Baba Consoles Noolkar’s Children

Justice Tatya Saheb Noolkar along with his children – one of them a doctor shifted to Shirdi to get treatment for his illness. He wanted to be under the protective umbrella of Sai Maharaj. Even though he was staying in Sathe Wada, Baba had given him a ‘Third Eye’ so that he could see Baba all 24 hours and enjoy his ‘Ashirvad.’

Noolkar passed away on 11th March 1911 at midnight and his desire to have ‘Baba’s Pada Tirth was fulfilled by Shama.

Noolkar’s children came to Baba after their father’s funeral. Baba consoled them in his inimitable manner.

How one looks at death depends upon his spiritual upliftment. Noolkar’s children were spiritually advanced. He told them about an event in Mumbai where once there was a stampede at a circus. An elephant went berserk and started running towards the crowd. Seeing the elephant rushing towards them, people also started running to save their lives. The one who was ahead of everyone was a leper in an advanced stage, whose sight could horrify others. In a tizzy, an onlooker with a philosophical bent, thinks to himself – what is in his life, for which he is running to save himself from the clutches of death?

The truth that dawned on the onlooker was that given a choice, most of us might not like to embrace death even when life seems like a curse to us.

Then Baba’s gaze turned towards Anwar a young fisherman from Goa. To console Noolkar’s children, Baba started a conversation with Anwar, who would daily go to a particular spot on the seashore in Panjim to catch fish. Baba asked him out of curiosity, “Is your father also in the same profession?” “Of course he was, but one big fish swallowed him when he ventured deep into the sea.” Baba then asked, “What about your brother and uncle?”

“They were swept away by the high tides of the sea.” Somewhat perplexed by the fisherman’s reply, Baba asked him about his grandfather. “I am told that he also met a watery grave in the same sea,” replied the fisherman.

Completely flummoxed, Baba kept on looking at the fisherman’s face, but it did not betray any emotions.

After a while, he said, “Young man, this sea has been the cause of all the deaths in your family and yet you continue to explore in the same sea. Why don’t you do something else, I can help you.”

Next to Anwar a devotee by the name Ramlal was sitting and Baba asked that man, “What is your father doing?”

“He is no more, he died of plague at a young age,” replied the Ramlal.

“Look, your father didn’t come to this sea, but still death had its way, and I can presume that none of your other kin, who are no more, died in this sea or because of this sea. What I want to say is that death is inevitable. When any person’s days in this world are over, death will not spare him, whether he is in the sea or on the earth or anywhere. So why to think of death? Keep doing your work,” Baba like a sage advised and consoled Noolkar’s children.

Nana Saheb Chandorkar added that in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna states certain things, which if understood, can take away the fear of death: It is the body that ceases to function, but the soul is immortal. After death, the soul is reborn in another body, and it is like throwing away worn-out clothes and wearing new ones. Life is a continuous stream of births and deaths until we, by Upasana, communion with God, achieve moksha.