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 KartikSuddha 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 hisMahasamadhi 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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