Sai Rama – Dutha At Our Window
Saturday, July 20th, 2013
At a time when He was not widely accepted as Sai Baba, when critics would often look at Him and His actions with growing reservations, one family was immensely blessed by ‘The Little Divine’, the family of Little Sathya’s Uravakonda school teacher, Manchiraju Thammiraju. He would continuously bless the Thammiraju family with His Divine Visiting Cards, teaching them to live in an age of miracles.
You must have read in “Sathyam Sivam Sundaram” the thrilling story of Baba’s visit to Hampi Hospet etc at the age of 14 and on His return, the epoch-making announcement, that He belonged to His devotees and that His work beckoned Him. You must have read of the First Bhajan in the garden of the Excise Inspector’s bungalow, which I too attended. I was excited and thrilled beyond words for I did not consider that Sathya was my `student’; He was my Guru, my Guide. I shall now share with you some of the experiences that the members of my family had experienced 23 years ago. (the article dates back to June 1963)
Baba was present at the Uravakonda Bhajan sessions, every Thursday evening, when hundreds used to gather to take His blessings. Once when He went to Puttaparthi from there, He took me, my wife and my son as far as Anantapur and we were with Him there for two days, after which He left for the village, and we returned. We used to worship Baba, installing Him, in imagination, on the Pita (Seat Of Divine) which Baba had asked us to place in the shrine room. One day, while my wife was immersed in bhajan, with tears of joy streaming down her face, a big sized bumble-bee zoomed in circular sweeps and dropped on her head, while flying through the window, a roll of paper! We found that it was a picture of Shirdi Sai Baba! Surely, it was a gift from Sathya Sai!… for our shrine.
Another day during the bhajan, Baba called the wife of Kasibhatla Sriramamurthy to the dais and told her, “I have just kept a picture in your shrine room for Puja; why is it you have no Picture there? Go and worship It.” She was surprised that this `little boy’ knew the details of the room so well and that Baba had shown them His grace. Immediately, she hurried home with three other women; they opened the lock and went in; the doors and windows were all closed for fear of monkeys; they threw them open one by one. Yes; there was a picture on the floor of the shrine, a picture of Shirdi Sai Baba!
Even more wonderful is another incident which I clearly recall. Baba was then at Puttaparthi, far away from Uravakonda. We were engaged in bhajan, as usual in our little house; it was a rather a hurried bhajan, for it was a working day for the school and we teachers could not afford to go late! A monkey leaped on to the window and held fast the iron bars and grinned. We tried to shoo him off; he threw a tiny bundle of cloth into the room, and waited to note our reactions. Baba, the Divine Boy, had taught us to live in an age of miracles. So, I took the bundle and with shivering hands, untied the knot and lo!… There was a laddu (!) in it. Have you ever heard of a monkey delivering a packet of ‘laddu’, unopened?
And, lo! there was also a letter… from Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba… in His own lovely handwriting!! “I sent you a picture with a bee. I am glad you are worshipping it sincerely. Well, I Am sending you now some Prasadam. Share it with all and be happy.”
Must I add that I could not attend school that day? The joy was so over-powering. His grace was so overwhelming.
Posted in Sai Spiritual Showers |
