Gifts
of Grace
At Shirdi,
Baba gave the Divine Panacea, the Ash, contacted
by His Divine Hand, from the Dhuni or Fire that
was always lit and active in the masjid room
where He spent His days. Now, the Dhuni is in
His own Hand, ever ready to yield the precious
gift; He has only to will and wave. Nor is it
essential that the ash or Vibhuthi as it is
called in Sanskrit, should be so created. Baba
wills, but, does not wave His Hand. Yet, the
Vibhuthi flows, as the stream of Grace, where He
wills, when He wills. This is the greatest of
contemporary miracles, this overflowing shower
of Divine Vibhuthi Grace!
The showers
came, silent and unannounced, like dew before
the dawn on blossoms in the fields. An anxious
parent inquired whether the appearance of ash
clusters on the picture of Baba that he was
worshipping boded ill: for, he had met Baba a
few weeks previously about a missing son, and
the ash for him was a reminder of cremation and
death. Baba directed me to write to the
correspondent that Vibhuthi on and from His
picture and the pictures of other forms of God
can never be so interpreted; it is a sign of
Grace! This happened in Tanjore
District.
At Parmathi,
in Salem District, a person who had visited
Prasanthi Nilayam and who had not met Baba in
person had a picture of Baba in his shrine. He
writes, "Since the 2nd of last month, Ash as
well as
Amrith
are falling in showers from Baba's picture! I am
collecting them and giving them to the people
who come. But I have extra stock with me, which
is daily accumulating. Advise me what I should
do with these? Can I put them into the holy
Kaveri river that is near my place?" Another
correspondent from Cochin wrote about the same
time, to the Editor of the
Sanathana
Sarathi.
"A few days back, I found that an oily fluid was
flowing from one side of the glass of the framed
picture of Bhagavan.
There are red dots of Kumkum and white dots of
Vibhuthi that have appeared on the glass. As I
am not quite sure what the above things relate
to, I have not given any publicity to this. I
shall be highly grateful, if you can kindly
enlighten me". What could the puzzled editor,
that is, what could I do, except congratulating
him on the unique proof he had before his eyes
of the majestic glory of Baba?
Or, I shall
quote from a letter about a happening in
Calcutta. "I am a devotee of Baba for several
years; but, my brother's sons at Calcutta have
not seen Baba. So they are naturally upset.
Vibhuthi appears and can be collected not only
from Baba's picture, but, from all the other ten
pictures of Hindu Gods! Vibhuthi is also
originating from the photograph of my brother,
who died some 8 years ago! Of course, he was a
very pious and simple man, with a large heart.
On the Ashtami Day, when our family deity at
Vaikom is taken out the Annual Procession, the
Vibhuthi that showered from Baba's Picture was
the same, in texture, colour, taste, and
density, as the Ash given at Vaikom as
Prasadam;
Please find out the significance of all this and
let me know what I should do".
K. Rajarama
Rao from Konaje, near Vittal, in South Kanara
District, Mysore was afflicted with doubt. He
wrote to the Editor, "My youngest sister noted
the Vibhuthi at about 9.30 A.M. Immediately, a
piece of paper was kept beneath the photo and
the showers were collected on it. Please write
to me, how we should use the Vibhuthi that has
fallen and is falling". The chief Chemist of an
Explosives factory at Poona did not waste time
in asking questions and waiting for answers. He
was too full of chemistry for that. He examined
the frame, the glass, the cardboard placed
behind, and wiped and turned it upside down;
but, he could not discover wherefrom and why
fore the ash emanated! He came to Baba at
Prasanthi Nilayam. Baba called him in and after
the interview, when he left, He said: "I am
giving you
udi at
home, at Poona, not here. Go". That was the
confirmation, the benediction, the
revelation!
A Circle
Inspector of Police (Retd.) quite accidentally
came by two photograph portraits of Baba on
27-11-65, had them framed and kept in his
shrine. He and his wife were inspired to hurry
up to Prasanthi Nilayam which they reached on
the 28th; they were called in and blessed by
Baba on the 29th itself. When they left, Baba
patted him on the shoulder and said, "I shall
come there". How? When? ...he could not ask.
Baba demonstrated to him His arrival and
Presence by showering Vibhuthi from His
portraits. That was fulfillment enough. And, to
demonstrate that He was all the manifestations
of God known and unknown, it fell in continuous
showers from the portraits of all the
manifestations, Krishna,
Rama,
Siva,
Muruga, Krishna (as installed at Guruvayoor) and
Christ. Perhaps Baba had a special reason for
willing that the picture of Jesus shower the
amazing new sign of Grace. For, on the 24th day
of February, a Christian who had gone for
astray, was brought to this house of wonder. He
heard the
Bhajan
from the verandah, he peeped in through the
window. He saw the picture of Christ. He
trembled before a vision of Sathya Sai Baba in
awe and penitence (as he related later) and he
burst into a declaration, "I will correct
myself; I shall not drink any more." He has been
saved and accepted as a child Baba's abundant
love.
That picture
of the shrine at Guruvayoor too has a special
importance. At Guruvayoor, there are big brass
lamps fed on oil placed in the shrine; every
picture of the shrine has two of these depicted,
on either side of the idol. The shrine has been
immortalized by the great poet-saint Narayana
Bhattathiripad, who cured himself of chronic
rheumatism by worshipping the idol through his
inimitable rendering of the glory of Krishna,
the Narayaneeyam. Therefore, the oil from the
lamps inside the shrine is held as a specific
for rheumatism, by people from all parts of the
land; they take it reverentially and use it with
enormous faith. Baba is the Form that is in the
innermost shrine of all temples; so, He willed
that oil be given from the lamps in the pictures
of that shrine! This resulted in drops of oil
falling from the edges of the painted lamps in
the printed picture of the Lord of Guruvayoor,
in the shrine room of the Circle Inspector of
Police! It was collected and used for the same
curative purpose; it was seen and examined by
priests associated long with that temple, they
declared that the oil was indisputably genuine,
identical with that available at the original
shrine!
And,
not in the homes of individual Bhakthas only,
Baba wills that His Grace be showered in this
Form in prayer halls too! A. Nataraja Pillai of
Muvattupuzha in Kerala writes, "Vibhuthi and
Kumkum are to be seen on all the pictures of the
Gods placed in the Bhajana Hall. To our extreme
joy, it is very interesting to note that butter
has emanated and is found in heaps, in the palm
of baby Krishna, pictured on a calendar hung on
the wall. The picture depicts Yasoda, the
mother, threatening her Divine Child with a
stick, for stealing butter.
Baba
characterizes the miracle of creating vibhuthi
in the palm of the hand as 'My visiting card';
He has visiting cards of various types and sizes
revealing more and more facets of His
Personality. They serve to announce the arrival
of the Avathar,
the glad tidings of the advent of the saviour of
civilization, from being degraded into a
death-trap for humanity. The showers of
auspicious articles from the portraits of Baba
and His manifold forms are only streamers,
banners, headlines, that serve to announce the
same comforting news. No consecrated image has
so far given such patent proof that it is
saturated with Divinity, such daily dramatic
evidence that One Universal Will does direct the
multifarious forces in the
world!
In the
Bhagavad Githa, [see
Bhagavad Gîtâ, Chapter
11]
after awarding Arjuna a vision of Himself as
that Universal Will that is motivating all
creation, Krishna says, "Arjuna! This is but a
fraction of My Vibhuthi; My Vibhuthi is endless!
"Vibhuthi means power, might, splendour, glory,
majesty". In the case of Baba, the Vibhuthi
(ash) that Baba gives, either Himself directly,
or through His portraits indirectly, or through
the portraits of His other Forms that are
revered by man, is endless in its vibhuthi
(splendour).
P.V. Natarajan
from Kugalur wrote to the Editor "Vibhuthi is
showered from the raised palm of Baba in the
picture; this assures me that He is ever with me
and that I need never be afraid". In the village
of Samphgaon, Dharwar Dt., vibhuthi is falling
from Baba's photograph in the houses of many
devotees. Sri. S.B. Kadakola wrote, "Seeing all
this excitement, Dandayyaswami Rachayyaswami
Salamath spoke challengingly 'All this must be
false and faked. How can bhasma or vibhuthi fall
like this of its own accord? I too have a photo
of Baba in my shrine room. Why does this
vibhuthi not fall from that?' And, the same day,
vibhuthi was found all over that photo, sticking
to it and showering from it! This continued for
3 days. A friend of Salamath came to his house
during that period and said, "How can vibhuthi
be produced on this glass? The whole village is
being misled by some type of mischief". He wiped
the glass clean with a wet towel, and squatted
before it, declaring, "Now, let me see what you
call the Mahima (glory) of this Baba of yours.
Let the shower of Vibhuthi fall". Within 15
minutes, the shower reappeared; the quantity
sticking to the glass was the double the
previous quantity! The critic fell prostrate
before the picture.
A mechanic in
a sugar factory found that the vibhuthi that
showered from about four or five pictures of
Baba in his house was extraordinarily sweet,
because he found the ants swarmed to eat it! He
hastened to Baba to pray that the sweetness
might be taken away; but, Baba assured him that
the ants will be kept away... and, from the next
day, the ants stayed away! There are some houses
where the pictures shower vibhuthi on Thursday
only, some where more is showered on Festival
days when there are more to share it; some where
the vibhuthi that is granted from each picture
is different in taste and texture from that
granted from the rest. If it is rather dark grey
and grainy, they call it Shirdi Vibhuthi; if it
is soft and fragrant, they call it Parthi
Vibhuthi and so on. So too, the Kumkum can be of
varied hues, the Amrith of different
consistencies, taste and fragance. A Saurashtra
devotee wrote that the liquid that the portrait
(or rather Baba in the portrait) granted on the
last day of Sravan, when they finished their
month-long vow of abstinence from salt, was
(strange, indeed, are His ways) salt water(!)
with which they could resume their pre-vow
life.
Thus shines
this saga of the Sovereignty of Baba over Time
and Space, over Matter and
Spirit.
At Akola, from
the photograph of Sri Bhagavan Sathya Sai Baba,
in our house, Vibhuthi, Kumkum and Haldi powder
(turmeric powder, considered as auspicious) have
been showering since two months", writes an
advocate. At Rajkot, on Vaikunta Ekadasi Day,
vibhuthi appeared. At Jamnagar, on
Mahasivarathri, "to our great surprise, we saw
'Om' and 'Sri' written on the glasses of four
big portraits hung in the hall. It was written
in some oily liquid, which we could smell as
Amrith". A doctor from Palghat writes, "I
prescribed the vibhuthi of Baba more than drugs;
Baba is giving me a regular supply from the
pictures in my house". Dr. Bailur in Santa Cruz
is also in that happy situation. Advocate Saxena
of Rampur gets vibhuthi like this; many devotees
in Kharagpur, Jamshedpur, Calcutta, Trivandrum,
Madras, Trichinapally and other towns and
villages between the Himalayas and the Cape are
granted these auspicious signs of Grace in this
amazingly convincing manner, by
Baba.
When I prayed
to Baba for permission to publish some of these
incidents illustrating His Majesty and Glory, He
remarked that it may be misinterpreted easily as
'propaganda'! But, the miracle is so widespread,
so obvious, so easily liable to be examined and
confirmed, that the misinterpretation will be
quickly acknowledged by the critics as due to
ignorance. At Salem, the vibhuthi is falling
from the pictures in the house of the Professor
of Physics of the local College! When he shows
the pictures to visitors, he cannot be accused
of propaganda. I myself have sat on the floor of
the house of Vimalananda in Shimoga, watching
the piling up of Vibhuthi, grain by grain,
second by second, dropping from the
picture-frame's edge. I have seen at Mangalore,
vibhuthi grains dropping from the left foot of
Shirdi Baba's idol (the foot that is kept on the
left knee) and forming a pile underneath! I have
been most pleasantly surprised when hundreds of
Amrith drops appeared suddenly over the big
portrait of Baba at Devi Vilas, College Road,
Palghat, just when I finished Arathi,
after a talk on Baba's Glory, on the holy day of
Sravan celebrated throughout Kerala, as
'Onam.'
The second
objection that Baba raised when such incidents
were to be published was, that it will make the
person so blessed very 'conceited', and lead to
his spiritual ruin. This is the reason why Baba
is against undue publicity being given to any
Grace that one receives from Him; it is a gift
that one should hold dear in the recesses of
ones heart, that one should ruminate over, in
the silence of one's own deepest meditation. It
is a secret sign of Love from one's dearest
Beloved. Some have been led astray, however, for
the ego raises its poisonous hood; they start
advertising their spiritual superiority, they
challenge others in the village to win such
Grace from Baba; they compare and cavil, they
compete and condemn! They inaugurate a chain of
evil, which robs them of their blessedness!
Anxious to establish that they too are devotees
of equal intensity, weak men fake and all are
tarred by the same brush, when the trick is laid
bare, for, Truth must triumph and
quickly.
Let us leave
such tricksters to the retribution in store for
them and pay attention to the genuine votaries
on whom Baba has conferred these and other signs
of His incredible Mahima. The Nadaswaram Vidwan
who used to come every Dasara and Sivarathri to
play music at the Nilayam had an uncle of his as
an accompanist, on the drum. His name is Ganesh.
He writes, "When I took leave of Baba after the
Birthday Festival (1965), He graciously assured
me, 'You will have no trouble any more; I am by
your side, always'. I went with my nephew to
Thiruvannamalai Temple and after playing the
music there for the Ten-day Festival, returned
home to find showers of vibhuthi falling
profusely from the pictures of Baba and Shri
Krishna, kept for worship in my house. I am
overcome with joy. I pray to Baba that the
showers may increase, so that I can give it to
all who come."
As a matter of
fact, Baba has given an 'inexhaustible
receptacle' of vibhuthi to devotees who will not
misuse the gift for their own aggrandizement.
You have only to shake it with the name of Baba
on your tongue and it fills itself! There was
also a man who prayed to Baba that the vibhuthi
showers may stop! He did not have the patience
that a poor goldsmith in Bombay (Santa Cruz)
has; for, the said smith whose work spot is
under a staircase on the ground floor has
vibhuthi falling from a picture of Baba; he
interrupts his work, to receive the stream of
visitors who come to see this most 'unscientific
phenomenon', of ash turning out paper! This
other person lives in a single room, with his
wife and three children, in a chawl
[tenement] in Bombay. He writes, "Baba
has granted me the Grace of vibhuthi showers
from His portraits in my house or rather, room.
As a result, hundreds from all the chawls around
stream into my room, from dawn to dusk and even
far into the night. It has become difficult for
me to live in this place. Please ask Baba to
stop this vibhuthi"! This is a most pathetic
letter, which no devotee will ever make, unless
his distress is unbearable. One can see that the
vibhuthi is as genuine as his grief at the
publicity that it got.
Sri Vaidya of
Navsari came to me at Prasanthi Nilayam and gave
me a report of the activities of the Bhajan
Society which he has built up. I found there an
item, "Visits to places of Sai
Leela",
which drew my attention. He explained to me that
in the village of Chinam, there was a devotee in
whose house vibhuthi and kumkum were showering
from Baba's pictures. "At Supa, when the Bhajans
started, vibhuthi showers started", he said.
(This reminded me of an experience I had. In the
shrine of an old Brahmin lady, at Kalpathi there
was a row of glass-framed pictures of Baba. When
Bhajan began, one of the pictures began swinging
from right to left, slow and quick, according to
the slowness of the beats. When the song ended,
the picture came to a halt!) Water that was kept
before the picture of Baba as an offering to
slake His thirst turned in a moment into a
fragrant flavoured drink, which Bhakthas termed
Amrith. (This happens in a number of places all
over India.) Moreover, Amrith flowed in a gush
from the Divine Mouth in the picture! (This
reminds me of a certain Vaikunta Ekadasi Day,
when Baba sitting in the midst of a few hundred
devotees signed for a tumbler and poured Amrith
into it - a glass full - from His Divine Mouth!)
"At Markapur, ten miles off, the party saw the
same evidence of Baba's omnipresence and
overflowing Grace."
Baba grants
Grace but, never allows it to foster the ego in
man. The vibhuthi stops or some other harsh
reminder is given when the ego raises its ugly
head. Hysteria - Baba calls it, when a person
gets intoxicated with pride or envy, as a result
of this shower. One has to be constantly aware
of one's weakness and one has to be praying
every moment for the faith necessary to receive
the Grace. Or else, one has no right to claim
kinship with the Sai Family.
Baba does not
encourage any one to demand or receive special
reverence, as a sign that He has bestowed upon a
person some signal proof of His Grace. But,
people find it difficult to resist the
temptation of offering and accepting the
reverence that will harm both receiver and
giver. They slide down the ego way into
spiritual nihilism.
Baba told the
gathering at Kakinada, "There are some who came
to you and say, "Sathya Sai Baba likes me much;
He has given me this, a thing which He seldom
gives except to those who are nearest to Him".
And, then, they beg for help or crave special
attention, which is an insult to the Divine
Principle itself!" "To receive a mark of Grace
from Me is a great responsibility; it is a
reminder that you should be humble, sweet in
speech, truthful, detached and ever aware of the
Sai in all." But, there are some who celebrate
the anniversary of the first appearance of
vibhuthi in a grand manner, collecting donations
for the same; yet others who dispatch vibhuthi
or amrith by post to correspondents and collect
donations - little knowing the injury they are
causing to their own progress!
There
is another series of happenings too, of which
mention can be made here. Little children or
some times, even feeble-minded adults growing up
in the atmosphere of the unreasoning external
worship are prone to suffer from visions, to
imagine that they hear voices, and to believe
that they are able to read messages that He
writes or otherwise communicate with Baba! When
such cases are known to exist in one house, the
neighbor's child is most likely to be affected
too. Thus, a regular mass hysteria developed
recently in Madras City, in East Godavari
District and in South Kanara District, as well
as in Ceylon. Baba condemned this in strong
terms. At Amalapuram, on the 29th March, 1965,
He said, "This has become quite an infection. I
am not laughing at any one or blaming any one.
But, the truth must be made known. There are
quite a few around Amalapuram who declare that I
am coming upon them, possessing them, and
speaking through them. They wave their hands and
sway and shake and shiver, and people sitting
around them assert that they are under My
influence! They answer questions and, their
agents and brokers claim that they are granting
'interviews', as I do! This deceitful disease is
spreading among simple people through schemers
and cheats. Whenever you see of hear about
people suffering from this disease, nip it in
the bud; scotch the agents first; then, teach
the child or the feeble-minded adult to shut up
and be normal. I never speak through another. I
never use another or possess another physical
vehicle to express Myself. I am not a ghost or
spirit to do so, to need some medium. I come
direct, I speak direct, I come as I am or as I
will to come in fresh created Forms. I do not
use weak vacillating human vehicles; I confer
boons straight and without any intermediary". At
Yelamanchili, He said, "Persons who claim to be
possessed by Me have appeared recently; order
them out, wherever you meet them. Do not yield
to such morons and fakes, and lower your own
dignity as devotees". Devotees of Baba are
advised by Him to be ever vigilant against the
subtle pulls of the sinister and the secret;
when the
Avathar
has come and is so accessible and free with
Grace, it is sheer stupidity to say the least to
lionize the diseased and the deliberate
crooks.
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