Sathyam Sivam Sundaram - Part I

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and other secular bonds. He wanted to demonstrate that he was unaffected by

poison or the poisonous objective world. Seshama had informed the

family at Puttaparthi about the state of affairs at Uravakonda. He wrote his

parents that Sathya was not answering anyone who spoke to him and that it was a

Herculean task to make him accept food. He told them Sathya was spending his

time mostly in silence, sometimes bursting into song and poetry, sometimes

reciting long Sanskrit verses, sometimes expounding the philosophic wisdom of

ancient India. Because of unforeseen and inexplicable difficulties which arose

to delay them, the parents did not arrive for about a week. Seshama's anxiety

increased. He found a man who agreed to travel to Anantapur on a bicycle and to

proceed from there to Bukkapatnam and Puttaparthi. While he was describing to

the man the route he was to take to reach his parents, Sathya interposed and

said, "Why, you need not send for them now; they will be here in half an hour."

True to his word, they arrived in exactly one half hour!

0pt"> The parents caught the infection of fear upon seeing the

condition of Sathya, for he sang, spoke, and behaved in a strange manner. Also

his body would become stiff intermittently, and he appeared to leave the body

and go elsewhere. It was all so mysterious! One day while Sathya

was reposing, seemingly without any awareness of his surroundings, he made

reference to the Scripture Reader next door, saying to his parents, "He is

reading the Sanskrit

book all wrong; he is explaining it in the wrong way. Go and bring him here," he

commanded. The Reader would not come. "What does that boy know about

this holy book and the right or wrong of the meaning which I give? How did he

hear it, by the way? Tell him to mind his own business," he said, and continued

his exposition. But Sathya persisted, and the Reader had to come at least to

satisfy the parents, who pleaded, "Please come and teach the boy a lesson in

humility. Lately he has become uncontrollable."

11pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Bookman Old Style'"> When the learned man

arrived, Sathya asked him to repeat the exposition, pointed out to him wherein

he erred, and poured out in rapid succession a series of questions on the epics

which overwhelmed the scholar. Finally he fell at Sathya's feet and asked pardon

for not immediately obeying his summons. The Serpent Hill (To

be continued..) SaiRam