By : B.S. Krishna Murthy
Anna Saheb Dabholkar was a special devotee of Sai Baba, as he was His biographer. He was the Residential Magistrate in Mumbai and was a self-made man. He had come up in life through hardship and was proud of his achievement. He was of strong conviction that for a person to attain a status life all that is required was hard work and scholarship. Anna Saheb Dabholkar, Kaka Dixit and Nana Sahib Chandorkar were friends and whenever they met, they would discuss Vedas, Upanishads and philosophy. But they had divergent views. Kaka Dixit was immediately drawn towards Sai Baba in the very first meeting. Nana Sahib Chandorkar was prejudiced at first and it took some time for him to be an ardent devotee. Anna Saheb Dabholkar was a great scholar and Sai Baba desired that his services should be made available as biographer. Even though aware of his views, Sai Baba prompted Kaka Dixit to guide Anna Saheb Dabholkar to have Sai Baba’s darshan.
When Kaka Dixit described his visit to Shirdi and termed Sai Baba as his Sadguru, Anna Saheb Dabholkar ridiculed him – “Dixit, excuse me! I thought that with your education and background of visiting several countries, you will be a little more sensible than any of us. With one visit to a fahir in a mosque, you are calling him a Sadguru! It is simply idiotic! How can any Sadguru protect you? A man should stand on his feet and look after his own progress! For that you do not require a Sadguru! Look at myself! I studied up to fifth class, then passed Pleader’s course, became a Munshi, then a Deputy Collector and ultimately a Resident Magistrate too! I read the Vedas, I studied philosophy and all this without a Sadguru! Compared to me you are far more educated and learned! Why do you need a Sadguru at all?”
During this period, the glory of Baba had dazzled the world! Dabholkar too had heard many stories about him through number of reliable people. This had set him rethinking about his own opinion. Even Nana Saheb Chandorkar had told him so much about Sai Baba, being a judge himself, he decided to study all details personally before forming his own opinion and coming to any conclusion. He knew that Kaka Dixit’s infatuation for Sai Baba was increasing day by day. He had seen that irrespective of what others thought, Dixit visited Shirdi quite often. Under the circumstances, as promised to Dixit’s wife, Dabholkar felt he must meet the fakir in Shirdi to assess his own opinion and decide the matter once for all! For that he planned to visit Shirdi after Holi festival.
But Sai Baba had a different plan. On the night prior to Holi festival, Baba appeared in Dabholkar’s dream and told him that he was going to visit them next day for lunch! Dabholkar had seen Baba’s picture at Kaka Dixit’s house. So he could guess it was Sai Baba who appeared in the dream. He woke up with a start. Nana Chandorkar had also told him that Baba visited people in dreams too. That made him believe that he would certainly pay him a visit next day and have lunch with them. He was glad! He thought that would save his trip to Shirdi as he could thrash out the matter with Sai Baba personally at his own place. And if it is proved that he is a real saint he would be a follower like Dixit!
Next morning Dabholkar asked his wife to prepare a little extra food for Sai Baba who was expected for lunch. She was immensely happy! She had heard a lot about this great saint. Since her husband was prejudiced against him, she could not visit Shirdi as many of her relatives did. Naturally she was very happy now that Baba was visiting them Himself. Dabholkar invited many of his relatives for lunch on account of Holi festival. For Sai Baba, Dabholkar‘s wife prepared special sweets!
The guests arrived! Wooden seats were arranged on the floor. Between two rows a special seat was placed for Sai Baba. Rangoli was drawn and leaves were placed. Food was served. The guests occupied their seats having waited long for Sai Baba. It was noon and everybody was hungry. Dabholkar was restless and was moving in and out eagerly waiting for Sai Baba. He had simply informed the guests that Sai Baba is coming. He did not tell them it was a dream vision. Now he was wondering that a rational minded person like him has fallen flat for a dream vision! At last he bolted the door and sat for lunch. There was a knock on the door and a call ‘Anna Saheb, Anna Saheb’ was heard. Everyone thought that Sai Baba has come!
When the door was opened, an old friend Ali Mohamed Peerbhoy and his friend were at the door. They had a small packet in their hands. They profusely apologized when they saw many guests about to partake food. Ali Mohamed Peerbhoy handed over the packet and said – “Sorry Anna Saheb, we did not know you were taking food. We have brought this packet for you. Take this. I will tell you the background later.” They left.
When the packet was uncovered, Dabholkar saw a portrait of Sai Baba! He reverentially placed it on the special seat meant for Sai Baba. He told his guests about his dream vision on the previous night. They all had food! Much later Dabholkar was told by Ali Mohamed Peerbhoy that his spiritual Mentor had commanded him to remove all pictures and images of saints from his house as it was against their religion. He had thrown all of them in the sea at Bandra. However, this portrait was left out by mistake. He had an intuition that Dabholkar would love to keep it he had brought it to him!
This incident convinced Dabholkar that Sai Baba is a super power and his hostile attitude softened! Later he visited Shirdi. Sai Baba called him ‘Hemadpant’ and gave him the task of compiling details of his life. That is how Sai Satcharitra was composed. Even before he could have his physical darshan, Sai Baba went in search of his biographer.
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