Discourse on Shirdi Sai by Isaikkavi Ramanan in Sri Krishna Sweets ‘Guruvae Saranam’
Sri Krishna Sweets jointly with Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan organise ‘Guruvae Saranam’ a series of program conducted by Sri Isaikkavi Ramanan once every month. Sri Isaikavi Ramanan spoke about Shirdi Sai.
In his discourse he said, Shirdi Sai was as at and around Shirdi for about two years between 1852 and 1854. He used to sit and meditate under a neem tree and wander around and live all by Himself. Some of the villagers started digging the base of the neem tree with the crowbar, as told by the priest of the Shirdi village temple. Only when they started digging, they heard the hissing sound and a heavy breathing noise.
A king cobra from a snake pit near the base of the neem tree raised its head and hissed furiously. Nobody has seen such a big cobra till then. The people were astonished to see its big hood that is spread, and an attractive, shining and slippery body. Please save and protect us, and tapped their cheeks in reverence. Now the lad who was sitting little away from the base of the neem tree looking at the King of snakes said Ok these people are digging this place as told by me and with my permission. Don’t be angry. Keep calm and quiet.
The King Cobra which came out of the snake pit, crawled slowly and did a circumambulation at him. Then it kept its head at his feet and prostrated. They resumed the digging of the base of the neem tree. There was a surprise waiting for them inside the sand. When they removed the sand they found a cave. In that cave there were four platforms, on all the four platforms there was separate earthen lamp kept on each one of them. Those lamps were burning as if they were lit only very recently.
There was a flat wooden seat at the centre of the cave. That wooden plank was decorated by flowers. The entire cave was filled with a sweet smelling fragrance. Shirdi Sai said ok, now that you have digged the earth as told by the village priest, you may close it once again now by putting sand and earth over it. Hence forth for whatever reason don’t open it. You have been granted permission to dig and open it only once. The cave is the one where my guru is meditating. He is in deep meditation always for the welfare of the world in it. So one should not disturb his meditation by digging it frequently, he said.
A village woman Bayaji used to feed him. It was Mahalsapathy who welcomed Sai Baba to Shirdi and gave Him the name Sai. Mahalsapathy was the priest of Khandoba Temple in Shirdi. Sai stayed in a dilapidated mosque Dwarakamayi on the outskirts of Shirdi for about sixty years between 1858 to 1918. He spent some nights in an adjacent place called Chawdi. He was able to help poor through miraculous methods.
People like Tatya Kote Patil the farmer, Mahalsapathy the goldsmith, Shyama the school teacher, Das Ganu the police officer Nanasahed Chandorkar the magistrate, Buti the rich money lender from Nagpur, Kakasaheb Dixit the solicitor from Bombay. Abdul and hundreds of others from different places were always around him.
Isaikkavi Ramanan said Baba once disclosed to his disciple that he had seen the battle in which the Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi took part as He was then in army. He ordered Tatya Kote Patil to maintain all dilapidated temples in the locality. Shirdi Sai did all the miracles, teachings and spiritual transformation of his devotees at Dwarakamayi for six decades.