| The Miracles of Sathya Sai Baba |
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MIND BOGGLING MIRACLES OF SATHYA SAI
By Sri Ghandikota V. Subba Rao
From Sri Sathya Sai Avatar of Love
Prashanti Society, November 23, 1993
[Mr. Ghandikota V. Subba Rao has been a devotee of Swami for many years. He served with UNICEF and the United Nations, as head of the Energy Section, for 34 years and took early retirement in 1985 to return to India to be with his 92 year old father, Sri Ghandikota Subrahmanya Sastry, the Rishi of the Sathya Sai Gayathri and a renowned Vedic scholar. Mr. Subba Rao has been living in Prasanthinilayam since 1985, on occasion translating Swami's speeches, giving lectures to overseas devotees, and editing publications of the Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust.]
SHIRDI SAI AND SATHYA SAI CONNECTION
That Baba knows our thoughts - indeed our past as well as future, has been repeatedly attested to by a large number of devotees. Just one such example from this writer's own experience is recounted here.
For many years, I developed a deep yearning to visit Shirdi. I made several attempts to pay my respects at Shirdi Sai shrine at Shirdi itself but to no avail. The closest I could come to the point of realizing this dream was in 1983, when I planned on my home-leave trip from New York to India to visit Shirdi after our landing in Bombay. Unfortunately, the whole family developed a stomach virus after our first meal in India at a Santa Cruz airport five-star hotel - precluding any extensive surface travel all the way to Shirdi. It was once again a great disappointment.
I was thinking of this escapade while intensely gazing at Shirdi Sai's shining silver idol and his giant size picture in the background of the Prashanti Mandir Bhajan hall, and also wondering about the connection of Shirdi Baba with Parthi Baba, about which I found numerous references in the Sai Literature. I closed my eyes, with Shirdi Baba in my mind, when to my utter amazement Parthi Baba stood right in front of me while I continued in my reverie. Swami waited till I fully opened my eyes, when with a burst of bliss I clasped His soft lotus feet and hung on to them like a child. Swami beckoned me inside the interview room and materialized a rather large silver ring with an inlaid multi-colored enamel picture of Shirdi Sai - saying that 'I am He'. I was stunned and electrified and I blurted out that at long last my long-cherished desire was fulfilled now! The shining large Shirdi ring on my finger used to attract the attention of my diplomatic acquaintances during my frequent elevator rides in the forty-story UN headquarters building in New York, leading to many inquisitive queries on the strange-looking personality on the ring-face. One thing led to another and before long I found myself presenting Sathya Sai literature to the UN Secretary General in his office!
SRI SATHYA SAI STUDY CIRCLE AT THE UN
Sensing the growing interest in the story of the glory of Baba, we had founded, with Baba's blessings, a Study Circle at the United Nations headquarters, with regular Thursday gatherings in delegates' meeting rooms situated right underneath the UN General Assembly Hall, and sometimes under the Security Council Chamber. Before long, Sai Bhajans began to reverberate in the after-office hours in the United Nations! The annual celebrations of the Study Circle attracted a large number of UN staff members and country delegates. I remember the occasion when the president of the International Court of Justice came rushing along with a couple of delegates seeking Sai Vibhuthi (sacred ash). He proudly showed me a picture of Baba in his wallet!
SHIRDI RING REPLACED BY SATHYA SAI RING
A few years after Baba gave me the Shirdi Baba ring, Swami called me again for a brief interview, and suddenly inquired of me whether I still wanted the old man or was now ready for the younger man! I then replied that having lived with the old man till then, I would welcome the change into company of the younger man! Swami graciously took out the somewhat worn-out big Shirdi ring which then disappeared right in front of my eyes and, then and there, materialized a well-fitting similar silver enameled ring with a picture of Swami showing His Abhaya Hastham - a raised palm assuring protection. This creative gesture and gift signified to me my spiritual (mental) journey from Shirdi to Parthi guided by Bhagavan Sathya Sai Himself. As a result, I found myself and family settling at Baba's Lotus Feet in Prashanthi Nilayam - indeed the very abode of peace.
THREE SIDED OBLONG STONE
This leads me to remember another miraculous manifestation of a triple-sided gray stone Baba materialized for me ten years earlier. Not knowing what to do with it, I kept it as a curio in my UN office desk drawer for two years. On my subsequent home-leave trip, in an interview with Baba, I held up the three sided stone and asked Baba about its meaning and significance. Baba then endearingly chided me for keeping it aside in a drawer and asked me seriously whether I was interested in knowing the meaning (Artha) of its shape or in reaping its beneficial effects (Phala). I replied categorically that my interest was in the benefit it would yield me!
Baba then explained that the triple-headed stone was given as a protective talisman in my numerous global air travels, and therefore I should wear it on my chest. A thought crossed my mind as to how I could wear an odd-shaped piece of stone on my chest. Baba sensed my inner doubt, took the stone from my own hand, held it up and blew, and lo and behold there appeared a twine-sized hole running through the point of the stone. Only a laser could drive a hole of that size through the sharp points on the opposite ends of the oblong stone. Swami then instructed me to insert a string or a thin wire and wear it like a chain around my neck with the stone resting on my lower chest.
MATERIALIZATION OF GANESHA'S IDOL
Whatever article Swami materializes has a powerful purpose behind it. His materializations are not for exhibition (Pradharshana) but they are purposive evidence (Nidharshana) of their beneficial effects on the receiver. Around the early 1970s, Baba materialized for me a silver idol of Ganesha, saying that this would help me overcome obstacles in my spiritual and professional efforts. That was the time of our founding a Ganesha temple in New York, practically the first traditional Vedic style temple in the Western Hemisphere. A stone frieze of the Sarva Dharma Symbol of all religions adorns the entrance of the Ganesha temple. This symbol was earlier strongly resisted by some of the tradition-bound Hindu devotees of the temple but after Swami appeared in the dreams of several trustees, the opposition melted away to the point that the temple management welcomed the holding of Sai Bhajans in the main hall of the temple facing the Sanctum Sanctorum itself! Today, the Sathya Sai Bhajan Mandali at the Ganesh temple in New York - dating back over twenty-five years - is perhaps the oldest, the most well-attended regularly organized Bhajan group in the western hemisphere. Hail to the Sai devotees in the New York Ganesha temple!
VIBHUTHI STORM IN CONNECTICUT
That the mind-boggling miracles of Sathya Sai are not confined only to India but spread across the world has been attested to by many overseas devotees. Suffice it here to cite just one striking example repeatedly witnessed by this writer - a virtual Vibhuthi storm for a continuous period of nearly two weeks in the house of a Connecticut Sathya Sai devotee. I was overwhelmed by the unending flow of Vibhuthi in practically all rooms of that devotee's house and by the Amrith (nectarine fluid) on the Sathya Sai pictures taken and kept by this writer in that house. Inevitably such a miracle draws a large number of curiosity seekers disturbing the Sadhana of the devotees and Swami therefore advises against any undue publicity to such miracles.
REVELATION OF SATHYA SAI GAYATHRI
Some of my most unforgettable experiences of Baba's miracles relate to my father, the late Sri Ghandikota Subrahmanya Sastry, a great doyen of Vedic learning and wisdom. A collection of the talks and articles on Baba by this great Vedic scholar was published in Telugu as SRI SATHYA SAI AVATHARA VAIBHAVAM - the Glory of Sri Sathya Sai Incarnation. My father had received in his long life, many honors, but none of these compared with the joy and bliss conferred by Baba on this venerable Vedic scholar who was chosen by Baba as one of the founding members of the Prashanthi Vidhvan Mahaa Sabha, and who was often invited by Baba to preside over the Dassera Yagna Ceremonies and to deliver Vedic discourses in Baba's august presence. This revered Vedic Pandit was inspired to reveal, in the presence of Baba on the Christmas eve of 1977 in Brindavan, Bangalore - the vision of Sri Sathya Sai Gaayathri, and electrified the gathering by his subsequent exposition of its meaning and significance. At the insistence of the late Kasturiji, I transcribed this event into an article in Sanathana Sarathi of April 1979. The Sathya Sai Gaayathri conforms to the Vedic mould and characteristics similar to the other Gaayathri Mantras and reads as follows:
Om Sayeeshwaraaya Vidmahe
Sathya Devaaya Dheemahi
Thannassarvah Prachodhayaath
It means: 'We realize that Sai is the Supreme Lord. We meditate on this God of Truth. Let that All-in-All entity inspire and enlighten us.
Baba called this Vedic scholar a Maha Rishi - a seer and revealer of Vedic manthra - and showered on him compassion and grace in abundance.
RESCUING A VEDIC SCHOLAR FROM THE JAWS OF DEATH
When my revered aged father was completely bed-ridden with severe complications after a compound fracture of the hip, one morning he even passed into a long coma and the doctors warned us of the impending doom. When we gave up all hope, a telegraphic message reached us in our home town that all would be well soon and that I should bring my father to Puttaparthi for Baba's sixtieth birthday celebrations. My father woke up shortly thereafter with a smile on his lips and narrated, to the astonishment of the doctor, that all through that period Baba was sitting close to the bed, conversing with him, and even invited him for Baba's 60th birthday celebrations. When I inquired with my father whether it could have been a dream or hallucination, he emphatically declared the divine presence of Baba at his bedside and wondered why we did not notice it! The learned Vedic scholar also asserted that when Baba was speaking to him, Vedic passages flashed across his mind and that Baba was indeed the Veda Purusha (embodiment of Vedas) Himself, exuding the fragrance of Vibhuthi all around.
With all these happenings, there was no doubt in my mind that the devoted Vedic scholar was rescued by Baba from the very jaws of death. The Vedic scholar lived for a year and a half in Prasanthinilayam where he received Baba's darshan, sparshan and sambhashan, i.e. seeing. touching and conversing with divinity practically every day.
BABA - SHIVA SHAKTHI SWARUPA
A few years earlier Baba lovingly performed the 90th birthday ceremony of my venerable father, when He materialized a most beautiful 42 diamond-studded automatic gold watch with gold wrist band. He also materialized a picture of His Shiva Shakthi form, reiterating His Avataric source as SATHYAM (Truth), SHIVAM (goodness) and SUNDARAM (divine beauty).
During my father's stay at the Lotus Feet of Bhagavan towards the end of his life, Baba used to materialize Vibhuthi (sacred ash) frequently and would himself put it in the mouth of this renowned Vedic scholar and devotee. Once Swami manifested for my father a Shiva Linga of Neelakanteshwara - the blue throated form of Shiva, and instructed that he daily drink the water poured on it for his better health. Another time Baba pulled from the air a small silver medallion of Shiva on one side and the Shiva Panchaakshari Manthra (five syllable holy formula of Shiva) on the other side. He inserted, with great dexterity, this medallion onto the sacred thread worn by my father. Swami then stated that Shiva being my father's favorite deity, the silver medallion still wet with sandal paste was brought by celestial Sai messengers as Prasaadam immediately after Shiva Puja in Kailasha (abode of Shiva)! Hail to the glory of Shiva Shakthi!
THE GHANDIKOTA SECRET REVEALED
A day prior to the passing away of my revered father, Swami spoke to me in the verandah of the Prashanthi Mandir and somewhat cryptically told me that my father would go home the next day, being the first day of the Dassera festival, and that Swami would come to our apartment. Since my father's condition was improving, I interpreted Swami's remarks to imply that my father would return home from the hospital the next day. But something prompted me awake at 5 AM of that fateful day, and I sleep-walked my way from the ashram apartment to the hospital nearby. My father's eyes lit up as I lifted him up in my arms when, saying SAI RAM, he passed away in serenity and peace. That same evening after the cremation was over, Baba graciously visited our apartment in Prashanthi Nilayam and consoled us, explained the mystery of birth and death and declared that my father's life was fulfilled in Vedic and Vedantic terms and that he attained final liberation as he was a Brahma Jnaani - steeped in Braahmic consciousness. On the tenth day of my father's passing away, Swami once again visited our apartment and later in the Poornachandra auditorium, Swami eulogized Subrahmanya Sastriji for his unsurpassed Vedic wisdom and his Vedantic living, called him an immortal soul, and declared that this Vedic scholar lived in the strong conviction of the Truth that Sri Sathya Sai is the embodiment of all divinities. When I heard the last statement from Swami's lips I recalled exactly the same words in Sanskrit imparted and thrice repeated in secret confidence a month earlier by my father. The secret Manthra was revealed by Baba Himself to devotees in Poornachandra auditorium.
SEE GOD IN RITUALS AND NOT RITUALS IN GOD
Just a few minutes after my father passed away in my very arms, I received a telephonic message of condolence from Baba, and that if we wished the arrangements could be made for the body to be taken to our home town for cremation. On my stating that our sole refuge as well as that of my just departed father was Baba's lotus feet only, Baba promptly made arrangements in the minutest detail for the large funeral procession led by a number of Vedic chanting priests in front and Bhajan singing devotees at the back and for the cremation of the body on the river bed of the nearby dried Chitravathi river. Amazingly by the day of the bone-interring ceremony, unexpectedly the river swelled to such an extent as to wash away the bones and ashes - a sign of ritual fulfillment and a miracle in itself!
As promised, Baba visited our apartment the next day to console us personally. He directed me to perform post-funeral ceremonies for a period of ten days in strict Vedic style. When I expressed my ignorance and inability to perform them in the strict scriptural manner and wondered at the necessity of performing elaborate rituals, Baba stated that it was my bounden duty to perform them in memory of my learned father who, for a long period of his life, strictly followed Vedic Karma Kaanda - ritual actions. Swami arranged for a priest who was not only an expert in funeral rites but also learned in their significance. Swami instructed me to first understand the importance of each of the numerous ritual actions, before I performed the actual ritual on the ground. The daily rituals used to begin at 8 o'clock in the morning and ended in the late afternoon with a repeated number of baths and fire sacrifices. Swami advised one to read the Garuda Purana during this period. When Baba visited us again on the tenth day, he explained why He insisted on my performing these esoteric rituals strictly. Having been abroad all these years, I was like a cooking vessel kept far too long in the attic gathering grime and dust. The vessel had to be thoroughly cleansed and rubbed free of dirt. Baba made it clear that my departed father, being a Brahmajnani steeped in Brahmic consciousness did not require these funeral ceremonies. But it was I that needed purification and understanding through the performance of rigorous disciplines or penance!
Initiated, I thought, by Baba Himself into Vedic ritualism, I took to it like a duck to water, with the zeal of a "new convert"! Baba sensed this and promptly applied the brakes. He cautioned me about priestly ritualism and when I remonstrated that it was Swami who got me into it, He told me that the substance of spirituality should not be sacrificed for the shell of ritualism . He opened my eyes when He stressed that loving remembrance and expression of heart-felt gratitude to our forefathers is more important than mechanistical ritual action and that Ashru Tarpanam (offering of tears of gratitude) is more important than Thila Tarpanam (offering of sesame seeds with water).
SWAMI AS A VEDANTIC GURU PAR EXCELLENCE
Swami is primarily a Divine Aadhyaatmic Guru; He imparts profound spiritual lessons to the devotees on an individual, group and collective basis. His teachings are the quintessence of Advaitic nondualistic Supreme Reality. A few experiences of this writer in this regard are given below.
Once this writer, just on the eve of his departure from Puttaparthi in a hurry to catch a plane that very morning in Bangalore, was called by Swami to His modest living-cum resting room in the upstairs of Prashanthi Bhajan Mandir. Without being told that I was studying THAITTIREEYA UPANISHAD during my week end spare time in Delhi (where I was then a resident representative of a UN agency) Baba, in His infinite Grace expounded for nearly one full hour the essence of this famous Upanishad. When I began to write it all down, Baba remarked that there was no need to take notes; He assured me that whenever the need arose, I would automatically recall His teachings!
While Baba's teaching was proceeding, Kasturiji came up to request Baba for Swami's article for the monthly Sanathana Sarathi, the issue of which was just then going to the printer. Swami, with a wave of His hand, produced the article and gave it to Kasturiji in my direct presence! When Swami concluded His Upanishadic teaching, He materialized a king-sized hot laddu (a type of Indian sweet) as His prasadam to be distributed to members of my family. Furthermore, Swami assured me that I would definitely catch the plane as it was flying late that day. I reached Bangalore airport with all anxiety but to my pleasant astonishment I was the last passenger on the long delayed flight!
I recall another individual teaching session with Baba also in the Prasanthi Mandir upstairs room. Baba explained to me for almost an hour the five most significant Brahamasutras - analytical aphorisms on the supreme Reality. As the saying goes, Brahma Vidhyaa Vidhyaanaam - the Brahmic knowledge is the acme of all learning. The teaching by Swami was marked as usual by profundity and simplicity, using parables, and filled with good-hearted humor on the other side.
Apart from these exclusive individual teaching sessions, I had the greatest good fortune of listening in the interview room to Baba's teachings on the Bhagavad Gita. Thus I was initiated by Baba himself into the Vedantic lore of the holy scriptural Texts called Prasthana Trayee, viz. Bhagavad Gita, Brahma Sutras and Upanishads! Hail to Bhagavan Sathya Sai, The GNYAANA BODHAKA GURU.
When He performed the Upanayanam of my eldest son in the early 1960s and also of my youngest son in the early 1980s, He not only materialized turmeric-anointed Yagnopaveetham (holy threads) but also patiently taught the Vatus (the young boys) the meaning and significance of Gaayathri Manthra recitation, the Sandhyavandana (daily prayers) ritual, and the importance of celibate living. Salutations to the World teacher Sri Sathya Sai Baba, SAYINAM VANDE JAGADGURUM.
Sankalpa refers to the powers of Siddha Purusha with acquired - and therefore depletable Yogic powers, whereas Sankalpa Sidda signifies the state "mere WILLING IS FULFILLING"! Swami's undepletable miraculous powers are the most natural and spontaneous manifestations of His love and grace to the devotees.
SEE AND ENJOY SWAMI'S MIRACLES
That it is not possible to fully understand Swami is aptly expressed by Baba Himself when he stated: "In order to understand me, you will have to stand under me for so long that your legs are likely to collapse!". Then, what about experiencing Him? To this Swami replied that experience is something like experimentation, with yesterday's experience being different from today's and one's experience being very different from other's. Experimentation is "mentation"- a mental act and the Lord cannot be reached, understood or experienced by the mind, APRAAPYA MANASA SAH as the THAITTIREEYA UPANISHAD states. If one cannot fully understand or experience, what then, Swami? He says, Enjoy - be in joy and end (your mind) in joy! Just as in the Upanishad saying AANANDHO BRAHMANO VlDHVAAN - The knower lives in Braahmic Bliss alone.
JAI SAI RAM
MAHAA MAHIMA MAANUSHA MURTHI
or
MAN OF MIGHTY MIRACLES
By Sri Ghandikota V. Subba Rao
From Sri Sathya Sai Eternal Charioteer
23 November, 1990
[Mr. Ghandikota V. Subba Rao has been a devotee of Swami for many years. He served with UNICEF and the United Nations, as head of the Energy Section, for 34 years and took early retirement in 1985 to return to India to be with his 92 year old father, Sri Ghandikota Subrahmanya Sastry, the Rishi of the Sathya Sai Gayathri and a renowned Vedic scholar. Mr. Subba Rao has been living in Prashanthi Nilayam since 1985, on occasion translating Swami's speeches, giving lectures to overseas devotees, and editing publications of the Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publications Trust.]
ENCOUNTER WITH DIVINITY
My first encounter with the glorious Sai phenomenon goes back to the early sixties. It was sheerly by accident that I ended up on a Mahaa Shivaraathri day at Prasanthi Nilayam on a visit to a very close relative whom I had not met for a long period. The first impact was made by the speech that Swami gave on that occasion, explaining the profound significance of that night of the emergence of the Shiva Linga. It is an unforgettable experience to watch at very close quarters the emergence of a couple of transparent Shiva lingas from the mouth of Swami. It was another mind-boggling experience to witness at very close quarters a virtual Vibhuthi storm which spread onto the entire stage, covering my clothes too. The unending flow of sacred ash from an upturned empty vessel, held by Kasturiji over the idol of Shirdi Sai Baba, at the mere turn of a hand of Swami was an extraordinary event.
A couple of days later I was also fortunate to witness a different type of miracle of Swami. A dozen or so young boys were sitting for the investiture of the 'sacred thread', called the Upanayana ceremony, and a prerequisite for this Samskara or 'sacrament' is the piercing of the ears, which normally takes place at a very young age of the child. Several boys did not have pierced ears. Swami came along, spotted precisely those boys whose ears were not pierced, touched their ear lobes, and lo and behold, there were holes in the lobes. Swami then graciously materialized earrings which He himself inserted in the ear lobes. The highlight of this ceremony was the materialization of the 'sacred threads' by himself. Swami gave them to the parents of the boys since it is customary for the parents to invest their child with the sacred thread. That Swami is omniscient has been attested to by a number of great scholars. It would suffice here to give two experiences, one in the realm of traditional Vedic lore and the other in the field of modern physical sciences.
VEDIC SCHOLARS HUMBLED
I was once present when some of the most learned Vedic scholars gathered at Prasanthi Nilayam. Two adepts had differences over the complex procedure of the performance of the Vedic 'Soma Yaga' sacrifice as to the exact configuration or arrangement of the sanctified bricks in the construction of the main altar. They confronted Swami with their respective standpoints and doubts backed up by citations of authoritative Shroutha texts. Apparently even the great ascetic heads of the Math's (monasteries) are themselves not familiar with purely field practices of the elaborate yagnas. They are more familiar with Vedaantic and philosophical subjects than with the details of complex ritual sacrifices. Perhaps these pandits came to test Swami in a remote area of Vedic ritual knowledge. This is an area of Vedic knowledge which has been the preserve of only a handful of traditionally trained specialized scholars. But to their astonishment Swami specified and demonstrated the correct configuration of the sanctified and ritual place. Swami's procedure did not coincide with the expert view of either of the two pandits. They later checked up their palm-leaf Shroutha texts to confirm that what Swami had elaborated was exactly the same for that particular sacrifice! The assembled scholars were greatly amazed and some of them returned humbled as well as greatly impressed by Swami's knowledge in the field of Vedic knowledge
SWAMI'S OMNISCIENCE
The writer can also provide from his own experience Swami's omniscience in respect of a specialized geo- science matter. Swami once asked me jokingly, I thought, what kind of energy I was dealing with as the Head of the Energy Department of the United Nations in New York. He wanted me to indicate the various primary sources of energy. Having headed the Energy Department at the world level for over a decade and a half I thought I could answer Swami's question easily. I listed practically all the traditional and modern primary sources of energy. Swami kept repeating there were still other sources. When I came to the end of the list after His many promptings, Swami took over to tell me that I forgot to mention "Geo-pressured energy". He explained in clear terms, briefly its character, its nature, occurrence, the fact of its being a vast hydraulic source of power deep in the bowels of Earth, with a vast amount of gas dissolved in it in a compressed form as it were. He mentioned that it is a triple source of energy, hydraulic, natural gas and geothermal. Swami's description recalled to me in a flash this frontier source of energy, which is known to only a few specialists in the world and which is yet to be exploited.
SWAMI'S ENCYCLOPEDIC VEDIC KNOWLEDGE
Swami's knowledge of Vedic learning on one side and on the other modern sciences is indeed astounding, as attested to by a number of scholars and scientists. That Swami is a virtual encyclopedia of Vedic learning has been attested to by my father Sri. Ghandikota Subrahmanya Sastry, a Vedic scholar of repute in Andhra Pradesh. I remember having once challenged my father, who believed that references to Swami could be traced to the Vedas and that in fact Swami is the embodiment of Vedic knowledge. My father's understanding of the Vedas and devotion to Swami were such that he used to tell me that whenever he listened to Swami's immortal teaching, the corresponding Vedic passage inevitably flashed across his mind. I recall one such incident.
The postman had just delivered that month's Sanathana Sarathi in Telugu. I immediately opened it and asked my father to convince me right then and there that whatever Swami spoke is Vedic in origin. He took up the challenge with a smile, right then and there, and immediately gave me sentence by sentence the exact Vedic quotes corresponding to Swami's words. I was flabbergasted by this evidence of Swami's encyclopedic Vedic knowledge.
MIRACLE CURES
The writer has experienced in his family numerous extraordinary miraculous cures performed by Swami, over a long span of association with the Sai phenomenon. The most astounding medical miracle of Swami was in respect of my third son, who suffered from intense fever and pains due to the perforation of the ileum at the end of the small intestine. Over a period of seven months, when he was hospitalized several times as emergencies, he was attended by eminent specialists in three New York hospitals. He was subsisting only on semi solids and non-fibrous "baby foods". The specialists in New York could not cure him, recommended major surgery and said the young man would have to wear a permanent pouch. At this stage we decided to fly to Swami at Brindavan. We were waiting for a long time under the Sai Ram shed. Swami amazingly came straight to us and called us inside for an interview. He materialized Vibhuthi which He himself put in the mouth of my son, and swept his soft divine hand over the abdomen. Then Swami declared that the boy was cured as of that moment and could eat spicy hot Andhra food to his heart's content. Hail to Swami's glory! That same evening, which happened to be Christmas eve 1977, Swami gave a dinner to all the foreign devotees, to which He invited us too. I cautioned my son not to start eating the feast spread before us. We had brought from New York his special foods including water for his drinking use. But he wisely ignored my warning, literally took courage in his hand and ate the food to his heart's content, as Swami had said. We returned to New York and the doctor there was astonished and called it an unbelievable medical miracle.
IMPOSSIBLE MADE POSSIBLE
That Swami can make the impossible possible is illustrated by the miraculous birth of my first grandson. For seventeen years my eldest son's family continued to be childless. Eminent doctors in United States diagnosed it to be a near impossible situation for the couple to have children. My son and daughter-in-law came unannounced to meet me in Brindavan, Swami's ashram in Bangalore. Swami spotted them among the hundreds gathered there for darshan. He came into Trayee Brindavan (Swami's residence) and surprised me by telling me that my son and daughter-in-law had just arrived. He asked me to fetch them in for a joint interview. When the couple prostrated at His feet He blessed them, materialized a special type of finely granular, very fragrant holy Vibhuthi, and declared before me and later with several other devotees that Sathya Sai was now guaranteeing the birth of a Vamsha Vardhan (upholder of the lineage) in the Ghandikota family. He instructed my son that he should inform me as soon as the pregnancy of my daughter-in-law was confirmed after a few months.
One day when I was sitting on the verandah of the Prasanthi Nilayam Mandir, a cable from my son in the United States was delivered to me stating that the doctors twice confirmed the pregnancy of my daughter-in- law. I immediately showed the cable to Swami and remarked that I believed that the pregnancy was due to Swami's grace. Swami quickly retorted in the hearing of the people in the verandah: "'It is not at all a question of your belief. When Sathya Sai guaranteed a few months before, that a grandson would be born, it would have to...". I then realized that my words to Swami should have been phrased better!
Just a day prior to the birth of our grandson, Swami chided my wife for sitting around when we should be at New York helping in the delivery of our first grandson! He then materialized crystal sugar candy, instructing my wife that the candy should be put in the mouth of my daughter-in-law when the first labor pains started. It was a near miracle that we could leave for Bombay in the evening, arriving the next day at Kennedy airport in New York, to be received by our son and the pregnant daughter-in-law. That same night the first labor pain started and the sugar candy was given to my daughter-in-law. A son was born in the night - a comfortable and a normal delivery. Within 12 hours of the birth, Swami sent a telephonic message to me that we should name the boy Jayavardhan, our first grandson in the family.
DIVINE POWERS
In our country we consider Lord Rama as Maaya Maanusha Murthi - the embodiment of Maaya, concealing his divine identity. We call Lord Krishna as Leela Maanusha Murthi - the embodiment of divine play and drama. What should we call the present visible divine incarnation of Sri Sathya Sai, having witnessed nearly over a quarter century unending, undepleted, astounding miracles of Swami? I have come to the conclusion that it would be appropriate to call Him as truly a Mahaa Mahima Maanusha Murthi- the embodiment of limitless plethora of powers and Grace out of His boundless love for His children.
