Shirdi Sai Satcharitra Chapter 33 - English Audiobook You can also read Chapter 33 here: https://www.shirdibooks.com/sai-satcharitra-chapter-33/ This chapter covers the following: The Greatness of Udi: Scorpion Stings and Plague Cases Cured The Jamner Miracle Narayanarao’s Sickness Balabuva Sutar Appasaheb Kulkarni And Haribhau Karnik. Preliminary Let us now bow before the great saints; Their merciful glances will destroy mountains of sins and do away with all the evil streaks in our character. Their casual talk gives us valuable lessons and confers on us imperishable happiness. Their minds do not know any difference such as “This is ours and that is yours.” Such differentiation never arises in their minds. Our obligation to them will never be repaid by us in this birth as well as in many future births to come. Udi It is well-known that Baba asked for or received Dakshina from devotees who visited Him. And out of the amount thus collected, He spent a lot on charity and purchased fuel with the remaining amount. He fed this fuel into the Dhuni−the sacred fire which he always kept burning. The ash from this fire was called Udi and it was freely distributed to the devotees at the time of their departure from Shirdi. What did Baba teach by this Udi? Baba taught us that all the visible phenomena in the universe is as transient as ash. Our bodies, composed of the five elements, will perish after all the worldly enjoyments are over and will be reduced to ashes. In order to remind the devotees of this, Baba distributed Udi to them. Baba also taught, through Udi, that the Brahman is the only Reality, that the universe is ephemeral and that no one in this world—son, father or wife— is really ours. We come into this world alone and we have to leave alone. While Udi also cured many physical and mental maladies, Baba wanted to teach his devotees the principles of discrimination between the Unreal and Real and non-attachment for the Unreal. The Udi taught us discrimination and Dakshina taught us detachment. Unless we have these two things, it is not possible for us to cross over the sea of mundane existence. So Baba asked for and received Dakshina, and when the devotees took leave, He gave them Udi as Prasad, besmeared some of it on their foreheads and placed His boon-conferring hand on their heads. When Baba was in a cheerful mood, He used to sing merrily; One of the songs he sang was about Udi. The chorus of that song was, “Oh playful Rama, come and bring with you sacks of Udi.” Baba used to sing this song in a very clear and sweet tone. Udi also had its material significance; It conferred health, prosperity, freedom from anxiety and many other worldly gains. Thus, Udi helped us to gain both our ends−material as well as spiritual. Inspired by Baba, we shall now begin to tell you the stories about Udi. The Scorpion-Sting Narayan Motiram Jani of Nasik was a devotee of Baba. He was working for another devotee of Baba, named Ramachandra Vaman Modak. Once, he went to Shirdi with his mother and saw Baba. Then Baba told the mother that her son should not work for anyone and should start his own business. A few days after this, Baba’s prophecy came true; Narayan Jani quit his job and started a boarding house, which later thrived. Once, a friend of Narayanrao’s was stung by a scorpion and the pain caused by it was severe and unbearable. Udi is very efficacious in such cases and should be applied to the area of pain. So Narayanrao searched for it, but found none; Then he stood before Baba’s picture, invoked Baba’s aid, chanted Baba’s name and taking a pinch of the ashes of the incense burning in front of Baba’s picture and thinking it to be Baba’s Udi, he applied it to the area that had been stung. As soon as he applied it, the pain vanished and both persons were moved and were grateful to Baba. The Bubonic Plague Case A devotee in Bandra came to know that his daughter, who was living in another place, was down with bubonic plague. He had no Udi with him, so he sent word to Nanasaheb Chandorkar to send the same. Nanasaheb got this message on a road near the Thana Railway Station, when he was travelling with his wife to Kalyan. He had no Udi with him at the time. He therefore took some earth from the road, meditated upon Sai Baba, invoked His aid and applied it to the forehead of his wife. The devotee heard about this and when he went to his daughter’s house, he was very glad to learn that his daughter (who had been suffering for three days) had begun to improve from the very moment Nanasaheb invoked Baba’s aid............ Bow to Shri Sai - Peace be to all