Sri Sai Baba was the human shape assumed by God. He was an example of how the power of God, which is infinite, can fit into the human casing made of the five elements and show divine power through the body.
Of those devotees who served Baba when he was alive, over ninety-five per cent saw this divine power in him and became his devotees. As Sri Madhav Adkar sang in his arati, "Jayaa manee jaisaa bhaava, tayaa taisaa anubhava! Daavisee dayaaghanaa aisee tuzee hee maava!" (As is one's intent, such shall be our experience. As such, bestow thy grace upon each according to their conception of thee. Such is thy divine sport, oh compassionate one.)
Baba's devotees saw Baba as a reflection of their own feelings for him. The remaining five per cent became his devotees not because of Baba's power, but because they loved him. They tied Baba to them with the silken fetters of love. It is on these, who loved Baba unconditionally, that Baba rained his grace so copiously. Looking at Baba through their loving eyes, Baba's divine shape appears to us a glorious rainbow of love and affection. Of all those devotees who danced happily, fully soaked in the gentle rain of Baba's love, the foremost was Sri Tatya Kote Patil. The love and devotion shown by his parents Sri Ganapati Kote and Smt. Bayajabai for Baba was the main reason behind the immense good fortune of Sri Tatya's attachment to Baba.
It was in Shirdi that Sri Sai Baba revealed himself to the world to save humankind. He accompanied Chandbhai Patil's marriage party to Shirdi and stayed on there. When Baba first came to Shirdi, he appeared to the locals as a mere mad fakir and a beggar. In those days, when he kept his divine powers hidden, only three or four villagers were attracted to him. They themselves could not say what attracted them to Baba. Mhalsapati, Kasiram Shimpi, Appa Jogle and Ganapati Kote Patil were the four devotees who served Sri Sai Baba with the utmost love and devotion at that time.
Of these four, Baba was very close and intimate with Ganapati Kote Patil. Baba looked upon Bayajabai, Ganapati Kote's wife, as his own sister and used to call her as such. Sri Sai Sarananand writes in his book about the first time Baba met Ganapati Kote Patil and Bayajabai as follows.
"Perhaps the first person who introduced himself to Baba was Mahalsapati." After he talked to Baba, Mahalsapati felt that he was a saint and believed in him. From then on he would meet Baba without fail every day. He later introduced Baba to his friends, Kashiram Shimpi and Appa Jogle. These three would meet Baba every day and arrange for Baba's needs to be met.
Ganapati Kote Patil heard about Baba from these three and went with his wife, Bayajabai, to meet Baba. Baba rose from his seat and welcomed them graciously, saying to Bayajibai, "Oh lady, you are really my sister!"
Bayajabai was enthralled by Baba. She was devoted to him and vowed that she would not eat without first giving food to Baba. In those days, Baba would not stay in one place, he would be roaming about, sometimes in the village and sometimes in the fields outside the village and staying there. As Bayajabai had vowed not to eat unless she fed Baba first, she would search high and low for him until she found him. She would wait at home for Baba till noon every day in case he would come to beg for food. If he had not appeared by then, she would put the food in a basket and placing it on her head, start searching for him in the fields and thickets outside the village. When she found him she would make him sit down and would feed him with the utmost love and affection. After some time, as if to save Bayajabai the bother, Baba started staying at the mosque and having his food there.
Sri Tatya Kote Patil writes about the itinerant, homeless Baba of those early days at Shirdi thus.
"When Baba first came to Shirdi, he wore a green kufni (a long shirt-like garment extending down to the mid-calf) and a green headdress. After four months he changed the colour of his headdress to white. When Baba first came to Shirdi, he did not have a fixed abode. After a few months of wandering about, he stayed at the mosque for ten months. Later, he started living under the neem tree. Again after a while he moved to the mosque. He stayed there for two or three years and then shifted to the grove of trees between the Lendi and the Seera rivulets. Someone or other among the devotees would arrange for his food there. After staying for two-and-a-half years at the grove of trees, Baba finally moved back to the mosque, and stayed there till he entered samadhi."
_Pujyasri Sainathuni Sarath Babuji
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