Don’t Shoot
One of the characteristics of an avatar [divine incarnation] is the ability to appear in multiple places at the same time. In the following episode, we witness Bhagavan Sathya Sai Baba manifesting as three different people at a location more than a thousand miles away, to save a devotee from harm. This article, written by Professor Kasturi, appeared in Sanathana Sarathi more than four decades ago.
On 29th June 1957, the Tapovanam was inaugurated at the Prasanthi Nilayam Colony. Addressing the gathering that day, Swami Satchidananda of Rishikesh [holy city in northern India] said, “I do not know how others estimate Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba; so far as I am concerned I am convinced that He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-pervasive—the inner atma [individual Self]of all.”
He then narrated an experience of his that had convinced him of Baba’s omnipotence. He said, “One day I was in Baba’s room at Kodaikanal [in Tamil Nadu]. The time was early afternoon. Baba was sitting, leaning on His bed. Suddenly, He shouted, “Don’t shoot!” and seemed to have left His body. It is better to call it a trans-corporeal journey. His body became tense and straight. It was in that state for over an hour.
As soon as He re-entered the body, He looked at us and wanted an express telegram to be sent immediately to an address in the city of Bhopal in the state of Madhya Pradesh. “Don’t worry. The revolver is with Me—Baba.” That was the message He dictated along with the address. At this point, I expressed concerns about the use of the word, revolver, since there is an Arms Act that regulates these things. I told Him that the telegraph office might not transmit the message; but He insisted that a telegram must be sent immediately.
Baba, however, agreed that some words could be changed, provided the recipient could understand the message. So, after some discussion, we changed the word revolver into instrument; and with His approval, the telegram was hastened over the wires.
We wondered about the mysterious tragedy that had caused all this. We were waiting for the moment when Baba would be pleased to tell us. But, in spite of our anxious questionings and prayers, Baba put us off for two days. On the third day, He showed us a letter that had arrived from Bhopal, and when we read it, it became clear to us that Baba was omniscient and omnipotent.
The person who had written the letter had served in the Second World War and was holding a high office at the time. Following the re-organization of states, his official position was affected adversely. He was reduced to the ignominy of having to take orders from a junior official who had served under him for many years. He took this to heart and agonized as a result. There was no one to console him; his family was away. The revolver was, at the time, his only friend, or, so it seemed. So, deciding on the easiest way to end his troubles, he fired his revolver once to test it. The second shot was to be at himself; but, how could it happen when Baba commanded, “Don’t shoot!” from Kodaikanal, some 1,500 miles away?
Almost instantaneously, he heard a loud knock at the door along with joyous greetings from those knocking the door. Faced with the predicament of having to answer the door, he quickly ran into the bedroom and hid the revolver under the bed covers. When he opened the door, he saw his old classmate, accompanied by his wife and a peon with luggage standing on the porch. His friend greeted him with great joy and the usual gusto. These three individuals, created by Baba’s will, were ready to play the role He had allotted them in this life-saving drama.
The friend, with characteristic rambunctiousness, jaunted into the room and patted the officer on the back. He introduced his wife and started to talk about their old happy days together. What was amazing was that Baba chose to create the most cordial of all his friends. His creation played the part so convincingly, reproducing all the mannerisms of that friend’s gestures, speech, and movements.
To boot, there were two others in the supporting cast. The friend was just the medicine needed to cure the melancholy. The officer joined heartily in the conversation and even laughed a few times at the jokes of the visitor. The wife, too, joined in occasionally and inquired lovingly of the officer’s wife. For the moment, the officer seemed to forget the suicidal thought. When the friend discovered that the officer was alone, eating food brought from a restaurant, he said he would stay with another common friend in the same town. In spite of protests from the officer, the friend decided to leave. Thus, after 45 minutes of the most consummate play-acting, the three creations of Baba’s Will took their leave and walked along the pathway toward the main gate of the bungalow.
Finding himself alone again, the officer went back into the bedroom to store the ominous revolver out of sight. But, lo, it was not on the bed or under the sheet. It was nowhere in that room or anywhere else in the house! Who could have removed it, he wondered. How could it have disappeared? Faced with this problem, he decided to find his friend. He went to the house of the person that his friend was to have gone to. To his surprise, he found that his friend had not gone there at all. Quite confused, the officer returned to his own house. Sitting down, he recapitulated the amazing happenings of that fateful day.
Ah! He heard another knock at the door! It was the telegraph boy. It was a telegram from Kodaikanal from Baba! “Don’t worry. The instrument is with Me. Baba.” His guide and guru and God, whom he had forgotten in his agony, had not forgotten him.
Swami Satchidananda said that para-kaya-pravesam or the entering into another body, was hailed as a great miracle in the Puranas [scriptures] and lives of saints. But, here was a miracle that only the Lord can work: the bahu-kaya-srishti, the creation of many [three] bodies and the extraordinary enactment of a 45-minute drama, authentic to the minutest detail. To top it, Bhagavan Sathya Sai Baba Himself was the sutradhari [puppeteer], and the stage was 1,500 miles away from where He was physically present.
~N. Kasturi
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Dec. 1959
