Unbelievable Prophecy
Is it true? Can it be true? A boy calling himself Sai Baba! And consoling the dispirited, curing the ill, exorcising ghosts and teaching the old! I heard of this 16-year-old prodigy and entered Puttaparthi with a woman who had been mad for two years and her husband. That was in 1943.
At Bukkapatnam, people laughed at us. They thought all of us were mad to believe in the miraculous powers of that boy. Yet, having come so far, we decided to complete the journey instead of turning back. We engaged a bullock cart for 12 annas [Indian coins at the time] and came to the riverbed. I left them there and moved into the little haggard group of houses along narrow tracks.
I peeped into a Brahmin house (Karnam Subbamma’s house); the verandah was full of groundnut heaps. Inside, I found a charming young boy, with a bright, intelligent face, talking with the labourers. I accosted him and asked, “I heard there is a boy in this village who has become Sai Baba; it seems he cures madness. Which is his house, can you tell me?”
The boy looked at me very lovingly and replied. “Poor fellow! The mad woman you brought with you is giving terrible trouble to her husband in the river! Go and take bath; and bring them also after their bath is over. I shall, then, show you the boy you are after.” While returning from the river, the woman ran wildly hither and thither, and it was a job to bring her to the Brahmin house.
Sai Baba (for, it was none other than He) told me, “I’ll call you one by one” and took me in first. He created vibhuti (sacred ash) and applied it to my forehead. Then, He called in the couple. They had bought some bananas at Bukkapatnam for Sai Baba. From the lot, He gave the woman one banana to eat. He also gave them both the materialized vibhuti.
By then, it was six in the evening. Coming out on the road, the wife told her husband “Well, what about our meal? Get some rice from the shop and ask for vessels. I shall cook food for us pretty quick.” The husband was overjoyed; his wife’s madness had gone!
But Baba called us in and we sat with Him for the night meal. Baba mixed all the items served by Subbamma into tolerably big balls, and he gave one for each of us. It was tasty beyond words!
That night, we slept in the verandah of that house. We were disturbed often by packs of howling jackals and the braying of donkeys. At about 3 A.M., some woman shrieked, “I am dying”—she was stung by a scorpion! A few minutes later, someone cried, “Kill; Kill,” and many ran in that direction. This time it was a cobra.
Early in then morning, we touched Baba’s feet and stood before Him. “No sleep?” He asked. “Too many snakes in this place; this is a very holy place, but under a curse. Sai will save it!” He said.
He added, “The Sai pravesh (advent) will make it the prasanthi pradesh (region of supreme peace). Upon that hill, I shall have a grand bhavan (mansion). By that time, hundreds—why hundreds? Thousands—why thousands? Lakhs (one lakh is a hundred thousand), all India will be here. The whole world will come and wait for Sai darshan (vision of Sai).” I said, on hearing this, “What? I cannot believe this will happen.” He laughed and said, “You will have to believe it when you will be standing at a great distance, trying to catch a glimpse of me!”
Now, in 1972, I stand at a great distance and yearn for Sai darshan; I now believe in the Prophecy He made in 1943.
~Pujari Lakshmiah, Madras
Source: Sanathana Sarathi, Aug./Sept. 1972
