In plain words
Saying he had done something or other, many people kept nursing a grudge against him. One day a man took a gāḍḍuni and stood waiting on the road Sāthe was to travel by. His uncle saw this sight. Seeing it: ‘Sāthe, you need not stay here any longer. Stay somewhere, anywhere, and keep Bābā in your remembrance. Leave Shirdi at once,’ he told him. Then Sāthe, unable to leave Shirdi, unable to leave it, left Shirdi and went away. Every moment, even, Bābā kept calling for Sāthe like this: Sāthe, Sāthe, Sāthe. But Sāthe was not there. Bābā went on showing this as a grief. Sāthe was very dear to Bābā. Very close to Him. The devotees kept saying to one another that Bābā was not happy because He had sent away one so close as Sāthe.
Just at this time Śyām's parents, after they had retired, came to Shirdi bringing Śyām, a child of two. His name was Mōhan Śyām. His parents would call him Mōhana, Mōhan. Bābā would call him simply Śyām, Śyām. This boy studied right there, and because his parents had come there on retiring, they settled right there, in Shirdi itself. This boy went on studying in Shirdi itself. Little by little, after Sāthe had gone, Bābā drew Śyām close. In the end Śyām finished his studies and took teacher training. Right there he was appointed a teacher in a school. By day …, teaching. Bābā in the next room. When the classes were over, Śyām slept in the classroom itself. Between this classroom and the room where Bābā was there was a small ventilator. All night long Śyām would keep looking through this small hole into Bābā's room. He would watch Bābā talking to Himself, laughing to Himself, growing angry within Himself, doing many kinds of things within Himself. The bed Bābā slept on there was like this: two ropes were tied up above. A plank of one cinnara foot …; on that very plank He would lie and swing. That was why Śyām was afraid. Will Swami fall down in His sleep? … it is only a small plank: so he would watch every day. One day he took courage and, while he was pressing Bābā's feet …: Swami, all night You do not sleep; You laugh at something. You talk. ‘What is the inner meaning of this? Please tell me,’ he prayed. ‘You mad one! Wherever you may be, how many there are in the world who keep praying for … ! I am talking with all of them,’ He would say. My turning My finger is only the turning of the mind. Talking with them is the very work My lips do. To laugh when I see their madness is … the veil. ‘All these are only things done with the devotees, My dear,’ He answered. Little by little this Śyām began to plead. Swāmī! The classes are few. ‘I shall do Your service poddenanu; for the time that is left … I must stay right here,’ he prayed. At that time the one who cooked for Bābā was Lakṣmībāi. Wanting to do Swami's service himself: going to Lakṣmībāi, the making of the bread.