HE AS THE OTHER

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HE AS THE OTHERbyManchiraju Thammiraju Sanathana Sarathi, June 1964 It happened at Uravakonda, 24 years ago, when I was a teacher at theHigh School there. The most distinguished student of the school, Sathyanarayana,already known as Sai Baba was absent; He had gone to Puttaparthy, thevillage where He was born. My fourth son, Ramarao was the five years ofage. Uravakonda has few wells with drinkable water; my wife used to go forit, to the "Bungalow Well". It used to take some bit of time for her to walkup to the well, draw water and fill the pots and return, especially, if thecrowd was big. So, that day, she collected the children from neighbouringhouses for Ramarao to play with and giving them a quantity of sugar in acup, she asked them to play "Puja of Sai Baba" and eat the

sugar, afteroffering it to Baba. She then left for the well, all the while lamenting inher heart at the absence, in physical form, of Sathyanarayana, the presentAvathar of Sai. The children started Bhajana and Puja. And wonder of wonders, theysaw Sai Baba sitting on the wooden plank which Sathyanarayana had giventheir parents to be placed near the shrine. They repeated some Namavalisand did Puja to the Divine Visitor. They offered the cup of sugar and,would you believe it, Baba ate some of it. The boys ate the remainder.Then Ramarao ran out of the house to bring his mother in, for he had heardher sigh for a Darshan of Shirdi Sai Baba. The women from the well were about 20 yards away; the children ranforward, shouting the good news and asking them to hurry up. But, theyfound the plank empty. "Where has He gone?" they asked the children in

theroom. They answered, "He went into that picture; we saw Him do it." Ofcourse, Baba had denied Darshan to us, who are immersed in objectivepleasure-seeking; but, He gave Darshan to those innocent little kids and atewhat they offered! We went to Puttaparthy and asked Baba about this incident. Baba'sanswer was: "Your wife felt forlorn that I was away here, far from her andyou. So, I presented Myself before Ramarao and the children, in that Form,just to convince her (through the description of the experience from theseinnocent children) that I am there always. But, why did He choose 'that' Form, the form of Shirdi Sai Baba ?The answer is, there is no 'that' Form or 'this' Form; both are the same. With love Diana

 

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