The
Constant Presence
On Sunday, the
13th day of December, 1964, Baba was at
Venkatagiri Town. He had reached the place a few
days earlier in connection with a heavy schedule
of discourses in the Chittoor and Nellore
Districts, in Andhra Pradesh. But, Baba is not
bound by the limitations of space and time. On
that very day, about 8 a.m., "Baba surprisingly
appeared in front of my house", says, U. Ram
Mohan Rao, Superintendent of the Junior
Technical School, Manjeri (28 miles south of
Calicut on the West Coast, in the State of
Kerala). As the crow flies, the distance between
Manjeri and Venkatagiri will be more than 600
miles! But, distance is only a game that Baba
plays to keep us, poor mortals, apart.
We shall
listen to Ram Mohan Rao describing this visit.
"I and my wife were indoors with our daughter.
The maid told us that a
Sadhu
had come. We went out to see who it was and we
were surprised to see Sri Sathya Sai Baba! Baba
said,
Hari
Om,
Santhih
Santhih Santhih"; we prostrated ourselves at His
Feet. We led Baba into the office room, but, on
the way, He saw our Puja room where His photo
was hung, along with several holy pictures. He
said He would sit in the Puja room itself. He
told us that he had come to us that day, being
very pleased with the
Bhakthi
of Sailaja, my daughter. He asked me to send
word to devotees, if any were available, for
Bhajan
and Pravachan." "He sent word to his neighbours
and people collected immediately", says Ramesh
Rao, his cousin. He sang "Nandamukunda
Sayinath", "Om Bhagavan", "Jayaram Jayaram",
along with the Bhakthas.
After Bhajan, He talked to me in Tamil, to my
wife in Canarese and to the others in the mixed
dialect of Tamil-Malayalam. He Blessed us by the
gift of a Sankhamala and placed His own
photograph on it. He told me that my father had
decided on a rite to propitiate the Snake-God
(Sarpasamskaram) at Bangalore on 25th February,
Thursday ('My day' He added), but he told me
that he need not perform it, since He had ahead
wiped off the calamity it was intended to avert
and the sacrilege it was designed to
atone.
He took some
light refreshment. Then, told the persons around
Him that all will be anxiously awaiting Him at
Kalahasti. So, He took leave of us and asking us
not to follow Him, went through the gate. He
disappeared in a few seconds. We all felt happy
at this unexpected Darsan and were struck by the
'disappearing miracle', within the twinkling of
an eye.
Nor was this
all. There are a few more paragraphs in the
letter, which I am quoting: "24th December,
Thursday, was a holiday; we felt lonely since
our Sailaja was away at Mangalore. So we went
out in the afternoon to visit some friends and
returned home at 6.30 P.M. We were shocked to
see the lights burning within the house. My wife
asked me whether I had forgotten to switch off
all the lights. I first examined the lock of the
main door and, finding it intact, went round the
house to see whether the other doors were bolted
from within. They were o.k. Then, both of us
came to the front door, opened the lock and
walked in. We found everything intact; all the
lights were on. We saw Baba sitting in our
Prayer Room! We prostrated ourselves at His
feet. He asked us (in Kannada) whether we were
afraid! We replied that we were very lucky and
that we felt very happy! Baba said that He had
come because we were lonely and sad. 'Let us
sing Bhajans. If Sailaja were here, she would
have liked to sing', He said. He sang a few
Bhajans, He took food and later, we discussed
some general topics together. Then, Baba retired
for the night.
Early next
morning, Baba had His Bath; he had coffee with
us and then, discoursed on Bhakthi and the Basic
Truth of Nature. All of a sudden, we saw a
rosary of Rudraksha beads in His Hand; He put it
on my neck with His Blessing, with the direction
that I should wear it during my
Sandhya
rites. After those rites, I was to place it on
Baba's photograph. We had breakfast together.
The Puja room was decorated specially with
garlands and flowers. Bhajan began. Meanwhile,
devotees came to know that Baba had come; so
they too assembled for Bhajan. Baba discoursed
on Bhakthi in the Tamil-Malayalam dialect. He
granted every one the coveted
interview.
At 12 noon,
Baba himself waved the Sacred light of
Mangalarathi and distributed Prasadam, to every
one present. The quarter kilogram of dates that
I had, sufficed for 150 persons! We had our
lunch with Baba. He rested for a couple of hours
and we had 'tea' at 4.30 p.m. Then He told us
that several devotees were eagerly waiting Him
at Kalahasti. He blessed us again, when we fell
at His Feet. At 5. p.m., He went out on the road
through the gate and suddenly disappeared. What
a wonderful miracle! We could not believe our
own eyes!"
Nor could I,
without confirmation through independent
sources! Baba had given
Darsan
to persons in distress in distant places but
nowhere, so far as we knew, did He stay so long
and so concretely. It was too overpoweringly
unscientific! I wrote a letter to two friends,
P.K. Panikkar and P.A. Menon in Kerala enclosing
a list of 84 questions for which I wanted them
to find answers at Manjeri. They proceeded to
Ram Mohana Rao's house and sent me a fuller
report, which dotted all the 'i's and crossed
all the 't's of his letter to
me!
Ram Mohan Rao
and his wife told them that Baba was wearing a
yellow gown on the 13th of December; He walked
in, barefooted and went into the shrine room
saying, "I shall go into My own place." My
friends saw the picture on which the rosary of
Rudraksha beads was placed. It had a thick
outgrowth of sacred ash in a few days. Strangely
enough, the face of Baba was clear but from the
outer area in the picture, there fell a
continuous shower of
Vibhuthi
dust which was being collected and distributed
with the reverence due to the divinely created
gift of Grace!
"Rao and his
wife have been devoted to Shirdi Sai Baba for
many years; they have not visited
Prasanthi
Nilayam,
but, they had secured a picture of Sathya Sai
Baba seven years ago and placed it amidst the
other pictures in their shrine. When Baba sat in
the shrine room and leaned against the wall,
right under His own picture, they saw that the
picture was genuine! That was the first time
they saw Him; they had borrowed the book
'Sathyam
Shivam Sundaram'
from a friend and read it. They thought that
Baba has come, accidentally, to Calicut or some
nearby town and had decided to bless them by
this visit.
When Mrs. Rao
was listing her sorrows to Baba, encouraged by
His overflowing love, Baba said, "Sorrow and
pain are the lot of all; don't you know that
both sisters of this body are widowed?" When
Sailaja asked Baba for a Bhajan Book, Baba said,
"Palghat Menon bas brought 400 Bhajan books,
printed in Malayalam, to Prasanthi Nilayam. I
shall give you one". So saying, Baba held his
palm upside down, waved it twice and caught with
His fingers the book that appeared! He gave it
to the girl; we saw it! It was the same book,
with the blue paper cover! Sailaja had great
faith in Baba, since her eczema on the foot was
cured by Baba a year ago, in answer to her
pleading before His picture.
When he was
asked to bring some persons for Bhajan, Rao did
not go far, for he did not desire to miss Baba's
company for long. He brought in the owner of his
house, an old gentleman, by name Thalayur Moosad
and his 5 year old daughter; he brought the
widow of Madhavan Nair, the founder of the
renowned Malayalam newspaper, 'Mathrubhoomi' and
her sister. Baba asked Moosad, "What ails your
leg?" He gave him an account of his disease and
prayed for some drug. Baba told him, "The course
of treatment you are now undergoing is enough."
Mrs. Rao is now sending him the Vibhuthi Baba
showers from His picture; he finds it very
effective. The widow told Him of her diabetes.
"I am getting bags and bags of rice from my
fields; but I cannot eat a grain" she said. Baba
replied in Malayalam, "It is the result of your
past
karma".
He asked Rao to bring an empty glass. When Baba
held it in His Hand, it turned pink! He gave it
to her. "Take this thrice daily for 3 days; you
can then take any quantity of rice".
"One cynic was
there, among the rest. Baba knew it and so He
jocularly asked Rammohan Rao to bring a pair of
scissors and he asked the fellow to cut for
Himself a single hair from His Head! The man
tried hard but failed, whereupon a bigger pair
was brought at His command. This time too he
failed. So, he put down his head and walked away
without a word" writes U.N. Ramesh Rho, Rao's
cousin, who visited Manjeri soon after this
incident.
Baba sang four
songs in all, during the Bhajan, asking the
gathering too to sing them after Him in chorus.
They were: 'O! Bhagavan', Pahi Pahi Gajanana',
'Siva Siva Siva' and 'Omkara priya Sai Ram'.
[Sai
Bhajans online in
mp3]
"We saw the
Sankhamala, the rosary of small conch shells",
says the report. "It is of the type available at
Kanyakumari, each shell being no bigger than a
seed of pepper. They are white in colour, with
brown dots. There are 108 of them in the rosary,
created and given by Baba. When we saw it,
Vibhuti had heaped itself over the beads. The
rosary of Rudraksha beads also was examined by
us. Baba told them that, until he could string
them in gold, he should place it on the picture.
Baba also created an orange-size bell-metal
drinking cup with a spout and gave it to
Sailaja. He also created a piece of scarlet silk
cloth with borders of gold thread, and,
presenting it to the girl, asked Rao to have a
jacket sewn for her. He gave Rao additional
"Vibhuthi" and "Kumkum" created on the spot to
be given to "Calicut" (meaning U.N. Ramesh Rao,
his cousin living there). Baba left at 11 a.m.
on the 13th, saying, "I have to keep to a
programme at Kalahasti". They did not then know
that Kalahasti was about 20 miles from
Venkatagiri! They were too aggrieved at His
resolve to leave, to ask where it was. He said,
"No one need come with me". He closed the gate
behind Him and disappeared!
The second
visit was on a Thursday. Mrs. Rao was afraid to
approach the house, since the lights were on.
Rao opened the lock and entered. He saw Baba in
the shrine, sitting leaning against the wall.
Baba asked him in Tamil, "Are you afraid, seeing
me? I have come to join your Bhajan," He assured
him. Rao had brought some dried dates from the
bazaar; he gave the plate into the hands of Baba
for distribution; he felt that He alone could
make it suffice for all, those who were present.
Baba entered the kitchen and protested against
the dish of 'kheer' being prepared. He did not
"relish that sweet dish". "This is enough for
six", He said! They had cooked only for two but,
after dinner, food for three more was available.
Next morning, Rao and Mrs. Rao partook of it as
a sacramental"! Before retiring for the night,
Baba removed one picture of His from the shrine
and hung it on a nail in the bedroom. 'Let it be
here', He said. From that picture too, Vibhuthi
is showering in large quantities
now.
Rao peeped
through a slit in the door to find out whether
Baba was sleeping well but, he saw Him sitting
up, most of the time, 'lost in thought', as one
in reverie.
Next morning,
Baba had his bath and breakfast. When the
housewife started preparing 'festive dishes', He
noticed her enthusiasm and warned that He would
leave without eating anything at all; He
insisted that only their daily menu should be
given to Him. He talked to them of Sankaracharya
being caught while young by the crocodile
(Maya)
in the river Poorna (Brahma)
and saved by renunciation (Sanyas).
He spoke of Sai Baba and God as
Subrahmanya
or Murugan. While speaking of Subrahmanya, He
created a thin plate of gold, drew on it with
His nail the picture of Subrahmanya on a peacock
(paravani)
and rolling it directed her to wear it round the
neck, inside a golden cylinder, to be made
later. He said jocularly, "Sorry! I have no
gold"!
This is
perhaps the most dramatic detailed and authentic
narrative of the multilocative miracle of
Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba.
Baba appears
in dreams to console, to advise, to assuage, and
to instruct; He has said often that persons can
see Him in dreams only when He wills! He
informed a Divisional Commissioner of the Life
Insurance Corporation in his dream that a
certain document he was desperately searching
for, a document which every one declared was
destroyed by the office where it had to be
preserved only for 6 months, had not actually
been destroyed! He went to the Postmaster spoke
about the dream and got the document he wanted.
It had not been destroyed! In a dream he woke up
a school teacher at Tumkur and told her to take
the next train to Bangalore so that she could
recover her jewels from a person who was leaving
for Bombay at 8.30 A.M.!
I have heard
Him say, "Poor fellow! When he left, he prayed
for My
Darsan
at least in dreams! I must give him the chance",
or "Tell your son I will appear in his dream
next Thursday"! He has directed me to ask some
persons, "Did you not see Baba in your dream
last night?" and sure enough, they had an
unforgettable dream experience in which Baba
granted them Darsan and Blessings. He has
initiated persons into spiritual
sadhana
through
Upadesh
granted in dreams; He has taught people new
Bhajan songs in dreams and asked them at
Prasanthi Nilayam to sing them; He conveys
information and advice in dreams; He operates on
boils and bubos, on eye, ear or tongue. The
patient dreams that He is operating, with the
knife and the dream is true. Those who went to
bed in pain wake up happy, rid of the dire
disease! Listen to the experience of Dr. V.D.
Kulkarni of Chadchan in Bijapur District. He
writes on 2-11-61, "A Muslim lady (60) Badooma
Kasim, suffering from pneumonia in both lungs
was admitted in my clinic last month. On the
fourth day, I came home at about 8 pm, after
examining all my patients and finding them
progressing well. About midnight, however, her
son ran to me in hot haste and I hastened to the
clinic to find that her heart was sinking. I
administered corramine orally and by injection,
and waited for an hour by her bedside but found
it ineffective. The son started weeping in
despair. I came home at 1 a.m, had a bath, and
entering my shrine-room, did puja to the
'picture' of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba,
recited the
108 Names of
Baba,
and prayed, "My efforts have all become vain; I
know no other course except to surrender to You,
Yours is now the victory or defeat, the fame or
the failure. On You is the responsibility of
making her come out alive". I then quietly took
to bed, but could get no sleep. Even before
sunrise, I hurried to the clinic. I found
Badooma sitting up. "What happened at night?"
Had any one come?"I asked her. "Yes! On this
bed, near my pillow, some one with a pile of
hair sat; he placed his hands under my ears and
stroked my face softly. So, I could rise and sit
up", she said. I showed her the small photograph
of Sri Sathya Sai Baba I had with me. "Yes! this
very person", she said. "How lucky is this
woman! She got a lease of life through His
Touch", writes Dr. Kulkarni!
There are many
instances when Baba has appeared and applied the
Vibhuthi on the forehead of the sleeping or
unconscious patient and the dot is seen on
awakening. Or, as Swami Abhedananda (aged 75)
writes, the appearance may be to convey a
message. "In the early hours of the 28th
December, about 4 a.m, while I was still in bed
brooding over the melancholy and disturbed state
of my affairs, I felt a sudden blow on my head,
strong but bearable. I got up and switched the
lights on. To my surprise, I observed a shining
form of Bhagavan
Ramana Maharshi
which changed into Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
- appearing separately for some time and then
merging together into a dazzling column of light
which lasted but a few seconds. I felt I had the
vision of both my benevolent Gurus! While in
this happy state of mind, I heard a voice (which
was then strange to me but which I later
verified as the authentic voice of Bhagavan Sri
Sathya Sai Baba) which spoke to me in Telugu:
"Do not get agitated; do not meditate! Merely
watch the mind; that will make it disappear.
Watch! And know that He who watches is pure
awareness. Abstract and absolute Awareness is
Self, Sath-chit-anand.
That Thou Art. This is the Peace that knows no
second condition. This is what you are ardently
seeking. Be firm. Bliss is Thyself; you know it
through intuition. The blow I gave you was to
reveal this secret: Watch!" I started following
the instructions, from that moment onwards.
Bhagavan is a 'living presence'; He says often
in Telugu: I am with you, Kantane, Ventane,
Jantane and Intane (before your eyes, behind
your back, by your side, in your home). Baba
wrote to Charles Penn, "Know that I am always
with you, prompting you and guiding you. I know
also that you are aware of this. Live always in
the constant presence." Charles Penn receives
lessons from Baba during Dhyan. "My teacher Sai
Baba said to me, 'Every time the Hand is lifted,
lift it for Him'. I wrote to Baba and thanked
Him for the lesson. In reply, He explained the
meaning of what He had told me. He wrote, "If
you lift the hand to help, to serve, to console,
to encourage another man, you are lifting it for
God. Because in every man, there is God, use all
your talents for serving others; that is the
best way of serving yourself."
Charles Penn
of Los Angeles is a Captain in the Civil Air
Patrol, attached to the U.S. Air Force. This is
a voluntary organization formed for the express
purpose of rescuing pilots who have had 'forced
landings'. During the air search for lost
flyers, Penn saw Baba sitting beside him, and
knew that he was directed by Baba. "Penn! You
need not look out! I shall look for you" were
the words he heard, words which convinced him
that he is but an instrument in His Hands. "This
gave me a feeling of fearlessness in the
hailstorm across the mountain peaks", he says.
"Petrol splashed across the wind screen but I
saw Him beside me and so, calm and collected I
brought my plane down and, after hurried repair,
went again."
Hasn't Baba
always told us that distance is no bar in His
way. If any one could have faith and love, He is
always with them to take care of them. "Here,
10.000 miles away", writes Hilda Charlton from
New York, a person who has never met Baba in the
physical form is healed and is feeling Baba's
Presence always with her! Baba has no stranger;
He is in every one. Mary Simpson was
unsuccessfully operated twice for blood clots in
the lungs and for congested, enlarged breathing
tubes. The Doctor told her daughter when she was
taken home, "I am sorry your mother is leaving
the hospital worse than when she entered." But
she had the luck to know of Baba and to get a
picture of Baba, as well as some Vibhuthi. When
she prayed, Baba appeared before her and filled
her with a vibrant thrill of well-being. Within
a few days, the Doctor said, "I cannot believe
this; this improvement is a
miracle."
Whenever Baba
will, or our wills contact His Will, the laws of
nature are transcended; the unpredictable alone
can then be predicted. A three year old boy was
thrown to a distance of 20 feet by a Staff car,
in Kharagpur (West Bengal), there was bleeding
all over the body. He was conveyed to the K.G.
Hospital. When he regained consciousness, he
told the Doctor, "Do not fear, Doctor! Sai Baba
lifted me up. He held me by the hand!" There was
no fracture, no wound. He was discharged on the
third day.
An officer of
the Hindustan Aeronautics at Bangalore was
admitted into Hospital with severe Thrombo
phebitis with pulmonary embolism and probable
pulmonary tuberculosis. His condition became so
serious, that the oxygen tubes were taken away.
The kith and kin were waiting outside the
window, standing in the corridor. He saw Baba
standing by the side of the bed; He heard Baba
say, "Do not be afraid; you will be cured and
you will be a new man". From that moment,
improvement started. The doctors of the Victoria
Hospital wondered! Later, when he was called in
by Baba at Prasanthi Nilayam, Baba said, "So,
you have come re-born"!
The
rustling of Baba's silken gown, the touch of His
Smooth Soft hair, the faint foot-fall of His
light lovely feet, the silver voice, the flash
of lightning from those eyes, the sacred
fragrance of His presence - these have served to
indicate to many that Baba bas come to heal and
hearten.
No word of His
is spoken without significance. Baba told Mrs.
Som Dutt Khera of Calcutta when she implored Him
at Madras to visit her home, Achcha Achcha
Achcha, thrice. She saw His form distinctly at
her place on three occasions and felt thrilled
that the Promise had been fulfilled. When Sri
Raghavan, Inspector of Health, Malavalli came to
Baba and prayed for the cure of his wife, ill
with chronic osteomalacia, and fractures of the
pelvic bones, Baba said, "Do not despair;
putting her in plaster for years is beyond you;
I shall cure her, tak tak tak, like that" and he
made that noise with His two fingers to make His
point clear. Four months later, one night, in
the late hours, Baba appeared before her, and
asked her to rise. She fell at His Feet; He
stroked her back with many a word of
consolation; she heard something snapping within
her, 'tak tak tak'! She could stand and walk;
she was herself again!
J.P. Maroo of
Bombay writes, "At about 5.30 am, on the Guru
Pournima Day (Day dedicated to the worship of
the Spiritual preceptor), Sri Bhagavan appeared
at the residence of Mr. Iyengar (at Sion) and
gave Darsan for about 3 minutes to Mr. Iyengar's
mother. She was overfilled with joy. She prayed
to Bhagawan to remain a little longer, so that
she could awaken her children. But Bhagawan did
not agree. He moved about the house and placed
on a glass plate in the shrine room a small
quantity of saffron rice created on the spot.
Then He disappeared."
Sometimes,
Baba indicates His Presence by some sign. At
Chaganlal's Santi Kutir, He indicated His
Presence during Bhajan by pushing the Foot-stool
under the Special Chair, placed for His use
though He was away at Rajahmundry. Those engaged
in Bhajan saw the stool sliding in, as if He had
pushed it in, as He does when He rises from the
Chair and gives Darsan standing as a sign that
Bhajan shall close! At Sirsi, the cloth over the
chair developed two clear pictures of Om when He
decided (at Prasanthi Nilayam) to convey a
Message to the thousands gathered there. At
Shimoga, a small garland of big jasmine flowers
which was offered to Him at Mysore 200 miles
away fell in full view of the gathering, to
indicate His Presence! At Jamnagar, He indicated
His presence by the sudden appearance of Om on
His portrait, before which the gathering sat for
Bhajan.
"When I
remarked that He did not come to my house as
promised, He said with a smile, 'I did! Did you
not see the indication?"; I was overjoyed, for
the 3 foot prints, all of the right foot, which
I had seen at home on the day He had promised to
come, were thus acknowledged by Him as His!"
writes Sri B.S. Kesava Vittal of Bangalore. To
M.S. Dixit He said, "I shall come to your home
in January". Dixit showed signal signs of doubt
whether He deserved that signal gift of Grace.
"January? January of which year?" he blurted.
"Next month middle of January without fail" was
the reply. Baba placed His hand in Dixit's hand
and repeated the assurance.
It was the
17th day of January. When Mrs. Dixit was eating
her lunch, she heard Baba's voice calling Dixit,
Dixit, twice. She ran up to the door but found
no one outside it. She came back and resumed her
food. Then, she saw a glimpse of Baba's Face
peeping into the room. She rose and went into
the next room. But there was no one there. She
saw seven foot prints, leading from the outer
door to the shrine, left-right left-right in
that order and both feet by the side of the
shrine! They were all marked out by Vibhuti ash,
the out-line only. In a few days, the Vibhuthi
of one foot print grew and rose up to two inches
in height! Thousands saw it for months on end
and knew that Baba's Will had caused it. Thus
does Baba fulfill His Promise to be with us. He
is the most loving guide, the dearest companion,
the closet kinsman, the fondest parent and the
wisest Master.
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