SHRI SAI SATHCHARITHA

"Sada Nimbarvrikshasya mooladhiwasat, Sudhasravinam tiktamapi-apriyam tam, Tarum Kalpavrikshadhikam sadhayantam Namameeshwaram Sadgurum Sai Natham"

Balasahebbhate

Chapter XII

Nanasahebkharkar

Saints' Mission

We have seen before, that the purpose or object of Divine Incarnation is to protect the good and destory the wicked. But the mission of the Saints is quite different. To them the good and the wicked are the same. First they feel for the evil-doers and set them on the right path. They are like the Agasti to destroy the Bhava-sagar (the ocean of wordly existence) or like the Sun to the darkness of ignorance. The Lord (God) dwells in the Saints. In fact they are not different from Him. Our Sai is One of these, Who incarnated for the welfare of the devotees, Supreme in knowledge and surrounded with divine lustre, He loved all beings equally. He was unattached. Foes and friends, kings and paupers, were the same to Him. Hear His powers. For the sake of devotees, He spent His stock of merits and was ever alert to help them. But the devotees could never approach HIm, unless He meant to receive them. If their turn did not come, Baba did not remember them, and His Leelas could not reach their ears. Then, how could they think of seeing Him? some men desired to see Sai Baba's but they did not get any opportunity of taking His darshan, till His Mahasamadhi. There are many such persons, whose desire for Baba's darshan was not thus satisfied. If these persons, believing in Him, listen to His Leelas, their quest for milk (darshan) will be, to a great extent, satisfied by the butter-milk (Leelas). If some persons went there by sheer luck and took Baba's darshan, were they able to stay there longer? No. Nobody could go there of his own accord, and nobody culd stay there long even if he so wished. They could stay there, so long as Baba permitted them to stay, and had to leave the place when asked to do so by Baba; so everything depended of Baba's will.

Bow to Shri Sai -- Peace be to all

Devotees Experiences

Sri Seshachalam Pillay was a retired Tahsildar who lived at Tummalagunta village near Tirupati (A.P.). On 1-11-1977 his wife Smt. Susilamma came to my house and recounted her experience of Sai Baba's grace.

In 1952 the family was staying at Narsingpur near Chandragiri Railway station. Even several years after marriage they had no children and all their relations were pressing Sri Pillay to marry a second time. One day her elder brother gave Smt.Susilamma a small picture of Baba and told her to worship it and said that Baba might bless her with an offspring. She started doing accordingly and in 1954 she was blessed with a son whom they named after Sai Baba.

When the child was eleven months old, it had fever and the mother suffered from severe diarrhoea. All medical aid proved futile and even after living on a diet of arrow-root powderfor21 days she could not go out of her room to answer nature's calls. On the 21st day at 4.30 a.m., she had an urge to pass stool, She got down from the cost, sat down just by for the purpose and, reclining her head against the cot, she prayed to Baba to help her. She at once saw Sai Baba entering the room pushing open the main door! He came and sat on the cot just by her head. She complained to him of her miserable plight. Baba said, "Why feel so bad about it? I have kept a talisman in that shelf. You wear it and you will be alright. Throw it off on the third day", and he at once walked out of the room. "Baba, in which shelf do you mean?" she was crying.

Her relations woke up at her cries and asked her what the matter was. When she told them of Baba's words, they brushed it aside as a mere delusion. When she insisted, they searched in the shelf and they did find a talisman with a yellow thread attached to it. They put it around her neck and at once her diarrhoea subsided. On the third day she threw the talisman away in the backyard in a corner. Sri Pillay blamed her for throwing away a thing given by Sai Baba and searched for it in vain. Both Smt. And Sri Pillay sat dejected at not finding it and they even went without lunch. By 6 p.m. her elder brother came and said that she was right in following Baba's instruction to throw away the talisman and that even if she had not done so, Baba could nave taken it away as mysteriously as he had given it.

This miracle strengthened their faith and they worshipped Baba with great favour. But the younger brother and nephew of Smt. Susilamma used to criticise her for worshipping a 'moslem' like Baba. One day when they sat in the hall, something metallic fell from nowhere, with a noise and they found it to be a picture of Baba printed on a metal strip. Smt. Susilamma picked it up, thought that it was a gift from Baba to here child and, after offering incense to it, put it round his neck. The same night her youngest brother and nephew suffered from sudden and unbearable pain in stomach and diarrhoea. Smt. Susilamma told Sri Pillay that both of them spoke light of Baba as a Moslem and the illness might be a consequence of that. Sri Pillay reprimanded them for their impertinence and told them to prostrate to Baba's picture in repentance and to promise that they were relieved of their suffering and that they would name their first born after Baba. As soon as they did so the pain at once vanished. Thus both of them became devotees of Sai and later named their first born after Baba.

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