Leela-142
Baba accepts the humble request of devotees
A Sai devotee family of this place intended to visit Shirdi and have darshan of Shri Sainath Maharaj for the first time. Truly speaking Shri Sai Baba Himself drew this Nagpal family to Him out of His grace. They reached Shirdi on 7th July, ‘75 Monday at about 10.00 a.m. Before their leaving this place Pathankot, I had requested them to offer some mangoes to Baba.
Respected Sai Bhaktas: How this trifling offering of mine was accepted by Shri
Sainath Maharaj will be illustrated by the following story narrated by the
visiting family :—
“We reached Shirdi at about 10.00 a.m. on Monday, 7-7-75. We had darshan
of Shri Sainath in the Samadhi Mandir. Our eyes were filled with tears and
hearts with emotion to realise that Shri Baba is present here all the time. We
could not afford to have the slightest doubt that
He is away from this place. We felt from the core of our hearts that we
were in our own house, while being at His lotus feet.
It was proposed to offer the mangoes on the next day i.e., Tuesday. We
may mention that there was good quality of mangoes available at Shirdi on
Monday. But lo! We visited the market again and again on Tuesday but we could
not get mangoes of good quality during the
whole day. On Wednesday morning i.e., on 9-7-75, the mangoes were not
available, so I intended to go to Kopargaon in order to fetch mangoes from that
place and offer them to Shri Baba. At about 10.00 a. m. after taking bath and my
breakfast, started towards bus stand, but as soon as I reached the market, a
vendor had just put down his basket of fruit, containing first quality mangoes
on the ground. The first purchase was therefore made for Shri Baba. This was the
first miracle seen by us.
Now what happened next is most wonderous and may be noted whole heartedly.
We took the mangoes, washed them under the taps near the Samadhi Mandir and wiped them with a towel. I went to the pujarj and asked him to give us a thali for offering the mangoes to Shri Baba, which he very kindly gave. The mangoes were kept in the thali and we reached inside with this thali in our hands. The Pujari asked if the mangoes were to be taken back by us as the prasad is generally returned to the devotees. We told him that the mangoes were an offering from a devotee from Pathankot, Punjab and were as such for Shri Baba. Hearing all this he smiled and asked us to cut all the mangoes into pieces. We came out and cut the mangoes accordingly. By this time the noon arti had begun and we reached near the Samadhi with the mangoes. The Pujari took the thali from our hands and when the arti was over and Shri Baba’s offering arrived, some pieces of mangoes were placed in Shri Baba’s offering and the rest were distributed among the bhaktas. And now it was narrated by the Pujari that since morning no offering for Shri Baba had arrived except these mangoes. Hearing all this we became dumb and spellbound. We were stunned to see the grace of Shri Sainath Maharaj and we were unable to make anything out of it. The only course was the tears rolling down our cheeks and now we rushed to the market in order to have some more mangoes, but wonder of wonders, neither the mangoes nor the vendor was there.
Respected bhaktas, is this instance not a lesson for all of us to realize, up to
what extent Shri Baba can go for His children? He, Who is Triloknath, remains
without any offering till noon for a silly child like me. Had He tied strings so
that no other devotee
should offer Him any offering on that day?
I have been to Shirdi near the lotus feet of Shri Sainath Maharaj twice,
once in June, ‘74 and then in March, ‘75. I cannot dare call myself a devotee of
Sai Maharaj because devotion is not an easy task. Unless and until He showers
His grace, nobody can have devotion. Every now and then I pray Him to render me
pure and accept me at His lotus feet.
Let us all pray for pure devotion and absolute surrender, May Shri Sainath Maharaj accede to this humble request of ours.
That is the day of dawn in one’s life.”
Bow to Shri Sainath Maharaj and many salutations at His lotus feet.
Amarnath
Pathankot, (PUNJAB)