Sathyam Sivam Sundaram - Part I (Serial# 29)

May 2, 2006

SaiRam

Sai Baba Again (Continued..)

In later years too, Sai Baba has granted Visions of a devotee's Ishta Devata, "the form of God chosen for worship," and to many others He has revealed His own manifold Forms. Each one so blessed cherishes the memory of that moment of Bliss! Baba has often said that the Lord, has to come in human form in order to speak to people in their own language, just as a person desirous of saving drowning man has perforce to jump into the very same tank or well. No one can benefit from a Divine Incarnation, an Avatara, if the Lord comes down as He is, with His effulgence unimpaired, for then the gap between man and Godman would be too great for man to comprehend. Therefore God must take on a form similar to that of an ordinary man.

On another occasion Sai Baba asked some persons who had come from Kamalapur whether they would like to hear the flute of Sri Krishna. Who would say no? He asked them to lay their heads on His Chest, and lo, they could hear the enchanting melody of the flute of Krishna that brought even the Yamuna River to a standstill. Easwaramma, His mother , speaks of another thrilling experience when Baba said, "Listen, Shirdi's Presence is here." She and everyone in the room could hear steps advancing as if made by feet in heavy wooden sandals. The steps ceased when they reached where Baba was sitting! When first the sound was heard, the mother asked with a little anger, "Who comes in with sandals on?" - so real was the sensation, so true was the Vision!

While this was the experience of the mother, the father Pedda Venkapa Raju, had another incident to narrate. One evening some people came from Penukonda to Puttaparthi; among them was Krishnamachari, who, though a native of Puttaparthi, had long ago settled down at Penukonda as a lawyer. He and some others came to the accountant's house and Subbamma gave them coffee. The talk naturally turned to the latest phenomenon of Baba, and they asked Pedda Venkapa Raju, who was there, what it was all about and how true it was. He replied that it was all a mystery to him and that he too was equally in the dark. Then it seems, the lawyer called Venkapa a cheat, and charged him with misleading innocent village folk with tall stories. This upset him so much that he went to Sai Baba and challenged Him to convince the doubters about His Divinity so that they might not accuse him as the lawyer had done. Baba coolly asked him to bring everyone who had any doubt directly to Him.

Subbamma and the party from Penukonda were taken to Pedda Venkapa Raju's house where Sai Baba was. Baba asked Subbamma if she would like to see the Shirdi Samadhi, the Holy Tomb of Sai Baba at Shirdi. On her saying, "Yes," He took her to an inner room in the house and said, "Look!" There Subbamma could see the Samadhi with all the flowers, the fragrant incense sticks and smoke, and an attendant sitting in one corner chanting to himself. Baba told her, "On this side, see the Temple of Hanuman, the Monkey-Saint, and in the far distance see that Margosa tree." It appeared to her as if she were in some vast open space looking at the scene in Shirdi, the entire landscape spreading out before her for miles and miles to the horizon in the distance.

When she was brought out after this thrilling experience, she persuaded Krishnamachari to follow Sai Baba to the same inner room. Baba took them, one by one, and revealed to each the same Vision, a panoramic view of the Shrine at Shirdi and its locale. Pedda Venkapa Raju says that he was taken inside after all the rest, and when he came out, he was a changed man. His doubts had vanished. The friends from Penukonda apologized for their slighting remarks and said that in order to explain such a divine phenomenon, the sanest explanation to give would be that it was "a mystery beyond understanding." Easwaramma and Pedda Venkapa Raju, the mother and father, were convinced that day that the young lad of sixteen was really an incarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi. Pedda Venkapa Raju says that he then instructed his family to consider Baba as Divine and not bother Him with any more pettiness, neglect, impatience, temper, or meanness.

(Sai Baba Again To be continued..)

SaiRam