In every family, when the time comes, there will occur a turning point, which is accompanied by various circumstances. Here is the turning point that occurred in my family.
My parents were married on June
7th, 1970. My father was a civil
Engineer and was very busy with
his work. My mother was working
in the Indian Oil Corporation at
Bombay. They had a reasonably
good income to live on. For
about four to five years, life
went on very smoothly. My father
entered into various kinds of
business and was very
successful. They enjoyed all the
luxuries of life such as a
bungalow, a car and so on.
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Shirdi Ke Saibaba -
Hindi film on the life
of Shirdi Sai Baba that
was directed by Shri
Manoj Kumar and produced
by Shri Indulal Shah - both ardent devotees of Sri Sathya Sai |
From 1970 onwards, my father and
mother began going to Shirdi
every year on December 31st to
have Darshan of Shirdi Baba. My
parents used to believe that the
year would go on very smoothly
if they had the Darshan of
Shirdi Baba on the New Year day.
Till 1976, they continued the
practice. In the same year, a
Hindi film named ‘Shirdi Ke Sai
Baba’ was released. The film was
a super hit and it was a
revelation for many devotees. In
the year 1977, when they went to
Shirdi for Darshan, the whole
atmosphere had changed. There
were huge crowds, queues
everywhere, long lines for
Darshan and many commercial
shops. However, they somehow
managed to come back to Bombay.
The practice of going to Shirdi
was discontinued, after some
time, due to various reasons.
Time went on and it was 1980. In
the meantime, the only thing
they lacked was a child, which
they did not have for the last
ten years. Every time my mother
used to say, “God has given
everything to us. Why is there
no child in our house?” My
father used to console her
saying, “It is all the will of
the Lord.” They had visited many
temples, holy places and
consulted the best
gynaecologists in the city.
Every time, they used to get the
answer from the doctors that
they were both perfect
scientifically but there was no
child. This made my mother very
unhappy. She resigned from the
company because of mental
strain.
One day, some doctor suggested
my mother to consult a doctor
named Dr. Purandaran. Finding
Dr. Purandaran in Bombay was
very difficult as he always used
to travel abroad. Somehow, they
managed to get an appointment to
meet him. He checked them
thoroughly and said that they
were medically perfect and that
he could not guess the reason
for their childlessness. He
asked them to turn to God.
My father immediately asked the
doctor, “Why did you bring God
into Science?” Initially, the
doctor got angry when questioned
thus but later he calmed down
and said, “Oh my boy, God is
definitely above science.” There
was a silence in the room for
about ten minutes. Then the
doctor opened his drawer, took
out a book, gave it to my mother
and asked her to read the book.
The book was ‘Baba - The Man of
Miracles’ written by Howard
Murphet. In the ten years of
married life, she realised that
she lost track of her spiritual
life. After seeing the book,
immediately she felt that
Bhagavan would fulfill her wish.
Within a week’s time she got
permission from father and she
came to Puttaparthi in the year
1981 and started staying in
Puttaparthi. In the next two
years she spent most of her time
in Puttaparthi.
She visited Bombay only to see
my father, who was a very busy
man. My father never discouraged
my mother. My
mother still remembers many
times when Bhagavan used to come
near her. Her only prayer to God
was that she wanted to become a
mother. Every time Bhagavan came
near her, He never used to utter
a word. She still believes
Bhagavan tested her patience,
and her devotion for about two
years. Sometime in 1982, when
Bhagavan came near her, she told
Bhagavan, “Unless I become a
mother, I am not going to leave
Parthi.” As usual, Bhagavan
smiled and went away without
uttering a word. In the night,
she prayed hard to Bhagavan and
she had full faith in Bhagavan
that He would help her.
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Next day she came for morning
Darshan as usual. Bhagavan came
near my mother, looked at her,
smiled at her and said something
in Telugu, which she was not
able to understand. She politely
said to Bhagavan, “Bhagavan I am
very sorry. I did not understand
what You said. Please help me.”
Bhagavan was so gracious, He
took a small piece of paper and
a pen from someone near her,
wrote, “BHAGAVAN APPROVES,” and
gave it to her. She understood
what Bhagavan meant. She came
back to Bombay. She explained
everything that had happened in
those two years to my father.
She was very confident that now
very soon she would conceive by
the grace of God.
A miracle took place within six
months after she came from
Parthi. After thirteen years of
their marriage life, she
conceived. Again, she had
confidence that the child was
going to be a boy and she wanted
to bring up the child purely in
a spiritual atmosphere.
It was on the noon of Thursday,
October 6th, 1983 that I was
born. My mother named me
Sathyanarayana, to remember
always that I am Bhagavan’s
gift. This was the turning point
in our life and it was then that
they totally believed that “GOD
IS GREATER THAN SCIENCE.”
- Iyer
V. Sathyanarayana,
Alumnus, Sri Sathya Sai
Institute of Higher Learning
Source: Sai Nandana 2000
(75th Birthday Issue)