The Lord’s Touch The story of the construction of the Mandir building at Prasanthi Nilayam is a chain of miracles wrought by Bhagawan’s grace. The most astounding was the transport of the huge girders for the central prayer hall from the railway station at Penukonda sixteen miles away. Girders of 40 feet length had come from Trichinopoly (now Tiruchirapalli) to Penukonda by train. The road from Penukonda to Bukkapattanam was a district board road with a sandy stream at the seventh mile and it passed through a few villages with delicately built houses(!) flanking the narrow road on either side with a few acutely angled curves. There was a track of three miles, from Bukkapatanam to Puttaparthi with a few dilapidated culverts and low-level causeways and a broad expanse of the sand of the river Chitravathi. Then there was the task of hoisting the heavy girders on the twenty-foot high walls. Therefore, the engineers gave up all hope of transporting the girders from Penukonda to Puttaparthi and placed before Baba some alternative proposals for roofing the prayer hall. But Baba did not relent. One fine morning, the Road Transport Officer of Anantapur district, who was a devotee of Baba, woke up to find a surprise in front of his house. It was a huge crane from the Tungabhadra Dam site that had stopped there and refused to move forward. It had struck work! The driver was grappling with the engine in vain. He could not make it move. He sought the help of the Road Transport Officer who thought that the crane was Baba sent (!) for transporting the girders from Penukonda to Puttaparthi. It was agreed that the crane would transport the girders if it were repaired. The R.T.O. hurried to Puttaparthi and prayed to Baba, who materialised some vibhuti (sacred ash) and gave it to him. This vibhuti was smeared on the engine and the driver was asked to start it and lo! the crane started moving. The surprised driver went happily to Penukonda railway station, lifted the girders with the giant arms of the crane and started towards Puttaparthi. The sight of this giant carrying the girders was a great surprise for the villagers who greeted it by lining up on the roadsides. The crane somehow passed over the culverts, negotiated hairpin bends, lurched over the slushes and puffed its way up the Karnatanagapalli hill! It did not move further, may be on seeing the broad sheet of sand of the Chitravathi River! Baba himself went to the crane, sat with the driver and handled the steering wheel. Thrilled by the touch of the Lord, the crane moved happily to the work spot and unloaded the girders.

A Mirror of the Moon A riveting account of a transcendental miracle of Divine as chronicled by Dr. John Hislop in Sanathana Sarathi, May 1974. Early on the morning of Dec. 8, 1973, Swami departed Prasanthi Nilayam for Brindavan. After an hour or so of driving, he directed the three accompanying cars to turn off the road to a clearing in an uninhabited area of the forest. Everyone got out. Baba was in a delightful mood, moving about among the party and cracking jokes with the men. Beside the picnic area was a wood-apple tree with a few large wood-apples in view in the upper branches. The men tried to knock some of these to the ground by throwing stones, but without success. One small wood-apple, about two inches in diameter, did fall to the ground, and Baba picked it up. Holding the small wood-apple between thumb and forefinger against the morning sun, Baba said, “Here is the moon.” Then he closed the small object in his hand for a moment, and when his hand opened, the wood-apple had disappeared, and in its place there was a most extraordinary object. The object was a translucent disk (of stone?) thin at the edges thicker at the centre. It reflected light in a brilliant way, and throughout its body there was a puzzling variety of modifications. There were dark areas of uneven shape and size; there were short and longer veins of luminous mineral-like materials of all shades of colour; there were specks and dots of colour that reflected brightly in the sunlight. The total effect of the disk was one of great beauty. Everyone gazed at the object with intense interest and wonderment. Holding the disk to the sun, Baba said that it was the moon in miniature, comprised of the moon’s matter; that it was a mirror of the moon.” Nobody understood what he meant, and we started to ask questions. At length, we understood that the two sided disk was an accurate miniature in stone and minerals of the two sides of the moon. It was as if one were to photograph the moon as it is seen from Earth, and then to journey to the opposite side of the moon and photograph that side. Each side photographed would appear on a photographic plate as a circular disk. Thus, one side of the translucent disk created by Baba mirrored one side of the moon, and the other side of the translucent disk mirrored the opposite side of the moon. The darker, unevenly shaped areas on the disk were the very large features of the moon’s surface; the brightly reflecting specks and dots were individual mountains and smaller mountain ranges; the shorter and longer veins of brilliant varicoloured minerals were additional features of the moon’s landscape. Indeed, the visual modifications to be seen in the disk were so complex that we did not readily understand them. Baba said that the mineralized appearance of the luminous features of the disk were in fact moon minerals, that they could be seen in the disk because it was thin and therefore translucent, and that the same mineralization was in the moon itself. The miniature moon was exact and fully accurate, and were there to be a photographic enlargement, scientists would at once recognize all the landscape features with which they were familiar. At this point, food taken from the cars was ready, and the ladies of the party served a delicious breakfast. I had the moon-disk in my hand, so I put it in the pocket of my jacket and kept it there. After breakfast, with a smile, Baba held out his hand, and I reached in my pocket and returned the moon-disk to him. He again held the disk up to the sun, and all along the edge of the disk there was the rich golden light. Baba said, “See there is the sunrise!.” After every one admired the golden light, Swami again closed his hand, the moon-disk was gone, and in its place was the original small wood-apple.

He knows how to rescue his devotees Sairam. This is a true story happened to me last year. The house next to my house has cut off tow big trees and i am sure they have snake of the big venom like mamba a definite poisonous killer was there. When they cut the tree, I think in all my opinion that I framed which later Swami confirmed to me in my dream, the snake entered to my house through the gate and found itself in my rock garden. Normally I go to my garden to pick up flowers and do some gardening in the evening hours and all saturday. One fine morning Swami said while picking up flowers, where radiant Swami appeared before me and said please wear the chappels (footwear), and he didn’t tell me why. From that day I was wearing the chappels (footwear) and go to the garden. After a gap of some days when we came from dinner and got out of the car and when my wife got out of the car the snake passed under the car but slightly edge between the legs. We saw it, before I could park the car the snake went inside the garden. Immediatley I have to call the casuals men of the local tribe and told them to find where the snake could have hidden. Then after a whole hunt, the snake was beneath the rock garden and they took it out and they told us it is dangerous snake of African variety worst than cobra. We pray to swami that day and thanked Swami for saving us. Swami said that night in my dream that he knows best at what time he should help the devotees and bless me and disappear. The next day vibuthi was there in my house in all the photos. I have only video coverage and not photos and I do not know how to clip into the computer. This illustrate Swami is omnipotent, omni presence, and wherever we are he will be there. What he wants our faith and love, once we surrender to him he will take care of us. Sairam.

The One appears as Many On Sunday, the 13th day of December, 1964, Baba was at Venkatagiri Town. He had reached the place a few days earlier in connection with a heavy schedule of discourses in the Chittoor and Nellore Districts, in Andhra Pradesh. But, Baba is not bound by the limitations of space and time. On that very day, about 8 a.m., “Baba surprisingly appeared in front of my house”, says, U. Ram Mohan Rao, Superintendent of the Junior Technical School, Manjeri (28 miles south of Calicut on the West Coast, in the State of Kerala). As the crow flies, the distance between Manjeri and Venkatagiri will be more than 600 miles! But, distance is only a game that Baba plays to keep us, poor mortals, apart. We shall listen to Ram Mohan Rao describing this visit. “I and my wife were indoors with our daughter. The maid told us that a Sadhu had come. We went out to see who it was and we were surprised to see Sri Sathya Sai Baba! Baba said, Hari Om, Santhih Santhih Santhih”; we prostrated ourselves at His Feet. We led Baba into the office room, but, on the way, He saw our Puja room where His photo was hung, along with several holy pictures. He said He would sit in the Puja room itself. He told us that he had come to us that day, being very pleased with the Bhakthi of Sailaja, my daughter. He asked me to send word to devotees, if any were available, for Bhajan and Pravachan.” “He sent word to his neighbours and people collected immediately”, says Ramesh Rao, his cousin. He sang “Nandamukunda Sayinath”, “Om Bhagavan”, “Jayaram Jayaram”, along with the Bhakthas. After Bhajan, He talked to me in Tamil, to my wife in Canarese and to the others in the mixed dialect of Tamil-Malayalam. He Blessed us by the gift of a Sankhamala and placed His own photograph on it. He told me that my father had decided on a rite to propitiate the Snake-God (Sarpasamskaram) at Bangalore on 25th February, Thursday (‘My day’ He added), but he told me that he need not perform it, since He had ahead wiped off the calamity it was intended to avert and the sacrilege it was designed to atone. He took some light refreshment. Then, told the persons around Him that all will be anxiously awaiting Him at Kalahasti. So, He took leave of us and asking us not to follow Him, went through the gate. He disappeared in a few seconds. We all felt happy at this unexpected Darsan and were struck by the ‘disappearing miracle’, within the twinkling of an eye. Nor was this all. There are a few more paragraphs in the letter, which I am quoting: “24th December, Thursday, was a holiday; we felt lonely since our Sailaja was away at Mangalore. So we went out in the afternoon to visit some friends and returned home at 6.30 P.M. We were shocked to see the lights burning within the house. My wife asked me whether I had forgotten to switch off all the lights. I first examined the lock of the main door and, finding it intact, went round the house to see whether the other doors were bolted from within. They were o.k. Then, both of us came to the front door, opened the lock and walked in. We found everything intact; all the lights were on. We saw Baba sitting in our Prayer Room! We prostrated ourselves at His feet. He asked us (in Kannada) whether we were afraid! We replied that we were very lucky and that we felt very happy! Baba said that He had come because we were lonely and sad. ‘Let us sing Bhajans. If Sailaja were here, she would have liked to sing’, He said. He sang a few Bhajans, He took food and later, we discussed some general topics together. Then, Baba retired for the night. Early next morning, Baba had His Bath; he had coffee with us and then, discoursed on Bhakthi and the Basic Truth of Nature. All of a sudden, we saw a rosary of Rudraksha beads in His Hand; He put it on my neck with His Blessing, with the direction that I should wear it during my Sandhya rites. After those rites, I was to place it on Baba’s photograph. We had breakfast together. The Puja room was decorated specially with garlands and flowers. Bhajan began. Meanwhile, devotees came to know that Baba had come; so they too assembled for Bhajan. Baba discoursed on Bhakthi in the Tamil-Malayalam dialect. He granted every one the coveted interview.

A Master of Nature It was on a cloudy June evening that Sathya Sai Baba was addressing an open air meeting at Mercara. The sky was overcast and gloomy rumblings of approaching rain could be heard, not far away. In fact, the rain poured on the hills on the horizon, stepped nearer and nearer, and came as far as Mahadevpet, half a mile away. Baba spoke quietly and calmly, holding the audience spell-bound, for over an hour and a half; at the end, He said, ” Now, you can go home, for in about ten minutes you will get the rain that ought to have drenched you by now. “And, wonder of wonders, the rains came, as announced, ten minutes later, to the very second! The Chitravathi River at Puttaparthi is subject to sudden floods, for it rises in the Nandi Hills and heavy rains in that region in Mysore State will bring down the waters many feet deep all along the miles. The Prasanthi Nilayam was built on an eminence away from the village to avoid these periodical floods which in some years invade the old Mandir, entering the prayer Shed, the kitchens and all the surrounding area. On many such occasions, Baba has stood on the edge of the water and said, “Ganga! It is enough, go back.” and the waters have not risen more. Some years ago, during Navarathri, when the (Narayana Seva) feeding of the Poor was on, it rained all round the Nilayam, but not a drop fell in the precincts where people were being fed!

The Cave of Vasishta The twenty-sixth of July, 1957, was full of pleasant memories for the devotees and the residents of Sivanandashram, for Baba boarded a bus and proceeded along the bank of the Ganges to a palace of the Rani of Garhwal for a quiet morning. On the way back Baba stopped the bus at a place where a thin little iron post carried a half-distinct nameplate reading “The Cave of Vasishta” (Guru of Rama). He descended the rather precipitous incline to the river bank as if he had been there often before, and as if he were aware of a prearranged engagement with the occupant of the cave. The Ganges curves widely near the cave, and so the scenery was doubly attractive. The cave bears a hallowed name; it has been sanctified by the austerities performed therein by many great recluses and monks in the past. Swami Purushotamananda, a disciple of Swami Brahamananda of the Ramakrishna order, had been initiated into monastic life by Mahapurushji, another direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. The Swami had been in the cave for thirty years. he welcomed Baba as if expecting him. He was more than seventy years old and had spent the major part of his life in asceticism of a most rigorous kind and in the study of the scriptures. His face had the genuine glow of spiritual joy and the slightest mention of the glory of the Godhead sent him into samadhi, the depths of inner bliss. When a young man of twenty-seven, Brahamanandaji had read his palm at Kanyakumari and predicted that he would go into a cave for continuous meditation. Baba repeated the visit the next evening in spite of a thunderous sky and the grumbling of those who accompanied him, but both ceased by his grace. Baba sang a number of songs while at the cave. Hearing that the Swami had been suffering from chronic stomach-ache for many years, Baba “took” some candy from nowhere and gave it to him with instructions about diet. More mysterious and significant was the Vision that he gave to Swami Purushotamananda that evening. As early as 1918, the Swami had written to his Master, “All is false and I cannot rest satisfied until and unless I come face to face with Truth!” After sending everyone outside the cave, Baba and the sage went into the inner room. Sri Subbaramiah, President of the Divine Life Society at Venkatagiri, describes what he was able to see from outside the cave: “Even now that picture is imprinted in my memory. I was standing near the entrance to the cave. I could see what was happening through a chink in the door. Baba placed his head on the lap of Swami Purushotamananda and lay himself down. Suddenly his entire body was bathed in divine brilliance. His head and face appeared to me to have increased very much in size. Rays of splendor emanated from his face. I was overwhelmed with a strange inexplicable joy.” When later asked to divulge the nature of the vision, Baba informed us that it was a vision of the darshan of Padmanabha as installed, since childhood, in his heart. “It was Jyothirpadmanabha”. He said Jyothi meaning Light. After a minute or two, Baba rose and sitting by the side of the septuagenarian, called him by name and slowly brought him into the consciousness of space and time. Baba sang a song on Rama, composed by Thyagaraja and when he concluded, he waved his hand and materialised from the air a rosary of sparkling sphatika beads for Purushotamananda. Five years later when the Swami left his body behind and merged in that Truth, Baba announced his departure to me at Puttaparthi (thousands of miles away). It was a few minutes after the emergence of the Lingam from Baba’s stomach where it grew for days. It was Mahashivarathri; Baba told me that Swami’s body will be buried with the Sphatika Rosary on the chest.

The Skies at His Command Sri Indulal Shah, formerly the Chairman of the International Sathya Sai Organization, recounts his first Darshan of Bhagawan in his book “Sixteen Spiritual Summers”: In the summer of 1965, which, to me, was the first of my sixteen spiritual summers, I was in Bangalore once to visit a friend. During an informal conversation one morning, my host asked me whether I would like to see Sri Sathya Sai Baba, who was to address a meeting at Malleswaram, in the heart of Bangalore city, the same evening. I had heard about Sri Sathya Sai Baba and also read about Him in some Bombay newspapers, but had never seen Him before. I had, till then, no particular urge to read either His biography or discourses. My immediate response to the question from my host, therefore, was somewhat casual and uncertain. However, on second thoughts, I felt that I should attend the meeting and so, later in the day, accompanied by my wife, Sarla, I went to Malleswaram where a mammoth gathering was listening to Baba with rapt attention. We sat in a remote corner of the big maidan (ground). I was swayed by a nameless feeling, a strange inquisitiveness or curiosity, as though I was adventuring into the unknown. Then suddenly, the sky became rather dark with thick clouds fast gathering overhead. The large crowd became visibly restless, as people feared an impending rain. We ourselves were in a quandary and my host hastened to take us back to his car. Just then, we saw Sri Sathya Sai raising His hand and saying something aloud to the crowd in the local South Indian language which, however, I could not grasp. My friend said that He was asking the crowd to sit down and that He was assuring them that it would not rain. As He said this, we saw that the rain clouds started disappearing and the gathering darkness was giving way to bright sunshine. I remained spell-bound! I could not believe that anyone could disperse moisture-laden heavy clouds by a mere wave of the hand. And yet, our eyes were a witness to this strange phenomenon, the likes of which I had read about only in Puranic (Hindu legends) stories. The clouds are sent away in MumbaiWhile the previous incident happened in Bangalore, Sri Indulal Shah was a fortunate witness to a similar and equally astounding event, but this time it in Mumbai (then Bombay) and the year, 1967. This time, it was in Dharmakshetra in Bombay. The month was July, the monsoon time in Bombay, and Baba was paying a visit to Maharashtra State. The Bombay Samithi had arranged a public meeting of devotees in honour of Baba at Dharmakshetra. I remember that it was a Sunday evening. In Bombay, in the month of July, a heavy downpour can be expected any time. That being a Sunday, a large crowd was expected to attend, regardless of the possibility of rain. The Samithi had taken all precautions to provide shelter to the devotees from showers. The large pandal at Dharmakshetra was packed with people to the full. The meeting was to commence at 6 p.m. But at about 5.15 p.m., the sky was overcast and we feared that the rains would lash down any time. We were anxious to save the devotees from getting drenched in heavy rains. Some of the office-bearers felt that we should request Bhagavan Baba to start the meeting a little early, say at 5.30 p.m. I felt that Baba might not accede to this as there was ‘Rahu Kal’ (inauspicious time) upto 6 p.m., but my colleagues insisted that there was nothing like ‘Rahu Kal’ for Bhagawan. Accordingly, I went up to Bhagavan and prayed: “Baba, could we start the meeting a little early?” “Why?” asked Baba in a tone, which, by itself, was an answer to the question. But we did not understand this then, as our mind was also clouded like the overcast sky that evening. I pleaded: ‘Bhagavan, it is likely to rain, the meeting may be disrupted, the devotees may suffer’. In answer to this Baba smiled and that benign smile remains imprinted in my mind even to this day – as bewitching as the smile that we see in the picture of Lord Krishna.