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Sai Sandesh                                                   Volume 9, Issue 2; Nov 2012

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Baba's Miraculous Healings and Resurrections

The Struggle to Surrender

Sai Wisdom

Miracle in a Bottle

Develop Self Confidence

My Amma's Long Jump

Microwave Miracle

Power of Swami's Vibhuti

 
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Baba's Miraculous Healings and Resurrections
By The Sai Sandesh Team

Baba's unconditional love often finds its expression in the form of miraculous healings and resurrections that are experienced by countless devotees, practically every micro-second of the day—even today. While a small fraction of these healings have been documented in Sai literature and elsewhere, there are literally billions and billions of miracles that will forever remain silently enshrined in the hearts of those who experienced them.

Tumor vanishes

A devotee of Swami was once diagnosed with a serious tumor. Being Swami's ardent devotee, it was his firm desire to undergo the surgery in Swami's divine [physical] presence in Puttaparthi. When he visited Swami, he was granted the much sought-after interview. Before the devotee could plead his cause, the Omniscient Lord disclosed every minute detail of the disease and even shed light on the fact that the tumor was to affect the devotee during his younger years, but it was Sai's grace that had postponed the condition until much later in his life. At this, the devotee firmly held Sai's feet and sought His refuge. Swami, the naughty Krishna that He is, feigned helplessness and said He would speak to a certain surgeon in the hospital and have the surgery scheduled.

The devotee's faith was firm, however, and he did not leave Swami's feet, pleading the Lord to perform the surgery Himself. At his repeated requests, Swami's butter-soft heart melted and He placed his abhaya hasta (the boon-bestowing hand that grants fearlessness) on the supplicant's head. He also advised the devotee to avoid sitting on the floor for three consecutive days.

Continuing with his human drama, Baba called the hospital and asked the devotee to meet a doctor and undergo further diagnostic tests before the scheduled surgery. With firm faith in Baba, the devotee went fearlessly and met the doctor as directed by Swami. Much to his surprise, the doctor revealed that there was no trace of tumor in his body. The devotee was pleasantly surprised and when he discussed the case with the doctor, the latter shed light on the fact that when Swami placed His hand on the devotee's head, the surgery was accomplished by the Divine Surgeon almost instantaneously. It was only then that the devotee realized the significance of Swami's words—"Do not sit on the floor for three days!"

Hole in the heart sealed instantly

Another devotee, a mother of an infant girl, experienced a similar phenomenon. Her daughter was diagnosed with a heart condition needing immediate surgery. She visited Puttaparthi and wrote her daughter's condition in the most pitiful manner possible. Her daughter was scheduled to undergo surgery at the hospital in Puttaparthi but there was a significant chance that she could lose her life due to the delicate nature of the operation. She was anxious to the extreme and nervously awaited Swami's darshan. As she sat in the darshan line, the merciful Lord approached her and quickly took the letter that the helpless mother held out to Him. She was thrilled, no doubt, but her joy was soon transformed into extreme anxiety as Swami took the letter, crumpled it, and threw it out instantly.

She burst into tears inconsolably as helpless onlookers attempted to console her. She lost all hope but had to be by her daughter's bedside on the day of the surgery. She summoned as much courage as she could and went to the hospital to help her daughter with diagnostic tests that were scheduled on the eve of surgery. The doctors came rushing to her after the scans. Seeing their rush, her heart almost shut down but the smile on the doctors' faces prevented her from collapsing. The doctors were extremely excited and revealed to her that her daughter's heart condition had DISSAPPEARED miraculously. She could not understand what had happened but then realized why Swami had thrown away the letter. Swami's destruction of the letter did not symbolize a bad omen (contrary to what she feared) but was rather a proclamation by the Almighty that no surgery was needed. The overjoyed mother-daughter duo visited Swami the following day and thanked Him from the bottom of their hearts. They are live testimonies to the proclamation that Baba has made on innumerable occasions: "I bear the love of a thousand mothers."

Cancer is cancelled

Sathyam Shivam Sundaram also has the story of a son-in-law who visited Swami to pray for his ailing mother-in-law. The latter was diagnosed with incurable cancer. Swami materialized a Shiv Lingam with capillaries and instructed him to perform abhishekam and offer the consecrated water to his mother-in-law. He also materialized vibhuti for her. Within a month, the mother-in-law's cancer simply vanished and she was restored to complete normalcy—no trace of the disease, whatsoever. The healing was beyond human comprehension.

Blind girl's vision restored

In Shirdi, too, Baba performed (and continues to perform) countless such cures. Just a few years back, a small blind girl visited Baba's Samadhi and her vision was miraculously restored by the most compassionate Lord of Shirdi in almost one instant.

Epilepsy lapses

A small child was similarly diagnosed with severe epilepsy. The anxious parents brought the child in front of Shirdi Sai. As soon as he saw Baba, he feel unconscious and the parents felt even more concerned. Their fears were soon allayed by Baba who asked them to remain fearless and take the child to their lodgings. Within thirty minutes he came back to normal and remained disease-free ever since.

On other occasions, Baba applied His udi (holy ash) and cured diseases that medical professionals had proclaimed "incurable".

Resurrections -- return from beyond

Not only did Baba cure countless diseases, He also resurrected many devotees from death. In one instance, the devotee's body had turned blue and was physically beyond recovery. In fact, the dead body had even started decomposing. It was at this point that Baba entered the devotee's room and commanded him to wake up. Much to everyone's surprise, he woke up and asked his wife for a cup of coffee.

Back from the grave

In another instance, an elderly lady was declared dead and as her body was being prepared for a burial, Baba appeared on the scene in His astral form and commanded her to wake up.

She literally woke up from her grave and rejuvenated to such an extent that she started spreading Baba's word to the local folks. Within a few years, she herself achieved enlightenment and became a saint in her own right.

Baba resurrects His own body

Not only did Baba resurrect others, during the Shirdi Sai avatar, Baba resurrected His own body as well. In the late nineteenth century, Shirdi Sainath asked his devotee Mahlasapati to guard his body as he departed from His physical form. For three days the body lay in a lifeless form as devotees mercifully pleaded with the Lord to return.

Much to the surprise of everyone, Baba woke up and resumed His divine role. His disbelievers at the time were certain that Baba had departed but when they witnessed this miracle of miracles, they changed their evil ways and became ardent followers of Baba.

The love of a thousand mothers

Baba's glory and might transcends the limited realms of science and the mind. What appears to be a miraculous healing or resurrection to us, is just an infinitesimally small fraction of Baba's divine glory and might.

Our humble prostrations to this most mysterious, enigmatic, and [extremely] merciful Lord of Lords. We are indeed fortunate to be the children of a Divine Mother that bears the love of a thousand human mothers.

 
The Struggle to Surrender
By M. Saxena

Surrendering is a notion very alien to many people, the author included. It almost seems like a difficult state, and the question keeps arising, "How does one perform action while surrendering to God?" Usually when one works, one expects a certain result. When the results are not what one wants, anger, disappointment, and sadness sets in.

"What will happen now?" "How are things to be tomorrow?" "I really tried my best, but nothing is happening." These sentiments haunt many people, and the more they violently try to struggle to make a name for one's self, the deeper they become entangled in the Maya (Illusions) of the world.

So how does one approach this Surrender to God? In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna prescribes the path of Karma Yoga to Arjuna to alleviate his doubts before taking arms in the bloody Kurukshetra war. Karma Yoga is performing action with a sense of duty and responsibility, as oppose to performing them out of desire. It is performing action, both physical and mental, for God, and letting Him decide the results of the action – be it favorable or unfavorable. This reason is twofold; first – so we can maintain shanti (peace) of the mind, whether we're met with joys or calamities, and; second – so the cause of performing a desirous action is eventually uprooted, thus putting a stop to the accumulation of attachments which bind us in the cycle of birth and death.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna revealed the secrets of untying oneself from this cyclic existence by severing the ropes of illusion and ignorance. He also revealed His Universal Form to Arjuna. It was then that Arjuna was able to look in awe at the limitless and infinite forms of Bhagawan, and was courageously established in the Self.

But despite this glorious sight, no one else on the grounds of Kurukshetra saw Krishna's Vishvaroopa (Universal Form), nor heard the contents of the Bhagavad Gita. Neither the men from the Pandavas, nor from the Kauravas had this blessing. Why?

It was only when Arjuna had grown exhausted with the world, did the despondent warrior place his worth at Krishna's feet. It was then that this knowledge was imparted. Krishna must have had countless opportunities to impart this divine revelation to Arjuna, but it was only done then – when Arjuna fully surrendered himself to the Lord for guidance.

We must all be like Arjuna at the Kurukshetra. Whenever misfortunes seem to mount, and the armies of desire and consequence war with each other on the grounds of our minds, that is when we should lay down our arms and take refuge in the Param Sathya – the Eternal Truth, which will thereby guide us through these temporal pursuits by performing action with a sense of duty, instead of a sense of desire. Yes, it is hard to continuously think this way – but be certain that when we take one step towards Baba, he takes a hundred steps towards us.

When we take the initiative to embark on the path of Karma Yoga, and surrender to Baba, we must know that He will carry us across this ocean of worldly existence. Our Baba sweetly says, "I always think of you, but I can only help you completely when you rely fully on Me."

 
Sai Wisdom
Source: Thought for the Day, Prashanti Nilayam, October 31, 2012
Millions read and write; millions have qualified for degrees and have become experts/specialists. This only means that they are efficient collectors of information or big encyclopaedias of general knowledge! But none can say, who one really is. People try to fly millions of miles into space, but they are powerless to travel even half an inch into their own inner realm and discover what lies therein. What is the use then, of the vast amount of exertion and energy they have spent for their education? True learning must be like that of ancient India, where knowledge and scientific temper was developed and practised along with sense and mind control, and character development. That will be beneficial to the individual, the society and lead to the progressive unfolding of the Divinity present in every being.
 
Miracle in a Bottle
By N. Das

My mother has had glaucoma for many years now. She was fortunate to discover it in the early stages and so her ocular pressure is controlled by using daily eye drops in the morning and evening. She has two medications and they have to be ordered in advance. About two weeks ago, as usual, my mother asked me to place the eye drops in her eyes in the morning.

However, there was enough for only one eye. As I squeezed the bottle, only air and bubbles came out of it. Shaking the bottle made me realize that the medicine was finished and a new bottle would have to be opened. When my mother went to retrieve another bottle, she rushed back and told me that she had somehow forgotten to place an order for the next shipment. We quickly placed the order online, but were worried about what to do until the shipment arrived. At that point, we decided to try the old bottle again to see if we could salvage at least a single drop for my mother's other eye.

I thought of Baba and took the bottle from my mother's hand and shook it, just to give it a try. And lo and behold, to our amazement, we could hear and feel the liquid inside as we shook the bottle. Just minutes before, we had seen only air and bubbles come out of it.

We quickly placed a drop in my mother's eye and thanked Baba. The shipment was placed on Dec. 16, and it arrived on Dec. 20, in the evening. Even though we thought that there wouldn't even be enough for a single day, that bottle sufficed for four days following that incident, until the next shipment arrived. And the day after the shipment arrived, when we tried that same bottle, there was again no liquid inside of it!

We feel truly blessed to have experienced this miracle!

 
Develop Self Confidence
By M. Saxena

When the author was embarking on the path to spirituality, the issue of self-confidence was not clearly understood. One may equate self-confidence with one who is outspoken and determined in the pursuit and attainment of their goals. This seems contradictory to spirituality – this development, encouragement, even celebration of one's ego – working solely for the fruits of one's desires. Lessons are taught to surrender and leave everything in God's hands, and the rest - good or bad, will follow suit.

An event would occur to teach the author how incomplete his thinking was. One day prepared for an important presentation. He went over all details and possible scenarios, and felt satisfied he did what he could. But every now and then, he would feel anxious and scared, and would beg Baba to make everything better for him. "Baba, make me successful in this endeavor! I cannot succeed in anything without your blessings!" Soon it was time for the presentation. It started. The author began to speak. Suddenly the author's faith in himself vanished. Several mistakes were made. The presentation cards were dropped. There was an uncomfortable silence. The presentation was disasterous.

Needless to say all the homework and practice was of no use. "Baba why did you do this to me?" Dejected, the author lay in front of Baba. Then he realized that this entire event was not of Baba's doing, but of the author's. If one does not have the confidence in his Self, then how can he have faith in Baba? When the faith in himself was lost, that was the same as losing faith in Baba! If one does not realize that they too are divinity incarnate, then how can they appeal and pray for intervention from the Divine? Baba says, "I am God. And you too are God. The only difference between you and Me is that while I am aware of it, you are completely unaware." Only when one is established in the Atma Thattwa (the Atmic principle that all are Divine), can one rise above temporal and unfounded reactions such as fear, doubt, worrying, and anxiety. Only then can a link be established between an individual and the Divine, and thus be blessed under its auspices.

Confidence in the Self is a character trait of Mahapurushas (great beings). Even while standing alone, facing the vast Indian Ocean, Sri Hanuman literally took a leap of faith in order to reach Lanka to assure Sita of Rama's inevitable victory.

This leap of faith was Hanuman's faith in Himself, in Rama, in God, in Dharma – these all became one for Him. His resolve in His Self gave Him the courage, power, and means to overcome physical impossibilities in order to complete His divinely ordained tasks. Sri Rama had faith in His Self to rescue Sita from Ravana. It was confidence in His self that saved Sita. A worldly person would worry about food, animals, and war before even thinking of stepping towards Lanka. However Sri Hanuman, and Sri Rama – the idol of idols – teaches us all that even in dire circumstances, one can succeed if one possesses the divine secret of Self-confidence.

Some would rather let a negative situation envelope their life rather than confront it. However these situations are an opportunity for us to become better. Our Sadguru encourages us, "You are the dearly loved children of the Lord. You are as pure and as sacred as air.

Do not condemn yourselves as sinners. You are lion cubs, not sheep. You are wavelets of Immortality, not bodies compounded from matter." So embark on the task of recognizing and awakening the Divine within you. Realize that you are the very same energy from which Bhagawan descends.

Know that if you want to carry out and serve Baba, you first have to develop Self-confidence (faith in the Universal Atmic Principle), not self-confidence (faith in the world and ego).

Believe you are invested with the divine capacity to serve Baba. Be lions of sathya, dharma, and prema.

Do not be sheep of fear, anxiety, and worry. With this in mind you can confront and truly accomplish any task taken up in life. Sai Ram.

 
My Amma's Long Jump
By S. Pankanti

Those of who know my amma are well familiar with her physical abilities: she had sadly decades of chronic severe arthritic problems in both her knees. Her continuous working habits wore her knees, knee-caps included, beyond any hope of recovery and remediation. Her both knees had taken the characteristic bow shape which physicians immediately recognized her severe condition of beyond any hope of easy medication; she consumed her daily dose of painkillers and limped along with a happy countenance despite medical problems of various magnitudes.

She packed her day (and night) with devotional deeds and passed her time with Baba's name on her lips as her schedule permitted.

When smooth marbled architects are marveled around the world and its charm and décor is being discussed, I am sure, we are happy to ignore and dismiss the hazards it poses for an aging arthritic inhabitant with bare grip on the granite ground. For undertaking repairs and remodeling, my family had moved from an independent house to my sister's upper floor. The marbled limited space was cluttered and congested and was doubly dangerous and perhaps needed no more additional tricks for tripping.

One day, inevitably amma tripped near a threshold rather with a strong momentum and she was catapulted a couple feet. The projected panorama of ensuing crash landing, much dreaded hospital visits and long recovery must have flashed across her mind in that momentous flight and a helpless cry of "Baba!" escaped her livid lips, partly as a habit and partly out of desperate exasperation. Baba must have heard her cry for help in His infinite Grace – because she landed like a petal on a flower bed. When she recalls the incident now at a bare request, her eyes shine and twinkle in a recall of divine glory and of His touch and with moistened eyes she will say: "Baba instantaneously appeared there and cradled me in His hands and gently placed me on the floor".

PS: Amma recently underwent double knee replacement surgery and she felt Baba was there during her surgery. With His Grace, she is recovering well.

 
Microwave Miracle
By S. Pankanti

Even after witnessing multiple microwave ovens disobey, desist, and demise at inopportune moments of various intensities, this particular failure was peculiar: it failed to turn off! As soon as you closed the oven door: Boom! The oven would keep merrily whirring disrespecting all the timer etiquettes prescribed by the multiple knobs of the oven until, of course, you again opened the door manually.

Even when you set the timer alarm, at the end of the timer prescribed time, the audible alarm would go off but the oven would happily continue to radiate its content beyond the requested timer limit. After a few usual trials of resets and reboots, I just reconciled this as another unpleasant fact of life and decided to live with the oven.

I might have pleaded, goaded, chided Baba to remove this minor irritation and was secretly hoping for a miracle in first couple of days but then I forgot all about it as the ensuing days passed on.

A week passed by with fairly innocuous accidents comprising of burnt food and overboiled liquids; it almost became my very second nature to leave the oven door open rather than slamming it shut after every use. Ever open microwave door ceased to evoke jarring emotional response anymore, as it used to. We had literally used the oven dozens of time by now and the peculiar behavior steadfastly continued despite our tinkering of various magnitudes. As is usual in our house, we had prepared a weekly prasadam for Baba but for the last item: papads.

Unlike the conventional deep fried papads, we simply dry baked the papads in the microwave oven. I had put the five papads in the oven and set the alarm to three minutes and was vigilantly watching the oven so that I could stop the oven at the right moment. So, you can imagine my great surprise when at the end of the allotted time, the oven turned itself off obediently and continued to work like all (few) good microwave ovens worldwide. Isn't this Baba's way of saying, I will satisfy all wishes, major or minor, to encourage all acts of devotion to Me.

 
The Power of Swami's Vibhuti
By M. Chugh

This incident happened to me back in 2001 when I had just passed out of college and joined my 1st job in Bombay, India. I worked in a Computer Software development company as a programmer, and hence spent several hours in a day sitting on the office chair. After a few months, I noticed that I was developing a kind of skin infection in my lower back causing some puss formation and pain.

On further checking, I found some tiny openings in the skin around the same area. As the pain was very minimal, I ignored the situation and didn't mention about it to anyone in my family.

As time went by, I noticed no improvement but felt more discomfort and hence I decided to share the matter with my family. As we couldn't figure out the cause of the openings and the puss, we decided to visit a dermatologist for further diagnosis.

The doctor did his check-up and identified the cause of the infection. He mentioned that I had hair penetration into my skin which was causing the infection and the puss.

He further explained that this commonly happened to people who spent several hours sitting at one place and the only way to cure the infection was to perform a small skin surgery to scoop out the penetrated hair from within the skin.

I decided to visit another dermatologist to get a second opinion and got the same diagnosis. Though, per both the doctors it was a small surgery, it was a very big ordeal for me as the post surgery recovery was suppose to last for 30 to 45 days.

As I was just few months into my 1st job, getting 45 days off would have been very difficult, plus, it would have impacted my performance in a negative way. Hence I decided to hold off on undergoing the surgery.

This was during the time I had known about Swami for few years and was reading a lot about Him. But I had never visited Puttaparthi (His Ashram in South India) or had His darshan.

As our neighbors were ardent beleivers of Swami, they had given us some of His Vibuthi. As I'd read a lot about Swami's Vibuthi and it's powers, I started applying His Vibuthi on the wound twice a day.

I continued applying the Vibuthi for several days and surprisingly noticed that the wound was becoming dry slowly and steadily. In less than two months, I noticed that the openings that were causing the puss had dried up significantly and the puss formation had stopped. I continued applying the Vibuthi.

Three months later I visited the same dermatologists for the followup, whom I had visited in the beginning. Both the doctors were astonished to see the wound dried up with no puss.

They did multiple check-ups, as they couldn't believe how a wound opening full of hair beneath the skin could dry up without performing the surgery to remove the hair!

When they asked me as to what I did, I told them the fact about the Vibuthi application. Both of the doctors too had heard about Swami's Vibuthi but had never experienced it with their own eyes, as they did that day.

I had stopped applying the Vibuthi soon after both the doctors declared that no surgery was needed. It has been over 9 years now and till date the wound remains completely dry.

 
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