Sathyam Sivam Sundaram - Part I

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hysteria unconnected with the alleged scorpion sting, and in his wisdom advised

a course of medication. This was strictly adhered to for three days, but the

symptoms of laughing and weeping, eloquence and silence continued as before.

Sathya sang and spoke about God; he described places of pilgrimage to which no

one had gone before; he declared that life was all a drama! Astrologers said it

was a ghost that possessed the boy, an old occupant of the house - in fact, its

first tenant! They chided Seshama for not being more circumspect in his

selection of a house. Magicians ascribed the condition to a sudden fright which

must have set Sathya's nerves awry. The priest advised Seshama to arrange for a

consecration rite in the temple. Wiser men shook their heads and whispered that

the ways of God are inscrutable. Seshama was besieged by a large

throng of sympathizers each of whom had his own specific cure for the

affliction of his brother. At last he brought an exorciser into the house. On

seeing him, Sathya challenged him, "Come on! You have been worshipping me every

day, and now that you have come here, your only business is to worship me and

clear out." The "ghost doctor" heard the warning administered by the very deity

he had chosen for his own personal worship. He left in a hurry, forgetting to

collect his fees! He advised Seshama to treat the boy very reverentially, for

he was "in touch with God" and certainly not afflicted by the devil.

Style'"> The parents were disheartened. They took Sathya to

Puttaparthi and watched his behavior with increasing fear. The boy himself was

heightening the effect by bouts of quietness, song, or discourse. He would

suddenly ask his sister, "Here, wave the sacred lamp; the gods are passing

across the sky." He would say that his school studies had been disturbed and

sing a song composed impromptu on the value of reading and writing and how

villagers are duped by the wily moneylender if they are illiterate.

While travelling from Uravakonda, they had taken Sathya to a doctor at Bellary

and to another at Dharmavaram. But what could the practitioners diagnose? Their

stethoscopes could not decipher the beats of Godhead or reveal the pulse of a

soul, much less a Divine Soul determined to transcend the bonds of human

convention. Sathya asked his parents, "Why do you worry like this? There will

be no doctor there when you go; even if he is there, he cannot cure me."

FONT-FAMILY: 'Bookman Old Style'"> Since the first reaction to an

illness in any village is usually to fear that it is the result of someone's

black magic or some evil spirit's taking hold of the patient, two exorcists

were called in at Puttaparthi. When one came and sat in the room and drew up a

list of the articles necessary to invoke the spirit and transfer the dire

symptoms to a lamb or fowl, Sathya laughingly reminded him of some items he had

forgotten. He seemed determined to undergo all the travail resulting from their

ignorance and superstition, taking it all as fun! The Serpent Hill (To be

continued..) SaiRam