Witnessing the first miracle

I never believed in any of the modern spiritual leader. I do admire their service to the society, but, being portrayed as god may be made me run away from them.

My sister and her in-laws are a big believer of Satya Sri Sai Baba. I had been to their place for the first time this vacation. There was a bhajan held. I too participated in it. I had watched my sister through the bhajan chanting a thousand baba names. I just wondered, what made her believe in baba. Was it just being influenced by her in-laws. I decided to ask her. That night, we sat chatting and not to sound so obvious, I casually asked her about her devotion. She said about her experiences and positive effects of baba on her. Its her choice whom to believe after all. I didn't want to argue with her on wether baba was indeed god or not. But not being easily convinced about the issue, i tried to take out topics on the the magics that these baba in general did. Like taking stuffs like "bhasma", "flowers" or "fruits" out of thin air. If they were so capable, I wondered why they did not feed the hungry, shelter the orphans?

She did not answer me. She said there are reasons.
But baba does not do all that "magic" now. She gave me the book "Transformation of the Heart by Judy Warner" to read. It was filled with all the inspiring experiences of several of great baba believers. I read it. She knew I was not to be easily convinced. And Uncle knew this too.

The next day, on the way back from a temple, we were to stop at a transport office. I thought it was for arranging a tempo to shift some items from their place to ours. But the transport office turned out to be a peaceful place of prayer. It was "The Cochin Carriers".


The officers who managed the office were from different religious groups. But the thing that was common to them was their love for baba. It was a small room but one one wall was adorned with the pictures of Baba.


They were not like other pictuers of baba that I have seen as of now. The pictures had some kind of powder on it. "That is the Vibhuti, and it appears on the picture of baba miraculously." I could not believe my eyes. I looked closly at the pictures. It indeed was Vibhuti. I had some to convince myself.







There is no explanation to this unexplained behavior which started to happen since January this year. But this is no lone incident. I remembered a story from the book I had read. The author too had experienced this at his house. I am still waiting for some one to explain me this phenomenon. The other day, it had come in the paper about a baba idol opening its one eye.

Indeed the world is full of mysteries. I decided to read the book full. May be I might get answers to some of my questions. It is said that Baba does not claim to be god. He just calls him self as a messenger who is here only to deliver the message of peace. Some body asked baba. Why is it that you do not heal somebody on their death bed? Baba replied. "It is the fate of each living person to live the sufferings- a result of ill actions from the past." Its a lesson to be learned. "If the sufferings are undone, which baba can do, the human will have to live with the sufferings in the next birth." If not scientifically, it was a spiritually convincing answer to me.


I decided not to question others belief without researching on it. Ofcourse, this experience still does not make me a devotee of Sri Satya Sai Baba, but now I respect others devotion and refrain from calling them, if I could be harsh, fools.

Any kind of experience is a great teacher. Its up to us what kind of student we become.