S/o Bhaskar Purandhare, aged 60, Brahmin, Deshasth Shukla Yajur Vedi (Kelva Mahim, Thana Dist - originally) now at Bandra, Retired clerk of G.I.P. Rly, Sainath Ashram, 59-B, Perry Road, Bandra
Poona, 4th May 1936
Sai Baba was seriously ill in 1915. He had Asthma. He would not eat anything then. He was breathing hard. I cried. Baba asked me "Why cry?" I said, "I cannot see this state of yours." Baba said, "Don't fear. In two or four days I will be alright, Allah has given me this sickness and he will make me alright within that period. You need not cry. I was remembering you the last two or three days and told Kaka to write to you to come." Kaka did not write. Sai Baba said, "Do not write, he is coming himself. In fact, somehow I went up during his illness, not knowing he was ill. He never took medicines for his illness as a rule. Even during his illness, he was supported and carried by the devotees to his begging place. There he would beg and come back and yet not eat the food. He carried on his usual routine of begging, walking, etc., even during all that illness. One day, during his illness, he climbed up the terrace of one house through a staircase, then went over to the next house terrace and over Radhakrishna's. Then a man lifted him up and brought him down to the ground and that man was paid by Baba, 3 or 4 rupees. Baba then said, "We must not get the labour of anyone for nothing." I saw all this. Ambulance-chair was then brought for him, but he never used it. Malegaonkar Fakir Baba (called Bade Baba, Bade Mia by Sai Baba) was getting most moneys.
In 1920 when my wife was seriously ill of influenza, she felt sorry, she could not attend the Urs Ramanavami. That night Sai Baba appeared in her dream and said, "Do not cry. I will take you for the Urs." She got slightly better next morning and narrated this to me. Illness still continued and she expired on Ramanavami crying "Baba, Baba" to the last. On the Ramanavami flag processions: 10 A.M., 12 Noon: Hindi Kirtan of Ram Janma begins after procession ends and flags are hoisted. The Moslems begin reading their Quran. They would take Sai Baba's sandals and go round with it in procession. We, Hindus, would accompany it. They would accompany our flag procession; so in the Arati it is recited that Sai Baba has taken birth to obliterate difference between Hindus and Mohammedans etc. I saw he had a hole in his ear and when he bathed naked, he had not been circumcised, so far as I could see. Megha worshipped Sai Baba as "Shanker" standing on one leg. Sai Baba told him in a dream to draw a figure of a Trisul on the wall of Sathe's Wada in which Megha lived. Megha did so. A lingam was added soon after and is still there, with Sai Baba's permission and was worshipped by Megha.
Megha narrated an incident that he wanted to give Sai Baba a Gangasnan, i.e., a bath in the water of Ganges (Godavari). But Baba said, "Wet the head only. Head is the chief. Put a little water on it." But Megha went to Godavari at Kopergaon and brought a tubful of water and poured it all over Sai Baba's body. However only the head was wetted. Even the clothes were not wetted. I did not see this. I have heard Sai Baba sing a song once or twice. He would gladly hear people sing to him.
Occasionally, what Sai Baba talked to us, would be found when we went at once to hear Pothi, i.e., the reading of sacred works at Sathe's Wada where Bapu Jog read Eknathi Bhagvat. I had several experiences of the sort. I cannot remember details of even one instance.