Shreeji Maharaj first did a Saak utsav in the Village of Loya, in the month of Magshar/Posh 1877. There were no other festivals during this month so Sura Khachar requested Maharaj to introduce an utsav all devotees could celebrate together, as he said this, a devotee arrived at the sabha and offered Maharaj lots of fresh aubergines, Maharaj was so overwhelmed by the sight of all the sumptuous looking aubergines that he announced to Sura Khachar that they will celebrate a Saak utsav. All the devotees were thrilled to hear this, Maharaj requested Sura Khachar to invite all devotees from nearby villages and to prepare the cooking utensils, Sura Khachar said he would do so and also arrange for the cooks, but Maharaj stopped him and said there will be no need for that as he will be doing all the cooking on his own from beginning to end. This astounded the devotees and they all started to wonder how Maharaj would manage to cook for hundreds of people on his own. 

Maharaj dressed in white dhoti and saal, started chopping the 1200kg of aubergines, and then lit the fire under the three karaiys, He used 360kg of ghee in total, he poured some into each karaiy and did vagaar of the aubergines. Many devotees approached Him with offerings of gram flour, sugar, salt, chilli powder, and turmeric, Maharaj would tell the devotee to empty each bag into one karaiy, so one karaiy only had turmeric and chilli powder in it, one had only gram flour and one had only salt and sugar. Seeing this Sura Khachar was astonished and ran to Muktanand Swami to tell him that Maharaj has ruined the Saak. When Muktanand arrived he saw that Maharaj was sweating due to the heat from the fires, his eyes were full of tears from the chilies, and his clothes were marked all over with chilli powder, turmeric and flour, Muktanand Swami was overjoyed by the divine darshan of Maharaj in this form and smiled at Sura Khachar. Once the aubergines had cooked, Maharaj took a bit out of each karaiy, mixed it together and then put it back into the 3 karaiys.

When the Saak was ready and all the devotees had arrived, Maharaj served the Saak to his devotees and saints Himself, all the devotees were surprised to see that there was only Saak on the menu, they were expecting ladoo’s, puri, siro, and all kinds of lavish foods, but once they ate the Saak, it tasted exactly like what they originally wanted to eat, for example, Sura Khachar’s Saak tasted like papad as he was very fond of them, everyone enjoyed the meal and experienced utmost happiness. Never had such a delicious Saak been made before. This was the greatness of our beloved Maharaj.

Further Read

You can read further about the Saak Utsav in 'Shreemad Satsangi Jeevan' - Canto (Prakran) 4 Chapter (Adhyay) 17 - Page 113

Kirtans

Premanand Swami has also composed  Kirtans on this Utsav which can be found in the 'Hajari Kirtanavali' - Page 265 

Leela Kirtans Pad 3 - 5 are specific to the Saak Utsav

Kirtan Pad 1 - Sāṁbhaḷa sajanī līlā Purūṣottama taṇī... 

Kirtan Pad 2 - Sāṁbhaḷa sajanī nāma kahuṁ te gāmanāṅ...

Kirtan Pad 3 - Vaḷī vakhāṇuṁ s̀ākotsava līlā karī... 

Kirtan Pad 4 - Jame Jīvanajī s̀āka karela nija hāthanuṅ... 

Kirtan Pad 5 - Dhanya dhanya s̀uṁ varṇavuṁ bhāgya loyātaṇāṅ...

Kirtan Pad 6 - Vaḷī vakhāṇuṁ līlā loyā gāmanī...