Unique story of baba

[Guest guest]

Submitted by Rajiv

This is the strange story recounted by a Londoner Arthur Osborne, born in

London, educated at Christ Church, Oxford who lived in India for several years

and was deeply interested in spirituality and has written a small book entitled

"The Incredible Sai Baba"In Calcutta, where Osborne lived for four years, he had

and old lady as his neighbour, named Miss Dutton. Miss Dutton had been a nun in

her younger days but had been given absolution of her vows by the Pope because

she found that she could not, in all honesty, accept the rigours of a convent.

While her application for release from her vows was pending, she was much too

pre-occupied with her internal conflicts to give much thought to her future. It

was only when she was about to leave the convent that it dawned on her how

hopeless her future was. She was practically penniless. She was well over

middle age, without a profession and with scarcely any near relative. The

nearest to a relative was a nephew living in a

far-away Calcutta. The situation was daunting.One day, while sitting in her cell

immersed in the deepest gloom, she suddenly felt the presence of a man in front

of her. He was tall, barefoot and looked like a holy man. Miss Dutton's suprise

could well be imagined. There was no way any man could have got entry into her

cell. In any event he did not look like any holy man in the West. As she told

Osborne, he looked at her with compassion and told her: "Do not worry so much.

Everything will be all right when you go to Calcutta." Then, Miss Dutton

reported, the holy man said: "Now won't you give me a gift?" Miss Dutton told

him she had no money with her. "Oh yes, you have" said the holy man, "you have

thirty-five rupees in a box in the cupboard up there!" Miss Dutton had

completetly forgotten about that little reasure, but taken aback by the holy

man's prescience, she went to the cupboard, took out the money but, when she

turned round, the holy man was nowhere to be seen! He had

disappeared as unaccountably as he had come!She never mentioned this incident to

anybody. She left the convent and went to stay with her nephew who turned to be

a kind and loving nephew indeed. Her worries about her future had been taken

care of.Osborne wondered who this holy man- Miss Dutton had called him a

fakir-could be, but felt instinctively that may be it was Sai Baba. To test out

his hunch, he told Miss Dutton: "I will show you a picture of the fakir". He

went back to his apartment and fetched the picture of Sai Baba to show to Miss

Dutton. She took one good look at the picture and exclaimed with unfeigned

suprise: 'Yes, that is he! He had even the same white kerchief on his head!"The

point, writes Osborne is that Miss Dutton had never heard of Sai Baba

before!."Gurur Brahma Gurur VishnuGurur Devoh Maheshwar;Gurur Shakshat

ParambramhaTashmai Shri Gurur Veh Namah"May the Merciful Sri Sai Baba

always shower His grace on us and our families and remove our problems and

anxieties by giving us all - strength , goodluck, success and happiness with

peace of mind.Sai bhakt,Deepa Hdebu7366

Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.