*Dr. Sashikant G. Javeri*

Years rolled by and in March 1961, Narhari V. Raikar was admitted in KEM Hospital Mumbai, for a stomach ailment. Dr. Sashikant G. Javeri worked in that hospital under Dr. B.N. Purandare. It was customary for Javeri and his friends to meet in the evening in the ward of whichever colleague was free at that time. They would sit and chat and one day, his friends told him that a patient named Raikar was an expert palmist and his predictions were faultless. One of his friends introduced Javeri to Raikar. Javeri liked Raikar who was simple and gentle and had the unusual quality of making one feel like an old friend. One evening, “just for the fun of it” Javeri decided to have his palm read, although he didn’t believe in palmistry or in God for that matter and stayed away from all that.

Raikar looked at his palm for an unusually long time. From an old bag he took out a magnifying lens and looked at it again with a great deal of concentration. Then he exclaimed, “You are the one. O Lord Sainath, your doings are incomprehensible! O, at last I have met your friend!” Javeri didn’t quite know why he said all this. Then Raikar took out an old diary of his and 206

showed him a sketch of his palm that he had made in 1912. Now Javeri was utterly confused, but he vehemently opposed it by stating it was just a coincidence.

Then Raikar told Javeri that he must have been born in 1938 and said, “Baba had told me that you will be born 20 years after his Maha Samadhi.” Javeri was puzzled and he left, thinking, “For heaven sakes, which Baba? What have I to do with any Baba? I had better put an end to all this gibberish.” However his mind wouldn’t let him be at peace.

The next day was Sunday and that evening he was free, so he went and sat with Raikar. Raikar smiled and said, “So your restless mind didn’t allow you to sit quietly. I know you don’t believe a word of what I said and now you have come to have a little fun, right?” Javeri just nodded his head in consent. Raikar continued, “Three days from today you will be involved in a fight. And the next day you will miss your lunch and be hungry till nightfall. If you cannot prevent these two events then you will follow Shri Sai Baba’s orders. Do you agree to this?” Javeri agreed, thinking that all this was in jest, not knowing that he was being drawn into this drama by a superior force. Then Raikar asked him to promise that he would do as Baba had ordered, and he agreed.

Three days after Javeri promised Raikar, he and his friends were returning home to Shivadila. At that time he and five of his friends stayed at the residence of his friend’s relative. It was around 12 noon and they caught a bus to return home. The bus was relatively empty, when a young lady with a small child came and sat in the seat in front of him. The lady bought her ticket; however her naughty child while playing with it, threw it out of the open window. At the next stop the Checker came to check the tickets, and Javeri and his friends showed him their tickets. Then the Checker asked the young lady for her ticket and she told him what had happened. Javeri and his friends also testified to it. He didn’t say anything and left. However, the conductor of the bus came and shouted at her, using abusive language. At this, Javeri and his friends intervened and a terrible fight ensued. Finally they took the bus to the police207

station. Thus Baba’s first prediction came true, and Javeri lost his peace of mind.

On the 4th day, Javeri and his friends went home around 2 p.m. to have lunch. To save money, he and his friends would order one meal and three of them would eat it. With the money they saved, they would go to see a movie. At that time they stayed in a Municipal Chawl (high rise building) that was adjacent to the main road. That day the pavement in front of their building was not crowded, so they put a cot on the pavement under a tin shed and started eating their lunch. Happily Jhaveri put the first morsel of food in his mouth, smugly thinking, “This part of the deal is untrue and so is all this palmistry.”

In his building there were a lot of residents from Goa, and they had shops adjacent to the pavement. One Goan lady came running and said, “Doc come quickly this young man is behaving strangely and he needs your help.” Immediately, they all left and ran to help. A young man around 20 years of age was frothing from his mouth and having a seizure. They immediately got a cab and took the young man to the hospital, where they admitted him and attended to him. The patient’s condition took a serious turn and finally he breathed his last. By that time it was night and they were unable to have their lunch.

Now the doctor was in a quandary and had to admit defeat. That night he couldn’t sleep a wink as there was a whirlwind of thoughts in his mind. “Who was this Sai Baba? How could he know the lines on his palm 20 years prior to his birth? How could he predict events that were to happen after his Maha Samadhi? How could he assure Raikar in 1912 that these two events would take place at this time? How did he know when I would be born?” Finally, Javeri had to bow down to this supreme power who had such infinite knowledge of the future.

The next day Javeri quietly went and stood before Raikar, and told him that everything he predicted was true. Thereafter he spent every spare moment with Raikar. Every night after Javeri completed his work he would sit with Raikar and ask him about Baba, and Raikar would tell him about Baba’s divinity. One day, Raikar asked him to bring his trunk down from the shelf and gave him a small bundle. Raikar said, “I will pass away very soon and after I die, open this bundle and make two sets of padukas from the imprint in the bundle. One should be made of stone and the other of brass. After I die make a bundle of everything that I have and cremate it along with me.” A short while later Raikar did indeed pass away and Javeri followed his instructions and immersed his ashes in Nasik.

After Raikar died, Javeri opened the bundle and in it he found an extremely old black cloth upon which was an even blacker imprint of the soles of Baba’s feet. Javeri then got the padukas made and brought them home. He kept the black cloth over thepadukas, lighted some incense sticks and closed his eyes and said the mantra that Baba had given him. When he opened his eyes, the cloth was nowhere to be found, although he searched for it everywhere. Finally he realised that the cloth had finally gone home; or the cloth had got immersed into the feet of the Lord. Thereafter, for the next 36 years, Javeri faithfully got up at 1 a.m. every night and said the mantra that Baba had given him and then went to sleep. Javeri didn’t quite know why he should go to sleep immediately after saying the mantra, but he followed his Guru’s command.

As this leela is very long it shall be continued in the next chapter.

Ref.: Tey Soneri 21 Divas, written by Narhari Vasudev Raikar.