Dera Baba Murad

Baba Murad Shah ji then started to live at that very place where Shere Shah ji used to live. At that time, the place was only a forest with a water pond nearby; where today stands a beautiful Darbar (Place with the holy shrine of Baba Ji). Baba Murad Shah ji always used to read the holy book Heer and keeps on remembering his Master. Baba Ji also had a monkey and a toombi (a stringed, musical instrument) with him. One day, Baba Ji was sitting, when he saw an elderly woman carrying a box of rotis and going somewhere. Baba Ji called out to her and asked: “Mother where are you going?” The woman answered “My sons are to be hanged - I am taking the rotis for them.”Baba Ji said: “They have been acquitted !” The woman felt he was only joking. Ongoing further, a policeman standing there, said to her “Your sons have been acquitted and they have already left.” The woman was speechless and she rushed back to Baba Ji. She, thereafter, often fetched tea for him and washed his clothes and placed them neatly. Baba Ji looked upon her as his mother. One day Baba Ji said to the woman: “Mother shall we send your sons to England?” She answered saying “We are very poor – how can we send them there?” Baba Ji said “I have called you my ‘mother’; ask your sons to go to Delhi and meet a certain person. They will certainly go abroad.” And this is exactly what happened - after some time both the boys reached England.

Every year Baba Murad Shah ji used to organise a mela (fair) in which qawwalis, (religious sufi songs) were sung. Very few attended the fair. Each year during this time, qawwals from Malerkotla came here and sang at the fair. According to those times, whatever money Baba Ji had with him, he offered it to them, and also told them that “after me, Laadi Shah ji will come here to clear your account with your sons and grandsons, and return it to you manifold.” Even today the same Qawwals, generation after generation, have been coming to this place to sing their qawwalis at the opening of the fair. Time kept passing in this manner. Baba Murad Shah ji always walked barefooted. Baba Shere Shah ji had once said to him: “Murad, the day a thorn pierces your foot, know that I have left the world.” It so happened that one day, while walking, a thorn pierced Baba Murad Shah ji’s foot. All at once he remembered the words of his Master, and he knew that his beloved Guru had departed from this world. Baba Ji was not able to bear the separation of his Master and so, he too, at the early age of 28, left his body in 1960. Baba Murad Shah ji had begun his ascetic life at the tender age of 24 and left body four years later.

Baba Ji had always desired that his shrine should be constructed at the very place where Shere Shah ji had lived his ascetic life and where he himself had also lived. But, at that time that land was ‘government land’. People, fearing that if they made Baba Ji’s shrine there, the government authorities might remove it, hence, to avoid disrespect to the place of such a big saint, they made Baba Ji’s shrine in the cremation ground itself. Baba Ji appeared in a dream to the woman whom he called ‘mother’ and asked: “Why was my shrine not made at the place I had indicated?” Mother said: “Government officials were raising objections.” Baba Ji said “All my clothes and personal items that are lying at your house, take them out and put them in an earthen pot and place it there (the place Baba Ji had indicated) and make that my place, too. I myself shall see who dares to remove it!”. This came to pass - and the place which Baba Ji had himself chosen, was also made into ‘his place’. Today, we know this place as Dera Baba Murad Shah. There was only a single photograph of Baba Ji and that too, he had once torn to bits; however, his brother had picked the torn pieces of the photograph and stuck them back together and kept it reverentially.

Laadi Sai ji was Baba Murad Shah ji’s nephew, whom Baba Murad Shah himself had chosen. Laadi Sai ji was born on 26 September, 1946, and was only 14 years old when Baba Murad Shah ji left his body. As the fakir had long back predicted, that ‘in this family, two persons shall be born, who will take the name of God’ - so, the first one was Baba Murad Shah ji; and the second, Laadi Sai ji. At one time, Sai ji went to live with his paternal aunt, in Rajasthan. It so happened, that while playing with his cousins, his voice changed abruptly. At first the children took it to be a joke, but when he called out to his aunt, they saw that it was the voice of Baba Murad Shah ji, saying: “Sister, my shrine is lying desolate. Return Laadi back in the first train tomorrow.” Laadi Sai ji returned to Nakodar and went on towards the shrine. His whole body was burning hot and it appeared as though fire was emanating from the body and he was heard saying: ‘I want to become a fakir’. On being brought home, he developed a fever. Sai ji’s father (Baba Murad Shah ji’s elder brother) went near Baba Murad Shah ji’s photograph and pleaded: “If you wish to take this boy, take him; but make him well again.” A voice emerged from the photograph saying: “Lala, did I not tell you, I will watch you raising your hand on the day when your own son, in front of your eyes, will become a fakir? Now, will you not hit him?” His brother apologized saying, “It was my mistake; please forgive me. This boy is now yours.” Soon Sai ji felt better and went to sleep.