Sri Rao Bahadur Moreswar W. Pradhan
How Baba tested Pradhan’s faith, revived his family mantra and guided the work of the Sansthan.
Sai BabaDevotee experienceVolume 3
The chapter
Moreswar W. Pradhan first heard of Sai Baba in May 1910 through N. G. Chandorkar. After reading Das Ganu’s Bhakta Lilamrita with his wife, his doubts disappeared, and he travelled to Shirdi with Chandorkar’s sons carrying a gold sovereign and currency notes.
Baba appeared to be waiting near the Lendi. In the Mosque, Pradhan offered the sovereign, but Baba returned it and asked for its value in rupees. When Pradhan gave fifteen rupees, Baba counted only ten and demanded five more. Pradhan remembered that he had intended to offer twenty rupees and understood that Baba had tested whether he would argue over the account.
On another visit Baba said that everything would be all right in two or four days and gave him udhi. During an eight-day stay Pradhan arranged a bhiksha. Baba named pooran poli and the guests; when a crow carried away a pooran poli, the devotees said that Baba himself had accepted it. Baba also spoke of pain on one side of his body, which Pradhan understood only after returning to Bombay when news came of an illness in his family.
While preparing food in the hundi, Baba sang “Sri Ram, Jaya Ram, Jaya Jaya Ram”—the mantra Pradhan had received from his family Guru and neglected. Baba then placed his hand in the boiling food without injury. At the Lendi he made Pradhan sow corn seeds, an act later understood when Pradhan purchased the Lendi garden for the Sai Sansthan. The chapter records these incidents alongside Pradhan’s later service as a leader of the Sansthan.
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.