A Rare Miracle (Pt. 2)

"What happened?" He asked us, patting us on our shoulders.  "Why are you weeping?  Why have these persons fainted?"  Not knowing what answer to give to these questions, we just hugged Him and continued weeping.

As one or two of those who had fainted recovered and got up, we mustered a little strength and, in one voice, we all asked Him, "Swami!  Are you alright?  How come we did not see You there?"  While asking these questions, we patted His face and body to reassure ourselves that He was really with us.  Swami laughed heartily and, reassuring us that He was alright, He created Vibhuti with a wave of His hand, and He Himself put it on our foreheads.

One by one, those who had fallen unconscious, began to stir.  It was a strange experience.  We felt as if our bodies were moving unsteadily hither and thither.  We felt as if we were floating on air.  Some inexpressible joy seemed to pervade our entire being.  It was some sweet surge of affection.  We did not understand its nature.  Though we were keeping pace with Swami, it seemed to us that our feet were not touching the ground.  Some were walking unsteadily, as if drunk.  We all felt we were in some other strange world.  It was a peculiar state of mind.  We all reached the Mandir and sat down for bhajans.

We could not sing properly.  We felt dizzy.  That whole evening was spent in that state.  When we found ourselves in a similar state the next day also, we asked Swami about it.

He said with a smile, "You have been praying to have a glimpse of this Third Eye for many past lives.  In answer to your prayers, today, I gave you darshan of it.  But I did not show you even a thousandth part of its brilliance.  You could not understand even that.  Your present state is the result of that spectacle."

Overwhelmed by this revelation, we all broke down and wept.  We washed His lotus feet with our tears and told Him, "Swami, if only we had known this before, maybe we would have enjoyed the Darshan more.  We could not fully utilize the divine boon You so kindly granted us.  Really, we could not endure its profound impact.  We got scared when we could not see Your physical form.  We felt very anxious about You when we saw the orifice on Your forehead."

Sathya Sai Baba just continued to look at us with great compassion and love and, feeling overwhelmed by the shower of His affection soothing us like moonlight, and with tear-filled eyes, we offered our lives at His feet.  He again created Vihhuti and placed it on each of our foreheads.  We gained a semblance of normalcy thereafter.  We felt ecstatic inwardly dwelling on this are golden opportunity, this reward for some devotion in past lives, for some prayer we must have said with golden flowers, or some luck we got because of the good deeds done by our elders.

Beneath the golden temples of our hearts we etched in golden letters, what we saw was a unique vision granted to us by our good fortune, to give us liberation.  More than anything else, just to be near this Loving Father, and to get a golden opportunity like this, is a significant event, a culmination of the merit of many previous lives.

(Excerpt from "Anyatha Sharanam Nasthi - Other Than You Refuge There is None" by Smt. Viajayakumari)