Trust in Lord

Trust in Lord

Om Sri Sai Ram

BABA’S MIRACLE – 2

What can the snake do to Dwarakamayi’s children? When Dwarakamayi protects, can it strike? We have no need to fear. Strike, let me see how you can strike and kill!”

– Promises of Baba as Dwarakamayi

In fulfilment of the above charter granted for all time to His devotees, Baba twice saved us from imminent danger of fatal poisonous bites.

The first time was in the winter of ’42 in an interior village of Visakhapatnam Dt. where we had sought refuge from the Japanese bombing of the city and the threatened overnight invasion by sea in March of that year. It came about like this.

One evening my wife drew my attention to a small snake about 10″ long slowly creeping along the foot of the wall of the front vereanda where I was sitting. In the impulse of the moment, I did the stupidest thing. Taking its small size for granted, I hit it with one of my chappals and sutomatically stood up. Instantaneously, it jumped up reaching for my face as if it had instinctively anticipated my erect posture. It was so sudden and so totally unexpected that I was startled out of my wits, so to say. Only Baba I am sure must have made me slant my head backwards in the nick of the movement, so that missing its mark narrowly it fell down. In frantic fear and despair, I picked up the other chappal near me and hit it in a frezy and killed it.

As that time and till long afterwards, I had not known that I was confronted with a reptile called krait more molicious than the other poisonous kinds. For while even the Cobra attacks only on provocation, this one does so on mere sight and its bite is as fatal. It is unusual for it to leave its haunts, away from the inhabited areas. Evidently it was caught and thrown in.

It later dawned upon my mind that some clique in the fairly big village wanted to teach a lesson in such a vengeful manner for my heterodox ways of defying untouchability and employing a low-caste woman for fetching water and cleaning utensils. Such acts pass unnoticed in a city but are not tolerated in the villages dominated by the upper castes who though not brahmins were feeling scandalised that I calling myself a brahmin, should stoop so low. The fact is that having come under the influence of Gandhiji first and accepted whole-heartedly Baba’s teachings later, my wife and I had almost completely eschewed observing differences based upon caste of creed. Further, when they saw her serving meal on a Thursday to a mendicant-harijan afflicted with leprosy seated in front veranda of the house, the sight must have been galling to them.

I can now see that I had also grossly though unwittingly tresspassed the social bounds and decorum of the local standards of rural society in some other ways. Thus I had incurred the enmity of a group of families by blocking up the channel letting their drainage pass through our yard till then and improvising a lavatory in the adjoining open space. Though all this was done with the pradhan’s approval, it must have scandalised them. Add to these my tendency to put my foot in my mouth while talking, liable to be mistaken for imparity and it must have proved the last straw. This is the price one has to pay for not doing in Rome as the Romans do.

The second occasion was in November ’49 or ’50. It has been said that it is a misfortune in life to fail and the other misfortune equally bad is to succeed. I was employed then as a Leading Examiner of Ammunition in the Navy at Visakhapatnam and by the sheer grace of Baba success came knocking at my door. The immediate result was I succeeded in making enemies too who would not be averse to see the end of me or some one dear to me. This I came to know

in retrospect. What actually happened was this. One morning as I entered the lavatory of the old open-air type, contrary to my habit of mechanically squatting on the stones to answer the calls of nature, I instinctively felt impelled, rather Baba provided the impulse to look round. Imagine my shock and horror to find between the stones where I was to have squatted a small Cobra with its hood raised obviously ready to strike. I backed out in fear and summoned my neighbor who found it half crushed in the middle so that it could not move. He killed and disposed it of. The inference was clear. Beyond all doubt, it was placed in that position with the injury inflicted on it to rouse its fury and left to do its fell work. Only, whoever had done it had not taken into account the omnipresence of Baba, that He is even there as He assured where His devotee goes to ease himself even in the dark.

Glory be to Shri Shirdi Sai – Grace be to all