Sai Baba And Justice P. R. Avaste

By: Ramaswamy Seshadri

Purushottam Rao Avaste or P.R.Avaste was born in February 1870 in an orthodox family and had a very good grounding in religious and holy matters right from his childhood.

He was an atheist for nearly eight years from 1890 to 1898. However, his atheistic journey did not move ahead smoothly and had many hurdles in moving further. Once he went to listen to the devotional songs of a lady singer about Mira Bai, Mukta Bai, Jnana Bai, and others, and these devotional songs had left an indelible impression on him and was then caught up by the advantage of Bhakti.

He had completed B.A. and L.L.B. and then became a Judicial Officer of Indore. He later became a Judge of Indore High and was a close friend of Justice Rege, an ardent devotee of Baba. He was devoted to Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji, and every year used to send him a pair of Kolhapur Chappals.

Avaste was planning to visit Pandharpur for the darshan of Lord Vittal. Rege suggested to Avaste that as Shirdi was on the way to Pandharpur, Avaste could accompany Rege who was visiting Shirdi, and both could go to Shirdi.

In 1914 during summer vacation with his wife and son, he came to Shirdi. He was on his way to perform his son’s marriage and kept Rupees. 400.00 with his son and Rupees300.00 with his wife. When he came to Baba,

Baba said to P.R. Avaste: “Will you give me Dakshina?”
P.R. Avaste: “How much?”
Baba said: “Rupees 30”

Baba said to Avaste’s son: “Will you give me Rupees 40” and he gave. Thus, again and again, Baba asked for Dakshina and took away the entire fund available with Avaste’s wife and son, leaving a balance of Rupees 30.00 with her.Baba again said to Avaste: “Will you give me Rupees 30”
Avaste said: “Shall I give it, Baba?”

Baba said “Yes.” Then Avaste unhappily took the balance amount of Rupees 30 from his wife and gave it to Baba. Baba did not ask for any further amount from Avaste.

Avaste was in a disturbed mind at that time and was returning from Baba. Bapusaheb Jog, a staunch devotee of Baba, who observed all these happenings, appreciated him and patted him on his back. Jog felt very much happy as Baba asked repeatedly Dakshina from him and took away the entire money available with them. Jog then told Avaste that he was lucky as Baba would never take the entire money as Dakshina except to give back to him tenfold. But Avaste told him that he did not know anything about that but that he knew very well his position that he did not have a single pie with them and that he was in a quandary as to how to go to the place of marriage of his son. Then Jog enquired how much he required. Then Avaste replied that he wanted Rupees 100.00 Jog then said that a Bombay merchant who prayed to Baba and vowed that he would pay 25% of his profits, if the news of the loss of his goods which he heard, proved false and luckily it was later actually proved false.And the Bombay merchant gave accordingly a sum of Rupees 6000 as a gift to Baba. Out of that amount, Baba had already spent Rupees 3000 in three days. Jog further said that if he could give Rupees 100 to Avaste from that balance amount, Baba would neither object nor call back the amount. Jog gave Rupees 100 and further told Avaste that as Baba had taken away from them the entire money available with them, he predicted and said with certainty that Avaste would be getting a promotion

with an increase in salary by Rupees 50 per month. To Jog’s statement, Avaste immediately replied, saying that he did not have any godfather in the department for getting a promotion. But as predicted by Jog, he got the promotion with an increase in salary by Rupees 50 and Avaste came to know about this after the court vacation was over.