15. TENDER TO RUGGED FEET
Shri Loganatha Mudaliar owned a small piece of land at Guindy
(Madras). This was under the illegal occupation of a Gujrati occultist.
Loganatha got him evicted through the court. Whilst leaving the place the
illegal occupant cast a curse as a result of which Loganatha became insane. The
Mudaliars were not even remotely aware of the Sais. Perhaps in a demonstration
of non discriminatory nature of Divinity, Sathya Sai appeared to him in a dream
and released Loganathan from the malady with which he was seized.
At this time Sathya Sai was visiting Madras. He got into His car
and kept giving directions to the driver till the car reached Mudaliar's house.
Loganatha was aghast, astonished and amazed to see the figure of his dream,
standing there, right in front of him. He fell prostrate and overwhelmed and
with deep feelings uttered, "You are God !" Baba blessed all present
there and left, only to be followed by Loganatha to Parthi. There he beheld a
vision, par excellence in which Sathya Sai appeared in the Form of Shirdi Sai.
In a flood of devotion he embraced the Sainath.
To express his gratitude he decided to build a house for Sathya
Sai on his plot at Guindy. At the heels of the decision came a letter from
Parthi dated July 1946, which read thus, "You need not build a house for
Me. Instead build a temple for My Former Body (Shirdi). I shall Myself
consecrate the first idol of My Former Body at Guindy. So far there is no image
set up for Me even at Shirdi. Make due preparations. All the 'wiring is done'
only 'the connections is to be given'. Start the work without delay".
The Divinity continued to knit the thread of commonality. A Muslim
fakir appeared in the dream of a sculptor living near Madras and directed him
to go to Guindy. Instinctively the sculptor followed the bidding. On arrival at
Guindy station a 'guide' escorted him to Mudaliar and instantly vanished
thereafter. The Sculptor set to work diligently and with sustained effort
chiselled an idol of Shirdi Sai which was an exact replica of that Form, though
he had never known or seen it. The temple was completed and in February 1949,
Sathya Sai Baba came to Guindy for the installation of the idol. Shri Mudaliar
performed the age old honoured ritual of washing and worshipping the Lotus Feet
of the Divine Embodiment. He prayed and pleaded to Baba to cast an impression
of His Holy Feet on a piece of silken cloth with sandalwood and haldi paste.
"Why My Feet ' This day I have installed here the old Baba. I shall give
you the feet of old Baba Himself '" He then cast the sandalwood paste
impression of the Lotus Feet on the cloth. The impression that came on the
cloth was not that of Parthi Baba' s tender feet but that of large and weather-
conditioned rugged feet of a person who had been walking barefoot at Shirdi
over three decades ago. The silk cloth carrying the impression of the Lotus
Feet is even today preserved in the temple at Guindy and worshipped.