i.e., Ganpatrao Dattatreya Sahasra-buddhe, Brahmin, Kirtankar, aged about 78, residing generally at Nanded. (Nizam's State)
Poona, June 1936.
"You call yourself a Kirtankar. Have you left off Ahankar i.e. Egotism?"
I : No. How can I? Each man has Ahankar.
He : Did you not feel Ahankar when sending me food, feeling that it was you that were sending food etc.?
I : But Ahankar being of three sorts, Satwik, Rajasic and Tamasic, some sort of Ahankar would underlie all action; only the worst forms are to be shunned.
He was not of that opinion. He wanted me to drown my ego completely. He was always reading my mind. He gave me some samples of his power.
He : Are you not engaged in writing the lives of Saints?
I : Yes.
Then he quoted a few lines of verse that I had just composed six days previously and not published in any way. I was taken aback by this Antaryamitva of his. Again he asked, "Did you not get Ganga water from the feet of Sai Baba?"
I : Yes.
He : What did you do with it?
I : I sprinkled it over my head.
He : And you did not drink it, because you thought you were a brahmin and would be polluted by drinking it. Look at your Egotism.
Seeing his nature and powers, I daily spent three or four hours alone with him at night. Some of those who were going to me and having a good opinion of me and a poor opinion of that Brahmachari, wondered at my conduct and one of them (let us merely give him some random name) Beake began to heckle me about it. I told him that the Brahmachari had psychic power and could even know the contents of other minds. Beake doubted my veracity and I had to take him once to the Brahmachari and tell the latter of Beake's unbelief. Then followed a very interesting conversation.