I consider myself as Sai’s daughter and like every father who loves His daughter, so did He with His grace. He held my hand and I write about His temple, Sri Shirdi Sai Anandamaiyee with all humility.
My hands are only moving and He is writing, as it is His, everything in this world. We are all His puppets dancing to His tunes.
I was 12 years old when I first saw Baba’s photo in one of our family friend’s house, Geetha. She was very devoted. Her devotion, love and admiration for Baba pulled me into this whirlpool. From that day I had a separate place for worship, where I had Lord Ganesha, Baba and Goddess Saraswathi.
I visited Shirdi, and prayed all day to my satisfaction. During those days the Samadhi Mandir was not well maintained. We washed and cleaned Baba’s Samadhi and prayed to our hearts.
Later on I got married to a pilot who took me to Cairo. My husband was very good but not very devoted to Baba. Later on he joined Air India International and we were posted in Bombay. We raised 3 naughty boys. As life progressed I used to visit Shirdi with my problems and as the entire human mankind knows how very understanding Baba was, he used to solve them. Today all my sons are well settled so I came to Bangalore where we have a beautiful farm which was Baba’s Prasad.
For a very long time I wanted to do a thanksgiving to my Baba, I wanted to build a temple for Him. I wanted to sweat it out and do a little with this body given to me. With half acre of land for the temple I went around asking for help. My first contribution was from 3 women who donated Rs 100 each to build a temple. My husband advised me to sell the land and donate the proceeds to Shirdi Sai Temple in Shirdi as building a temple was a huge task and it was only possible with the kings in the olden days.
I was not disheartened with Rs 300 as the donation; I knew I had to climb more to reach my goal. My struggle to raise funds for temple continued stronger but all fell in the deaf ears. Dejected and disappointed I wept and slept. That night I heard a door bell ring for a very long time. I woke up and opened the door and to my glory I saw Baba standing in front of me with His torn Kafni, tin pot and a Satka and saying ‘ Iam there for you, go ahead and start building the temple’. Till today I don’t know if it was a vision of Baba or a Darshan. My senses were dumb folded and realized after some time.
Baba teaches Humility. Being a wife of a pilot I had never asked anybody, and was always in a habit of giving and never asking. From that day onwards I started asking people for help in various forms. With Baba’s grace and help of many devotees we finally built a Samadhi Mandir, Dwarakamaiyee and Khandoba temple.
Om Sai Ram
