Shirdi Sai Satcharitra Chapter 26 - English Audiobook You can also read Chapter 26 here: https://www.shirdibooks.com/sai-satcharitra-chapter-26/ This chapter covers the following: The Stories of: Bhakta Pant Harishchandra Pitale And Gopal Ambadekar. Preliminary All the things that we see in the universe are nothing but Maya’s games− the creative power of the Lord. These things do not really exist. What really exists is the Real Absolute. Just as we mistake a rope for a garland or a stick for a serpent in the darkness, we always see things as they outwardly appear and not as what underlies all those visible things. It is only the Sadguru who opens the eyes of our understanding and enables us to see things in their true light and not as they appear. Let us therefore worship the Sadguru and pray to him to give us true vision, which is God-vision. Inner Worship Hemadpant has given us a novel form of worship; Let us, he says, use warm water in the form of tears of joy to wash the Sadguru’s feet, let us besmear His body with the sandal paste of pure love, let us cover His body with the cloth of true faith, let us offer eight lotuses in the form of our eight Sattwik emotions and fruit in the form of our concentrated mind and let us apply to His head bukka (black-powder) in the form of devotion and tie the waistband of Bhakti and place our head on his feet. After decorating the Sadguru with jewelry in this way, let us offer our all to Him and wave the fan of devotion to ward off the heat. After such blissful worship, let us pray thus: “Introvert our mind, turn it inward, help us to discriminate between the Unreal and the Real and attain non-attachment for all worldly things and thus enable us to attain Self-realization. We surrender ourselves, body and soul (body-consciousness and ego), to You. Make our eyes Yours, so that we shall never feel pleasure and pain. Control our body and mind as You wish. Let our mind attain peace at Your Feet.” Let us now turn to the stories of this Chapter. Bhakta Pant Once it so happened that a devotee named Pant, a disciple of another Sadguru, had the good fortune of visiting Shirdi. He had no desire to go to Shirdi, but man proposes one way and God disposes the other. He was travelling in a train where he met many friends bound for Shirdi. They all asked him to accompany them and he could not refuse. They alighted at Bombay, while Pant got down at Virar. There, he asked his Sadguru for permission to go to Shirdi and after arranging for the expenses, left with his friends for Shirdi. They all reached the place in the morning and went to the Masjid at about 11 A.M. Upon seeing the concourse of devotees assembled for Baba’s worship, they were all pleased, but Pant suddenly had a fit and fainted. They were all frightened but they tried their best to bring him to his senses. With Baba’s grace and with pitchers of water poured over his head, he regained his consciousness and sat upright, as if he had just been awakened from deep sleep. The omniscient Baba, knowing that he was a disciple of another Guru, assured him fearlessness and confirmed his faith in his own Guru, by addressing him as follows, “Come what may, stick to your Bolster (support, i.e. his Guru) and always remain steady and in union with him.” Pant at once knew the significance of this remark and thus he was reminded of his Sadguru. He never forgot Baba’s kindness in this regard. Harishchandra Pitale There was a gentleman named Harishchandra Pitale who lived in Bombay. He had a son who suffered from epilepsy. He tried many allopathic and Ayurvedic doctors, but was unable to cure his son’s epilepsy. There remained only one remedy− resorting to the saints. It has been stated in Chapter 15 that Das Ganu, by his inimitable and splendid kirtans (songs in praise of the Lord), spread Sai Baba’s fame in the Bombay Presidency. .......... Bow to Shri Sai - Peace be to all