Blessed Devotee who Experienced Baba's Miracle before 1918
Baba Protecting us from Durdevathas
Baba. Lakshmibai and Janabai were grinding wheat with the hand mill, when a lady from Bombay entered Dwarkamai. She sat beside them, and asked Baba if she too could grind the wheat. Baba said that she would get tired. Nonetheless, she was eager to grind as much as was possible. Baba asked Lakshmibai to let her grind the wheat.
The lady was full of questions, and was eager to get answers from Baba. She started asking Baba, why the wheat was ground? Why He threw it at the village boundary?
Baba said, "Akkabai Maaribai, Marriamma (i.e. dieties of cholera and smallpox) want to enter the village so I feed them on the other side of this village and prevent them from entering Shirdi. As they are propitiated, they do not enter Shirdi. Thus, I save My devotees."
Then she asked whether there was 'Jari', 'Mari' (durdevatha=evil forces).
Baba said, "Yes, there exists durdevatha; but they will not do anything to us."
She said that some people are dying because of durdevatha. To this, Baba said, "Durdevatha was scolding Me and insisting that she be allowed to enter this village so I requested the Almighty to give her the allotted person."
"Are there evil spirits, Baba? When I was in Naigaon, in Bombay, an evil spirit would come from the side of the well and go to the room upstairs and disappear."
The Omnipresent, Omniscient, Baba replied, "Yes. But they will not do anything to harm us." Then Baba told her that the spirit she saw, was that of the owner of the house. "He comes and goes upstairs and disappears where you delivered".
The lady was astonished to hear all these facts and asked Baba how He knew them.
"I know you from childhood, you have forgotten Me, but I do not forget. I call all My children to Me even if they are thousands of miles away. I look after all equally, be they good or bad."
After a while she felt tired and asked Lakshmibai to resume the grinding. The lady returned to Bombay unafraid and assured of Baba's love and protection for her and her family.
Sai Satcharitra Ch.J describes the leela of Baba grinding wheat. "Go at once, to the village boundary and throw all the flour at the side of the brook there!" said Baba to the four women. Thus Baba prevented Cholera from invading Shirdi,
Leela- 17 in Ambrosia in Shirdi - Part-I
