Murlidhar was born. When he was 8 months old we took
him to Shirdi for Baba's darshan. Later I had two more
sons - Bhaskar and Dinkar. We took them also to Shirdi-
Dinkar was then only 2 or 3 months old. As soon as I placed
him at Baba's feet, He lifted him in His hands and threw him
in the air with a great force. Nothing happened to Dinkar and
a devotee sitting around caught him safely.
In all I had 8 sons and 1 daughter. Baba had said to me,
"Take. One, two three, four. As many as you want", and really
He had thus fulfilled His promise. As soon as my first son
Murlidhar was born, my husband's faith and devotion to
Sai Baba became firm and in years to come it developed
so much that when my second son Bhaskar aged 10 years
died, he collected all his remaining sons in front of Baba's
photo and said, "Baba '. Take away all these. I shall not
mind. But I shall not give up your bhakti (devotion)".
Dear readers, such is the most interesting and instructive
story of Sapatnekars - coming from the horse's mouth
- from one of the chief actors of the scene in Ch. 48.
I have tried to render it in English language so that the
Non-Marathi readers can share my joy.
Sapatnekars originally hail from the village Sapatne. Later
they shifted to the Taluka town - Madhegaon. Practising
law has been their family profession. Even to this day it is
being followed by the members generally. The hero of this
story late Shri Mahadev Waman Sapatnekar became a
well-known pleader at Akkalkot and acquired a reasonably
good property. In 1961 some of the family members
shifted to Pune.
While talking to Shri Dinkar Sapatnekar, I learnt that his
father was initially a devotee of Shri Dutta and used to
visit Ganagapur quite often. Once there only, having lost
his wife and son, his father to end his life had jumped into
the river but Shri Dutta Himself took him out and ordered
him to go to Akkalkot. After few years, as narrated above,
Shri Sai Baba drew him towards Himself and fixed him
forever in His devotion.
From the above one point is clear that darshan and blessing
of any saint is not possible without one's good deeds and
hard penance of past life. One more point also has struck
me. Possibly Baba wanted to show that He and Shri Dutta
are one and wanted to give a push to Shri Sapatnekar's
original spirituality by removing his uncalled for
disappointment and sorrow of family life. 'Chal hat' drama
might be Baba's Leela for the same. Really is the wonderful
skill and adaptibility of Baba in drawing His devotees
towards Himself and leading them towards spiritual uplift
(After this interview, within a period of 11/2 months only,
this noble lady laid down her life at 4 P.M. on 30th
October 1983. According to Hindu calendar this was the
same day and month' (10th day of Ashvin) when Sai Baba
took samadhi, except that it was in the second half (Vadya)
of the month. Also like Sai Baba this lady breathed her last
after the 10th day had finished at 3.51 P.M. and the
11th day (Ekadashi) had commenced. At the time of death
she was 88 years old and was conscious till last moment.
Next morning at 7 A.M. that is after 15 hours when I went
to pay my obeisance to her, the shine on her face was still
there and a thought came to mind that perhaps Baba had
arranged my contact with her only 11/2 months before her
passing away so that Sai Bhaktas could hear her story
from her own mouth. How kind and thoughtful of Him.)
Lt. Col. M.B. Nimbalkar (Retd.)
PUNE411 001.
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