CN THE v; AY-:;A?.£ CH.VAV.r: s 9
Early morning next day they started ana reached Sura T; .».-
wadi before noon.
(ii) Sense of possession—An obstacle
Xarsobawadi is one of the m»~st important shrines iu
Maharashtra. It is situates on the banks of the river
Krishna. On the bank on n higher level stan.is the
temple of Dattatreya—the great uvudhuta vvhose life
and teachings speak of the loftiest spirit.iiJ realisation.
He is verily an avatar of God. The su'liras, Tv'ashir.g tbeir
clothes in the river, bathed in its cool running; waters. Next
they visited the temple therein they had the d^rs:^n \ f
Dattatreya's image of white marble, dreesea and d*cke>i
with diadem and ornaments. They sat fur some tirce uri the
outer platform.
It is a custom here that the sadhus and poor devotees
usually obtain their food by madhnkari, i.e. by collecting
doles of cooked food from four or more houses. Atmiurluy,
along with others, Ramdas jtn«l his young companion a.ls*»
started for madhnkari. They visited four houses and collect*
ed in all eight balls of rice and some dal. They came
vith the meal to a clean spot under the shade of a lurge
spreading tree. The rice and dal were mixed in an alumi-
nium plate which Ramcharandas carried with him. Often
when alone, these sadhus would eat together from the
same plate. So they started eating. Scarcely had they taken
two or three mouthfnls when a huge kite from above
swooped down and carried away in its talons two big lumps
of mixed rice from the plate.
"This is very fine!'' cried Ramdas. **How kind *•£ the
kite to join us in this precious feast T* They went on with
the meal and finished it.
A little incident having a peculiar significance of its own
deserves to be noted here. When the sadius were jointly col-
lecting the doles of madhnkari from door to door* a critical
devotee who was also one of the mendicants remarked:
s*