I am writing this on Jan-2-2012 probably 3 years after this story happened. I do not remember when exactly I got introduced (or may be re-introduced) to Shiridi Sai in 2009, but here is the long story. This would a good started for anyone who wanted practical proof that God existed. I myself tell many time, that God does not exist and it is all in the mind, how you train the mind and how the mind accepts things, but now I am a completely different person. I dont claim to have seen the highest number of proofs from Shiridi Sai or anything of that sort, but just to tell you that if an idiot like me can experience this much, then how much will you experience (of course it is not derogarotory that you have to be more worse idiot to experience more .... with Shiridi Sai, nothing follows a pattern, He does not care who you are completely, by reading the Shridi Sai Baba Sat-charitra, I only understand that you can not experience Him at your will, but only at His will only... Read On.................
First Experience
This happened right after my wife and I got introduced to Shiridi Sai by my sister at Eluru. We heard of some stories of experiences from her and were very excited to start learning more about Him and worshipping him. Well, this is what I at least acted to the outside, I never believed anything of this sort in my mind actually. So here I am , just like many of you reading this article looking for practical proof that God exists. So, armed with the Jeevitha Charitra of Sai Baba, (called Sai Baba Jeevitha Charitra by Sri Ekkirala Bharadwaja garu) which my sister gave to my wife, we returned to Bangalore by train. Did you hear about a mahima yet??? No.... here it comes.... We came home from KR Puram Station to home in Dooravani Nagar (of course shedding Rs 50/- for the < 2Km journey) We got down from the auto and what do we see?? At the entrance of the house is a A4 sized picture of Shiridi Sai Baba that our house owner put up when we were at Eluru (so Baba was moving stones at Bangalore while we were at Eluru) Ok for the "actor" of me (as everyone sees me), I saw that it was spectacular, but inside, I didnt still believe 100%. Why did the picture come up at the same time when we started learning about him and thinking of experiencing him is a question which can not be answered. For many, this is still a coincidence... Those who think that this purely coincidence, read on.... to the next incident.
Journey to Shiridi and Money!!
Now ever since my wife got the book, she was reading the life story of Shiridi Sai Baba and she was awed by the un-believeable real stories (yes, there are a different class of people who want proofs for Rama, Krishna stories and all of our mythologies are based on stories which were passed on from generation to generation but with no record of them in the history. History, yes as viewed by the west. Although I learnt it from my mom who taught history at NAAC A* accredited in Eluru that almost all of our history is written by the British during the colognial rule and the history was twisted, changed and altered to make us believe that Indians are a bunch of losers. Many great facts were never recodred in the history. Although I can not state real facts, you can google them out possibly, so if someone does want the Gods as recorded in history, you should ask which history???)
Now coming to my journey to Shiridi , here is the story.
My wife developed an extreme liking of Shiridi Sai Baba and wanted to go to Shiridi for a long time. We could never get tickets since from Bangalore Karnataka express is the only train that can lead us till Manmad/Kopergaum but since it goes to Delhi, it was always full. So, I finally decided to absond from office without informing my manager and only inform upon return. I tried for a long period, and finally got hold of tatkal tickets via IRCTC to Manmad and return. Now as you know tickets for 3 in Tatkal is a bit costly affair with Rs 200/- additional per ticket. I was not unhappy about the cost, since we wanted to go for a long time but did mention that the tickets were about Rs 3000/- by waking up my wife early in the mornign and telling her that they cost Rs 3000/-. My wife scolded me that I should not be thinking about money when thinking about Sri Sai. I was not happy receiving the scoldings as I was not at all unhappy with the "purchase".
Now the miracle, I took out my son on my Honda Activa that day later in the morning (being in UK , I still cant believe how kids are allowed to ride like that in India as it is very risky, but that will be a different blog) . I always take my son on the same route and I was not wearing something different that day, just the regular shorts. On return from the small shopping, I found that my wallet (purse) was gone!!!!!!!!!! It had about Rs 1500/- in cash and my 2 credit and 2 debit cards. Aaaaaaargh!!!!! I was pissed off.. I never lost my purse even while travelling on Bus # 500 in Bangalore which had the highest number of pick pocketing incidents reported... So.. unhappy, went back and searched, but some lucky soul got hold of it before I could locate it .... so called up the banks and blocked the cards and ordered for new ones. ( I only found that I actually had one of the ATM card at home only and that had to be ordered at a price, the rest came free of cost withing 2-3 days....) Now for the money , the hard cash that I had actually lost, there could be a reason for it, but I still dont know what it is.
What I know is that Shiridi Sai is completely against money, he never cared for money never had money and even Shiridi eventually developed to be one of the greatest piligrimage centres just because of Him, when he died, he only had Rs 9/- with him, which he donated to Lakshmi Bai Shinde for the care she gave to him and that number 9 has a great significance . Anyone reading the books of Shiridi Sai will read more material on that.
I might have learnt a lesson from Baba that I might have had a pinch for the cost of the tickets.. Baba has a very significant teaching : Never borrow money to go to Shiridi.. if you cant go, just pray for him and it is all enough.. I didnt borrow but may be didnt spend all the 3000 whole heartedly.. so got the punishment...
@ Shiridi
Finally the day of going to Shiridi came near. We planned to go on Friday night, reach there by Saturday afternoon, have the darshan and come back on the Sunday afternoon train. Now the mircles will start.
The day before our journey, our Son fell sick, he had a huge vommiting and diarrhoea also...We felt very bad and thought that we can never make the journey with him in that condition. We all slept in the night and I thought of cancelling the tickets only after checking him again in the morning and if he does not have any more till afternoon/evening. Mircale, our son got well by mornning no further vommitings/diarrhoea, didnt have much food, was looking weak but since he was ok, we decided to make the journey and take some good food for him to eat in the train.
We took the train and landed in Kopergaum. We met a Kannada family who were also travelling to Shiridi and they offered to take us along in their auto rickshaw. Enroute on the train, our son had nothing, was looking weak, but ok. On the next morning, he saw some somosas on the train and wanted them... Samosas?????? on the train.....???????? with his condition, NO way.. but had to buy them since he was crying... he had one of it and was fine after that... isnt that a miracle??
Jokes apart we reached Shiridi and went for the evening haarati (or aarti), spectacular, i didnt understand a bit, but it was so wonderful to be there. Finished the aarti and returned to the hotel. There was a Udupi Hotel, and being a natural fan of Kannada people and the Sagars in Bangalore, we had "Oota" or Lunch/Dinner there. The food was not great but ok. Returned to hotel to rest. My wife and sun fell asleep, but I spent the time between 2 - 5 in the morning visiting the bathroom some 10 times ------ Food poisoning !!!!! It was UP and DOWN (as lame people call vommiting and diarrhoea) I became terribly weak and went back to sleep, which my wife had no clue of and only came to know in the morning when I told her. Many of the modern day Facebook/Twitter users will feel this ridiculous but I still believe that this was the punishment of Shiridi Sai Baba, Baba was famous of punishing people in various ways , in fact many thought that he was mad in the begining. There is no possible science/theory explaining this, but this is very true.
How will a person who had 10 vommitings and diarrhoea in the night be in the morning? Normally should be in the hospital, but I was fine... a bit weak but fine... Unlike my dad advices me to take Roxid/Oflaxacin for a sore throat or motion, I normally leave it to the body to react and fight any problem , try natural remedies like ginger-tulasi boiled water for sore throat, black pepper etc.... but this experience was different...
My son's experience at Shiridi
As a person who always wanted practical proofs for everything and not believe a single thing until experienced, especially spirituality, I wanted to ask Baba for something for coming all the way to Shiridi (typical materialist behaviour). At that moment, God did give me many things and I didnt know what exactly to ask, but one problem that was bothering us at home was my Son's "head-banging" on the floor (hard concrete floor) when ever he is answered anything in a NO or DONT. (he was 1 1/2 years old at that time), he used to bang so hard that it used to sound many times. Tellign this to the doctor didnt result in anything as he said that many kids are like that now a days (but my kid was different, not no fizzy drinks/crisps or other junk, always had proper home food..), so decided to ask Baba to give a proof of his existence by stopping him to do the head-banging. After returning out from the temple the next day, my son was playing inside the temple premises when he suddenly fell down and banged his head on the back (he only banged his head on the forehead normally, so this could have been a different experience for him), he cried for 5 minutes and was ok after that.
None of us really thought of this as a matter to be taken notice of. We made our purchasings (the most valuable one being Shiridi Sai Sachritra, in telugu the official documentation of the life of Sai Baba ) and returned to Bangalore later in the day by Karnataka Express. It was only a week after we returned to Bangalore that I realized that our son stopped banging his head on the ground , and he never did afterwards. Now, does God exist????? Yes, HE does.
Experience at Manmad Station
We returned to Manmad station to catch the train and had to wait for about 2 hours. During that time, a mysterious man dressed exactly like Sai Baba came to us, he was talking probably in Marathi, and we did not understand anything what he said / asked. He did not look normal, may be he was a man who dwelled there daily and others at the station who are regular may not take a notice of him, but I still cant debate if Sai Baba himself did not come to us in that manner on that day. Yes, it is debatable, but ..... this is just the silver lining.
To be continued .... in part 2 .
In Part-2, I will write about true experiences after my move to to the UK in 2009, true stories, which can run a chill down your spine, more to come.
None of us really thought of this as a matter to be taken notice of. We made our purchasings (the most valuable one being Shiridi Sai Sachritra, in telugu the official documentation of the life of Sai Baba ) and returned to Bangalore later in the day by Karnataka Express. It was only a week after we returned to Bangalore that I realized that our son stopped banging his head on the ground , and he never did afterwards. Now, does God exist????? Yes, HE does.
Experience at Manmad Station
We returned to Manmad station to catch the train and had to wait for about 2 hours. During that time, a mysterious man dressed exactly like Sai Baba came to us, he was talking probably in Marathi, and we did not understand anything what he said / asked. He did not look normal, may be he was a man who dwelled there daily and others at the station who are regular may not take a notice of him, but I still cant debate if Sai Baba himself did not come to us in that manner on that day. Yes, it is debatable, but ..... this is just the silver lining.
To be continued .... in part 2 .
In Part-2, I will write about true experiences after my move to to the UK in 2009, true stories, which can run a chill down your spine, more to come.
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