The ‘Sai’ unison, as I experienced it - By Prof. Smitha Sarma, IBS, Bangalore
I am a third generation Sai devotee (my paternal grandmother and mother being ardent followers of Swami Satya Saibaba). My early childhood however, was devoid of any Sai influence. But I was a regular visitor to the temple of Shirdi Saibaba in Cambridge Layout in Bangalore on Thursdays all through student life, sometimes with prayers for the postponement in the exam schedule and at times to help me get into the ‘MBA league’. All of them materialized too, reaffirming my belief in Saibaba ! Marriage happened, closely followed with me expecting my first baby. The terrible labour pain tested my spirit of endurance but more importantly saw the ‘birth of a belief’. Each time, I chanted Sairam (mentally imagining the image of Saibaba of Shirdi), I ended up seeing a visual mirage of Swami Sathya Saibaba of Puttaparthi in front of me, right there in the labor room. Yes, excruciating pain can be hallucinating, but not the ‘experience of birth’ for a mother. I distinctly recall Sathya Sai Baba touching my forehead tenderly each time the contractions came in. Overwhelming was the experience, and at that very moment, the ‘mother-in-the-making’ surrendered to Swami’s grace and became His daughter for life. The surreal experience was just a beginning for me, I realize in hindsight. During one of my subsequent visits to the local Shirdi Sai temple, I expressed my desire to want to visit Him at his abode with my new born (I still had Shirdi in mind). Within 24 hours, I received an invite from friends to accompany them for a visit to Puttaparthi for the darshan of the Lord Himself ! My first visit to the town of Puttaparthi left me awe-struck. It seemed like a magical kingdom of Puttaparthi had sprung out of nowhere amidst the arid terrain of Anantapur district. The journey and darshan experience, with my little one opening his eyes, just as Baba raised his hands to bless the crowd, is an experience that cannot be described in words. The experience repeated itself eight years later when my daughter was born, when newly made acquaintances invited us for a visit to Puttaparthi. I was humbled by His grace of inviting us over and blessing my children! Not surprisingly, Baba formed a part of my kids’ early vocabulary. The holy Vibhuti prasadam has been a constant reassurance of his Grace and presence in my life. I’ve been a recipient of Baba’s prasadam from absolute strangers while transiting the KL airport in Malaysia to the tiny packet that got ‘sent’ to me via friends yesterday afternoon. Punctuated by at least a dozen such experiences, the last decade has made me a complete believer in the unison of the Sai avatars – the `Sai of Shirdi’ and the `Satya Sai of Parthi’. I for one believe spirituality and religion definitely fall into the quadrant of personal belief systems. But what do you call a spiritual experience that transcends religious barriers and ends up becoming a social phenomenon. A phenomenon that is love, truth and peace personified. That’s Baba for me ! Jai SaiRam. May Peace Prevail. - taken from : http://tsr.net.co/2011/04/the-sai-unison-as-i-experienced-it#.UHeeCW9194K Sai Ram
