Devotee's Experience - Contributed by Jagannathan Padmanabhan

[Guest guest]

DEVOTEE'S EXPERIENCE

 

Sai Ram To All

 

Why fear when I am here

 

Shirdi Sai Baba is a mystery. His birth, to whom he

was born, who nurtured him, his travels before coming

to Shirdi and his scholarly interpretation of Hindu

and Muslim philosophy, baffled the most eminent

scholars who visited him. His miracles that cured any

kind of suffering, are as valid today as in the past

and through them he created millions of devotees. When

Sai Baba came to Shirdi it was a village. Today Shirdi

has luxury hotels, motels and, is full of activity.

 

A friend of mine is a fighter pilot with numerous

battle honours. His one and only weakness was

addiction to smoking, and however hard he tried he was

unable to give up this habit. He prayed to Shirdi Sai

Baba very sincerely, as only a miracle from Sai, would

give him the will power to leave smoking forever. One

day, while on a flying mission, he thought he saw, a

figure like Sai blessing him that his wish to leave

smoking was granted. Shortly after this experience he

landed. As per usual practice his wife was waiting

with a packet of cigarettes, for she knew he enjoyed

his cigarettes as much as he enjoyed the flights. But

on that day, he took the packet and threw it away. His

wife was thrilled, and from then on, he never touched

cigarettes. He kept this vision as a secret, till I

met him post school, after three decades of his

joining the air force. I had known him as a chain

smoker and so took a special brand of cigarettes for

him. He flatly refused to light the cigarette. I was

amazed at his will power in giving up this addiction.

Like him, I too had tried various ways of giving up my

addiction, but failed miserably even under threat of

breathlessness. I asked him how he had accomplished

this, thinking that if he could do it I would follow

the same mantra to give up this deadly addiction. He

smiled and said that if I could become a devotee of

Sai Baba, pray religiously, put complete faith in Baba

granting my wish, then, may be, He would bless me in

my dreams and help me never to touch cigarettes.

 

My fervent wish is that Sai will grant me the ability

to stop smoking, to save my breath, to witness

auspicious events. Let not cigarettes take away my

breath. I do not want to take birth again just because

I wanted one more puff of a cigarette that was denied.

Ramana Maharishi compared tobacco to poison, for the

poison will kill body, mind and soul. A great English

author seeing a young man smoking remarked, I am happy

that you have a useful occupation in smoking. If one

devotes one hundred percent of one’s mind to Sai,

everyday, at specified allotted time, then Sai will

occupy the mind and release one from the tobacco; and

mind and heart will no longer be slaves to this breath

killing habit.

 

Jagannathan Padmanabhan