Due to mama's ( paranthaman) sudden deterioration of health, we were a bit delayed to check out and leave our hotel 7 Apple and left to Shirdi by the same bus at about 10Am. Our darshan is already prebooked for 5 pm. So since we got delayed a bit, the organisers decided to shift Shani Shignapur to tomorrow. So we are directly going to Shirdi. We took a lunch break around 2:Pm. Had packed lunch of veg pulao and curd rice . Reached Shirdi around 4 pm. Checked in Hotel Alaukik. Freshened up and left to temple. Our darshan was completed by 5:40 in the main temple. As we came out, the organisers started walking towards the exit, when I noticed the meditation hall on the left and wanted to sit there for some time. At that time, I did not know that there was a TV right in front of me showing the live Darshan and as I sat down and looked up, I saw it. After few minutes of staring into the TV, I noticed that the right side of Baba's face was also clearly visible below the TV. I was overjoyed because the arati was at 6 pm and the time was nearing 6. On the dot at 6 pm, I moved to the front and could see clearly the whole of the arati that lasted about 10 minutes. At the end of it, I turned around to see the entire group waiting for me to join them for the tour of the rest of the sai complex. I was overjoyed as no one hurried me. Then we as a group moved on to the Dwarkamai. There were went in queue to see the portrait of baba that is kept within. As we neared the baba, one person was serving pedas. He had only two pedas in his hand. The lady( not our group) got one and I got the other. I was so filled with delight. I turned around to see if the one following me had noticed, but realized she had not. I sat inside the Dwarkamai for few minutes. Then we moved on to the Chavadi. There again, in front of Baba's portrait, a lady was lighting lamp and spreading out some dry flat biscuit like prasad. I asked her if I could take a little. She smilingly said I could and she opened another cloth parcel and gave me a modak from it and said in Marathi it was a prasad from some place. Anyways, I got the modak too. Then we came out and one mama from our group brought a cupful of sabudana kichdi prasad and gave each of us a spoonfull. The initial darshan in the main hall was from the left side and we got to touch the padams of baba. When we came near, I asked for flowers and was given a rose and some tulsi. Then we collected the udi prasad and free laddu prasad. As we completed our chavadi, there was the dixit wada which is now converted to a museum and houses all articles used by baba annd photos of his close devotees and some drawings of the same and the idols of Murali Manohar, that were supposed to be intially kept in the buti wada, which later became the samadhi Mandir. The Darshan was finally over by 7 pm.. As we came out, we got some drops of badam milk and chana prasad. Then as we were waiting for Karthik, who had our footwear coupon and was not to be found, a very young boy came over to me and asked me to give him some money for food. I was feeling so sad that I didn't have any more money than what I had taken for dakshina. Immediately, Ashok mama from our group came over and asked me what the matter was. As I narrated, he gave the young boy Rs.50 and the boy handed him a two dimensional photo. The matter here is just before we started to the temple, lakshmi akka had shown me the same photo and told me it is a very rare original black and white photo of baba and I was just thinking where I would get it. This was the same picture on one dimension. So I asked the boy if I could get a similar one. He asked me to wait right there and walked away. I was praying to God that our Karthik is not found for some more time. After what seemed to be a long time, the boy returned and gave me two photos, one the same as he had given mama and another different one in colour. Now mama wanted the colored one too. He asked the boy again and the boy didn't mind giving mama another different coloured one. So all in all, I had a hundred fold blessings from Shirdi baba and I was immensely satisfied. We went back to our hotel for a dinner of Naan, paneer veg curry, curd rice and raita. Then went to adjacent shop and purchased artificial jewellery for 1500/-. Came bk by 11 pm and rested.
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