Efficacy of Sai Grace

[Guest guest]

Efficacy of Sai Grace

Scriptures say that of all the debts the most irredeemable is the debt we

owe to parents. My father, Shri K. Sathyanarayana Murthy, born in 1911 or

so, spent his young days in abject penury without even two square meals a

day. Last of the children, he were the only one to have a pretence to

education. So much were his indigent circumstances that he had to study many

times under street lamps of flickering tapers of those days. His efforts,

though full of enthusiasm, ended with IX Class because of poverty. Later

when he was married, his in-laws helped him to complete his Matriculation

and provide him with a job in the ex-Nizams Railways.

 

He was a very ordinary man with common weaknesses .in facing the problems of

life. One divine quality he faced was his utter devotion for his children's

welfare- 6 sons and 2 daughters. Before them he was a man of complete

self-denial rarely found in others. The legacy of his defeated efforts at

education in his young days perhaps spurred him to provide his children with

the highest of education despite his ridiculously low salary. In doing so,

he stretched his efforts beyond human limitations to the extreme point of

snapping. He chose to work in leave vacancies of Station Masters, hopping

from station to station, just to earn some money to supplement the growing

family needs. In the process, he literally went hungry everyday for lack of

cooking bane's at way-side stations. His family could not accompany him for

short durations at each place and these small places had no hotels in those

days. His health therefore failed miserably and at the young age of 30 he

acquired diabetes even though he had no such lineage among his forefathers.

 

I am giving this detailed background with a view to enable the readers to

appreciate how the grace of Shri Sai Baba works differently with different

devotees. My father had no pretence to any regular form of worship nor did

he have any big idea about the spiritual side of life. Nevertheless he had

the normal devotional bent of mind towards all Hindu Gods. Somehow he came

to know about the greatness of Shri Sai Baba in his pearly career and

anchored all his hopes on Him. He started making trips to

Shirdi along, with his family members whenever he could afford it.

Thus a good number of times we all visited Shirdi not knowing the

full impact of Shri Sai Baba's greatness.

 

However, all his efforts in life came as an anti-climax in a series of

failures. His mild manners were taken advantage and exploited by

many. He had to face crisis after crisis ill running the family

because of long hospital! Sat ion of family members, thefts of

valuables, education of children at distances etc. The

relentless Lord Sai was severe on him giving him no scope

to see any silver lining on the horizon. He faced rebuffs in his

service too. Once, the Pointsman in a drunken state took away keys

without my father's knowledge and gave signals to receive

two opposite goods trail simultaneously one night. My

father noticed it at the last moment and he immediately

lifted back one of the signals and frantically ran and stopped the

train beyond the home signal. Still he was technically held

responsible and had to face punishment and humiliation. The

purple patch of luck was like an elusive pimpernel in his life. Shri

Sai, the beacon light for all others, was a mere spectator before my

father's macabre drama of life. Any other man in his boots would have

cringed back and committed suicide. But not nay father. He

was a man, dedicated for a purpose. He took all calamities in his stride.

 

(to be contd.....)

K. Navin Chand

Hyderabad

 

 

Source Shri Sai Leela Magazine June 1982)