//Sai Baba and the Astrologer

Sai Baba and the Astrologer

Shri Rao Bahadur M.W. Pradhan in his work “Shri Sai Baba of Shirdi: A Glimpse of Indian Spirituality” depicts the following interesting incident involving Sadguru Sainath’s all-pervadingness:

Once, an astrologer who had heard about Sai Baba as a saint of a very high order, came to Shirdi with the avowed objective of placing a book on astrology into the hands of Sai Baba and receiving the same as prasad from Him. The astrologer sincerely believed that such a prasad from Sai Baba (consecration by Sai Baba) would make him very proficient astrologer and thus enable him to make a fortune. But Sai Baba, when implored to give the book to the astrologer, gave it instead to Bapusaheb Butti (the well-known multi-millionaire who is credited with the construction of Butti wada in Shirdi) who was sitting close by. Bapusaheb Butti, who was a wealthy man and did not have worldly wish took the book thrusted onto his hands by Sai Baba. The astrologer was disappointed. Bapusaheb, who never cared to read anything, skipped over the book now and then for a short time only because Sai Baba gave the book to him. Gradually he began to take interest in the book and the subject of astrology. After a few years, Bapusaheb Butti became proficient in astrology and he began to help Sai devotees in their needs and was able to predict things with precision! He did all of this without any remuneration!

The above incident, Sai Baba wanted to show that, He knew that it was not the destiny of the Astrologer to be proficient in Astrology as he had aimed at; that He wanted to show what any person who was the recipient of such a Prasad would be capable of (in this case Shri Bapusaheb Butti); and that Sai Baba wanted to teach His devotees that a person’s proficiency in any art or science is used best when given gratis to humanity than for any love of lucre.