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. 

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