(courtesy: The Week, Malayala
Manorama Group)
Sathya Sai Baba
embodies love and selfless service
by
Hiramalini Seshadri
Prayers are on across the globe for
the speedy recovery of Bhagawan Sri
Sathya Sai Baba, currently admitted
to the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of
Higher Medical Sciences, popularly
called ‘Super Hospital’, in
Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh. My
first experience with the hospital
was in 1991. A patient—let us call
her Savitri—from Madurai requested
to help her get a kidney transplant
done at a Chennai corporate
hospital.
I
was shocked that she had been
walking around with a blood
creatinine level of 13mg for over
six months. A creatinine level above
5mg requires immediate dialysis. And
here she was, going on by just
taking a pinch of vibhuti daily! The
Super Hospital was just being built
then. I urged her to go for dialysis
in Madurai but she continued with
simple medicines and vibhuti!
When she and her sister visited
Puttaparthi later, registrations for
transplant had just begun. Her
sister decided to be the donor.
Savitri was advised dialysis in the
interim and the two were referred
back to me to get the compatibility
checks done. I remember filling the
form: under the column ‘Date of last
dialysis’, I wrote ‘Never had
dialysis’. The lab people actually
called back to find out if I had
made a mistake. The test results
showed 100 per cent compatibility.
As soon as the hospital was
inaugurated, Savitri and sister were
admitted. The surgery went well and
she was beaming when she later
recounted how Baba visited and
blessed them after the operation.
Three years ago, I bumped into her
in Chennai. She was doing absolutely
great.
Another patient, a young man with
congenital cyanotic heart disease,
was advised surgery. He had to wait
for 18 months for his turn. We kept
him going with vibhuti. When he was
admitted for surgery at the super
speciality hospital in Whitefield,
Bangalore, he chickened out at the
time of signing the consent form and
got himself discharged against
medical advice. He decided he would
continue to manage with vibhuti.
Today, eight years later, he drives
an autorickshaw for a living and
goes on the physically demanding
Sabarimala pilgrimage every year.
Baba burst into our lives when I
unexpectedly lost my mother in 1991.
I was distraught and, for solace,
sang to a calendar picture of Baba
and challenged him if he was really
omnipresent and omniscient, vibhuti
should appear on the statue of
Shirdi Baba below the calendar. When
I finished singing, there was
vibhuti on it!
I longed to see Baba, but did not
tell others because I thought they
would laugh at me. But I need not
have worried; Baba came in my
husband’s dreams and he felt
impelled to suggest that we all go
for Baba’s darshan. A psychiatrist,
he was a hard nut to crack. In some
houses, after bhajans, they would
open the neivedyam and show us that
the omnipresent one had partaken of
it. But he was not convinced. So one
day he made kesari prasadam and
decorated it with raisins arranged
in the form of aum and sat watching
the container like a hawk through
the bhajan. On opening the lid, he
found that the invisible lord had
taken a nice big scoop and the
raisins were all scattered! He was
clean bowled.
We started on various seva
activities. One such activity was
all-faith prayers. One Easter day at
a friend’s place, a cross in vibhuti
appeared on a picture of Jesus. The
picture was supposed to be sent to
Austria and we were wondering how
the vibhuti cross would fare, as
vibhuti usually falls off at the
lightest touch. The lord knew
better; the vibhuti cross became
like cement and survived the long
journey.
On Christmas day in 2000, a framed
picture of Jesus materialised as we
sang carols at home, and during a
Ramadan bhajan, luscious dates
materialised!
Initially, our experiences were all
with Baba’s suprahuman side. But
soon we were blessed with interviews
and we realised that Baba showers
the love of a thousand mothers.
Today we realise that our lives are
on ‘autopilot’ and Baba is in
charge!
How has that changed our lives?
Since we know he knows everything,
we are more careful about our
thoughts, words and deeds. Above
all, we want to live life the way he
wants us to by following his
teachings—“Love all, serve all” and
“Help ever, hurt never”.
Baba always says, “I am God and I
know it; you, too, are God, only you
don’t know it.” It was in 1968 that
he made the declaration of
avatarhood. “This human form is one
in which all the names and forms
ascribed by man to God are manifest…
This is divinity in human form… How
fortunate you are that you can
witness all the countries of the
world paying homage to Bharat! That
you can hear, even while this body
is existing, adoration of the name
of Sathya Sai reverberating from
every nook and corner of the
world...,” he said in Bombay. Today,
those words have come true.
Baba encourages devotees to do
selfless seva. And it is all done
without publicity. A lot of good
gets done as a result! So we have
unprecedented education, medical
care and social projects running
successfully globally.
Institutes of Sathya Sai
Education—the first one was
established in Japan in 1991—are
present on all the continents. In a
bid to provide education with human
values to rural children, Vidya
Vahini, an e-learning programme, was
launched on Baba’s birthday last
year in partnership with TCS.
Sathya Sai Schools are there on all
continents. In Zambia, it is known
as miracle school, as the teachers
transform dropouts and louts into
achievers with impeccable character.
Sathya Sai U-Turn Schools in
Australia do what the name implies.
In India, companies compete to get
the graduates of Sathya Sai
University as they are such
exemplary team players and leaders.
Free medical care is another concept
that Baba has proved is workable.
All over the world, doctors and
medical professionals run weekly
free Sathya Sai primary health care
clinics. In a bid to reach out to
the villages, mobile hospitals have
been set up. Two model secondary
care Sri Sathya Sai general
hospitals have been running for
decades at Puttaparthi and
Whitefield. The icing on the cake
are the two state-of-the-art
tertiary care Sri Sathya Sai
Institutes of Higher Medical
Sciences in Puttaparthi and in
Whitefield. None of these hospitals
has a bill counter. Everything,
including bypass surgeries and neuro
surgeries, is totally free.
Mammoth water supply projects to
give potable water to 10.8 million
people of Anantapur, Medak and
Mehabubnagar were just a beginning.
The Sathya Sai Ganga project brought
water to the parched Chennai. Many
other projects now serve the
backward East and West Godavari
districts. Disaster relief and
rebuilding is a priority work taken
up by the Sai Organisation. Houses
in the flood-hit Orissa, tsunami-hit
Tamil Nadu and earthquake-hit
Gujarat were built by the
organisation.
In Myanmar there is a Sathya Sai
Grama, complete with a school and a
pagoda, built by the Thai and Malay
devotees after floods devastated a
village. Grama seva is Rama seva, is
an idea that Baba has promoted and
the integrated village development
taken up by Sai Youth is doing
wonders in villages.
Baba encourages a Hindu to be a
better Hindu; a Christian to be a
better Christian; a Muslim to be a
better Muslim. All religious
festivals are celebrated at
Prashanthi Nilayam in Puttaparthi. A
devotee recently made bold to
request Baba, who has been ailing
for a while, to ‘heal himself’. Baba
replied with a smile, “Your prayers
can heal me!” Our strife-torn world
needs Baba now more than ever
before! |
