MIRACLE IN MALLASANDRA (KARNATAKA)

Devotees are often in the habit of falling into the trap of disbelief and loss of faith. It is during these times that Baba manifests Himself and redeems his devotees. The following is a great example of the same during very recent times.

Rajesh was living with his wife, Mangala and two young daughters - Harshita aged 14 years and Reema aged 9 years - in Mallasandra, somewhere between Tumkur and Gubbi. He was a Kannada teacher in St. Joseph High School near Mallasandra on Gubbi Main Road. Rajesh had a farm and a farm house nearly 8 kms from Mallasandra. Off late, he found that the farm produce was being stolen by someone unknown to him. So, he decided to move into the farm house and take care of the farm. The farm house was an excuse of a house. It had bare brick walls, without any plastering and mangalore tiles for the roof. The cooking gas was absent and all the cooking had to be done by burning the firewood. Rajesh used to commute by public transport to his place of work. Photo above shows Rajesh's house.

Life went on uneventfully till that 9th September morning in 2007. It was a cold winter morning, and the time was nearly 5.00 am. Rajesh was cleaning cow dung in the cow shed. The farm house had a wooden compound and a wicket gate. At that time, a simple looking fakir,with a pink coloured headgear, white kafni and a jholi opened the gate, entered the cow shed and sat near Rajesh. Photo shows the cow shed.


Rajesh was taken aback seeing the fakir. The fakir said something which Rajesh could not understand. Then fakir showed his stomach and said roti in Hindi. Rajesh understood that he was asking for roti to eat. Rajesh Said, "Thatha (grand father)! wait" and he went inside to ask his wife if there was anything to eat. Mangala said that there was nothing to eat but said that she will prepare chai and give it to Thatha. Rajesh went back and asked the fakir " Thatha will you have chai?". Fakir agreed. Rajesh asked fakir where from he was coming and what he was doing at that early hour in the morning. Fakir replied that he was in the Heggeri Masjid all night, was hungry and so, came to his house for food. Rajesh went back to the house to see if chai was ready. When he came back with chai, he saw that fakir had moved to a vacant place next to his house and with both his hands was doing something. Rajesh was terrified seeing this and thought that the fakir was doing some black magic and if the villagers saw this he will be in trouble. Rajesh made a sound and fakir immediately turned, came back and sat in the cow shed. Photo, below, shows the place where Baba sat in the Dwarakamai pose. Both Rajesh and fakir had the chai. After sometime, fakir again asked for rotis. Rajesh told fakir, "Thatha it is too early to make rotis" and asked him to wait till 7.30am. Fakir then took out a tiffin box from his jholi, opened it and showed steaming hot lemon rice. The farm house was a lonely structure there and as far as the eye could see, there was no other house anywhere near. There was no approach road to the farm house and the house could be reached only by walking through the fields. By the time anyone would come from the road to the house, any hot item would have become cold. Even after lapse of so much of time, the steam was coming out. Rajesh thought that that was a miracle. The fakir told him that the lemon rice was for his lunch and he wanted something to eat immediately. The fakir again asked for roti and realized that as it was not coming, started getting up and going. Rajesh asked him to stay back. The fakir said that he was not giving roti and so he is going. Then Mangala asked Rajesh to give some money to the fakir so that he could at least eat at a nearby hotel. Rajesh went inside, took out 5 rupees and by the time he came back, the fakir had already gone some distance. Rajesh ran, patted the fakir on his shoulders from behind and gave 5 rupees and told fakir to eat some idlies from a hotel on the main road which would be open at that time. The fakir took the 5 rupees in both his hands and said "Allah bhala garega". Rajesh just stood and stared at the fakir, who left immediately. When Rajesh went back home, his wife said that the fakir was looking like Shirdi Sai Baba. Suddenly Rajesh felt a wave pass through him and his body shivered. He ran back to see if the fakir was still there. He could not find the fakir anywhere. Rajesh felt sad that he did not recognize him.
That night Rajesh had a dream. The fakir who came in the morning appeared in the dream and said that he was none other than the Sai Baba of Shirdi, and that Rajesh had failed to recognize him. He also told that He had made markings in his farm for the construction of a temple and asked Rajesh to build a temple for Him. Rajesh thought that it was a very crude joke as he had no money at all. He told the same to Baba. Then Baba told him, “Why do you worry when I am here!” Next morning, the first thing Rajesh did was to check his farm. There were clear white markings on the farm, indicating where the idol should be placed and the outer boundary of the temple. Rajesh felt very happy on seeing the markings and felt that what Appaji (Baba) told was correct. Rajesh calls Baba as Appaji . Photo shows the garden before Baba temple was built.

After a few days, an unknown gentleman gave Rajesh Rs.40, 000 for the construction of the temple. Rajesh was a typical villager and did not know anything about either Sai Baba or how to go about the process of building a temple. He was a simple man who knew only the basics of maintaining himself and his family. He was totally perplexed about what was happening to him. When he told this to Baba, He appeared once again in Rajesh’s dream and gave him the name and the mobile number of a mason in a neighboring town. Rajesh called up that number and asked the mason, Sri Siddalinga, if he can help in constructing the temple. Siddalinga asked Rajesh how he got his mobile number as this was not shared with anybody other than his family members. Then Rajesh told about Appaji (Baba) and that he gave him the number. Siddalinga was surpised to hear this as he had got a similar dream the previous night. He agreed to build the temple and informed Rajesh that he will not be charging anything for his work. Rajesh felt very happy.

Thus a temple structure was built for Baba by Baba himself, in a space of 13' X 19'. Appaji (Baba) informed Rajesh that he will be there all the time with him.

(Photo shows the outside view of the Temple)
Then the moment came for installing the idol of Baba. Rajesh did not know from where to get it. Baba once again guided him and told him to go to Shirdi for the idol. Next day, Rajesh went to Tumkur and was enquiring about how to go to Shirdi. Different people told him different methods. An old man, chewing mouthful of pan, called him and asked him if he wanted to go to Shirdi. When Rajesh confirmed, the old man asked him to go to Pune where a tonga would be waiting for him and would take him to Shirdi. When he reached Shirdi, Rajesh was stunned by seeing so many people. He was standing in front of Dwarakamai. He did not know where to go and how to buy. Once again the same fakir who came to his house was there. He warned Rajesh that people in Shirdi would cut his purse and rob him. He advised him to go to a particular shop and buy the first idol he saw. Rajesh bought the idol. It was very heavy. Without thinking any further about visiting the Samadhi Mandir or Dwarakamai, he returned back to his place.