Thursday, March 24, 2016

Experiences of Baba’s Dearest Devotee - NANASAHEB CHANDORKAR Part 5 of 5

Experiences of Baba's Dearest Devotee - 

NANASAHEB CHANDORKAR Part 5 of 5

 

Originally named Narayan Govind Chandorkar, Nanasaheb Chandorkar, was an ardent and staunch devotee of Sai Baba, and needs no special introduction since in Shri Sai Satcharitra there are many instances wherein his name has been referred. Devotees who were fortunate to be living in Baba's times were indeed incarnations of Almighty, otherwise how could they take birth when Baba was in bodily form on this earth. Stories of such incarnations are really wonderful which contains messages for us from Sai Baba.


We are aware of an incident wherein Nanasaheb Chandorkar's thirst was satisfied by Baba who appeared to him as a woodcutter. Now another more interesting incident of the same kind is being shared in this post.


It is very well known that Nanasaheb was of spiritual intellect and thus any place of worship attracted his attention and an earnest desire to go for darshan of any deity was always present in him. He had immense faith in Baba and Baba too reciprocated his faith. As a part of his complete surrender, Nanasaheb never doubted Baba's words. In fact, his immediate actions were to abide by Baba's words bearing full confidence that whatever Baba does, would bethe best for him.

Lord Ganesha temple was situated in the forests of Padmalaya and to reach there one had to cross the forest. The temple was about 10 miles from the nearest railway station. Nanasaheb, serving as a Deputy Collector, (a very respectable position in those days), had made all arrangements for reaching there. But when he reached the point of starting, he did not get any conveyance to reach the temple because the train was late. Due to the unavailability of any other means of conveyance, he decided to cover the distance of 10 miles by walking. By the time they all reached the mid-way point, it was already nine at night. As per practice, authorities of the temple leave for their homes at about nine or ten at night. So a wave of worry passed in Nanasaheb's mind whether they will be allowed to enter the temple or not, let alone having darshan. After walking for another two hours i.e. covering total of 6-7 miles of their journey, Nanasaheb felt hungry. He said to Baba mentally, "Baba, I will not ask a lot from you, but please take care to provide at least a cup of tea on completion of this journey, so that my hunger is appeased". Saying these words to Baba, Nanasaheb started walking towards his destination even faster.


At about eleven, they reached near the temple and saw doors of the temple open from a distance and the priest when seeing few men nearing the temple, shouted right from his place, "Is Nana coming"? It was considered to be an insult as a person of such high profile position was being called by his short name. But Nanasaheb was not angry at this; instead he was very happy and replied, "Oh, how did you come to know that Nana is coming?"


Priest answered, "I received an aerial message from Sai Baba saying - My Nana who is thirsty, hungry and tired is coming to you. Please serve him a cup of tea. Come on, tea is ready for you all". Thus Baba takes care of His dear devotees at any time and at any place.

 


Source: Translated from Gujarati Book "Sai Sarovar"