The Christmas Gift
It was in 1994, when he was a teenager, the Brazilian boy's physics teacher
mentioned to him about Satya Sai Baba. On hearing this, he became very
inquisitive to know more about Baba and was looking for a book on Him. Within
the next few days he found,
the book entitled ‘Man of Miracles’, which was the only one in Portuguese, that
was available at that time.
On reading the book, he wanted to visit India and have darshan of Swami. He was
very particular to talk to Him, which he thought was quite easy.
His parents, who are Catholics advised him to give up such an idea of going to
India and told him that the book he read was probably to brainwash people and
to project Baba as a divine person. But it all fell on deaf ears. He did not
change his mind and was bent upon going to India to meet Baba.
In 1995, when he was on his first job, he managed to save as much money as he
could to buy the ticket for India. He finally landed in India, a strange
country for him, where he knew nobody.
At Prasanthi Nilayam, he was all alone and he went in, to ask for a room. The
Ashram authorities told him that they could not give him a room, as he was too
young. He was feeling terrible and did not know what to do. Luckily the porter
who was carrying his luggage took him to a nearby hotel and got him a room.
The next morning he went to the Mandir and had his first darshan of Swami He
experienced a wonderful feeling unique and indescribable when he saw Baba for
the first time. He was in the 4 th row. When Swami was near him, he got up and
went few steps forward and gave Him the letters he brought with him and Swami
took these with a smile, while a seva dal literally jumped on him and made him
sit in his place.
Before coming to India, he did not have any idea of the crowd in Prashanthi and
did not know how difficult it would be to go near Swami and talk to Him. He had
imagined that he could meet Him easily and talk to Him. But he realized that he
had to wait patiently for the day when He would call him for an interview and
hence was going for Darshan regularly. But his dream remained unfulfilled for a
long time. Baba never called him for an interview.
He decided to go back to Brazil as he thought he would never be called by Swami
for an interview. That was Christmas time. Baba came for morning darshan. Swami
came near him and he was holding a letter for Swami. Swami took the letters
from everyone around him, but not from him.
He felt terrible and closed his eyes and prayed to Swami with folded hands:
“Swami I have come from Brazil to talk to you. But you are not even taking a
letter from me. Why don’t you give me a Christmas gift Swami”. When he opened
his eyes Swami was still standing next to him, with a big smile and told him
to give his letter, took it and moved away from that place.
Swami was probably testing him for a while.
Next day, when he was in the book shop, he saw a picture of Swami standing next
to him and he was praying to Swami with folded hands. Someone had shot a
picture while he was praying to Baba with folded hands . That was the Christmas
Gift Swami gave him -
the very next day !
Then he went back to Brazil, however with little disappointment that he could
not talk to Baba.
Soon after he reached Brazil, he had a wonderful dream , in which Swami was
talking to a group of devotees. This boy was there and Swami tells him that he
would talk to him after a while. After a long wait, Swami talks to him – all in
the dream – and tells him very affectionately, “you are a good boy”. Then
Swami was moving towards his house. It was a wonderful dream and was so real.
When he got up the next morning, he was full of energy.
After a few days, he got a call from one of his Brazilian friends who was in
Parthi at that time. He told this friend about his dream. His friend
suggested him to go back to Parthi and assured him that Baba would definitely
call him for an interview.
So within a short time, he made his second visit to Parthi in 1996. One
morning, this small Brazilian group was sitting at the end of men’s side. That
particular day, Swami came to men’s side first and came straight to the
Brazilian group and asked his friend
“are you a small group?”. Then he told them “go - go to my room”.
The small group from Brazil went into the interview room and were elated to
hear Swami say, “I am here why fear”. Swami spoke with everyone in the group.
Then Swami went into the inner room for a personal interview with a devotee and
closed the door from inside. In the big interview room, where the Brazilian
devotees were sitting, there was a basket containing letters from devotees.
These letters were all scattered .
So a devotee wanted to arrange and as soon as she touched the letters, Swami
opened the door from inside and told her “do not touch the letters”, to the
astonishment of everyone present. It was evident that though Baba was behind
closed doors Heknew she was
taking the letters .
When Baba came out, He stood next to the basket and the letters got arranged
by themselves, one above the other neatly, in just a fraction of a second.
This was a miracle that all of them witnessed.
Since then, he has had innumerable Sai experiences. Once back in Brazil, he
started a Sai Centre in his place, focusing on seva activities with others
members.
