Lendi Gardens
Lendi gardens
Lendi is significant as the place
which Baba used to visit every day. It contains some tombs, a shrine, and most
importantly, the perpetually burning lamp lit by Baba and placed between the
two trees he planted. A few months
Lendi Gardens
before Baba's mahasamadhi the land
was bought by a Bombay devotee, M. W. Pradhan, and later presented to the
Sansthan. At the end of 1999, Lendi Gardens was radically re-landscaped, and
the previously paved and tree-lined area turned into lawns with a waterfall and
flower beds.
In Baba's time, Lendi was an area of
wasteland between two small streams, the Lendi and the Sira (now dried up).
Baba used this area for toilet purposes. He would leave the mosque for Lendi
around nine o'clock in the morning accompanied by some devotees. However, none
was allowed inside with him except Abdul Baba.
Apart from answering the calls of
nature here, Baba seemed to enjoy going to Lendi and sometimes went several
times a day. This was the place where he spent time in solitude.
It was a particular characteristic
of Baba's that once he had started something, it became a strict and lifelong
routine. For example, though initially devotees forced him out of the mosque
into the Chavadi because of heavy rain, he continued his routine of sleeping
there every other night as long as he was alive. Similarly, after his arm was
burnt in the dhuni, it was dressed and tended by Bhagoji Shinde; the wound
healed and Baba lived for a further eight years, but the practice of Bhagoji
changing the bandage every day continued until the end.
Showing a similar regard for
routine, Baba always took the same route whenever he went to Lendi from
Dwarkamai. A fakir will sometimes take up strict adherence to a routine as a
practice, as it is supposed to reduce the opportunity for personal preference,
and hence development of the ego. Baba had no need for any practice, but he
seemed to maintain the routine anyway. His route to Lendi was not the most
direct or obvious, yet he stuck to it unswervingly. Perhaps we will never know
what his reasons were, but just as Baba used to go along with a few devotees,
let us also walk with him and take a short stroll to Lendi.
We begin by turning right out of
Dwarkamai, then left down a narrow lane opposite the entrance to
Continued in Part 2......
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