The testimonial of one Gauli Bua-The sighting of Vitthal in Shirdi

Om Jai Sainath! I humbly place my ego before the Sadguru, who is Hari,Hara and Brahma. He alone is the inner dweller of all beings. He is the wirepuller. He alone is god. I am quite unqualified to describe his greatness which even the Vedas do not fully describe. It is he alone who inspires me to write this blog.

In the previous blog, I described the advent of Sainath in Shirdi. Now let us hear the testimony of one Gauli Bua and the sighting of Vitoba in Shirdi.

Baba settled down in a broken down dilapidated old mosque which he called Dwarkamayee. Here, he started burning a fire and kept it alive like a pure agnihothri Brahmin.  To the hindus he looked like a pure agnihothri brahmin and sage. To the muslims, he looked like a pir-o-murshid, who had worn the garb of a fakir and who always used to utter god's name as "Allah Malik". To the Parsees, he was another prophet like zorastra who always worshipped the fire. Thus did people of different religions and castes come to view him as one of their own. 

Baba however maintained silence over his birth,parentage,his guru and his religion. If you think he is a Hindu, he lived in a mosque and the words "Allah Malik" were always on his lips. If you think he was a muslim, his ears were pierced in Hindu style and he spent the dakshina money on rennovating temples.He would even allow his devotees to worship him in Hindu style. 

When Baba had come to stay in the Mosque which he used to call Dwarkamayee, many people initially considered him to be just a mad fakir. Few people came to realize his true worth and came very close to him . They were Mhalsapathi-the priest of the Khandoba temple who first called Baba "Aao Sai",Bayaja Ma who first gave food to Baba when he came to Shirdi. She would seek Baba out and carrying the food. She would find him and only after feeding him would she be satisfied. She was as devoted to Baba as Shabari was to Lord Ram. Baba explained this as an act of Rinanubandha and said that Bayaja Ma was his sister for many Janumas (Lives). Another early devotee was Madhava Rao Deshpande, whom Baba affectionately called Shama. He was a school teacher.

Now  there was an old devotee of Vitthala of Pandarpur, a person by the name of Gauli Bua. He was a withered old man, who used to spend 8 months of the year in Pandharpur and then return to his home town. He was a staunch varkari. Every year when he was to go on his Varkari piligrimage to Pandarpur he would stop at Shirdi to see Sainath. He had a donkey which carried his belongings and a serventwho would help him. One day Gauli Bua saw Vitthala of Pandarpur standing by the fire in Dwarkamayee in place of Sainath. Then he commented "This is verily Pandarinath-the protector of the weak and the poor! The people of Shirdi are indeed fortunate."

Thus did Sainath appear as Pandarinath before a staunch Varkari. Verily is Baba the incarnation of Panduranga.

There was a saint at Yeola in Karnataka state called Anandnath. He was a staunch devotee of Akkalkot Maharaj Shree Swami Samarth. One day he came to Shirdi with some people. When he saw Sainath, he said "Oh! The people of Shirdi are really fortunate. This is no ordinary Fakir. He is a  dimond lying on dung heap."

Another saint called Devidas used to visit Shirdi frequently. He was seen to be in constant company of Baba and would discuss spiritual matters with Sainath. He too hailed Sainath as the Saint among Saints.

Thus were the people of Shirdi fortunate to have Lord Dattatreya in their midst. The simple villagers of Shirdi must have had a store of merits from their past life to see,speak and worship Lord Panduranga in the guise of a fakir. Shirdi Verily became another Pandharpur.

Let us all remember the abhanga composed by the staunch devotee of Sainath, Shree Das Ganu Maharaj. It goes thus, "Shirdi Maze Pandharpura, Saibaba Ramavara" - "Shirdi is my Pandharapura and Sai Baba is Pandarinath Vitoba"

In the next post, I shall describe my own experience in Shirdi and the Sighting of Vitoba.

Shree Sat Chit Ananda Sadguru Sainath Maharaj ki Jai!!!

Bow to Shri Sai! Peace be to all!