How Baba Redeems His Pledge

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How Baba Redeems His Pledge

" Cast all your burdens on me and I shall bear them " was

the pledge given by Shri SAIBABA, for the benefit of

humanity. The devotee has to do his part in a spirit of complete surrender, and

BABA had never failed HIS devotees. Since nearly four decades, I and the

members of my family have been experiencing the redemption of this pledge by

BABA. There was never a problem in our lives, which could not be solved by HIS

grace. There were innumerable instances when we turned to Him for succor and

guidance and we were never disappointed. I would crave the indulgence of the

kind readers, to mention two or three of several such instances,

 

In 1959 my only son had appeared for his B. E. mechanical, final

examination and came home to spend his summer vacation with us. I found him

unusually brooding. When pressed, he revealed the cause. He was worried because

he did not fare well in his examination. He was expecting his first ever

failure in his academic career. Since childhood he was a very sensitive child.

I prayed to BABA to come to his help and vowed to send a certain amount to

Shirdi Sansthan, for poor feeding. A few days later,

I had a dream in which BABA was sitting on the branch of a huge tree, the top

of which was in the clouds. HE stretched HIS hand towards me from the sky

demanding HIS money. After I woke up the daily paper came in the morning and I

was happy to find my boy's number in the list of successful candidates. I

immediately sent the amount to Shirdi.

 

A few years back all the members of our family

went to Tirupati in our car for the tonsure ceremony

of my grand-son. One night, prior to our departure, I had a dream. In the

dream, we were traveling in our car along a very narrow forest road. Our

journey was obstructed by a big tree which fell right across the narrow road.

There was no way of by passing the road block. We tried to remove the tree; but

it did not budge. While we were waiting in despair, a villager wearing soiled

and torn clothes came there. He laughed at us, coming to know about our

predicament and questioned me " You are so many and why don't you all make

an effort to remove the tree " . I told him that we have tried and failed.

He said he would assist us and we all tried again. Our contribution was

of no consequence, as he pulled the tree from the road with ease.

I felt grateful to him and thanked

him profusely and

offered him some of the eatables which

we had in the car. He ate

them with relish and wanted some

more. We gave him some more. He again wanted some more and thus

he ate all, that was available in the car. After that he

again asked for

something more and I told him

that nothing was left with us. He

laughed at me and accuses me of telling a falsehood. I was shocked by

this rudeness. Then he said " Search your

grandson's pocket " . When I did so found two or three paper wrapped

sweets, which the boy always carried in his pocket. I took them and gave them to him. He ate them and drank water. From this I could know that he was no

ordinary man. The child folded his

hands before him and he blessed the boy and advised us to start at once as we

had a long distance to cover. We all

felt very hungry; but there was nothing available, which we could eat. After a journey of 30 or 40 miles in hot sun

we reached a small wayside village where there was a small tea-stall and we

stopped in front of it. We expected to get in it

only tea and some

crude bread. It was a pleasant surprise to us, when the stall

keeper informed us, that he had prepared food for us as per

the instructions of a villager, who came to his shop and informed

him of our arrival a few hours

thence. That was the dream I had.

 

While we were returning from Tirupati on

our way back to Hyderabad, a few

miles this side of Kurnool, the tiered

end suddenly broke and the car began to travel down a ghat

slope. We felt helpless as the steering wheel had no control. I knew that it

was going to be our end. In desperation I lifted both my hands in an earnest

prayer to BABA and requested HIM to spare at least the child. To my surprise

the momentum slackened and the car headed towards a tree standing there. The

front bumper touched the trunk of the tree and the vehicle came to a stop. I

was surprised to note that, the tree was none other than the one which I saw in

my dream, in a fallen state across the forest road. Even the front bumper had

not been damaged. With the help of the driver of a car, that was passing that

way, a wrench was improvised for the broken tierod

end and we managed to reach Kurnool, where the

necessary replacement was got done and we could reach Hyderabad 4 or 5 hours

late. This was BABA'S grace. That villager was no other than BABA.

 

According to an astrological prediction I should have had a fatal

illness in my 62nd year. I was ready for the event, but did not reveal this to

any one of my family. Some days before the completion of my 62nd year, one

night my wife had a dream. A Rishi appeared in her

dream and directed her to tell me, that I should chant MRITYUNJAYA MANTRAM 108

times every morning. My wife does not know how to pronounce the name of that

MANTRAM even now. When she had that dream, she immediately woke up and noted on

a small piece of paper the name of that Mantram, with

incorrect spelling. Next morning she told me about it and I could know that it

was the hand of BABA guiding my destiny. As a matter of fact it was my wife who

had brought SAI BABA POOJA into our house in 1940. I am now sixty eight. I am

reconciled to any eventuality, but I am grateful to BABA for HIS grace showered

on me and my family members.

 

There was and is never a moment in my life, when BABA is not in my

thoughts. I feel HE pervades our home. I feel HIM and breathe HIM. To my

knowledge He had never let any one down.

Devata Subba Rao

Hyderabad

(Source Shri Sai Leela Feb 1979)