Wise old lady of Kalyan's advice to starving and woeful 19 year old Upasni Maharaj around 1889 on devotion to God even in such situations, and on begging food at back door of houses rather than front door

The 'Great Apostle' of Shirdi Sai Baba, B.V. Narasimha Swami (BVNS; https://bonjanrao.blogspot.com/2012/08/b-v-narasimhaswamiji.html has a detailed bio) went in 1933 to stay with Upasni Maharaj (1870 to 1941),  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upasni_Maharaj , in Sakori, Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra. He later wrote a biography on Upasni Maharaj titled, "Sage of Sakori", https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Sage_of_Sakori.html?id=WleZHAAACAAJ , which seems to have been first published in 1935. In all probability, Upasni Maharaj himself would have provided some details to BVNS for this book. A 1948 edition published by Upasni Maharaj ashram is available for free download at https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.59159/page/n3/mode/2up . It has positive reviews of the book from some publications in India like Sunday Times, Madras, The Hindu Mind, Kumbakonam and Scholar, Palaghat as well as by noted persons like S. Radhakrishnan, who was then Vice-Chancellor Andhra University (1931-1936) and later became President of India (1962-1967), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarvepalli_Radhakrishnan .

[As per the book, Upasni Maharaj became a disciple of Shirdi Sai Baba from 1911 and was given special attention and guidance by the latter. BVNS himself seems to have got inspired to go to Shirdi Sai Baba's samadhi (who had bodily passed away in 1918) in 1936 after his stay with Upasni Maharaj, and that led to BVNS becoming great devoted to Shirdi Sai Baba, writing books on him and becoming a famous preacher about Shirdi Sai Baba's life and teachings.]

BVNS describes the period (in late 1800s) when Upasni Maharaj at the age of 19 (which makes the year around 1889 as Upasni Maharaj was born in 1870), had to live on very little food got by begging, and sometimes had to pass "several days with nothing at all to eat" (page 19). When he was begging for food at houses of "Brahmin officials" in Kalyan town in Maharashtra, a well known town in those days in those parts of Maharashtra, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalyan , he seemed to have initially not got much success.

BVNS writes about an old Maratha lady in Kalyan who took pity on the 19 year old boy Kashinath (name of Upasni Maharaj then) who seems to have been starving as he did not get food, and so drank some water from a well "and lay under a tree bemoaning his sad fate - tears all the while streaming down his face". [Maratha, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maratha_(caste) , is a major Hindu caste of Maharashtra famed for protecting Hindu life & traditions over centuries from invading forces that threatened Hindu communities and Hindu way of life.] The lady told him a Marathi (native language of Maharashtra) verse she had learned from her father, (only English translation is provided) "Maintain life, even on water, &c. (if you get nothing else). Love God. Endure your lot. Bear up misfortunes. Should Fortune smile, reject her. Burst the bonds of desire. Forsake not saintly company." Kashinath learned that by heart and kept repeating it to himself! It is awesome to read this. Maharashtra is a land of saints with very strong devotional and spiritual traditions.

BVNS frankly states that Kashinath would not accept food from the wise lady due to "caste scruples" (he only accepted wisdom from her)! Note that Upasni Maharaj himself was born and raised in a (Hindu) Brahmin family. [Please note that I am sharing the caste prejudice realities of those days that are captured in the book. I certainly do not support such caste prejudices in Hindu society in our times now.]

The wise old Maratha lady then gave him "a few tips on the art of beggary". She said, "It is the stern-hearted male at the front door that gave you the rebuff, but go to the gentler sex at the back-door, and there you will find sympathy and food." BVNS then writes, "Acting on this clue he went once again to those (Brahmin) officials' houses - this time by the back door, and gladly discovered by the food he got, how accurately the Mahratha lady had judged her own sex and the world."

Now I have lived many years of my life in Dombivli, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dombivli , which is close to Kalyan (now Dombivli & Kalyan are administered together by a municipal corporation), and I have visited Kalyan many, many times. So these details are of great interest to me about life in late 1800s in areas that I have lived in or frequently visited (around a century later in late 1900s and early 2000s).