Baba's infinite mercy part 2

[Guest guest]

Yes, Baba came, dined and conversed with me (Twenty

six years after His Maha Samadhi)

 

It was about noon and Thursday too By force of habit,

I looked towards the gate for some Fakir or Sadhu who

might turn up for biksha. Ever since the advent of

Baba into my life two years previously in '42 through

the sacred contact of His Holiness Swami Kesavaiah, I

had come to observe Thursday as Baba's day. You see,

it was through swamiji's initiation into devotion to

Baba and doing His 'Nnamasmaranam' that I was

reclaimed from imminent death. On further being

advised to fast every Thursday night for nine months

and gave my meal to the first Fakir that might turn

up, (which I accordingly did) I was gradually restored

to health. Since then, I had made it a rule to feed a

Fakir before taking the noon meal on Thursdays.

 

But this Thursday was unique, a red-letter day in a

long life of sojourns on earth (punarapi jananam

punarapi maranam) a culmination of persistent

'tapasya' through recurrent janma of some one in the

family, in all probability my wife, or one of the

children or may be my own imperfect self for

his'Saakshaatkaara. For, to my utter surprise and

astonishment, Baba Himself with His beatific smile was

entering front enclosure! He was in same Bikshapathi

pose as He manifested Himself the previous day as

'Mrutyanjaya to revive my dead son, almost within a

split second of my denying His divinity and declaring

Him to be a false deity! I eagerly hastened up to Him.

After welcoming Him with all my heart, I begged Him to

condescend to stay for food. He asked me with a

twinkle in His eyes whether there was anything special

that day, I said that it being a Thursday, it was our

custom to offer food to a Fakir before our noon-meal.

With the faintest flicker of a smile at the corners of

His lips He wondered whether I would do so on

Thursdays only.

 

Being rather academic and literal in my ways, I

replied, rather obtusely, that it was so. I am not

ashamed to confess that it look years for me, chewing

the cud of it off and on, to sense the gentle

admonition enshrined in His benevolent query, as if

half in jest and half in earnest, 'Why not daily', and

begin doing so.

 

Be that as it may, I offered him a seat and ran inside

with the glad tidings of Baba's visit and His gracious

condescension to have food at our humble adobe. I

beseeched my wife to round off the cooking forthwith

and start serving the food, since 'Athithi's,

especially holy ones, should not be made to wait

unduly (Athidhi Devo Bhava) and, all the more so,

because it was BABA HIMSELF How can one describe the

signal good fortune so divinely bestowed upon my wife,

Kamala, of personally serving food cooked by her to

the Master of all CREATION (as described my Meherbaba)

except to say that it is the cumulative fulfilment of

all the good deeds of all her previous 'janmas at ONE

STROKE! The whole beauty of it lay in the fact that

she did not as a matter of course, characteristic of a

'gruha dharmini' fulfilling her obligation and to at

this day not at all conscious of that greatest good

furtune that can ever accrue to her. That is, indeed,

as it be for "there is no vanity so damaging to one's

character as pride over one's good deeds". 'SUCH are

the chosen of God, the humble and the good at heart

who it is that "inherit the kingdom of Heaven".

 

As Baba was graciously taking the meal, I put Him the

stupidest of questions! I had the foolish temerity to

ask Him where exactly at Vizianagaram (he was staying)

This episode took place at Vizianagaram in

Visakhapatnam dist. In March, 1944) imagine asking Him

who had repeatedly given proof of His EXISTENCE at

different places to different persons at one and the

same time both during His incarnate stay at Shirdi as

well as after His Mahaa Samdhi, either in a clearly

recognisable manner of incognito, to be recognised,

later on, both subjectively as well as by cumulative

evidence, as none other than Baba Himself.

 

How puerile and vain can man be that, not withstanding

the show and pomp, penance and ostensible devotion

with which he invokes the Lord, when He does appear,

he fails to recognise Him! Even tapasvins were

occasionally not exempt from such an woeful lapse.

 

The all-knowing Baba, speaking at my level, gave me an

apt and satisfying reply. He said that he was staying

at the Sri Subrahmanya Temple near the railway

station, which, as will be seen presently, was true in

a literal sense as also applicable universally

according to His own proven assertion to many a

devotee in respect of His identity with any idol or

image or worship. I, of course, took His words

literally and said, "All right Baba, if so I will

surely go and see you". "Do come!", He confirmed and

went back letting me accompany Him up to the gate.

Indeed it is a misnomer to say he went back, for, how

and where can He, the 'Sarvantaryamee', ever go to

come back again for that matter? However, such wisdom

was yet a long way from me.

 

Here it should be noted that Baba and I were

conversing in Telugu, my mother-tongue, which He spoke

with ease and in our dialect. I wonder why and how I

had started talking thus. It seemed the natural thing

to do. I now realise the question does not arise at

all. I am sure any one in my place would have

naturally spoken in his own language and Baba would

have answered in it or vice versa. Mahalsapati (the

earliest devotee of Baba at Shirdi) has vouched that

many a time in the night while all were asleep, Baba

used to converse with some unseen agent(s) in some

foreign tongue(s)

 

Soon, I must unblushingly admit, I lapsed into the

humdrum routine of existence, and all thought of the

incarnate Baba receded to the back of my mind, though

my daily worship went on as usual. About a month

later, as I was about to take my noon-meal, the

thought of my defferred visit to Baba in the temple

flashed across my mind. At once, grabbing the hand of

my convalescing son, I rushed out like one possessed

and trotted along to reach the temple, about a mile

away. I had often passed by it and noted it to be a

transit camp for the Sadhus to and fro on their

pilgrimage. Reaching the portal sweating and panting,

I accosted the first person I saw and enquired about

Baba's stay there, describing His person and dress in

exact detail. To my great disappointment, he curtly

replied there was none answering to that description,

implying a muslim ascetic. I begged him to recollect

and tell me or refer me to others whose sojourn might

be longer than a month, insisting that the SADHU I was

after had come and received biksha at our house and

had averred that this was His abode at Vizianagaram.

This rather annoyed him but, seeing my crest-fallen

countenance, he softened a bit and assured me that

none like the ONE I described had ever stayed at the

temple since over a month during which period he

himself had been staying there. That was it. It was

enough to deflate me completely. I was on the verge of

tears.

 

In this repentant and chastened mood, I decided that

we might as well go in and worship Lord Subrahmanya

and seek His blessings, for, I had learnt to see Baba

in all deities (and vice-versa). As we went round and

turned the corner to reach the front again, I came

across an improvised minor sanctum common in temple

premises. I casually looked inside. I was overwhelmed

to behold a life-size portrait of Baba in exactly the

same pose as He designed to visit our abode on two

consecutive days first as 'Mrutyunjaya' and the next

day as Divine 'Athithi1! In a flash, I understood what

the 'Dayaa Sindu' had meant, both literally and in a

metaphorical sense, when He told me that I could find

Him here, as, indeed, anywhere one wants and needs, if

only with all one's heart and will. Now, the flood

gate burst open and I poured out my heart to him.

Tears of joy welled up in my eyes flowing as if in an

unending stream, and my heart melted away into secret

raptures. I then remembered having heard some year ago

while at Waltair that one Sri C. Rangaiah Naidu, under

the inspiration of Sri D. Durgaiah Naidu, a pioneer

devotee of Baba and well known to the Shirdi Sansthan,

had installed a portrait of Baba for worship at

Vizianagaram, This was it.

 

My heart leapt as I felt reassured that Baba was, as

He continues to be with me and I was not bereft of His

Grace, that He is enshrined in every image and

portrait of His, ready to manifest Him self at a split

second's notice, or none at all, even as "the gentle

rain from heaven upon the place beneath". It can be as

His re-incarnation, or incognito as a person or an

animal, or in a vision, or as subjective (or call if

sub-conscious, superconscious or subliminal)

realisation of His being 'BHAKTHA PARAADINA" ever

alert to fulfil Himself according to His charter to

give His children whatever they want so that they will

being to want what He wants to give them, blessed is

he who thus qualifies.

 

"Such man is free from servile bands of hope to rise

or fear to fall, Lord of Himself though not of lands

And having nothing, yet hath all."

 

- Sir Henry Wotton (A Happy Life)

 

Glory be to Shri Shirdi Sai Baba - Grace be to all

 

Source: DIVINE MIRACLES OF SHRI SHIRDI SAI BABA

 

(A RECORD OF THRILLING EXPERIENCES OF (LATE)

DR.P.S.RAMASWAMI)

 

www.saileelas.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

__

Sports

Rekindle the Rivalries. Sign up for Fantasy Football

http://football.fantasysports.