(Once when thousands of official papers were before him for his manual signature,
an important visitor came in & he could not complete it. But when he called them
back for signing & found that all were signed manually. He could not believe as
to how those signatures were affixed on the papers and this was all due to the Grace
of Baba and his Superhuman Powers).
S. B. Dhumal was in the beginning a devotee of Shri Gajanan Maharaj. Later Dhumal
visited Shirdi and had darshan of Shri Sai Baba in 1907. At that time, he was greatly
impres¬sed with his simple way of living and his supernatural powers and became
a staunch devotee of Baba. He also took with him to Shirdi Srimant Gopal Rao Booty
who also had darshan of Baba Booty after some years built a stone edifice in Shirdi,
called Bootywada which is the present Samadhi Mandir of Baba.
Once Baba told Dhumal, "At every step of yours, I am taking care of you. If I did
not, what will become of you, God knows". Dhumal was living with his wife in his
ancestral house in Nasik and at that time, a severe plague broke out in Nasik and
as a result of this plague, several dead rats were found in his house. He then wrote
to Baba for his advice. He received an affirmative reply from Baba for his moving
to a bungalow in Nasik. But in the bungalow also he found a dead rat the same night
near the bed of his brother's son. He also found dead rats in the servant’s quarters
in the bungalow in the neighborhood. He also found that there were dead rats even
in the well from where they were drawing water for their drinking and cooking purposes.
He again wrote for Baba’s advice for leaving that bungalow also. Expecting that
Baba would permit him to leave the bungalow, he made all arrangements for shifting
his household articles. and packed them up and carted them off to another house
and was about to move and at that time, a letter from Baba was delivered to him.
Baba's reply was, "why should we change our resi¬dence". And thus Baba was not in
favour of shifting from this bungalow. He simply obeyed Baba’s advice and immediately
went back to the infected bungalow and lived there. However, for drinking purposes,
he avoided the well water and instead he was getting water from nearby Godavari
river. In that locality Even though there were many deaths daily due to the severe
plague, nothing had happened to Dhumal and his wife and they were safe by the Grace
of Baba.
After two years, he lost his wife in 1909. He went to Shirdi and consulted
Baba and stayed there and also perfor¬med the monthly rituals for her at Shirdi.
At that time, he was aged 36 only and did not have any issue. There was lot of pressure
from his friends and well wishers, asking him to marry again. However, he told them
that he would consult Baba about this matter and act accordingly. When approached,
Baba told him not to marry again and accordingly he did not marry again even in
spite of his comparatively young age. Such was his faith in Baba’s orders.
During those days, there were always several political party factions in Shirdi
similar to other villages. One Raghu a servant of Baba and five others were arrested
on a charge of out¬raging the modesty of a Marwari woman and based on the evidence
of a number of eye witnesses, the accused were convicted to six months imprisonment.
But Tatya Patil's sympathy was on the side of the accused. Tatya took a copy of
the judgement order and went to eminent lawyers like G S. Kapharde, Kakasaheb Dixit
and H. V. Sathe who were at that time in Shirdi. On scrutiny, all of them found
that the evidence and the judgement order very strong and they did not give any
hope of success in the appeal Then Tatya went to Baba and prayed to Baba. Then Baba
told Tatya Patil, "Go to Bhau (S. B. Dhumal)". As per Baba’s order, Tatya approached
Dhumal with all the papers. After going through the evidence recorded and judgement
order, he found hardly any hope of suc¬cess in preferring the appeal. Then Dhumal
told Tatya that there were no chances of success in preferring an appeal and finally
told Tatya to employ any eminent lawyer and try. But Tatya told him that Baba asked
him to approach Dhumal. At this stage, he simply obeyed Baba’s orders and prepared
the appeal papers. He then went to the residence of the District Magistrate, who
was a senior European Officer. Initially, the Magistrate, without receiving or reading
the relevant papers, questioned him about the matter and he told the magistrate
the facts of the case and also told him that in a village noted for party factions,
any number of evidences could be produced.The Magistrate, without calling for the
records from the concerned Court and even without giving notice to the Police, orally
acquitted all the appellants. This had happened in 1911. This indicates Baba’s powers
in reversing judgements already delivered based on strong evidence. .The Magistrate
incidentally enquired Dhumal about Baba-whether he was a Muslim or a Hindu and to
this enquiry, he replied saying that Baba was
neither a Muslim nor a Hindu and that he was above them.
In 1915, Dhumal was offered the position of Public Prosecutor in Nasik and he as
usual wrote to Baba for his advice. But Baba replied in the negative and hence he
declined the offer. Baba once gave to him Baba’s photo, asking him to keep it for
his good. Actually, his heart felt desire was to have Baba’s portrait touched by
Baba and thus he received Baba’s portrait through Baba’s hands and he was having
it as his personal gift from Baba and was preserving it with great veneration.
Dhumal had received lot of help from Baba in his official work. Once he was appointed
by Government Nomination as the first non-official President of the Nasik District
local Board and he was serving in that capacity during 1917 to 1925. Once in that
capacity, he had to sign himself individually on thousands of papers with¬out the
use of a facsimile signature. One day some unusual incident had happened. Once when
a bundle of papers were before him for his signature, a visitor for whom he had
much regard came in and stayed with him, talking till the midnight and consequently
the affixing of signatures on those papers was postponed for the next day. Again
on the next day he had no time to spare for this work as he was leaving the town
on some urgent official work. So he sent back all the papers to office. When he
returned to the town that night, he found only that day's papers were brought for
his signature. But he knew about the previous day pending papers and he called for
those pending papers on which he had to sign. When those pending papers came back
to him, he observed to his surprise that all those thousands of papers bore his
manual signature. He could not believe as to how the thousands of signatures were
affixed on the papers and this was all due to the Grace of Baba and his Superhuman
Powers. He was having lot of official pressure due to his holding this office for
a pretty long time and due to this heavy official work, he lost his highly remunerative
legal practice. But, in recognition of his services to the society, he was awarded
the title of Rao Bahadur in 1927 with the Grace of Baba’s powers. He followed Baba's
orders scrupulously and achieved spiritual progress. He passed away in June, 1940
and his was a blessed soul.