Keshav Anant alias Appasaheb Kulkarni was the revenue accountant or karnam of Shirdi village. He was also called as Atmaram Kulkarni. He was a devotee of Baba. Once jamabandi (revenue inspection) was going on in Kopergaon and Appasaheb Kulkarni from Shirdi had to go for jamabandi work under the supervision of Nanasaheb Chandorkar, Deputy Collector. Before going to Kopergaon, Appasaheb went to Baba for permission. Baba gave permission and also asked him to invite Nanasaheb Chandorkar to Shirdi. Though diffident, he decided to invite Nanasaheb Chandorkar to Shirdi village to see Baba and conveyed the invitation of Baba to Nanasaheb who was surprised as to how a begging fakir in a small village could invite him to see him. Nanasaheb declined Baba’s invitation and did not visit Shirdi. But Baba repeated his invitation for the second and third time. Ultimately, Nanasaheb visited Shirdi and took darshan of Baba. Thus Appasaheb was instrumental in bringing Nanasaheb to Shirdi.

Once the villagers in Shirdi accused Appasaheb of embezzling funds from the village accounts and reported the matter to the higher revenue authorities and Appasaheb was charged with embezzlement of funds and received notice from the authorities and was terribly frightened. He then went to Baba and prayed for saving him. Baba took pity on him and advised him not to get frightened but proceed to Nevasa by the side of Pravara river and  meet the  enquiry officer  there.Baba also told him to go first to Mohiniraj (Lord Vishnu took the form of a female as Mohini) Temple (given in the side picture) and pray in  the  temple  first  and  then  meet  the enquiry officer. He did every thing as per Baba’s orders and then met the enquiry officer and pleaded his innocence. On being satisfied, the officer exonerated him by declaring the charge as baseless. Appasaheb felt extremely happy and thanked Baba for the miraculous help. Baba told him that in Mohiniraj Temple, Jyaneshwar Maharaj started writing the commentary on Jyaneshvari Geeta at the age of 12 years and completed it at the age of 15 years in  the year 1290 and during the time of Yadava King, Ramachandra who ruled Devgiri Kingdom. Jnaneshvari Geeta, Eknath  Bhagavat, Tukaram Gatha and Das Bodh of Samarth Ramdas, all composed in Marathi language are considered as the four Vedas of Maharashtra.

Baba did not go to any other place in his life time except Rahata which is near Shirdi and inspite of this situation Baba knew all the places and much about Nevasa, the name of the river flowing there, the Mohiniraj temple and also about Jyaneshwar Maharaj and Jyaneswari. 

In 1917 he was transferred to Thana and began to worship Baba's picture presented to him by Balasaheb Bhate, former Mamaltdhar and a staunch devotee of Baba. With utmost devotion, he did the worship. He offered flowers, sandal-paste, and naivedya daily to Baba in the picture and desired very much to have darshan of Baba. In this connection it should be understood that seeing Baba's picture with unswerving devotion amounts to seeing Baba in person. The following story bears eloquent testimony to this aspect.

One day Baba Saheb Tarkhad (R.A.Tarkhad) and his son Jyotindra Tarkhad, both devotees of Baba, had a dream in which both of them saw a beautiful carved mandir with Baba seated on it. Accordingly they got a beautiful Sandalwood mandir carved by a special carpenter. They then wanted Baba's portrait for placing in the sandalwood mandir. It is interesting to see how wonderfully Baba arranged his photo to them. One Friday evening, both the father and son went to chor bazar in Bombay. A Muslim shopkeeper ran to them and asked them to collect a parcel meant for them. As the shopkeeper was new to them, they enquired from him as to how he knew that particular parcel was meant for them. Then the shopkeeper narrated that on one day a saintly and elderly person came to his shop and handed over a parcel and also paid Rs 50/- towards his service charges. The elderly person also asked the shop keeper to hand over the parcel to a Hindu father with an English hat and his son wearing a black Gandhi cap. Exactly Tarkhad and his son wore the hat and cap respectively as described by the elderly person. Then they went to the shop and asked him to open the parcel. When the parcel was opened, it contained a framed photo of Lord Saibaba exactly suitable to be kept in their sandalwood mandir. Later Tarkhad family went to Shirdi and had Baba's darshan in  the masjid. At that time, Baba told a devotee who was trying to take Baba's photo, "Please go to my Bhau's (Tarkhad’s) place where you will find me alive in the photograph in the mandir"  Tarkdad and his son were very happy to hear that statement from Baba and tears of joy rolled down from their eyes. As per Baba's declaration, this affirms that there is no difference between Baba and his photo.

While many other examples  are there, few examples are given below:  When invited, Baba attended Hemandpant's shimaga dinner in the form of his photo, representing Baba’s presence.  Once Shama sought Baba's permission to go to Kashi and Prayaga, Baba gave permission and also said, "we would be ahead of (you)", conveying that Baba's photo which was hung in the house of a priest in Prayag, represented Baba’s presence there, much before the arrival of Shama in Prayag. All these indicated that keeping a photo of Baba is tantamount to Baba being present there in person.

Once while he was working in Thana, he had to go on tour to Bhivandi for a week. In his absence, the following wonderful thing took place on the third day in Thana. At noon a fakir visited Appasaheb's house. As observed by his family members, his features resembled exactly those shown in Baba's photo. They asked him whether he was Sai Baba of Shirdi. He said 'No', but also said that he was an obedient servant of Sai Baba and was visiting their house at Baba’s orders to enquire after the welfare of the family members. Then the fakir asked for dakshina. His wife gave him a rupee and the fakir gave her a small packet of Udi, and asked her to keep this in the shrine along with the photo for worship. Then the fakir left the house and went away.

While working at Thane, Appasaheb went on tour for recruitment of soldiers for the first World War. He had intense desire to visit Shirdi and have darshan of Baba, but was unable to get leave for the purpose. In this background, Appasaheb was only worshipping Baba's photo and could not visit Shirdi to have darshan of Baba. While he started worshipping Baba's photo, Baba himself came to Thane and gave darshan to Appasaheb. Baba also gave darshan after his stomach was full and demanded the same quantum of money which Appasaheb thought of originally giving. Baba also gave Udi-packet.

Once Baba said to Appa Kulkarni "Thieves will come and fight with you. They are very clever in selecting persons, and will take away only what they want. Beware!". But Appa took the trouble to safeguard his property.

At that time there was an epidemic of cholera in Shirdi. One night Appa had incessant vomiting and diarrhoea and suffered symptoms of cholera. Seeing his condition, Appa Kulkarni's wife ran to Baba and begged for Udhi and blessings to save her husband.

Baba calmly replied: "Do not grieve. Death awaits all those who are born. Birth and death are acts of the Almighty. No one lives or dies here. If you look at the phenomenon of life with the eyes of wisdom, you will realise that you are no different. When the clothes become old and faded, you thrown them away. In the same way, the soul, which is immortal, casts off the worn-out body. Do not stop him from going. Let him leave as he has reached his life's goal. He will go to heaven. He is right now changing his clothes before Me".

His wife returned home weeping, but was comforted by Baba's words. Appa died soon after. The villagers were frightened, lest cholera spread in epidemic proportions. They came to Baba and begged Him to stop the epidemic. Baba said, "Only seven will die of cholera". After seven people succumbed to it, the disease abated as prophecied by Baba.

(Source: Ambrosia in Shirdi by Sai Bhakta Vinny Chitluri & http://bonjanrao.blogspot.com/)