Shri Sai Satcharitra Chapter 38

Chapter – 38

Baba’s Handi - Disrespect of Shrine - Kala or Hodge Podge - Cup of Buttermilk

In the last chapter, we described Baba’s Chavadi procession. In this one, we take up Baba’s

handi (cooking pot) and some other subjects.

Preliminary

Oh blessed satguru Sai, we bow to You, who have given happiness to the whole world, provided for the welfare of the devotees, and removed the afflictions of those who have resorted to Your holy feet. As the protector and savior of bhaktas who surrender themselves to You, You have incarnated in this world to bless people and help them. The liquid essence of Pure Self was poured into the mold of Brahman and out of this has come the crest jewel of saints - Sai. Sai is Atmaram Himself. He is the abode of perfect divine bliss. Having attained mastery of this life, and being detached and without desire, Sai makes His devotees free and desireless.

Baba’s Handi

Different sadhanas (means of accomplishments) are prescribed in the scriptures for different ages. Tapa (penance) is recommended for Krita age, jnana (knowledge) for Treta age, yajna (sacrifice) for Dwapara age, and dana (charity) for Kali (present) age. Of all the charities, giving food is the best one. We are much perturbed when we get no food at noon. Other beings feel the same way under similar circumstances. Knowing this, he who gives food to the poor and hungry, is the best donor or charitable person. The Taittiriya Upanishad says, “Food is Brahma; from food all creatures are born, and having been born, by food they live, then having departed, into food again they enter.” When an atithi (uninvited guest) comes to our door at noon, it is our bounden duty to welcome him by giving him food. Other kinds of charities, viz. giving away wealth, property and clothes etc., require some discrimination, but in the matter of food, no such consideration is necessary. Let anyone who comes to the door at noon be served forthwith. If lame, crippled, blind or diseased paupers come, they should be fed first, and then the able bodied persons and relations afterwards. The merit of feeding the former is much greater than that of feeding the latter. Other kinds of charity are imperfect, but anna-dana (giving of food) is most meritorious.

Now let us see how Baba prepared food and distributed it. It has been stated in previous chapters that Baba required very little food for Himself, and that which He needed, was obtained by begging from a few houses. However, when Baba decided to distribute food to everyone, He made all the preparations from beginning to end Himself. He depended on no one and troubled none in this matter.

First, He would go to the bazar and buy all the ingredients needed for cooking, (e.g. corn, flour, spices etc.) for cash. Then, in the open courtyard of the masjid, He would build a big hearth and, after lighting a fire underneath, He would place a handi over it containing the proper measure of water. (There were two handis. The small one could hold enough food to provide for 50 people, and the large handi could provide enough food for 100 people.) Sometimes Baba cooked ‘mitthe chaval’ (sweet rice) and at other times ‘pulava’ with meat. Frequently, while boiling varan (soup), He added small balls of thick or flat breads of wheat flour. (He did all the grinding Himself.) Baba would also pound spices on a stone slab and put the thin pulverized spices into the cooking pot. He took great pains to make the dishes very palatable. He prepared ‘ambil’ by boiling jawari flour in water and mixing it with buttermilk. He would then distribute this ambil along with the other food to everyone. Baba had his own unusual method of checking to see if the food was properly cooked or not. He would roll up the sleeve of His kafni and put His bare arm directly into the boiling cauldron without the least fear and churn the whole mass from side to side and up and down. There was never any burn mark resulting from this method, nor did Baba ever show any fear or pain. When the cooking was over, Baba brought pots from the masjid and had them duly consecrated by the moulvi.

First, Baba sent part of the food as prasad to Mhalasapati and Tatya Patil, then He served the remaining contents with His own hand to all the poor and helpless people, allowing them to have their fill.

Blessed and fortunate indeed are those people who received food prepared by Baba and who were served by Him as well. Someone may raise a doubt here and ask, “Did Baba distribute vegetable and animal food as prasad alike to all His devotees?” The answer is simple. Those who were accustomed to eat animal food were given food from the handi as prasad, and those who were not so accustomed, were not allowed to touch it. Baba never created in them any wish or desire to indulge in this food. There is a principle well established that when a guru gives anything as prasad, the disciple who thinks and doubts whether it is acceptable or otherwise, goes to perdition. In order to see how any disciple has absorbed this principle, Baba at times proposed tests. For instance, on an Ekadashi day, Baba gave some rupees to Dada Kelkar and asked him to go in person to Koralha to buy some mutton. Dada Kelkar was an orthodox Brahmin and kept all orthodox manners in his life. He knew that offering wealth, grain and clothes etc. to a satguru was not enough because implicit obedience to and prompt compliance with His order was the real dakshina that pleased Him most. In view of this, Dada Kelkar dressed himself and started out for Koralha to get the mutton. As he started to leave, Baba called him back and said, “Don’t go yourself, but send someone.” Dada then sent his servant Pandu for the purpose. Then, seeing Dada’s servant starting to leave, Baba asked Dada to call him back and cancelled the request.

On another occasion, Baba asked Dada Kelkar to see if the salty ‘pulava’ (mutton dish) was done. Dada replied casually that it was alright. Baba then said to him, “Neither have you seen it with your eyes, nor tasted it with your tongue, so how can you say it was good? Take the lid off the pot and have a look.” Saying this, Baba caught Dada’s arm and thrust it into the pot and added, “Take out your arm and use a ladle and put some of the pulava in the dish without caring for your orthodoxy and without blustering.” Thus, Baba’s ways were inscrutable, for in reality, He would never force His orthodox disciple to eat forbidden food and defile himself thereby.

The handi cooking went on for some time until 1910, at which time it stopped thereafter. As stated previously, Das Ganu, through his kirtans, spread the fame of Baba far and wide in the Bombay region and people from that part of the country began to flock to Shirdi. Thus, Shirdi became a holy place of pilgrimage. The devotees brought with them various articles for presentation and offered various dishes of food as naivedya. There was such an abundance of naivedya offered by them that fakirs and paupers could eat their fill and there would still be some surplus left. Before stating how naivedya was distributed, we shall refer to Nanasaheb Chandorkar’s story describing Baba’s regard and respect for local shrines and deities.

Nanasaheb’s Disrespect of a Shrine

People could only draw inferences or guess as to whether Sai Baba was a Brahmin or a Moslem. He actually belonged to no caste. No one knew definitely when He was born, what community He was from, or who His parents were. The question became, could He be a Moslem or a Brahmin? If He were a Moslem, why did He keep a dhuni fire ever burning in the masjid? Why was there a tulsi vrindavan? Why did He allow the blowing of conches and ringing of bells and the playing of musical instruments? Thus, if He were a Moslem, how could He have allowed all the different forms of Hindu worship? Furthermore, how could He have pierced ears and how could He have spent money from His pocket for repairing Hindu temples? Moreover, Baba never tolerated the slightest disrespect to Hindu shrines and deities.

Once Nanasaheb Chandorkar came to Shirdi with his ‘sadu’ (the husband of his sister-in-law), Mr. Biniwalle. They went to the masjid, sat before Baba, and while they were conversing, Baba suddenly became angry with Nanasaheb and said, “You have been with me for such a long time. How could you behave like this?” At first, Nanasaheb did not understand what Baba meant and so he humbly requested Him to explain. Baba then asked him what he did when he arrived in Kopergaon and afterward, how did he travel to Shirdi. Nanasaheb at once realized his mistake. Nana’s brother-in-law, Mr. Biniwalle, a Datta bhakta, usually worshiped the shrine of Datta on the banks of the Godavari at Kopergaon on his way to Shirdi, but this time Nana dissuaded his relation from going to the shrine so as to avoid delay, thus allowing them to continue directly on to Shirdi. Nana confessed all this to Baba and then went on to tell Him that while bathing in the Godavari, a big thorn went into his foot and gave him quite a bit of trouble. Baba pointed out to Nana that the thorn was the slight punishment he met for his disregard of the Datta shrine and warned him to be more careful in the future.

Now to revert to the description of the distribution of naivedya.

Kala (hodge-podge)

After the arati was over and Baba had sent all the people away with udi and blessings, He went inside the masjid and sat with His back to the nimbar for meals. A row of bhaktas sat on each side of Baba. The bhaktas who brought naivedya thrust their dishes containing a variety of food such as puri, mande, polis, basundi, sanza, fine rice etc. inside the masjid where Baba had sat down to partake of His meal. They hoped they would receive prasad from Baba that had been consecrated by His touch. All the dishes of food received were mixed in a hodge podge and placed before Baba. He offered it all to God and consecrated it. Portions of this were then given to the people (bhaktas) who were waiting outside and the rest was served to the inner two rows of bhaktas, where Baba was seated at their center. Everyone ate as much as they wanted of the blessed food.

Every day Baba would ask Shama and Nanasaheb Nimonkar to serve the consecrated food to all the people sitting inside the masjid and to look after their individual needs and comforts. This task they did very carefully and willingly, and so every morsel of the food partaken provided nutrition and satisfaction. Such sweet and consecrated food it was - ever auspicious and ever holy.

Cup of Buttermilk

Once when Hemadpant had just eaten his fill in the masjid, Baba offered him a cup of buttermilk. Its white appearance pleased him, but he was afraid there would be no space inside his stomach for it. He did, however, take a sip which proved very tasty. Seeing his faltering attitude, Baba said, “Drink it all. You won’t get another such opportunity hereafter.” Hemadpant drank the entire cup of buttermilk and later found Baba’s words were prophetic, as He passed away soon after. Ed. Note: Now readers, we certainly have Hemadpant to thank because he not only drank the cup of buttermilk, but he has supplied us with an abundance of nectar in the form of Baba’s leelas. Let us drink cups and cups of this nectar and be satisfied and happy.

Bow to Shri Sai - Peace be to all