Saturday, Apr 20 2024  

AN UNFORGETTABLE DAY

We would like to share one experience with you. It happened as follows:

It was on a Sunday in May 1994 early morning between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. I was in bed, thinking of getting up, then I heard the door bell. I did not want to disturb my wife who was in the prayer room. So I went down to attend the front door. Very slowly I opened the door and peeped out. To my sheer amazement, I saw Sri Sathya Sai Baba standing at the door! I was flabbergasted and was unable to speak for a few seconds. Baba understood the whole situation. He asked me, "Can I come in." Suddenly I woke up to the reality and replied, "Come in Swami, this is your house, you can come in," and I directed him to the prayer room upstairs.

On our way through the steps Swami looked back at me and told, "I want some peace and quiet and will be staying with you for a few days."

I replied, "Swami, of course it is your house, not mine. You can stay as long as you require."

We went straight to the prayer room. He sat down on the carpet in between myself and my wife, though my wife after prostrating at His feet pointed to Him His own chair on one side of the prayer room.

We talked about our personal life in U.K. and He asked us, "Why don't you come back to India." Then He asked," When you have your friends from abroad, where would you like to take them for sightseeing?"

I replied, "There are quite a few places like Buckingham Palace, Parliament House, Trafalgar Square, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Madam Tussaud, etc." Then Swami said, "OK, we will go then."

So we took Him to sightseeing in our BMW car. We came back and got in to the house together by 10:30 a.m.

After coming into the house He disappeared. We could not see Him afterwards. But we could feel His presence by smell of jasmine.

Every morning we usually offer an apple, and in the evening after dinner we would eat this apple. After a week of Swami's disappearance, as usual we kept the apple.

In the evening we took it for cutting and to our utter amazement we found an OM written on the apple. We kept it for almost a year. It did not rot but, dried and turned into dust. Earlier we took some photographs of it.

During those days our friends who visited us used to comment that the house smelled like a temple. To those who are not Sai devotees, we causally replied, "maybe the new agarbathis..." and smiled.

This incident changed our whole set up of life, our location of living, our life style, etc.

We decided to come back to India as Swami wished. Within a month packed everything, lock stock and barrel and sent it by ship to Cochin on Baba's c/o address to Whitefield. Six months we stayed there doing some Sai service in Bangalore and Vellore, like conducting Laksharchana, bhajan, poor feeding, etc.

At present we like in Sasthamangalam, Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) and are continuing Sai services.

Bro K.N.P. Nayar
London, UK