LESS FAITH OR NO FAITH, BUT BABA'S GRACE IS GREAT

LESS FAITH OR NO FAITH, BUT BABA'S GRACE IS GREAT

From the very beginning, Sathe's appreciation of Baba was somewhat defective. When Baba said that he was going to have a son if married, he wanted confirmation from a famous astrologer about the correctness of Baba's prediction. Then again on other matters also, he was not sufficiently attentive to Baba's wishes. On one occasion, for instance, he held a feast for which he invited everybody except his father-in-law with whom he had differences. When he went to invite Baba, Baba wished to rebuke him for harbouring such feelings of hatred. Baba said when he came in `Fetch a stick', Sathe stood quiet. Baba did not actually mean to club him and changed his mood and said, "Never mind, I will come". But, of course, Baba did not go. Sathe did not change his feelings towards his father-in-law for a considerable time. One another occasion, Sathe went to intercede in a marwadi's affairs. Factious spirit was rife at Shirdi. Baba did not like that this high officer of the Government should interfere in such matters. Baba expressed his displeasure at that also.

Baba pulled down Sathe's ideas of vanity and pomp on one occasion. When the Wada was being built, the laying of the foundation stone was the first question. But Sathe who went there accidentally wantedformally to lay the foundation stone himself. Baba told him, "This is the time for the foundation stone to be laid". Then Sathe took up a hatchet and proceeded to lay the foundation stone. Baba stopped him and asked, "Why do you go there? What have you to do with all this? The masons and workmen will do it?"

Baba's help to Sathe was mainly on the worldly plane, though Baba gave him repeated inklings of his antarjnana. But unfortunately Sathe had not even a fraction of the faith which Chandorkar, Dixit, andothers had. On one occasion the Collector and several Settlement Officers were to meet him at some railway station. So, Sathe wanted to go from Shirdi. But Baba told him not to start. But still he wanted to go, his official ideas of punctuality standing in the way of appreciating and obeying Baba. He could not understand the reason for Baba's stopping him. Then Baba told Kelkar, "Lock him up for three days and then let him go." For three days he could not quit Shirdi and then when he went, he discovered that Baba somehow knew that the Settlement Officers and others had cancelled their programme and there was no meeting at all that day.

In religious matters more than in others, faith is wanted, and Sathe thought he should go to others for upadesa. For instance when others were going to Sakori to Upasani Baba for upadesa, he also considered why he should not go there to get upadesa. There was also a lady called Attabai of Sangola. There was Ganapat Upasaka. There was the yogi of Moregaon named Vinayak Patak Maharaj. These offered to give upadesa to Sathe. Sathe consulted Baba about Upasani Maharaj in person through Dada Kelkar in the latter two cases. Baba dissuaded him. Baba wanted him to concentrate, Ananyachinta, and have firm, exclusive faith in Himself, as he could look after every interest of his, temporal and spiritual. Unfortunately, Sathe could not rise to the full height of Ananyachinta. Like Upasani Maharaj, Sathe also got mixed up with local clashes. There were a number of people at Shirdi who were dead against him as they were against Upasani Maharaj, the chief of them being Nana Wali, a religious ascetic, who was a bully and a terror to most people there. The reason for Sathe's unpopularity was mostly in connection with his starting a Dakshina Bhiksha Sansthan. In December 1915, he had a call from Baba, and at Baba's bidding, he formed a society of which he himself was the president. It ran a journal called Sainath Prabha. The object of the society was to collect or recover a part of the money distributed by Baba daily and with it run the Shirdi Sai Sansthan. But this attempt to control receipts from Baba made Sathe unpopular. Nana Wali thought that he would be doing a good service to Baba and to the village by getting rid of this unpopular man Sathe. Some of the leading villagers on account of their bitterness against him held himresponsible for the loss to the Sansthan by theft of some articles like silver horses from the palanquin and troubled him in other similar trivial matters.

In January 1918, even lawyer's notices were served on him. Baba advised him to be patient and give a suitable reply. Baba said that he would protect him and that no proceedings would be taken againsthim. Really no proceedings were taken against him. However, the villagers still continued to regard this reserved and high placed Sathe with dislike and on one occasion Nana Wali took up a huge axe and stood at the entrance to the Mosque probably with a view to attack Sathe when he entered the Mosque. Dada Kelkar sent word to Sathe that this bully was standing with a big axe ready to hew him down if he should go to the Mosque. H. V. Sathe beat a hasty retreat from Shirdi and never visited it again.

Written by: HH Pujyasri B. V. Narasimha Swamiji