EVER-LIVING PRESENCE OF SAI BABA

[Dipika]

EVER-LIVING PRESENCE
Sai Baba had the reputation of being clairvoyant, healing the sick, restoring eyesight, affecting events at a distance, appearing in devotees' dreams, and exercising control over the elements. Biographies of Baba are replete with stories of how he helped his devotees out of problems and crisis. He continues to do so.

Govind G. Dabholkar, deputy manager, Indian Airlines, based in Mumbai, is a grandson of Hemadpant who wrote Sri Sai Satcharita, the Marathi biography considered authentic because Baba had blessed the project. Once, on the day of an important Sai function, Dabholkar's wife' prayed for a respite from the unceasing rain, which was, causing leakage in their house. From the moment she prayed till the time the last devotee left the house, the rain indeed stopped, though it continued to rain heavily on both the adjacent suburbs.

Umesh Badwally, a retired insurance officer of Mumbai, felt a palpable divinity in Shirdi during his early trips there. "After that, I always prayed to him in moments of crisis, and have always been helped. Once, my sister-in-law was diagnosed with cancer, and advised an operation. I had no money, and no one to turn to. Soon after, a friend came home, and offered not just to loan the money, but also to stay with me in the hospital. Ultimately, it turned out that she didn't have cancer. Four years later, she was again advised surgery. This time, she was lying on the operation table when a biopsy proved that she didn't have cancer."

M.V. Kamath, former editor of the Illustrated Weekly of India and co-author of Sai Baba of Shirdi, A Unique Saint, and former head of the Shirdi trust, reports: "Every three months, work takes me to Udipi, Mangalore. To catch the early morning flight, I have to leave home by 5.30 a.m. when taxis are seldom around. Once, I half jokingly asked Baba why don't you help me find a taxi? Soon, an, autorickshaw appeared from nowhere, a passenger alighted and the driver willingly took me to the airport, at no extra cost.

"Next, time, with a little more faith I petitioned his help; and the same thing happened. An autorickshaw came from nowhere, dropped a passenger, picked me up, and asked me for nothing extra. After that, however, I never asked for his help again for such trivial things are not meant to be his problem.

"My book on Sai Baba has done quite well. Without advertising, it is in its l0th edition." Incidentally, the publisher of some of the more important books on Shirdi Sai Baba, S.K. Ghai, head of Sterling Paperbacks, recalls that when he returned from his first visit to Shirdi, he found the manuscript of a book on Baba lying on his table. He now regularly does japa of Baba's mantra 'Om Sai Shri Sai Jai Jai Sat' and has turned vegetarian

Sai baba let your holy lotus feet be our sole refuge.OMSAIRAM

dipika duggal