Sathyam Sivam Sundaram - Part I (Sl# 34)

May 9, 2006

SaiRam

Sai Baba Again (Continued..)

The late Sakamma used to tell this strange experience. One day at her bungalow in Somwarpet, Coorg, when she was engaged in worship, a servant disturbed her and announced that a car had come into the compound, and that the person inside insisted on seeing her immediately. She was rather upset, but nevertheless went to find out who would take such liberty with her time. She found in the car a tall, fair, old man with a very reverent looking beard, sitting on a deerskin, his whole body bathed in ash. She was struck by the age of the car also, for it matched the age of the owner or occupant. It was driven by a weak little boy in his teens, and Sakamma wondered how he could have managed to secure a license or whether he had one at all. The car had a name plate in front reading, "The Kailas Committee." She invited the old man inside, did homage by touching his feet, placed a newly plucked rose at his feet, and offered him some fruits. He said he would not eat the

fruits there, because he did not cater to the tongue at all times and all places. "Jihvachapalya" - that is, tongue cravings - was the word he used. He wanted her to contribute to the Kailas Committee and become a member by donating a thousand rupees. She signed a paper on which the sum and her name were written, and when she proffered the amount, the old man said, "Keep this also with you. I shall come and take it later." With those words he put the signed sheet on the table, got into the car and drove away. The teen-age driver did his work remarkably well, for the car was out of sight in a moment.

Years later, when she saw Baba in a house to which she had gone, He appeared to her at one moment like the young driver of that mysterious car, and in the next moment like the hoary occupant who had taken so much pains to make her contribute to the Kailas Committee, and then had asked her to hold the cash in her own keeping! Sai Baba surprised her when they met by telling her, "Come on, give the one thousand rupees you promised that day!" and then described in her presence the entire story, correct to the minutest detail.

Sai Baba once went to Mysore City during the Deepavali, the Festival of Lights, and stayed with a devotee of the Maharaja. While there, He granted the devotees who were at Puttaparthi the Vision of a serpent, a phenomenon not unknown to the devotees of Sai Baba of Shirdi and to the citizens of Coimbatore and other places. The interesting fact about this Vision is that at the same time, or rather, for the entire period that it lasted, Baba was "outside" His physical frame which was at Mysore. The Prayer Sessions at the old temple were performed during the absence of Sai Baba on the steps leading up to the front door, where a decorated photograph was kept with a pair of lamps which burned both day and night. Deepavali Night passed, and in the early dawn a number of devotees at Puttaparthi saw the lights of a car coming up the curve of the hill beyond Karnatanagapalli. That was later found to be just the impression of a few. When the people who had seen the car

lights and had run forward to the river bank returned to the temple, they were surprised to hear that a cobra was coiled around the portrait of Sai Baba in the temporary shrine. It was seen by hundreds of villagers and others until three o' clock that afternoon. They offered worship to it, sang the usual Prayer Songs at noon, and broke coconuts to propitiate it. But it did not stir from its place. Emboldened by this, some women threw saffron powder on it, pronouncing the Name of the Lord and calling upon Sathya Sai Baba. They placed milk in bowls before it; it only swayed its raised hood from side to side. One reverent female of the village, who got the two halves of the coconut given back to her after the ceremonial offering, protested loudly, saying that the nut she handed to it was definitely larger in size and that she would be a loser if she quietly accepted the halves of a smaller specimen. At this the cobra, as if it were keenly watching the proceedings, turned

sharply in her direction and hissed loudly! Everyone had a hearty laugh at her fright! At three o'clock that afternoon the cobra slid down and within a yard or two became invisible, and Sai Baba at distant Mysore brought joy to all by getting up as He returned to His Body.

After Sai Baba went to Mysore, He visited Hyderabad, and because He recognized a number of places as those which He had once seen, the Rani of Chincholi became convinced that He was the incarnation of Sai Baba of Shirdi Himself. Baba also went to Kuppam and from there to Karur and to Trichinopoly. Everywhere He was welcomed with great enthusiasm by devotees and citizens. At Trichinopoly the procession was led by a richly caparisoned elephant, followed by parties reciting ritualistic chants and carrying consecrated water in silver pots as an offering of homage. Everywhere He advised the people, "From now onwards, purify your hearts and make them fit tabernacles for the Lord. Do not fall deeper and deeper into evil by yielding to temptations. Take courage. Believe in the Lord who is within you, who is your nearest kith and kin."

(Sai Baba Again To be continued..)

SaiRam