Shirdi Diary Of GS Kharpade: When Sai Told Me Virtues Of Patience

30-12-1911

In the morning after prayer I wrote two letters - one to my son Baba and the other to Bhaoo Durrani telling them that I am not likely to return for another two months. Mr. Natekar went to Radhakrishna lady. She, it would appear, was away. He sat there and felt so calm and nice that he spent the whole day there.

I read Ramayana in the morning and heard Bhagwat in the afternoon and went to Sai Maharaj a little before dusk. He treated me very kindly called me by name and told a small tale calculated to impress the virtue of patience. He said he went to Aurangabad in one of his wanderings and saw a Fakir sitting in a masjid near which there was a very tall tamarind tree.

The Fakir would not let him enter the musjid first but ultimately consented to his putting up in it. The Fakir depended entirely on a piece of cake that an old woman used to supply him at midday. Sai Maharaj volunteered to beg for him and kept him supplied amply with food for twelve years and then thought of leaving the place. The old Fakir shed tears at parting and had to be consoled with soft words.

Sai Maharaj visited him four years later and found him there doing well. The Fakir then came here a few years ago and lodged at the Chawadi. Mother Baba Fakir looked after him. From what was said I gathered that Sai Baba stayed twelve years to instruct the Aurangabad Fakir and set him up fully in the spiritual world. At night there was Bhishma's Bhajan and Dixit's Ramayana. Natekar who came there also read a chapter.