Anna Saheb Dabolkar (Hemadpant)
An account of Anna Saheb Dabolkar, known as Hemadpant, and his role in recording Sai Baba’s life and teachings.
Sai BabaDevotionVolume 2
The chapter
Govind Raghunath Dabolkar, a government servant and magistrate, was spiritually inclined but did not easily accept the need for a Guru. He had seen a friend’s child die while a guru was present and concluded that saints could not alter destiny. Even after Kaka Saheb Dixit and Nana Chandorkar urged him to visit Sai Baba, he remained hesitant.
In 1910, while travelling to Shirdi, Dabolkar nearly missed the train and then found himself taking the wrong route. A Muslim acquaintance corrected him and directed him toward the station from which he could continue his journey. He later understood this small chain of events as Baba’s unseen arrangement bringing him to Shirdi.
How Baba gave him the name Hemadpant
On his first arrival, Dabolkar entered a discussion with Bala Saheb Bhate about whether a Guru is necessary. He argued from reason and personal experience; Bhate defended the Guru’s place in spiritual life. Baba, who had not been present at their conversation, immediately referred to the subject when Dabolkar entered the mosque. He also called him “Hemad Pant”—a name associated with a wise and capable minister—and thereby marked the beginning of a new identity.
Dabolkar’s doubts did not disappear at once. He had seen Dixit’s daughter recover through Baba’s grace at Ville Parle, yet she later died at Shirdi. The contrast forced him to look beyond the simple expectation that devotion should always produce the result a devotee asks for. Baba’s work included both protection and the acceptance of destiny.
The work of recording Baba’s life
Dabolkar soon felt that Baba’s words and actions should be gathered into a complete chronicle. Many people could not travel to Shirdi, yet they could receive faith from the accounts of those who had seen Baba. He therefore proposed to make the life of Sai Baba his spiritual service, not as a display of learning but as an offering.
Through Shama he sought Baba’s permission. Baba blessed him with Udi and placed His hand upon his head. He instructed Dabolkar to collect devotees’ experiences, keep notes, surrender his ego and allow Baba to work through him. Baba promised that the writing would remove ignorance, strengthen faith and lead readers toward self-realisation.
Permission was given in 1916. When Baba passed away in 1918, Dabolkar had written only two or three chapters, but he went on to complete most of the work. Fifty-one or fifty-two chapters appeared in the Sai Lila Masik; after his death in 1929, the work was completed with a fifty-third chapter. The result was the Sai Satcharitra, a large Marathi composition in Ovi verse, treasured by devotees as a Sai Ramayana and Guru Charitra and translated or adapted for readers in many languages.
Nishta and Saburi
Baba told Chinchinikar that Dabolkar would obtain government service but should give his deeper attention to Baba’s service. Dabolkar’s outlook gradually changed. He helped with Sansthan accounts and management and took part in the Sai Lila Masik, but his principal service remained the writing of Sai Satcharitra.
In 1917, Sathe’s vision of a Guru Charitra reading stirred jealousy and restlessness in Dabolkar. Baba sent him to Shama for a dakshina of fifteen rupees. Shama had no money and sent fifteen namaskars instead, followed by the story of Radhabai Deshmukh. The old woman had fasted in the hope that Baba would give her a mantra. Baba explained that His own Guru had given Him no mantra, but had asked for two coins: Nishta, firm faith, and Saburi, patience and perseverance.
Dabolkar understood that the Guru’s teaching was not a secret formula separated from life. It was the patient surrender of the whole person. When Baba later asked whether he had understood the story, Dabolkar said that his restlessness had disappeared and that he had found the true path. Baba instructed him to meditate either on the formless Divine or on Baba’s form with one-pointed attention, like a tortoise whose young are nourished through remembrance.
Stories of protection and service
Baba’s care extended to Dabolkar’s family. He brought Dabolkar’s sons-in-law, R. R. Samant and Galwankar, into his orbit; Galwankar later became a trustee and bore witness to Baba’s guidance. These relationships showed Dabolkar that service to Baba included responsibility toward the people entrusted to him.
One of the chapter’s most intimate episodes concerns a portrait. Ali Mohamed possessed pictures of several saints, but members of his orthodox Muslim household objected to them, so he threw the pictures into the sea. The portrait of Sai Baba, which hung above his door, escaped this destruction. Years later, Dabolkar dreamed that a Sanyasi would attend the family’s Holi meal. Just as the meal was beginning, Ali arrived carrying Baba’s portrait and placed it in Dabolkar’s home. In 1926 he explained how that single portrait had survived when all the others had been destroyed.
Through these incidents Dabolkar came to see Baba’s grace as something that worked through trains, conversations, family events, writing and unexpected meetings. Recording the stories was itself a way of recognising Baba in the lives of devotees and, ultimately, in all beings.
What this account invites us to reflect on
Hemadpant’s journey moves from argument to surrender and from private doubt to public service. Baba did not silence his questioning mind; He turned it into a careful instrument for preserving truth. The Sai Satcharitra became Dabolkar’s offering because he allowed his learning, memory and literary skill to serve remembrance of the Guru. The chapter’s final emphasis is that love is the beginning, middle and end of religion, and that loving the living Guru makes spiritual truth concrete for ordinary human beings.
Editorial note: This page is a concise paraphrase for web presentation and does not reproduce the complete chapter. Please consult the original PDF for the full account and wording.