021. Manik Prabhu and Sabnis received darshan

|| Shri Swami Samarth ||

Before arriving in Akkalkot, Shri Swami Maharaj visited Manik Prabhu in Humnabad. Even at that time, there were two other divine men that accompanied Maharaj.

Rajmanya Rajshri Baba Sabnis was a resident of Akkalkot. He was a philosopher and devout. After his wife had passed on, he turned his focus to spiritual growth and used to visit Manik Prabhu regularly to seek spiritual guidance.

Once when he was visiting Manik Prabhu, he saw three diving beings seated near him. One of them was Shri Swami Samarth. 

Manik Prabhu instructed him to receive Maharaj's darshan and told him, "From here on Swami Maharaj is your Guru. Take the benefit of His darshan!" Sabnis received darshan from Shri Maharaj and also from the other two divine souls. 

Maharaj let loose a barrage of expletives. "You are a butcher!", said Maharaj. Through inner communication, he also provided spiritual instruction to him. 

Sabnis' mother was very ill, and yet, he had not stayed beside her bedside and had made the trip to Humnabad. That is why Shri Maharaj called him a butcher. Swami then instructed, "Go to Akkalkot, I will also come there." Sabnis was surprised as to how Maharaj knew that he was from Akkalkot and was convinced that Shri was an Avatari.

Later Sabnis received darshan at Akkalkot when Majaraj arrived there. He, however, did not receive darshan of the other two divine souls he had met. 

After leaving Mangalvedha, Maharaj went to Solapur. There is a parcel of agricultural land, adjoining the road to Solapur, that belongs to the Karmarkars. That land parcel was leased to Pandharinath and Eknath Bhatji Niwaskar from 1855 to 1856. 

In the scorching heat of the afternoon sun, at around two, both of them encountered Swami Maharaj on the road. He asked for Pandharinath's slippers which he promptly gave. 

On wearing the slippers, Swami walked with such a pace that while Pandharinath and Eknath were speaking with each other, Maharaj was nowhere to be seen on the road.

Eknath said to Pandharinath, "Why did you give your slippers to that madman!? He is nowhere to be seen. Our uncle is sure to be angry with us." On hearing this, Pandharinath fell into worry.

After around five minutes, they saw Swami walking towards them and was soon standing in from of them. He said, "Take your slippers! Now your uncle will not be angry." 

Both of them thought that Swami must have been hiding nearby and after hearing us speak came back to give the slippers.  Pandharinath wore the slippers and walked onto the farm and sat under a tree with Eknath.

After about half an hour, a group of people, traveling to Solapur, met Eknath and Pandharinath and asked them if they had seen a madman walk in this direction in a great hurry. The two narrated the incident with the slippers, and everyone was surprised that Shri Swami Samarth had covered such a great distance in such a short time.

Since that day, Shri Samarth never returned to Mangalvedha.

|| Shri Swami Samarth ||