Not noticing its absence, this
Sai rushed up and fell down over the debris below. The father was very anxious,
and he ran up to see whether the boy was alive or how far he was injured. But
Sai was standing and laughing. He said, ‘Baba held me up in his arms as I
fell’. Can a two year old child imagine and tell a lie? Again, we have Baba’s
eye of supervision, just as he saved Santi Kirvandikar, a three year old child
as she fell into a well at Shirdi before 1918.
Then once there was danger to the children from
swallowing a poisonous thing. The children were rummaging up Santaram’s
drawers, and found what they thought was a box of peppermint. An older child,
Kalu Ram, put one fancied lozenge in his mouth and handed over another to a
younger child. But the taste of it was bitter and the small quantity he had
tasted or swallowed made him uneasy. So, he went up to his mother, and the
mother thought, looking into his outstretched tongue, which still had a bit of
the lozenge on it, that it was a piece of chunam. Then she took it out.
The children were then asked to show where the box of lozenge was, and they
pointed to a box called Pharaoh’s snakes as the box of lozenge. This is a
deadly poison. It is a compound of magnesium, phospherous etc., which when lit
up, produces a long coil of ashes, which twists in the form of snakes. That is
why it is styled, Pharaoh’s snake. A doctor was then called in, and he gave them
an enema. But that failed to act. Then Santaram took up Baba’s udhi and tirta
and gave then to the child. The child had a good vomit and as a result was
saved. The younger child had evidently not eaten or, at any rate, not eaten
much, but even to that child udhi and tirta were given, and that child also had
a good vomit and was saved.
On another occasion in 1932 Kalu gave a ring to a younger
child. Instinctively the child put the ring in to mouth. The ring got stuck in
the throat. Doctors came and gave enema without any result. Then Santaram gave
the child some udhi with tirta and then put his own finger deep into the mouth
of the child. He felt where the ring was and pulled it out and thus saved the
child.
In 1934 another child aged only three had pneumonia,
measles and an abscess on the chest. The child was very weak and was getting
weaker and weaker. The doctor was afraid to operate on account of the child’s
weakness. But Santaram applied antiphlogistine over the abscess and the abscess
opened and became a wide open wound. Even the doctor was afraid to operate. So,
Santaram prayed to Baba and put a bit of udhi into the wound. The deputy
collector Sri. V.M. Jadhav, learning of this asked him whether he was sure of
its being cured and, if so, within what time. He answers '‘in 24 hours'’
That night Baba appeared in Santaram'’ dream and said,
‘‘why did you say 24 hours? Why not immediately?’
Anyhow in 24 hours the wound was healed. Jadhav was
convinced that Baba’s udhi was a great blessing and took some udhi for his own
son who had pneumonia.
One see why in Sai Sahasranamam, it is said of
Baba,
Gopeem Sathra Yadha Krishnah
Sai protected Santaram Nachne’s family as Krishna protected the gopis
Baba
asking Nachne to worship the stones at Devpur:
These are all temporal matters, but Baba gave Nachne help
in spiritual matters also. Let us take S. B. Nachne first. Nachne asked Baba to
give Anugraha saying, “What japa shall I do?” He hoped that Baba
would give him some Mantra. But Baba’s reply was, “Go to Devpur, a
village 20 miles away from Kopergaon and begin worshipping the stones there
which your ancestors worshipped”. What a wonderful knowledge Baba had unlike
other thought-readers knowledge, which would only read the thoughts of those
present. Nachne knew nothing about the stones at Devpur and his ancestors
worshipping there. But he quoted Baba’s words to his father, and learnt from
his father that it was the family custom. Whenever any Anugraha or upadesa
was wanted, a member of Nachne’s family would go to Devpur and beg from their
family Guru – the descendants of Baba Bagavat – the usual upadesa. A
copy of Jnaneswari written with the hand was presented to some fifth
ancestor of this Nachne by the Baba Bagavat of those days and that Jnaneswari
is still kept as an heirloom in the family and that copy would be taken to the
Guru at the time of upadesa. At that time they would worship the images, the
stones at Devpur. Baba knew all this and respected the conservatism of the
family, and accordingly Santaram Nachne’s Anugraha was postponed till
the usual traditional mode could be adopted.
Nachne
mother’s last days:
As for the various members of his family, Baba gave his
blessings for spiritual progress in a marked degree. Santaram’s mother died in
1926, a very happy death from the spiritual standpoint. She kept a photo of
Baba up to the last moment in front of her. As the end is nearing, she asked
Santaram to sit by her side and read the Vishnu Sahasranama
aloud. Santaram did so and when she passed away, the last word she uttered were
Ram, Ram.
Baba
coming as Ganapat Shankar
For his second wife, who passed away in 1929, he was
anxious to do something to secure her sadgati. So, her bones had to be taken to
Godavari in Nasik Nasik
Road Godavari water
would gradually wash it off. He accompanied him also to the chief temples at Nasik
When Santaram Nachne returned to Andheri and went
to the School of Arts Bombay Arts
School
OM SAI RAM!
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