Materialization

I first heard of Sathya Sai Baba in 1981 during a casual conversation with a friend of mine. From what I could gather, Sathya Sai Baba was a leading guru in South India who possessed immense spiritual powers and was known as a man of miracles.

I was very interested in spirituality during that period of my life and was keen to know more about this subject. I made repeated inquiries through various sources only to draw blank replies. Since no information was forthcoming, my fascination for him slowly waned.

It was only in 1985 that a strange incident occurred. One day, as I was sitting in my bank office in Penang, busy doing my work, I happened to glance up impatiently to check the time shown on the clock, when in so doing I caught sight of a young Indian man walking briskly toward my direction. He came up to the reception counter and placed a few pink colored handbills on the counter, and walked away. On the flyer was a message that read, “Visit Sai Baba and solve all your problems. If you have any sickness, job, marriage, or domestic problems etc., come join us for a spiritual pilgrimage to India. We will be visiting a few pilgrimage centers on our way to Puttaparthi. If you are interested, ring No….”

I wondered whether this could be Swami’s personal reminder to me to go over to him after a lapse of four years. Within minutes, I rang up that number out of curiosity, and got all the information I wanted. My hopes of joining this trip soon fizzled out as a quick calculation revealed that I did not have the sufficient funds and sanctioned holidays required to undertake this trip.

Somehow, I was not able to get this incident out of my mind, and I managed to secure the local addresses of the Sai centers in Penang. I dropped in at one such center in Penang and I learned a lot about Swami. The narrations I heard from them about His miracles seemed too unearthly to be believed. An instance they pointed out to me the materialization of thick clusters of vibhuti [holy ash] which I could see covering most of the pictures of divinities on the altar in the prayer room.

I wracked my mind for an explanation of how this could be possible, especially in a place thousands of miles away from Puttaparthi. Doubts soon assailed me, as I did not actually observe the materializations taking place.

I left my bank job to pursue my studies in Taiwan. For one and a half years I was out of touch with Sai as my studies became my new preoccupation. Occasionally, I would come across articles on Sai in the local magazines. After my studies were over, I returned to Malaysia only to be afflicted with a fresh bout of depression.

It was this affliction that somehow again lured me to the Sai center. I derived a lot of strength and faith during the numerous visits there. To quell this feeling of depression that was engulfing me, I devoted most of my time to reading Sai literature. Every page I read was an adventure in itself as I discovered the true meaning of life.

In November 1987, I again visited the center on the occasion of Swami’s birthday. There was a big celebration going on when I reached the place. We sang Swami’s birthday song and offered arati  [sacred fire] to him. After that, prasad [blessed food] was distributed to the scores of devotees, who had come from far and near to celebrate this happy occasion.

In the midst of partaking of some sweets given to me, a doubt arose in my mind. I asked a devotee standing besides me whether Swami materializes anything for his devotees on this occasion. He, however, could not give me a satisfactory answer. At that moment, I felt a strong desire to enter the small prayer room to offer my supplications to Swami. It was in the midst of doing so that a remarkable thing happened that cleared my doubts once and for all. A few ladies, including the owner Mrs. Thangaraj, were also witnesses to this incident.

As I was offering my obeisance to Swami, I suddenly noticed a small locket dropping down in front of me from the thin air above. I must add that I could see nothing above except the ceiling and there could be no other way for it to appear except mysteriously through Swami’s grace.

Since then I have witnessed, on a few occasions, packets of vibhuti appearing out of nowhere and suspending in thin air before dropping down in front of whomever is to receive it. There are many who have also seen these phenomena that are merely attestations of Swami’s grace to his devotees.

Swami has helped me in times of distress only to make me realize and demolish my long standing doubts altogether that He is indeed omniscient, as has been asserted by him on numerous occasions. In short, I would like to conclude that Swami is indeed the long awaited immortal One come again whose mission is to save and provide succor to suffering beings and mankind.

~Mr. Teoh Yew Leong, Malaysia
Source: Sathya Sai—The Eternal Charioteer