joe homoreno, i think that if u r attracted to sai baba who is a lallupanju and a bhangi this is proof.

According to one poster Erlender Haroldson didn't investigate Sai Baba himself under controlled conditions, is this true?

re /m400

Joe108,

I want to focus this discussion on material appearance on the picture frames. I would not address the questions that are irrelevant to the topic at hand.

- ash, honey vs vibhuti, amrit: Many things including these 4 are reported to be appearing on the picture frames (pls read the past posts on this thread). I picked the first 2 as examples. I did not equate ash to vibuti or honey to amrit. You totally missed the point. (if you care to know: in rural coastal AP ash made of cowdung is cosidered holy.) My point is to study the phenomena, not to equate or differentiate these items.

- theosophical explanations: I am open to read deep philosophical, spiritual discussion or explanation. Though I would be more interested in explanations with Hindu touch, I don't mind reading any other aspects as long as they contain philosophical discussion. But jumping to theosophical explanation skipping the first 2 parts, study of credibility and phenomenon is haste and blind in my humble opinion.

- Telugu Veera (aka BM)

Edited by author 10-11-2006 01:49 AM
Gee Sanjay (the dick-tater), can you PLEASE stop spamming this board with your idiotic diatribes(/m392)? This board is about SAI BABA and what THOSE directly connected to him (and who KNOW him) think, NOT about what a know-nothing narcissistic, obnoxious sex pervert like you (who is inebriated on alcohol most of the time) thinks.

I guess Sanjay "the great brain" thinks we should accept negatively biased sources over positively biased sources because he thinks in his deluded mind he is more objective...cough, cough. Hilarious. The drunk is lucky he can find his way to the bathroom without his mommy. What you are being assailed with right now is Sanjay the drunk. He's not much better when he is sober.

And you must keep forgetting this ISN'T YOUR message board, bozo.
Go play on your own board, or can't you get anyone else to "play" with your masochistic, mysogynistic, hateful self?

Edited by author 10-11-2006 01:23 AM
/m397

BeastMaster (BM), you did not answer any of my questions from my former post: /m351. Why not? After all you were the one who claimed, out of your own mouth, that the materialized vibuthi is "cow dung" and that amrita is "honey". Although you try to present yourself as neutral, when confronted with your bias, you cower behind innuendo and accuse me of taking off on a "tangent". First answer my questions about where you got your information from. If you did not get your information from neutral third parties (but just fabricated this information by yourself) just say so.

I already told you long ago that I am not aware of any official, neutral, third party investigations about these alleged materializations. What is amusing about your position is that you were willing to cite an unreliable account taken from an anonymous source on the exbaba site (/m248). Now, however, you are trying to give the impression that you will only settle for a scientific, neutral, official and third-party investigation. The standards you demand are inconsistent.

Also, you also did not answer my former question about which "theosophical explanations" you are willing to accept. Are there any you are willing to accept? If so, what are they? If not, why ask for them?

Sanjay, sounds you are like suffering from "broken-record syndrome" or echolalia :-)

Sanjay Dadlani Fully Exposed: /m272

Edited by author 10-11-2006 12:45 AM
Awwwwwww, poor Mowenno can't answer the points, poor baby-waby. :-)

He knows jack about Shirdi. He knows jack about Shirdi literature. He knows jack about Puttaparthi history. He knows jack about Puttaparthi Raju's sordid Shirdi LIE. He does not know anything about these matters except from biased and slanted Sathya Sai sources which are incorrect and opportunistic. And all of this is proven.

Gerald 'Joe' Moreno EXPOSED /m269

Deal with that. :-)

J108,

The point of interest of my earlier post has been mysterious objects appearing on picture frames. Erlendur Haraldsson has not conducted any investigattion into it. Why bring his name here? I am specifically interested in the 3 aspect investigation as explained in my earlier posts. You have not offered any continuation to my view points.

Instead you went tangent with;

- EH reports on paranormal phenomena that excludes the point at hand.
- You incorrectly accuse me of claiming amrit as honey. You talk about Amrit and Vibhuti while I took an example of honey and ash out of many things that allegedly appear.

If there are no verification/investigation done on a)credibility of the claim b)study of the phenomena c)theological implication- so be it.

- Bm

Edited by author 10-10-2006 10:51 PM
As I have said many times before, there is no rationalizing with Sanjay Kishore Dadlani (aka "Sai Baba EXPOSED"), a confirmed psychopath, drunk, pervert, Jesus sex fetishist and pathological liar.

Sanjay Dadlani Fully Exposed: /m272

Well I'm glad that you finally admitted it, Morono. Now watch. :-)

Re /m384:

Looks like poor Gerald Moreno has started needlessly obsessing about Venkamma Raju (Puttaparthi fraudster's elder sister) and trying very hard (and desperately) to prove me wrong, utterly failing in doing so. Let's amuse ourselves with a couple of his spurious arguments:

"First Sanjay argued that Sathya Sai Baba was not bitten by a scorpion based on Baba's own words and tried to refute Baba's words by citing Venkamma ... Since Sanjay just conceded that Venkamma is a liar, then WHY is Sanjay citing her as an authority on what really happened to Baba? If Baba and Venkamma are liars, then where is Sanjay getting his accurate & truthful information from? According to Sanjay, none of these devotees and relatives are trustworthy. Therefore, all these citations are useless in revealing the truth because there are NO non-devotee biographies on Baba. Sanjay is clueless. Sanjay has no proof to support any of his conspiracy theories. It's all fluff, deception and imagination."

Unfortunately not. :-) Gerald Moreno is guilty of intellectual dishonesty. In /m373, I outlined a popular story regarding Venkamma and the Shirdi Sai picture:

One of Venkamma's favourite stories is how she repeatedly begged Raju to provide her with a picture of Shirdi Sai Baba, since Raju was guffing all the time about Shirdi Baba and apparently no one knew anything about Shirdi Baba (ha ha ha, cough cough!).

Now why would Venkamma beg Raju for a Shirdi picture when they were freely available in Puttaparthi? What to speak of the fact that not one, but two of her own uncles were devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba way before Raju went off on his acid trip? :-) And, oh yeah, please do remember that Raju (and why not Venkamma too?) was attending Shirdi bhajans regularly in the house of a villager who had been personally trained by Narasimha Swamiji, and who got the picture of Shirdi Baba from him? :-)

Conclusion: Evidence suggests that Venkamma Raju was a party to Raju's increasing pile of lies upon lies.

It's pretty clear where the lie is; these stories were created much later in order to give backing to the mythos of Raju's reincarnation claim. Funny how Gerald Moreno has no comment on the glaring inconsistency here: why should Venkamma beg for a picture when they were freely available in the village? Instead, a fanciful story is made up about how Raju was creeping around the house at night and woke Venkamma up, who then discovered a picture that Raju left behind! Awwwwwwww, such a sweet story that proves Raju's divinity, not! :-)

What Gerald Moreno cannot understand (or rather, cannot get into his thick head) is that since all of these people are dead (except for Raju the fraud), it is well nigh impossible to get at the truth and to interview all of them. What we are left with is a set of glaring contradictions and inconsistencies. I see no harm in highlighting all of these problems so that dumbloons like Moreno and De Witt can try and explain it all away, driving themselves up the wall in the process. :-)

You have to consider: why did "Sathya" Sai Baba tell his sister that he was bitten by a scorpion and then publicly deny years later? Why do all of the official biographies talk so much about a scorpion incident when there was no scorpion at all (according to Raju)? If there was no scorpion at all as Raju said in 1958, then why was it published in 'Sathyam Sivam Sundaram' in 1960??

[Text: "On March 8th, 1940, the whole town was shocked to hear that a big black scorpion had stung Sathya. There is a belief current in Uravakonda and the surrounding country that no one will survive a snakebite or scorpion sting in the place, because of the many-hooded serpent stone that has given the name to the place. The rock looks as if a serpent has raised its head to strike its poison fangs and hence, the dread superstition has gained currency. It was about seven o'clock, at dusk, and Sathya leaped with a shriek, holding the right toe!"]

Gerald Moreno is clueless. There is no use in asking for his opinion on these matters because he doesn't know. All he can do is avoid the issues, make ad-hominem attacks and twist himself into a conundrum.

He knows jack about Shirdi. He knows jack about Shirdi literature. He knows jack about Puttaparthi history. He knows jack about Puttaparthi Raju's sordid Shirdi LIE. He does not know anything about these matters except from biased and slanted Sathya Sai sources which are incorrect and opportunisitic. And all of this is proven.

Deal with that. :-)

Another Lie from Lisa De Witt

In /m389, Lisa De Witt stated the following:

"According to Narasimha's biography, Narasimha did not even know about Shirdi Sai Baba until 1936 Sanjay! It also states in his biography that VERY few people knew about Shirdi in the late 1930s. Even then, Narasimha had language barriers to deal with because he spoke only a little Marathi. So, unless one spoke Marathi, one was very unlikey to have heard about Shirdi Sai Baba at that time."

She was apparently influenced by this article. What a pity she didn't read any further:

"Sri B.V. Narasimha Swamiji felt, how important it was to spread the spiritual life and message of Baba throughout our country. So, he looked for the biography on Baba. He got Dasganu Maharaja's 'Sai Leelamrit' in Marathi, 'Glimpses of Spirituality' by Raobahadur M.W. Pradhan and also 'Sai Satcharita' in verse in Marathi, written by Annasaheb Dabholkar. His first publication 'Who is Sai Baba' was released in 1939. His next work 'Wondrous Saint' has been translated into Telugu, Hindi, Bengali and Gujrathi. ... The author's next work was 'Gospel of Sri Sai Baba', which had been translated into Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Malyalam. Swamiji composed hymns in Sanskrit, entitled 'Sri Sainath Smaranam', which was translated into Tamil and English. In 1944, Swamiji wrote a play in seven acts in Tamil, entitled 'Sri Sai Charita Natakam'. Swamiji also wrote 'Sri Sai Harikalha' to popularise Sai-movement through kalakshepam (musical discourse).

"Sri Narasimha Swamiji commenced his great task of writing a detailed biography of Sri Sai Baba in English. ... In addition to these, he published many other books on Sai Baba, many of which have been translated into many Indian languages, like Tamil, Telugu, Marathi etc. It became necessary to formulate a systematic way of conducting Sai worship. So, Swamiji wrote 'Sri Sainath Pooja Vidhi' and 'Sai Sahasranamam' in addition to the ashtotaram, already in use and practice. This is published in Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Canareese."

Need more? Even assuming that all of his works were translated into different languages by other people, he still needed a command of South Indian languages (including Telugu) because he preached the glories of Shirdi Sai Baba especially in the South. For Christ's sake, he set up the All-India Sai Samaj that is based in Chennai!

And then Lisa's spurious contention that Shirdi Sai Baba was known by only a few by the 1930s. Gee, this must be why he had followers even in far-off Bombay and Allahabad, which was a big achievement at the time. Few people? I think not. And because Lisa is such an ignoramus, she doesn't know that Shirdi Baba himself spoke Marathi, Hindi and Urdu, the latter two are prominent Indian languages so there was no bar to hearing about Shirdi Sai Baba at the time. Even Puttaparthi Raju books state that he was famous enough in his local area, lol! That's before they initiated the lie that Shirdi Baba was nowhere heard of in Puttaparthi in 1943 (not 1940!), when two of Raju's own uncles were Shirdi devotees and Raju himself regularly attended Shirdi bhajans by people who had been personally trained by Narasimha Swamiji.

LOL, Lisa! Keep on burying your head in the sand when you know jack about all of these things.

You are a liar. :-)

Edited by author 10-11-2006 12:45 AM
Lisa, please do not spam this board with long articles about Sai Baba. Simply providing a link to the article is enough.

Not that the article about Pedda Bottu proves a thing anyway. :-) Who can corroborate Bottu's presence in Shirdi? No one. :-)

Re /m389 "According to Narasimha's biography, Narasimha did not even know about Shirdi Sai Baba until 1936 Sanjay! It also states in his biography that VERY few people knew about Shirdi in the late 1930s. Even then, Narasimha had language barriers to deal with because he spoke only a little Marathi. So, unless one spoke Marathi, one was very unlikey to have heard about Shirdi Sai Baba at that time."

Yet again, this proves nothing. I have already mentioned that Narasimha Swamiji did not know about Shirdi Sai Baba, and that he became a devotee of Shirdi Baba after the latter's passing. Get with the program and know what people are saying before you spout off. The fact is irrelevant anyway; what does matter is that Narasimha Swami travelled widely around India personally meeting with the devotees of Shirdi Sai Baba who had personally met and experienced the miracles/knowledge/wisdom/love of the saint in order to compile his famous four-volume biography of Shirdi Sai as well as his three-volume compilation of devotee experiences. Not to mention countless other literatures and formulations of worship that were eventually for permanent use by the Shirdi Sansthan.

What are language barriers supposed to prove, if they even existed? The simple fact is that Narasimha Swamiji personally went around constructing temples and investigating people who made claims of reincarnation. Funnily enough, Narasimha Swami published his four-volume biography in 1956 and Puttaparthi Raju declared himself in 1943 (not 1940 as wacko hagiographers erroneously contended). Narasimha Swami apparently witnessed Raju materialising trinkets and claiming to be Shirdi Sai reborn after his declaration to be so. Still he was not impressed and didn't even bother mentioning Raju in his treatment of the subject. LOL.

He found time to mention a boy from Karur and a girl from Bangalore (whom he personally exposed as frauds) but had no time in thirteen years (1943-1956) to include fraud-boy Puttaparthi Raju in his magnum opus. Ha ha ha ha ha, that says it all doesn't it? :-)

Re /m388: "Gee Sanjay how can I make this ANY clearer to you? I do NOT consider YOU a reliable (or sane) source."

Gee Lisa, how can I make this ANY clearer to you? I do not care what you think. :-) It doesn't even matter if I am the one who has researched and found out all of this information; if I didn't do it, someone else would. Fact remains that your Puttaparthi guru is a confirmed liar who is not the reincarnation of Shirdi Sai Baba. You can keep burying your head in the sand and pretending that it will all go away while maintaining your charade and your self-created delusion, it won't go away. The Expose is here to stay and this is the latest (biggest) stumbling block for "Sathya" Sai Baba. :-)

Try as you may, you won't over come it. :-)

Get this into your thick head:

You know jack about Shirdi. You know jack about Shirdi literature. You know jack about Shirdi devotees. You know jack about Shirdi Sai Baba. You do not know anything about Shirdi Sai Baba except from biased and slanted Sathya Sai sources which are incorrect and opportunistic. And all of this is proven.

Deal with that. :-)

Edited by author 10-08-2006 02:56 AM
"Inside the room were lecturer Sai Kumar Mahajan, the Baba’s cook Vishnu Bhatt, and a student called Anil Paitley. So too, perhaps, was Sairam. The trio had no problem entering the room and they said they had brought a telegram for the Baba from godman Chandraswamy. It was then that Radhakrishna, who was in the Baba’s suite on the first floor, came down and was immediately stabbed to death. Mahajan, too, was killed in the scuffle and Vishnu Bhatt and Paitley lay wounded.

The assailants swiftly bolted the door of the reception room but a young boy in the vicinity who witnessed the stabbing ran behind the room, throwing open the door that led to the veranda. His screams woke up devotees whoe were sleeping in adjacent rooms and they rushed to the spot."

This is the first time i am reading basava Premanand from Sanjay"s Gerald 'Joe' Moreno EXPOSED /m269 MorenoJoe.

I have not yet read it fully,but this part of the fact as it happened is wrong. 1.sai kumar mahajan was not a lecturer. He was a student who studied in Ss higher secondry school.His father was a Professor and head of the deparment (Bio Sciences and had died only one moth before this incident.SaiKumar mahajan then studied in Brindawan Campus and had come back to do his M.B.A at Parthi 2. Radhakrishna was not upstairs. Subbapiah the helper for vishnu bhatt opened the door and saw E.K (Suresh) standing their after knocking mildly.Seeing him, Radha krishana told Subbapiah to remove the security chain.He did it and went towards the kitchen.Radhakrishna asked E.K what happened, how are you etc., but e.k who had taken drugs (post mortem report told this)along with the other 3, took out a one foot dagger and cut the important vein(jagular or something) in the neck and stabbed him 3 to 4 times in the stomach by holding him from behind. Subbapiah ran out of the back door and created a stir. Vishnu Bhatt hid himself in the next room and in the dark Siram and Jagnathan stabbed him on the head.(He still has the marks).They did not know the switch.One more thing After some time when vishnu bhatt came out thinking every one has gone,he was seen by E.K who had cooled down a little.E.K told him to go inside and left him without killing him.

From Shirdi Sai to Sathya Sai

by Sharada Devi alias 'Pedda Bottu'
Prasanthi Nilayam, India, 1985.

Web Posted: July 28, 1999, Gurupoornima.

  

My mother, Manthrapragada Ramalaksmhi Devi, and my father, Venkata Narasimha Rao—who were childless in spite efforts—visited their Guru, Shirdi Sai Baba, in 1887 and prayed to him for a child. As the fruit of Shirdi Sai Baba's grace, I was born to them on August 8, 1888. Shirdi Sai Baba himself gave me my name, Shringeri Sharada Devi. As I am of fair complexion, he used to lovingly call me Gori.

In my sixth year, my elders took me on a pilgrimage to Badrinath in the Himalayas. Soon after this trip, I was arranged in marriage and moved into my husband's household in my twelfth year [as was customary in India in earlier days]. I bore six male children to my husband by the age of 23, but all of them died after living for merely three to four years of age.

As all my children were lost and I failed to bear any more children, I consented for my husband to remarry, and I moved to settle down at Shirdi in the presence of Sai Baba.

I saw Shirdi Sai Baba perform many miracles. Once, a tahasildar, an old devotee of Shirdi Baba came for Baba's darshan. On seeing him Baba said, "I am happy that you have come. I wish to have puran poli [fried sweet]. Bring me one." As there were no hotels in those days the man proceeded all the way to Kopargaon, a larger town about 20 km away from Shirdi, to have a few puran poli's prepared somehow. He brought them to Shirdi the following day for Baba's lunch time.

Baba then told him, "I have eaten my belly full. Why did you bring them? You may take them back." On hearing this, the devotee was stupefied and started weeping. He said, "Because you asked for puran poli's, I got them prepared—straining myself. How could you have your fill when you have not even started your lunch, Baba? Please eat at least one for all my labor."

Baba replied, "When you were getting the sweets prepared, I visited the place in the form of ants and ate them. Can you not believe that my stomach is really full? Look at this," so saying Baba belched and spat out some pieces of puran poli. God is the indwelling spirit of everyone. There were many instances when Baba demonstrated this truth.

Baba never failed to give succour to those who prayed to him with full faith.

One day I requested Baba to give me Mantra Upadesh (Spiritual initiation).. Baba replied, "You are young yet. I will give you Upadesh when you grow older." I waited until I was 29 years old and prayed to Baba again. He shouted at me with anger, "You are always obsessed with Upadesh!," and kicked me on the chest with his right foot.

With tears of dejection streaming down my face, I went out and laid down under a tree. I must have slept after weeping for a long time; it was very late at night when Baba came to wake me up. He asked me to follow him to the Lendi Garden. When we reached the garden, he said, "My child! I could not sleep in Dwarka Mayi [Baba's dweling] when you were lying out there without food since morning. I have brought you here, for I want to tell you something. But first you must eat."

He stretched out his right hand with palm up and said, "Allah Malik hai" (God is the master).

Two chapathis and a lemon sized kova [a sweet, made out of milk] materialized in his palm. He gave them to me to eat. Again, he stretched out his hand and this time a very small mud pot full of water materialized. When I ate and drank he asked me, "Gori, is your anger gone?" I mentally replied in all humility, "There is no anger or frustration now. I was a fool not to realize that your kick was in fact your grace. My heartfelt gratitude to you for allowing me to eat your divine materialization's." Baba then told me, "I will tell you something, but before that you should hold my feet and promise me not to tell this to anyone." With pounding heart and anticipating the much awaited Mantra Upadesh, I did as he told me.

"Gori, I will appear in Andhra [Pradesh] with the same name of Sai Baba but in another Avathar. Then again, you will come to me. I will keep you with me and give you joy." I was ecstatic in joy and said, "I am blessed my Lord, this is my greatest fortune! Should I not reveal this fact to anybody?" Baba confirmed, "No, you alone will see my second Avathar, none else will. After you have seen me in my second form, you may tell this to others when occasions arise."

This conversation between us took place in 1917. Later, I was informed that my ailing elder aunt wanted to see me at Rajahmundry. It was when I was at Rajahmundry in 1918 that I learnt that Baba had left his physical body. I was filled with a kind of inexplicable anguish.

One day my aunt told me, "I must arrange my journey on Ekadasi, day after tomorrow. Sri Baba himself appeared in my dream and called me to him." On Ekadasi she passed away with the Lord's name on her lips. I had deserted my family life due to the loss of all my sons. The parents too, who loved me, had left this world long ago. There was no longer the solace and protection I had from Baba. To top it all, now my dearest aunt was also no more! The sense of forlornness and depression was now to the full brim. I learnt that there was a number of learned saints in the hills of Dwaraka and decided to spend the rest of my life in their service.

I started off and after five days of crossing rivers in spate and fearsome forests, I reached a tunnel-like cave. I entered it, walked through its length and reached the other side. A group of people were shouting slogans in praise of a 'Sadguru Maharaj'. I soon understood that this great man was about 360 years old. I was keen on having his darshan and earn some spiritual merit. I sat in meditation under a tree but nobody came to see or talk with me. I was steeped in sorrow. On the fourth day, an old saint, presumably the Sadguru Maharaj, appeared in front of me and asked me the reason for my unhappiness. I replied that when he, the Swamiji, the all-knowing omniscient did not bother about me, I got disheartened. The great one told, "You are new to this place. I wanted to test your endurance. Now, go and take a dip in that holy lake and come back. I shall give you Upadesh." I was elated! I bathed in the holy water, returned, and received the Mantra Upadesh. Now I had a holy word to repeat in meditation and reach the highest level of serenity.

Sadguru Maharaj himself had five Masters. He showed me five caves in which each of these supreme saints sat in perpetual meditation. Sadguru Maharaj advised me to choose one of these supreme saints, sit in meditation in his company and obtain Siddhi [spiritual power]. I selected the Master of the first cave. His name was Sri Chandra Yogi. I preferred him to others because I recollected a person of the exact likeness of Sri Chandra Yogi appearing and calling me to him in a dream in my childhood days. I sat in the presence of Sri Chandra Yogi every day, repeating the mantra twenty million times and obtained the Siddhi.

I spent six more years in those holy hills. Sadguru Maharaj gave me and other disciples a series of discourses on the Vedas; Vedanta, secrets of the entire cosmos, and many topics of spiritual importance. One day the Maharaj told me, "You have learnt everything that there is to know. Now listen to me carefully. You have to do many more good deeds. The God you think you have lost is about to come into this world soon, for the uplift of the entire humanity. You will not see him in the old form with which you are familiar. He will appear in a new captivating form. He will be the most powerful Avathar and will do many extraordinary things. Hence, return to your place, learn about this lovable God and receive your salvation in his service."

I developed a great liking to the sacred atmosphere of the hills, the peaceful and calm life of meditation and the company of the holy, scholarly persons. So, it was with a heavy heart I persuaded myself to return to Hyderabad.

In an effort to spend my time, money, and strength in a beneficial activity, I planned a home for the poor, and destitute children and named it 'All India Sai Sadan'. It started functioning with eighty children. I gave them not only food and formal education, but taught them vocational activities like stitching, making toys, and other handicrafts. After some time, I began to run out of money and supplemented the income by writing Hari Kathas [short stories about God] and singing them wherever I was asked to. One day I was invited to sing a Hari Katha in a village called Uruvakonda. In the house where this event was arranged, I happened to see on the wall a photograph of a beautiful lad. He had a large crown of hair. The face and eyes were most charming and magnetic. I asked the housewife whose photo it was. She told me, "Don't you know? He is Puttaparthi Sai Baba. If you want to see him, I can take you to him tomorrow." The next day I was taken to the house of one Mr. Seshama Raju, the elder brother of Baba.. I then saw the young 14 year old Baba. It was in 1940. I was then 52 years old.

The first words that Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba uttered to me where, "Gori, you owe me 16 rupees in my Shirdi incarnation." I replied that I had already paid up all my debts to Shirdi Baba. He said, "I know. I said it because you are not able to recognize me. Otherwise, you would have fallen at my feet. All right! After completing all your tasks at the Poor Home you are running, go to Puttaparthi. I shall retain you with me and shall bestow all the joy you want." For the next 17 years, I used to visit Puttaparthi frequently and spend a few months every time in the divine presence of Baba. In 1958, when I was 70, I closed down the Poor Home and went to Puttaparthi to spend the rest of my life there. Baba gave me an apartment to stay in the ashram.

Once I was ill when Baba was away at Bangalore. In spite of my indisposition, I wanted to perform my duty as a lady volunteer in maintenance of discipline and silence in the temple premises. It was 6:30 PM. The post-bhajan meditation pactice was in progress. Suddenly I noticed Bhagavan Baba beckoning me into the temple corridor. Since meditation was going on, he was naturally motioning his hand silently but it was clear he wanted me to go to him. How can Baba be here too at the Puttaparthi temple, when he was in Bangalore right at that moment? I was sure it was some apparition; my sick mind was evidently playing tricks. I looked the other way for a moment and again turned back. Baba was very much there. Losing faith in my faculties, I looked away. This time Baba walked towards me and said very audibly, "Come!" I had to believe the voice at least. Baba might have returned from Bangalore without my knowing it.

He materialised Vibhutti and gave me to cure my illness with. He then motioned me to take Padnamaskar. Filled with bliss at his loving concern for me, I bowed down and had the Padnamaskar. When I raised my head there was no Baba to be seen anywhere. By this time, I was surrounded by many women. Serious doubts of my mental soundness was being freely exchanged. There were few takers when I narrated what actually happened. I showed them the Vibhutti that Baba had given me. Some, at least, in the group must have thought I was a blessed soul. I began to feel better when I ate the Vibhutti. By next morning, I was fit as a fiddle.

This happened again when Baba was away at Bangalore. My eye was swollen and red. The eyelid was hanging down swollen and red. The eyelid was ha and it was giving me excruciating pain. The doctor at the Puttaparthi hospital told that it was a serious condition and that an operation was necessary. I was scared out of my wits and rushed to Bangalore. Baba saw me and admonished, "Why did you come here?"

I wailed, "You are the Lord of all creation. Where else can I go? Look at my eye. I came here because I could not bear the pain." He materialised Vibhutti and poured the entire stuff into my eye. He asked me to close the eye and led me to a place to lie down. He called a security guard and instructed him, "Nobody should disturb this old lady as long as she sleeps.." I slept until eight o'clock the next morning. Baba came and examined the eye. He said, "It is normal. Now go back to Puttaparthi and attend to your duties. I shall return tomorrow." On another occasion, I went to Baba complaining of a stomach ache. He materialised Vibhutti with the familiar rotation of his hand and asked me to smear it on my forehead in the form of a big Bottu (dot). Baba added, "Your stomach pain will vanish. And from now on you will be called Pedda Bottu (Big dot)!" Thus Pedda Bottu became my permanent name."

Shreemata Sharada Devi alias 'Pedda Bottu' has left her mortal frame several years back. We are grateful and delighted to have a share in her innocent and unusal story.

© 1999 - The S@iOnLine - All Rights Reserved

Edited by author 10-07-2006 05:39 AM
/m373

According to Narasimha's biography, Narasimha did not even know about Shirdi Sai Baba until 1936 Sanjay! It also states in his biography that VERY few people knew about Shirdi in the late 1930s. Even then, Narasimha had language barriers to deal with because he spoke only a little Marathi. So, unless one spoke Marathi, one was very unlikey to have heard about Shirdi Sai Baba at that time.



BECOMES A SAI DEVOTEE

In 1936, Narasimha Swamiji visited the Samadhi of Sri Sai Baba. It was a memorable event in his life. He stood silently watching the Samadhi. It was the happiest moment in his life. Baba spoke to him in eloquent silence... Sai Baba kindled the light in Swamiji. It was an everlasting, spiritual bliss lo him. He expressed his joy as follows :

"My hunger for spiritual food was not satisfied, till I came to Shirdi. At Shirdi, I was given more than I could lake. I had at last discovered my Sadguru. He is Samartha Sadguru and I live in constant communion with him."

Swamiji was surprised to find, how, for nearly sixty years, a great saint had lived and blessed so many in that neglected village. Swamiji wanted all to experience this spiritual bliss, which Sai Baba can bestow on us. In nineteen thirties, the number of persons seeking solace at the feet of Sri Sai Baba of Shirdi was very small. He also wanted to carry Baba's message to his home province touring every town and village and spread Baba's gospel everywhere in India. He knew enough Marathi to seek and collect information from those, who were lucky enough to come into personal contact with his Master, Sai Maharaj.

In this way, he met and interviewed more than sixty devotees, who had personally seen Sri Baba. Among them were Abdul, Dasganu Maharaj, Sri M.B. Rege etc. Swamiji made enquiries and recorded their experiences, which revealed, how Baba had helped His devotees from danger. Then, with justice Rege, he toured Maharashtra, addressing mass meetings in English and Marathi in many places. Meanwhile, he wrote a series of articles on Sai Baba in the 'Sunday Times' of Madras. All these activities occupied him till the end of 1938 and in the beginning of 1939, he returned to Madras.