Devotee Experience: Great Hanshin Earthquake in Kobe and My personal Experience.

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On January, 17, at 5.46 am - First there was a big flash of light followed by a

loud rumbling noise and next moment, we were thrown out of our beds as the whole

floor start to move up and down very rapidly as if the apartment building was

swinging.

 

For the past 20 seconds we held what -ever, we could, in the dark still

wondering whether it is a dream or reality. The morning rays of the sun were

just appearing out side. However this day looked little hazy, penetrating the

huge smoke engulfing the whole Kobe city. My wife grabs my hand and we sat on

the floor between our beds. At that instant, a huge wardrobe collapses hard on

my wife’s bed and the bed breaks into two pieces. In a big shock we looked at

each other in great fear.

What if we stayed on our beds a few more seconds, instead moving to the

floor? We would have been smashed and badly hurt. The thought of this made us

shiver, worried and shaking. Now we were worried about our daughter, who was

sleeping in the next room with her baby. She had come from L.A to spend some

times with us.

In our house Swami’s huge painting had fallen on Baba’s chair and the arm of

the chair broke the glass, penetrated the painting on Baba’s chair supported

this huge painting from falling on top of our daughter and her baby, the glass

shattered everywhere but, protected the baby and daughter, who were sleeping in

the adjacent room, with small curtain. My daughter and my wife cried loudly and

shouted Swami Swami… please stop this and save us, the tears coming crying

please Swami save us. Swami you are everywhere please stop this shake so we can

move. We also did not know what happened to our two sons who lived next door,

but they

came soon all safe but shaken.

 

 

We had three flats side by side the whole family was in panic but safe. We knew

we should evacuate the building immediately, as we saw our furniture broken, T.V

sets and glasses shattered everywhere, in the kitchen, in dining room, in hall,

in bedrooms all over, as we presumed the damage must be beyond measure and the

building may collapse any moment. The whole building was shaking left and

right. But there were pictures 17 picture of Swami everywhere in our house

 

Slowly we proceeded to go down seven floors with our torchlight’s. It was

complete darkness as all lights went off; as we reached the first floor, the

view of out side from ground floor was not pleasant one. Was this an

earthquake or we were being bombed? We did not know what to expect, as there

was no rescue teams, only aftermath of the event, which we could see, had

caused enormous damage, everywhere we look. The temperature was around 5/6

degree, very very cold.

 

We gather with a few other neighbors sitting on the road in terror listening to

morning radio news. It was January 17th, 1995 and I recall my son showing me

later Baba’s thought for the day as: < The grace of God is like an insurance

policy, which protect the devotees in time of crisis. >.

 

On January 17, 1995 at 5.46 AM, we experienced one of the most devastating

earthquake in Kobe, Japan. I first came to Kobe in 1952 for business and in

1960, decided to bring my whole family from Pune, India to live in Kobe, which

has been our permanent residence ever since. Despite occasional tremors here

and there in Kobe. The Kobe was declared to be one of the safest places in

Japan; therefore this was one of a great cause of shock and surprise to

everyone when Kobe was the epicenter.

 

Many people lost their lives in the most horrible natural disaster. However

we later found out to our amazement that not a single sai devotee was killed

despite 6432 people were dead in the area. More than 300,000 houses were

damaged or destroyed. Everywhere we could see fire, buildings clasps, roads

and highways damaged. We could feel Swamis grace as there are quite number of

Sai devotees staying in the affected areas, but none of Sai devotee, Indian or

Japanese were injured or dead,

 

It was an act of grace of Bhagavan and at the same time, the suspected tidal

waves, tsunami did not occur in spite of repeated aftershocks and tremors that

were going on for many many days after the event. From Tokyo Sai center Brother

Hira called me, and arranged one truckload with blankets, water, food and snacks

and some Sai volunteers came from Tokyo to help us in this helpless situation.

 

The tidal waves could have wiped out the whole city of Kobe In one sweep as

land is very close to ocean here. We knew, in our heart of hearts that it was

only Swami’s divine interference, which stopped these tidal waves. Water, gas

and electricity were out in most places and all lifelines, roads, highways,

trains, buses, cars, stores, telephones etc, were out of service, and we then

decided to go to a nearby OPA Hotel.

 

On the way we saw so many buildings cracked, broken and some even toppled. We

could not be sure how safe our apartment was. We all stayed over night in the

Hotel Lobby praying Swami for safety, where many other people old and young had

found refuge.

 

Every minute we could sense a tremor as aftershocks for a long time. Next day

we decided to go to our Indian social society about a mile away, which is a

gathering place for all Indians in Kobe. Here many other Indians from our

community were already there as the place was newly constructed and safe and

the hall big enough to accommodate large numbers. Here, we all spent the night

in the hall. There must have been over 100 Indians gathered there. The next

day, all of us decided that it was no safe to stay in Kobe as the city was

totally destroyed and anytime, there could be a stronger aftershock or tidal

waves.

 

So we decided to caravan through the mountains by cars and go to Osaka City.

30 km away where our offices are located. Also, we were not sure how badly or

to what extent our residence buildings or any hotel in Kobe area was damaged or

safe enough to stay.

 

Frankly, Kobe City looked as if it was a war zone, being bombed and totally

destroyed. Kobe was turned into a ghost town. But the car journey was full of

fear, as we passed mountain we could see, stones cracking dust all over and

shakes on our way to Osaka. Osaka, which normally takes one hour by regular

road, was not an easy one. Fortunately, 2 people had mobile phones working to

find out the road directions and inquire conditions in Osaka city before we

embark.

 

We had to cross very risky mountain roads to reach there as all other roads

were cracked and broken and not a single regular road was available. All normal

roads were destroyed beyond measure. An hour drive took almost 8 hours through

the hills to reach Osaka. Osaka was still better off than Kobe and at least

business can be carried on there. We were all glad to see this and decide to

stay up at a hotel in Osaka for some time until our Kobe residence was at least

safe to return to and the water, gas, electricity supply restarted. We didn’t

know how soon that will be, and ended up staying in Osaka for about a month

before we could

go back to Kobe.

 

It was around this time that I decided to plan for a visit to Swami with my

whole family during our golden week national holidays, which start from end

April. We wanted to spend some time in Swami’s presence to thank Bhagavan for

saving our lives and of those Japanese and Indian Sai devotees living in Kobe

during this devastating earthquake.

 

Devotion alone bestows the supreme good;

Devotion alone is the destroyer of disease of

Cycle of birth and death:

Devotion alone is the means of recognizing Divinity

Devotion alone is the means of Liberation

BABA

Jai Sai Ram

Experience of Br.Ram.Chugani Kobe in 1995.Ram ChuganiKobe, Japan

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