Retired Deputy Collector, Deccani, Brahmin, Aged 81 (born 1855), Residing at 108, Shukrawar Peth, Poona
Re. Megha
Megha was a very simple yet very devout brahmin whom I found living at Viramgaon, when I was Deputy Collector there. He would simply repeat "Namah Shivaya" always. But he did not know Gayatri much less the whole sandhya mantra. I got interested in his welfare, and got him taught Sandhya and Gayatri. I sent him to Broach to worship Siva there, and paid him Rs. 8 for his fare and expenses. He would worship Siva standing on one leg only all the time. Then I told him that Shirdi Sai Baba was really the embodied form of God Siva and made him start for Shirdi. At the Broach Railway Station he learnt that Sai Baba was a moslem and his extremely orthodox and simple mind was highly perturbed at the prospect of bowing to a Moslem and he prayed to me at the station not to send him to Shirdi. I however insisted and gave him a letter to my father-in-law at Shirdi to introduce him to Baba. When he went to Shirdi mosque Baba was indignant and would not allow him to go into the mosque. 'Kick out that rascal', he cried at the very sight of him and he was also angry that I should have sent him a man with such hopelessly crude ideas. Megha then went to Triyambak and worshipped at 'Gangadhwar' for a year or a year-and-a-half. Then again he came to Shirdi. This time at the intercession of my father-in-law he was allowed to go into the mosque and stay at Shirdi.
Sai Baba's help to Megha was not through any oral instruction. He worked upon Megha internally ie., mentally. Megha was considerably changed and benefited. When he died (in 1912) at Shirdi after continuous service of Baba doing regular daily Arati service (noon and evening), Baba passed his hands over his corpse and said, 'This was a true devotee of mine". Baba ordered that, at his own expense, the usual funeral dinner to Brahmins should be given and Bhao Saheb Dixit carried this order out.
Leaving Shirdi
In the durbar of Sri Sai Baba and when he issued out in solemn pomp, I carried the mace before him. Many were jealous of me on account of the distinction I enjoyed. These and the villagers leagued together and used Nana Wali to molest me and drive me away from Shirdi. Once as I was carrying the mace before Baba, Nana Wali came up and scratched the back of my head with the sharp point of a broken glass. In self-defence, I had to seize him and press him down on a pile of logs lying on the roadside. Sai Baba cried out "Saheb, do not do so". I noticed how the wind was blowing at Shirdi and kept careful watch. One day, as I intended to go to the Mosque to offer Naivedya to Baba very early (as I had to proceed on a particular trip), my Father-in-law rushed in and adjured me to desist from going to the Mosque, as Nana Wali was standing at the entrance, hatchet in hand, with deadly intention, and as he would make short work of me. So without taking any leave, I went away and left Shirdi for good. Evidently Sai Baba did not want me to reside there at Shirdi any longer. As Sai Baba did not protect me from the attack of Nana Wali, some people called upon me to give up my faith in Baba. But I pointed out that the same argument could be used against Vittal of Pandharpur. Gangadhar Shastri, the lawyer of Gaekwad, was a Vittal Bhakta and sought help and refuge in the Temple of Vittal. But there right in the Temple itself, before the face of Vittal he was murdered by his enemy. I find that, leaving Shirdi and settling here at Poona ultimately have been for my good. Sai Baba is protecting me here as he did at Shirdi.
Once about 1916 or so, in pitching a tent for me, at Kothrud (a suburb of Poona) certain Mangs (untouchables) went and put it up under a sacred Audumbar tree, touching it and tying ropes to it. I did not know it then. Finding that I was having mishaps thereafter I enquired into the cause and learnt of that regrettable incident. I prayed to Sai Baba to help me and he advised me in a dream to get a Brahmin first to perform the purification ceremony of that tree and next to instal Datta Paduka there. I have done both and I am maintaining a Pujari and conducting Pooja through him of the Paduka (at Kothrud) twice every day.