The
Cattle Fair
Since Sathya
had to go outside Bukkapatnam for his education,
it was decided that he should go to be with his
brother, Seshama Raju, who had married the
daughter of Sri Pasupathi Subba Raju of
Kamalapur. This arrangement seemed satisfactory
to his parents, who planned to give Sathya a
college education so that he might become an
officer. Hence they were prepared to part with
him and send him to far off Kamalapur where his
studies could be continued. There he attended
school regularly as he had at Bukkapatnam. He
was a quiet well-behaved boy, a favorite with
the teachers.
Whenever a
drama was performed in town, Sathya sang the
opening prayer before the curtain went up. Those
who heard his sweet voice spread the news that a
fine singer had come to town. Soon he was the
only one called on to sing at all public
functions.
Even now
Sathya Sai Baba speaks of a drill instructor
there who commanded the respect of the entire
school by his instinctive love for children. He
was also the scoutmaster and was eager to have
Sathya in his troop. Through friends and
directly, he began persuading the boy to join.
There were two other boys, children of the head
of the Revenue Office, who sat at the same desk
with Sathya and who were very friendly to him.
They pleaded with him and even thrust a nice new
scout uniform into Sathya's desk to encourage
him to join. They all knew that Sathya would be
the life of the troop, and if he joined it, the
elders of the town would sponsor the troop.
Otherwise they might mistake it for a group of
idlers and do-nothings intent only on hikes and
picnics.
Sathya joined
at last, just in time to attend the Fair and
Cattle Show at Pushpagiri where the scoutmaster
planned to take his troop. There was opportunity
enough for the boys to earn merit because of the
huge crowds that attended. Children could get
lost, pilgrims had to be supplied with drinking
water, sanitation had to be supervised, and
first aid provided on the spot. The camp fee was
fixed at ten rupees per boy.
Sathya had no
money! He had to demonstrate that service is its
own reward, that a loving heart conquers
everything. He decided that the chance to teach
and inspire his companions should not be lost.
He determined to walk to Pushpagiri, thus saving
bus fare. He told the scoutmaster that his
people were coming for the Fair and that they
would look after him. (The people who came for
every pilgrimage were his people!) He calculated
that five rupees would be enough for him at
Pushpagiri. He sold to a needy boy the books of
his previous year's class, which he had seldom
read, and which therefore were as good as new.
He accepted not the twelve rupees the boy
offered but just the five rupees he required.
Then he walked to Pushpagiri, reaching there
about 9:00 o'clock of the night previous to the
inauguration of the Fair.
He was very
tired. With a small bag containing his clothes
and money, he lay down and slept on the sand of
the river, together with the multitude gathered
there. When he awakened the next morning, both
the purse and the bag had
disappeared!
When relating
these incidents, Sathya Sai Baba often tells
those around him that he was not worried at all.
He says he moved about the place quite
unconcerned and found on a stone trough a coin
and a packet of cheap handmade cigarettes. He
took the coin and proceeded to the market place.
There he found a man sitting in front of a
contraption, promising profit to men with luck!
On a circle drawn in white paint on a piece of
black cloth were some hieroglyphics. He had
attached some monetary value to a few figures
and no value at all to the rest! He had an iron
rod sticking up from the center and a movable
pointer on the top. He asked his customers to
place a coin beside him and give the pointer a
quick turn. If it stopped on top of a section
which had a figure such as 2, 3, or 4, he would
give the customers two, three, or four times the
amount of the stake. Otherwise he would keep the
stake. Sathya had to try his luck. He turned the
pointer a number of times. Each time he won,
thus collecting twelve annas in all. He says
that he could have won more, but he sympathized
with the poor fellow whose earnings were
slim!
Those twelve
annas sufficed for one week. As previously
mentioned, he had a miraculous power not only of
providing food for himself but also of proving
by the scent of his hand that he had eaten. (On
occasions even now when people doubt he has
eaten, he may be heard to say, "I have had
lunch," and allows them to smell his palm, thus
quelling their doubts.) Thus the scoutmaster was
led to believe that Sathya was being well fed by
some of his relatives at the Fair; therefore he
made no distinction between Sathya and the other
boys in assigning work. Sathya entered
enthusiastically upon his task of inspiring his
classmates to do selfless service. (Today this
is still the theme of Sai Baba's teaching of
service: Service to others is service to
oneself, for the other is only oneself in
another form with another name!)
When it was
proposed that the scouts return to Kamalapur by
bus, Sathya quietly slipped out of the camp
because he had not paid his share of the bus
fare. He walked back the entire distance as a
matter of principle.
While Sathya
was at Kamalapur, he was not only separated from
his parents but also from his brother who had
gone away to undergo training as a teacher. When
Sathya needed clothing and other items, he wrote
popular ditties for the use of a merchant, Kote
Subbanna, who had a shop featuring medicines,
tonics, glassware, articles of fashionable wear,
umbrellas, etc. Their arrangement was that when
Subbanna desired to promote a new article on the
market or boost the sales of a patent drug, he
would stop Sathya on his way to school and give
him the necessary information. By evening Sathya
had prepared an attractive song praising the
merchandise in well written poetry. In return
for the songs, which soon became popular,
Subbanna gave Sathya cloth, books and other
articles he needed. The songs were full of verve
and lilt, capable of catching the ear when sung
in chorus by a band of hired urchins who would
march along the streets, with the name-boards in
their hands, singing the slogan-filled songs and
apparently enjoying their task! (Even now Sai
Baba regales those around him with the
recitation of these old time
"commercials.")
There is a
saying current among the older devotees of Sai
Baba: "He manifested himself at Uravakonda, but
spread the glory from Kamalapur." This statement
is a tribute to the quickness with which the
people of Kamalapur responded later to the Call
without the cynicism of ignorant conceit. After
Sathya returned to Puttaparthi, they organized
public receptions and gatherings for worship of
"Bala" Sai, the Child Sai.
Seshama Raju
completed the training prescribed to qualify him
as a teacher of the southern Indian language
Telugu and was assigned a post at the High
School at Uravakonda. He welcomed this as a good
omen, for he could have Sathya with him and give
personal and immediate attention to his progress
in higher studies.
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