Om Sai

Two of my friends recently visited Shirdi to have Sai Darshan and had posted on Facebook about their visit, which triggered me to write this post.  

My memories went back about thirty years ago when I visited Shirdi for the first time. I was working in Mumbai at that time. One of my colleagues requested me to accompany her to Shirdi as her sister had to undergo an operation the next day. I agreed and we booked tickets through a travel agent at a place called Dadar. The starting place was Dadar. We boarded the  bus in the evening and proceeded to Shirdi which would reach the next morning. But on our way, within one hour or so, the bus broke down and the driver said that bus cannot move and he will arrange alternate buses to all passengers. He stopped different buses going via Shirdi and got seats to all passengers. To our surprise, we got an air conditioned bus to Shirdi and we also started the journey happily as we got airconditioned bus which was a luxury during those days. Came early morning but not Shirdi ! Just few kilometers before Shirdi our bus met with an accident. The driver would have slept and hit a tree and I got glass pieces all over my body as I was sitting in a front seat. What to do now, we got down and looking for alternate transport to reach Shirdi. We found that there was jeep transport from that place to Shirdi similar to the share autos available in Chennai. To our luck, we got a jeep immediately and proceeded to Shirdi. There was a big relief after reaching Shirdi. We got freshened up and had very nice darshan of Baba. We also visited nearby places related to the life of Saibaba, viz., chavdi, dhuni, etc. There was no crowd like now and we could visit the temple and worship Baba many times as we wish. Now a days, thousands of people throng Shirdi to get HIS blessings.

After lunch we started back to Mumbai. But as our bus got broke down, we have to make our own arrangement for return journey. Since it was a Sunday, all private buses were booked and we went to check government buses. The bus stand was also crowded, but to our surprise there were only two seats available in a bus as if they are waiting for us. We took that bus and proceeded to Dadar. After reaching Dadar, I told my friend that let us inform the travel agent about the accident so that he will be aware. We went and informed him about the accident, explained how we reached and returned from Shirdi and now came the climax. After listening to what happened from us, that person returned the money paid by us without saying a single word.  

I would have visited Shirdi about five to six times but, this is an unforgettable and memorable first trip to Shirdi. We travelled by air conditioned bus, saved our life from an accident, reached Shirdi as per the schedule without much wait for the alternate transport, got nice darshan, return journey was also peaceful and finally we got the money also back. My friend's sister's operation was successful and she is fine.

Shradha                                                            Om Sai                                                        Saburi