Santbal A Saint with a Difference

Author(s): T U Mehta
Publisher: Navjivan Prakashan Mandir

Page 29

Santbalji, the Hero of this story, was born in a poor family of Jains at the above referred village Tol which had hardly the population of 500 souls. The main population of this village consisted of Mumnas-Mohmedans of Pirana faith who believe that Ram, Krishna and other Hindu Divinities were the prophets, but prophet Mohmed was the last of them. These people were originally Hindu Kanbi Patidars and were converted to Islam. The population had a few houses of other Hindus and Harijans also. One Ali Shah was the Imam of the local mosque. He was a very honest and upright religious figure who was respected by the whole village population. By intuition he could correctly forecast future events. There was one gentleman who was a potter by profession. His name was Khima Bhagat. He was a person completely devoted to God and was singing Bhajans of Kabir Saheb, Bhan Saheb, Dasi Jivan and Ramdevji, in the company of Motiben, the mother of Santbal at village congregations. The whole village society was contended, happy and devoted to God. The people were completely secular in their outlook and guided by a feeling of brotherhood. )
Santbalji, whose original name was Shivlal, was the son of Nagjibhai Devjibhai and mother Motiben. Nagjibhai migrated from the nearby village "Arni Timba" to this place Tol and settled there by opening a shop. However, there was already one merchant of his own community residing in that village and, therefore, Nagjibhai could not earn much for his livelihood. Shivlal was born to this couple on 26th August 1904, which is equivalent to Shravan Sud 15th of Samvat year 1960. Shivlal had a sister called Maniben, who was five years younger to him.
Nagjibhai could not carry on his business well at Tol. He, therefore, on advice of his wife, migrated to Rajkot, a greater town, and hired a hutment in a low income group locality on the bank of River Aji. He had no money to establish a shop, but Motiben, his wife, prepared some sweets of drynuts, and