The Lord’s Response
In November 1970, I had just finished reading, The Autobiography of a Yogi, by Parmahamsa Yogananda in which he refers frequently to the long‑lived Himalayan master Babaji. This Babaji seemed the highest being I could conceive of, a Godly being who was incarnate, shrouded in mystery, but effecting contact with some chosen few. I resolved to ask this Babaji to aid me, i.e., to hear my prayers, guide me, and perhaps to be my living teacher. In that spirit I prayed intently, with a faith prompted by the need to know.
As I lay in bed on the night of November 10, 1970, silently petitioning Babaji, I was suddenly arrested by a palpable thump against the middle of my forehead. I felt as though a finger had tapped me, and this was so sharp as to be plainly real. Immediately there opened in my inner vision an ovoid‑shaped picture. This picture was vivid and full of light, portraying a figure with brilliant emanations of white around the head and body (shown at half‑figure). The light was so bright that the figure itself appeared dark, and I could not make out any distinguishing features, except that it seemed Hindu, and one arm was at the side of the body while the right arm was held across the body.
In my eagerness to see better, I opened my physical eyes and the picture began to fade. I was left with feelings of great peace, calm, and benediction and was confident that an unseen but living being was guiding my life. At once I went to my desk to write down the experience and to sketch the figure as it had appeared in my inner vision. The first piece of paper to hand was some orange-colored stationery, and the significance of this small detail was unknown to me, until years later.
It was in fact seven years, one month and 25 days later that I was leaving the private interview room in Brindavan wearing the ring Swami had placed on my hand. I was in an uplifted state, basking in the marvelous love Swami had shown as He spoke to me privately and had told me that I had poor meditation, poor health and a restless, worrying mind; but He had brushed these things aside with a wave of His hand and said sweetly, “Don’t worry, I will help you.” Pointing to my ring, He said, “Anytime you are in difficulty, or worrying, call on Me. Sai Baba will be there.”
Only when I was seated in the taxi for the return to Bangalore did I have an opportunity to really see the figure on the ring, for now my eyes were free of tears. I held up my hand, and in that moment the taxi rounded a corner, putting the sun behind me. The bright sun illumined the little silver etchings which surrounded the figure of Shirdi Sai Baba, and I recognized at once the figure from my inner vision: bands of white light emanating from the figure, with the right arm across His body, sitting in the characteristic Shirdi pose. It had been the beloved Shirdi Sai who responded to my urgent prayers in 1970. Shirdi Sai had come to make the connection and to guide me to His present incarnation.
Though many doubters have hinted that our Sai Baba may be one with siddhi (special) powers to produce objects, it is my personal experience that only God knew what was in the vision that had appeared to me in 1970. Only God knew what my soul had asked, and only God responded—first as Shirdi Sai Baba answering my prayer long before I had ever heard of Him, and again as Sathya Sai Baba who gave me the ring to let me know He is always with me, both in my inner and outer life. Shirdi Sai came in reply to my prayer in 1970, and in January, 1978,
Sathya Sai Baba gave me His ring in answer to my question whether I had found my true master. “No more tears,” He said, “Your Sai Baba is here.” May His glory reach into the hearts and minds of all who approach Him, or read and hear of Him, so that our sorrows are ended and our lives, surrendered to His grace and progress toward the oneness of His joy and bliss.
~Freda Quennevrlle, Canada
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Sept. 1984
