Sathyam Sivam Sundaram - Part I

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river, together with the multitude gathered there. When he awakened the next

morning, both the purse and the bag had disappeared! When relating these

incidents, Sathya Sai Baba often tells those around him that he was not worried

at all. He says he moved about the place quite unconcerned and found on a stone

trough a coin and a packet of cheap handmade cigarettes. He took the coin and

proceeded to the market place. There he found a man sitting in front of a

contraption, promising profit to men with luck! On a circle drawn in white

paint on a piece of black cloth were some hieroglyphics. He had attached some

monetary value to a few figures and no value at all to the

rest! He had an iron rod sticking up from the center and a movable pointer on

the top. He asked his customers to place a coin beside him and give the pointer

a quick turn. If it stopped on top of a section which had a figure such as 2, 3,

or 4, he would give the customers two, three, or four times the amount of the

stake. Otherwise he would keep the stake. Sathya had to try his luck. He turned

the pointer a number of times. Each time he won, thus collecting twelve annas in

all. He says that he could have won more, but he sympathized with the poor

fellow whose earnings were slim! Those twelve annas sufficed for one week. As

previously mentioned, he had a miraculous

power not only of providing food for himself but also of proving by the scent of

his hand that he had eaten. (On occasions even now when people doubt he has

eaten, he may be heard to say, "I have had lunch," and allows them to smell his

palm, thus quelling their doubts.) Thus the scoutmaster was led to believe that

Sathya was being well fed by some of his relatives at the Fair; therefore he

made no distinction between Sathya and the other boys in assigning work. Sathya

entered enthusiastically upon his task of inspiring his classmates to do

selfless service. (Today this is still the theme of Sai Baba's teaching of

service: Service to others is service to oneself, for the other is only oneself

in another form with another name!)

0.5in">When it was proposed that the scouts return to Kamalapur by bus, Sathya

quietly slipped out of the camp because he had not paid his share of the bus

fare. He walked back the entire distance as a matter of principle. While

Sathya was at Kamalapur, he was not only separated from his parents but also

from his brother who had gone away to undergo training as a teacher. When

Sathya needed clothing and other items, he wrote popular ditties for the use of

a merchant, Kote Subbanna, who had a shop featuring medicines, tonics,

glassware, articles of fashionable wear, umbrellas, etc. Their arrangement was

that when Subbanna desired to promote a new article on the market or boost the

sales of a patent drug, he would stop Sathya on his way to school and give him

the necessary information. By evening Sathya had prepared an attractive song

praising the merchandise in well written poetry. In return for the songs, which

soon became popular, Subbanna gave Sathya cloth, books and other articles he

needed. The songs were full of verve and lilt, capable of catching the ear when

sung in chorus by a band of hired urchins who would march along the streets,

with the name-boards in their hands, singing the slogan-filled songs and

apparently enjoying their task! (Even now Sai Baba regales those around him

with the recitation of these old time "commercials.") There is a saying

current among the older devotees of Sai Baba: "He manifested himself at

Uravakonda, but spread the glory from Kamalapur." This statement is a tribute

to the quickness with which the people of Kamalapur responded later to the Call

without the cynicism of ignorant conceit. After Sathya returned to Puttaparthi,

they organized public receptions and gatherings for worship of "Bala" Sai, the

Child Sai. Seshama Raju completed the training prescribed to qualify him as a

teacher of the southern Indian language Telugu and was assigned a post at the

High School at Uravakonda. He welcomed this as a good

omen, for he could have Sathya with him and give personal and immediate

attention to his progress in higher studies. SaiRam.