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Shirdi Baba and His Devotees
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After this, many devotees like Mhalaspati, Dada, Nana Chandorkar, Abdul Baba, Kaka Dixit and Shyam Sundar came. There was also the son-in-law of Lakshmibai. His name was Booty. He thought that he should build a Krishna temple there. Lakshmibai had no son. She had a daughter only whom she got married to Booty. She had a lot of money. Every morning and evening she would prepare maize roti and brinjal curry. Three days Baba had very high temperature. Baba said, “I won’t be here. I shall go to the temple which Booty is constructing is for Me.” But Booty wanted to install only Krishna in the temple. Baba was saying, “Krishna would never come. It is for Me!” Shyama was the cook. He did a lot of service to Baba. Shyama, Kaka Dixit and Patel, all of them took Baba to the temple. Baba said, “Where you want to install the Krishna idol you put Me there. Let Me lie down.” Baba lay down over there and later gave up His body. When Baba gave up His body Abdul Baba was there. He prayed to Baba, “What will happen to me now. I came very recently. What type of life should I lead now?” “In South India, in the state of Madras, in Anantapur district, I will be born there, you can come there”, Baba said. During those days Andhra was a part of Madras state. Even Kerala was a part of the Madras state.
From Shirdi to Parthi
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Little Baba playing the game of marbles
with the village children |
After that in the film, Anjali Devi starts the Parthi story. Now and then some of the important incidents are shown as flashback. The same way as Karnam Subbamma served me in Puttaparthi, one rich lady was looking after a small boy. She did not have any children and Subbamma also did not have children. When Baba was a boy he used to play marbles. He was so good in the marble game that from a distance he could hit any marble. And all the boys who played with Baba would lose their game. And generally the people who lose get angry. These people insisted that Baba should play again as they wanted to win a game. But this boy did not have any marbles left.
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| The boy takes the Shaligrama from the altar |
He went to the worship room. There, there was a Shaligrama (a venerable stone) worshipped by his mother every day. It also looks like a marble. He brought the marble and played with it. Baba thought, “Ah this very good, I would like to win it!” He hit the marble and won the marble. He took the marble. But the rich man’s son said, “You should give back this marble to me.” Baba swallowed it. The boy kept crying and fighting with Baba. The mother saw what was happening. She came down and asked why the two of them were fighting. She asked the boy, “Why are you fighting with that boy? What did He do?” The boy replied that Baba had swallowed his marble. The mother chastised the boy saying that she didn’t give him money and enquired how he got the marble. The boy replied, “I did not have any marbles so I went into the worship room and got the Shaligrama.” With great devotion she was worshipping this Shaligrama every day. When she went and saw the worship room, the Shaligrama had vanished from there. She was very angry. She prayed to Baba, “Boy, give me back the Shaligrama. I will give you how much ever money you want.” He said, “How much ever you plead, I am not going to give you.” She got very angry and slapped on both the cheeks of Baba. She then asked Him to open His mouth. Just as Yashoda had seen the 14 worlds in the mouth of Lord Krishna, this lady had the same vision. She was very blissful and touched the feet of Baba and cried. The villagers were making fun of her. The villagers started saying, “He is only a small boy and you are out of your senses that you are falling at his feet.”
The Visit to the Virupaksha Temple
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The Virupaksha Temple at Hampi visited by Sri Sathya Sai in 1938
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The same thing repeated in Puttaparthi. Once when I was returning from Uravakonda, the Municipal Chairman of Uravakonda took Me, My brother and his wife to Bellary. One day they wanted to visit Hampi. There is a temple called Virupaksha. It is very famous. They took Swami there. The Municipal Chairman wanted Swami to go inside the temple. I said that I will not go in. Seshama Raju (Bhagavan’s elder bother) was very angry and said, “You have come all the way here and You don’t want to enter the temple, what is this?” Then he said, “It is His karma of His past life, let us all go inside”. The luggage was kept outside and I was told to look after the luggage. I said, “Yes, I will look after it.” They went inside. They opened the door and were giving Arati. In the place of Lord Virupaksha, young Sathya appeared in the temple sanctum sanctorum. Seshama Raju was very angry. Seshama Raju said, “I wanted this boy to look after the luggage, but He is there inside the temple.” He came out and saw that I was sitting under a tree. Again he went inside and saw Me inside the sanctum sanctorum. The Municipal Commissioner advised, “Seshama Raju, you are thinking of Him as your brother because of body consciousness, give up the body consciousness and develop Atmic consciousness and you will see Him everywhere.” But Seshama Raju was not convinced. He told his wife, “You sit here and see that the boy is always here. I will go inside. I will perform Pooja inside and I will see how He will enter now.” But the brother saw Me inside as well as outside. He asked his wife, “Have you closed your eyes? He has come inside again!” She said, “No, all the time He was sitting here. He did not get up from His place. He didn’t move from here!” She was amazed. Seshama Raju was chastised by the Municipal Commissioner. He told one of them, “You are full of ego and attachment. That’s why you are not able to see God. Give up your Ahamkara (ego) and Mamakara (attachment) and then you will see God in Him.” From that day Seshama Raju was little quiet. Before this incident, Seshama Raju used to call Me, “Ay come here”, “Ay go there”. But from that day he would say, “Sathya come here”.
Continued in Part 4...
Source: Then At Shirdi, Now At Parthi, Discourse 13, My Dear Students Volume 3, March 16, 1998; Discourse to the students and staff at Trayee Brindavan
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