One of the most common questions asked to trigger a
creative essay in our school days is often a variant of
the following question:
“If you could travel back in time, where would you go
and what would you do?”
I have read many essays of this type and they are a
wonderful read because they give us a peep into the
deepest desires of the writer. Naturally, when I pose
this question to myself, my deepest desires too spring
forth. So, here is a description of how it would be if I
could spend a day in the past. The only difference
between this and my school essays is while the latter
were based completely on imagination, this piece is
based on narratives by several devotees of Bhagawan Sri
Sathya Sai Baba. Of course, I have garnished those
episodes with my imagination to produce this work of
fiction. It has been presented as an autobiographical
account because I wish to enjoy what those devotees
enjoyed decades before. All the beautiful images here
are courtesy of the wonderful book
- Love is My Form.
So, are you ready to travel with me in the time machine?
Let’s get on to it and turn the dial to 1945. Hold on.
Within minutes, we would have traveled in time!
Whirrrrrrr.......Swooosshhhhhhhhhhh..............Blip.
The journey to Karnatanagepalli
This is the village of Karnatanagepalli - cluster of
houses would be more like it!The journey so far has been
back-breaking to put it mildly. A train journey lasting
almost four hours chugged me from Bangalore to Penukonda.
From there, I had to engage a horse-drawn carriage,
tonga
as it is locally called, to take me to Penukonda
bus-stand. An hour’s wait there was rewarded with a seat
in the coal-fed, steam-driven bus which jumped and
rattled along every bump and crater on a hard-mud path
that the locals called as a road.
All through the journey, the locals asked me where I was
headed to. The words ‘Puttaparthi’ and ‘Sai Baba’ had a
magical effect on them. In an instant, they changed from
friendlies into hostiles!
“You are going to meet that crazy lad? Wonder what has
gotten into you...”
“It does not augur good for you to go to that boy. He is
possessed by some evil spirits...”
The comments and stories went on but I turned a deaf
ear. I am really keen to meet this wondrous lad who has
been introduced to me as God-incarnate on earth. The bus
journey of nearly two and a half hours deposited me at a
big village, Bukkapatnam. Baba is said to have studied
here in the government school. From Bukkapatnam, it was
an hour’s journey by bullock cart to this point on the
banks of the river Chitravati at Karnatanagepalli.
And so, here I am with a motley group of five other
people who have traveled along with me for 9 hours from
Bangalore to reach within a kilometer of Puttaparthi for
the first time in our lives.
We are told that the last kilometer has to be on
traversed on foot across the shallow river. Raising up
my pants, I wade through the knee-deep water, luggage in
my hands. Reaching the other side, I am accosted by a
few cows which are peacefully chewing the cud. How do I
get to Baba’s
ashram?
Friendly villager
Amidst the cows is one village lad, stroking the cow
gently.
“Hey boy”, I call out. He looks at me and walks up to
me.
“Could you tell me how do I get to Sathya Sai Baba’s
place?”
“Oh! You have come to meet Sai Baba?”
Even as that question is posed to me, I mentally get
prepared to face a volley of insults and rebuke. But
surprisingly, this villager is friendly.
“Shall I take you to Baba’s
mandir?
I am anyway heading towards that direction...”
“Thank you”, I reply, “that would be most welcome.”
The friendly villager takes one of my bags into his
hands much against my wishes.
“We are all one family”, he says and I am so touched.
We walk for about ten minutes and soon, arrive to a
gated courtyard. Within the walls is a medium sized hall
measuring about 10 ft wide and 20 ft long.
“That is Baba’s
mandir,”
my guide tells me, “to its left is a tap where you can
get water for your wash and ablutions. For drinking, you
can draw water from the well behind. The water is sweet
and wonderful.”
By
now, a few more people have clustered around me. They
too seem to be finding my guide helpful!
“The trees around will be your home. Pick any spot and
spread your sheet there. Baba will come for
darshan
today evening by 3 o clock. There will be bhajans after
that and, who knows, if things work out well, all of us
will go to the sands of river Chitravati...”
“What happens there?”, a member from the group asks and
everyone looks expectantly at the villager for the
answer.
“That you will see for yourself”, he says and happily
skips away.
I settle down comfortably under a tree trying to wonder
how this Baba would look. One look at the watch which
suspends by a chain from my waist tells me that I just
need to wait a couple more hours to find out. Food is
being served on leaves nearby by some ladies. I go there
and partake it and also drink the well water. I am told
that it was Baba who indicated the precise spot for the
well to be dug and it has since overflowed in abundance
in the drought-prone Rayalaseema region.
The first
darshan
As assured by the guide, the
darshan
is about to happen as the clock strikes three. The first
look at Baba and I am in a state of shock - it is that
same village guide! He comes walking towards my tree
with a broad smile,
“Are you comfortable? Hope you enjoyed your lunch. Your
journey must have been long and tiresome. Rest here and
stay here for as long as you want. I am so happy to see
you.”
No words escape my lips. I am stunned. Needless to say,
I have already been won over by this Baba’s sweetness
and charm. I call out to Him,
“Swami...”
He turns back and comes to me.
“I don’t know why but my heart tells me that you are my
Lord.”
Saying so, I simply fall at the feet of this teenager.
My eyes are closed and I am in tears of joy. As I open
my eyes, I see that the complexion of Swami’s feet have
changed. They are a shade of blue! Surprised, I look up.
Instead of the cow-herding lad I saw a few hours ago, I
see the cowherd boy of Brindavan from thousands of years
before!
Did I turn the dials of the time machine again? No, I
didn't! But then, I realize this Baba is beyond the
shackles of space and time. He is that ultimate ultimate
whom we refer to as God! The experience just dumbfounds
me into supreme joy as Swami proceeds for the
darshan.
Bhajans and divine play at the Chitravati sands
The
darshan
is followed by bhajans and the crowd of about fifty of
us sat in the
mandir.
Swami Himself was leading the bhajans in His mellifluous
voice. The words of the
bhajan
were all simple and easy to follow. Even as I sing, I
look around at the newly-constructed hall. I am thinking
of all that I had heard about this place from other
devotees. This hall had been inaugurated a few weeks
before on the 15th of December, the day of
Vaikunta Ekadasi.
I begin to think about the amazing miracles that Swami
performed on that day.
Apparently, Swami had dug deep into the sands of
Chitravati and unearthed a tiny silver vessel with a
spoon. The vessel was full of divine ambrosia, the
amritha.
While everyone wondered who would be the lucky soul to
get that ambrosia, Swami went around distributing those
few drops to nearly the hundred people who had gathered
there! My heart now pines to experience such miracles.
The pining manifests itself as loud singing of the
bhajan.
I am in a totally carefree state as I sing along.
Suddenly, the singing has come to a halt. I open my eyes
to see Swami beckoning to me.
“Sing a
bhajan
...” He says.
What do I sing? I have never sung a bhajan in my life.
Out of the ‘blue’ words form within me. A tune springs
forth from my heart and, even before I realize it, am
singing a
bhajan!
That is when I realize that when Swami says something,
the universe reorients itself to make it happen.
Everybody follows the
bhajan
that am leading, including Swami Himself. Ah! What a
thrill it is.
 |
|
December 15, 1945. The
day of inauguration of Baba's first mandir. |
“He would have buried stuff in the riverbed which he
will dig out for us.... Hahahahaha”
“I just wonder when he goes there to bury the stuff?”
“He does not do it. He has some assistants to do that
for him...”
I look at the trio. I am so irritated. Dealing with such
critics is something that I will learn much later in
life.
Soon, we are walking on the sands of Chitravati. The
‘critical’ trio are closely following Swami. Swami
suddenly turns to them and says,
“Pick any spot where we should sit.”
They are taken aback but they soon gather their senses
and plot of a wicked plan. They decide to choose a spot
in the middle of the village burial ground which was
also nearby! Swami accepts the spot with a smile. All
sit down and Swami asks the trio again,
“What do you want?”
They are delighted. They decide to ask for something
that Baba could not have buried in the burial ground.
“We want an
Alphonso
mango”, they chorus, asking for the best variety of
mangoes in India.
“Start digging”, Swami instructs them.
“Where?”, they ask, bewildered.
“Anywhere you choose”, is Swami’s reply.
Am now enjoying this play and I want to see where it
heads to.
The trio start digging in some random spot. They dig
upto three feet into the ground. In the fading twilight,
one of them strikes something cold. He shudders in
fright thinking it is a human skull. To his surprise, it
is a large
Alphonso
mango!
 |
| Magical moments on the sands. |
Swami takes the mango and pulls a knife out of the sand
beside Him. He slices the mango into half and gives it
to one among the trio. Then, turning the mango over, He
slices another half for the second member. I think that
the third one is going to get the seed. But no! Swami
turns the mango over and slices another half! That is
followed by another turn and another slice into half. In
this way, He goes on slicing till the trio plead that
their stomachs are bursting. All of us are bursting with
laughter. Swami says,
“Come to me and I shall fill your life with sweetness
till you are bursting with it...”
I stop laughing and drink in the profundity of that
statement.
Many miracles follow on the sands and am simply stunned.
He pulls out a small idol of Lord Ganesha for me from
the sands. Time flies so quickly that am tempted to rush
to the
mandir
and turn the dial of the time machine backwards a few
hours. But I am not a fool. Why should I go to a time
machine when I am in the presence of one who is beyond
time?
We return to the
mandir
late in the evening. Dinner follows. It is now time to
go to sleep. A cot is placed in the centre of the
courtyard. Apparently it is for Baba to lie down. All of
us spread our sheets on the floor around The Cot. But
even after an hour’s wait, Baba is not to be seen. I
drift off into sleep. Sometime in the night, I wake up.
I check the time. It is 11:00pm. I also see Swami. He is
walking around the premises, torch in hand, performing
watchman duty! It is amazing how He is the last to sleep
and first to rise in the morning.
Even as I am lost in wonderment, the buzzer on my time
machine is beeping. It is the alarm indicating to me
that unless I board it now, it will be too late. I would
b stuck in the ‘past’ and would have no chance of a
return to ‘my time’. I don’t care about it. I don’t mind
being ‘stuck’ in this past! But then, I feel a light on
my face. It is Swami and His flashlight. He comes to me
and pats me on my head.
“Bangaroo,
it is time to return.”
“But Swami, I want to be with you forever...”
“Don’t worry. I will be with you forever. Today is
Krishna Janmashtami in ‘your time’, one of your favorite
festivals. Go on and enjoy the festivities. I promise
that I will be with you forever.”
Swami persuades me to return on the time machine and am
back in my residence at Puttaparthi. What a trip it was!