Tuesday, 5th December 1972. At lunchtime, a friend phoned
that Baba had come to Whitefield. My wife suggested that we might go there, the
same afternoon. I readily agreed. My grandson was to drive the car.
We started at 3:30 and reached about 4:15. The sight of
numerous cars parked outside the main gate assured us that Baba was 'in'. We
parked the car by the roadside, and walked in.
I proceeded to the inner gate of Baba's Residence, but, the
volunteers there would not allow me in. Our party sat near the pandal round the
big tree, but, got under its shelter when it soon began to drizzle.
I and my little grandson, Anand aged 8 got under the chhajja
of a window of the College Office. It appeared to me an endless wait. For, Baba
did not come out till it was almost 6 P.M. It was already getting dark. Outside
the inner gate, there was a small crowd; ourselves among them, inconspicuously
by the edge of the road. Anand was hungry and restless. I thought within myself
that I would not come again in a hurry.
Everything changed as soon as Baba came out. He acknowledged
the Pranams of the crowd, talked a word or two to a couple of American ladies
who had been waiting under a tree, and walked, straight to where I was
standing. With His face beaming, and a gracious smile, He said to me, "I am
happy to see you.” I bent low and touched His feet. All my grouse had vanished.
I felt overwhelmed.
Baba took my hand in His, and kept it, while He moved forward
and I with Him, with my grandson following close!
Many onlookers took flash snaps. One of them said to me, as
we neared him "You are very fortunate." I whispered, "It is all Baba's Grace.”
Then, Baba released my hand, and saying, "Come tomorrow
morning,” and blessing Anand with Vibhuti, He got into a car and drove away.
That grasp, of my hand in His, is a great event in my life.
It was a clasp of Grace.
As the result of an injury received by me, during the course
of the "St. Philomena Church Riots" in Mysore, where I was City Magistrate, in
1937, I had developed an inability to write with my hand. I managed to do my
writing assignments using typewriter most of the time. After retiring from
Government Service, 20 years ago, the disability increased, until I was lately
unable even to sign my name on a cheque.
It was a handicap, which affected me deeply. All sorts of
treatment, including mantra and tantra had been tried, but, in vain. After my
first Darshan of Baba, I used to apply a little of "the Vibhuti, He had given,
daily on my hand. There was improvement, but, not enough for me. I had once
said, jokingly, long before I saw Him, that I would believe in Him, if He cured
me of my writing disability. But, I had never mentioned it to Him, or even
thought of it when I was in His Presence. But, the miracle has actually
happened!
Ever since my Darshan on the evening of the 5th day of
December, when Baba had grasped my hand, there has been remarkable improvement
in my writing capacity. The fact of Baba's holding my hand had so stunned me
that it drove away all thoughts from my mind. It, was only a fortnight later,
on the 19th December, Dattatreya Jayanti, that it struck me with a flash, that
the inexplicable improvement was entirely due to the Baba contact.
The more I dwell on it, the more the Truth of this grows on
me. I do not seek to convince anybody; but, I am myself convinced, that, as He
has so often said, Baba is an Avatar of Datta, my Patron Deity, after whom I am
named Om Sathya Sai Datta.
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Aum Sri Sai Ram
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