EXPERIENCING THE LORD OF SHIRDI
I, as a child, always had a keen interest to know more and
more about human gods. I remember asking my parents regarding the difference
between worshipping a god and a human god. My grandmother used to reply, “There
are no such human gods. God is one.” But since my childhood days, I always used
to hear about people worshipping human gods who existed among us in our
society. Nevertheless, I never bothered to believe such people.
But things changed suddenly. As time passed by and I entered
my college life, I started believing the power of human gods. Today, I am a
firm devotee of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba. I do not have any particular memory on
how I suddenly changed myself into a Sai devotee. But, yes, me and my family
have always been experiencing a presence of him in our family since past few
years.
My father was the first devotee of Baba in our family. He
used to donate a few amount on every Thursdays to a Sai Baba Temple near to his
office. He started contributing money without any devotion or any belief. On
every Thursdays, people from the temple used to visit nearby companies and
houses to collect a small amount. When my dad saw, few of his colleagues
contributing, he too joined them. But then, he became a regular contributor.
But still, this did not instill any sort of devotion towards Shri Sai in him.
Everything changed when, in 2009, my dad was hospitalized
due to high fever and increased level of Sodium in his body. He lost his consciousness
and could not even recognize me or my family. We used to live in Jamshedpur and
we did not have any of our relatives in the city. It was the time of Navaratri,
which was a huge festive season in the Northern India. None of the people
except one of my dad’s friend turned behind to help us. My dad could not even
recognize my mother, but yes he uttered the word Sai, in between which was
heard by me and my mother.
The next morning itself, my mother gave a few amounts to one
of my dad’s colleague and asked him to donate it to the Sai temple, near their
office. Because it was a Thursday, when people from the temple came to collect
the money, my dad’s colleague gave it that day itself. My mother with all her
devotion started praying to Sai, so that my father recovers soon. Within a day
itself, my dad returned back to his healthy stage which even surprised the
doctor who was treating him. I still remember his words, “It is a miracle. But
there is nothing to worry now. You can take him home today itself.”
As soon as we stepped inside our flat, and as my mother, was
making my dad seated in a chair in the verandah, there suddenly happened to be
a knock on the door. I went and opened the door. I saw an old aged man wearing
a torn dress, with a heavy white beard and a small turban sort of on his head
with a smile on his face standing and starring at me. I asked him politely,
“What do you want”? By that moment, even my mother came and stood behind with a
smiling face. I and my mother were in one of our happiest mood as my father
return home soon with his health completely recovered.
The old man looked at my mother and said, “You came from
hospital just now. You are husband is all fine and I can see that happiness on
your face.” We were astonished as we did not know how this old man knew
everything. He went on saying, “It’s because of the grace of Sai and the great
Lord. Please give me money to buy two kg oil for Sai Baba.” My mother
immediately ran and took 200 rupees an gave it to the old man with a smiling
face. But again to our surprise, he took the 200 rupees and returned back 40
rupees. When my mother asked why he returned the amount, he said, “I need just
the amount of oil, not any extra. I will go to Shirdi and give it to Sai. God
will bless you.” The moment he left the place, we closed our door and we ran to
tll about this incident to my father. But I had a doubt, and when I went out to
see whether he visited other houses or not, to my surprise, he did not. He was
not even there in our vicinity.
Even today, while we talk about Sai, my mother definitely
talks about this incident. And since then, we have always experienced his
blessings, presence in our family. I am not sharing this to hurt the sentiments
of any people. It just what I have experience and what I believe.
Comments
Post a Comment