A devotee from Kamalapuram was asking Baba to show him some miracle. One day Baba called him and the members of his family, including his mother, and offered to show them the Vision of the ten incarnations of God! The Visions of Matsya the Fish, Kurma the Tortoise, and Varaha the Boar, passed off without any incident, but when the terrible form of Narasimha the "Man-Lion" appeared, they shrieked and yelled, fearing that the house might collapse on their heads. They clamored, "Enough, enough." Other persons, although there, did not see the Forms, because the miracle was not intended for them. However, when they witnessed the distress of the family, they performed a magical incantation for bringing auspicious delight, and Baba calmed down. The ten incarnations were revealed to another gentleman, now deceased, a relative of the accountant's family. The fact was that he passed away because his physical frame was too weak to contain the joy of the Vision. Baba took him to the river and asked him to watch His reflection in the water. The man announced later that he saw at first Sathya Sai Baba Himself, then only the halo of hair that surrounds His Head, and then all the ten incarnations in the order in which they are mentioned in the legendary histories of India; the tenth and last incarnation on a white horse, had the form of Baba Himself!

Baba will bless only those who have reached that stage in which they deserve the Vision that He grants. He is the judge of the time, the recipient, and the nature of the Vision. If the person so blessed is so overwhelmed with joy that he cannot survive in this physical framework because it is too weak a container for that type of Bliss, one has only to be thankful for the glory and the blessedness of such a death.

One can well appreciate the hesitation of Sai Baba to present these Visions when he learns of the experience of Krishnamurthy, a Civil Service clerk at the Mysore Secretariat.

Baba was then at Bangalore, ostensibly a youth of seventeen. He wore a white half-arm shirt and a dhoti cloth around His waist. Krishnamurthy was a frequent visitor and an enthusiastic member of the chanting group that sang hymns of praise. He was closely watching Baba and following Him for a few days. One day at about eight in the morning he confronted Baba and said rather excitedly, "I know you are God; show me Your real Form!" Sai Baba tried to avoid him but couldn't. He gave him a picture of Sai Baba of Shirdi which He materialized on the spot, and directed him to meditate on that, keeping it against the wall. "Be looking at that picture," He commanded, and left the house to give the blessing of His Presence to some devotees in their homes.

Sai Baba returned when the clock struck twelve. Just when He crossed the threshold, Krishnamurthy sent forth a huge cry of joy and fainted in the inner room! When he revived he was shivering and shaking and breathing heavily. He kept his eyes tightly closed and was pursuing Baba from room to room, asking sometimes plainly, sometimes authoritatively, "Let me touch Your Feet!" He seemed to know exactly where Baba was, by the sense of smell, and he was sniffing his way towards Him! But Baba pushed him gently off or hid Himself or kept His Feet firmly under Him when seated, and never acceded to Krishnamurthy's wishes.

When Krishnamurthy was asked to open his eyes, he refused, saying that he did not desire to cast his eyes on anything else; he wanted only to see and touch Baba's Feet. His excitement and joy continued unabated for days, and Sai Baba said that if he touched His Feet while in that ecstatic mood, he would pass away. So Sai Baba quietly persuaded him to go home, saying that He would give him the pleasure of His Presence there.

Baba then moved to a house in the Civil Station. But Krishnamurthy could not contain himself. With his eyes still closed, he somehow sniffed his way. He got on a horse cart and directed the driver to the house where Sai Baba was staying! He slid down from the cart and ran into the compound, roamed round the building, and began to bang at the very window of the room where Sai Baba was at the time! Baba still spoke of the danger to Krishnamurthy's life because of the overpowering joy of his experience. Relatives who came for him forced his return home. He still kept his eyes closed, praying for Baba's Feet.

Some people took him to the hospital because he had become weak through fasting and would not even drink water. Baba sent to him at the hospital a little water in which His Feet had been bathed. When Krishnamurthy drank it, he became fit enough to be taken home. At home he asked everyone to sing hymns in praise of Baba while he lay on a cot in the same room. When the session was over, they found he did not rise. He had touched the Feet of the Lord; the river had found the Sea. What a highly evolved soul to deserve that indescribable Bliss!

In later years too, Sai Baba has granted Visions of a devotee's Ishta Devata, "the form of God chosen for worship," and to many others He has revealed His own manifold Forms. Each one so blessed cherishes the memory of that moment of Bliss! Baba has often said that the Lord, has to come in human form in order to speak to people in their own language, just as a person desirous of saving drowning man has perforce to jump into the very same tank or well. No one can benefit from a Divine Incarnation, an Avatara, if the Lord comes down as He is, with His effulgence unimpaired, for then the gap between man and Godman would be too great for man to comprehend. Therefore God must take on a form similar to that of an ordinary man.

On another occasion Sai Baba asked some persons who had come from Kamalapur whether they would like to hear the flute of Sri Krishna. Who would say no? He asked them to lay their heads on His Chest, and lo, they could hear the enchanting melody of the flute of Krishna that brought even the Yamuna River to a standstill. Easwaramma, His mother , speaks of another thrilling experience when Baba said, "Listen, Shirdi's Presence is here." She and everyone in the room could hear steps advancing as if made by feet in heavy wooden sandals. The steps ceased when they reached where Baba was sitting! When first the sound was heard, the mother asked with a little anger, "Who comes in with sandals on?" - so real was the sensation, so true was the Vision!

"I am neither man, nor god, nor archangel nor angel. I am not to be known by the name of any of the four castes or of the four stages of human life. Know me as the Teacher of Truth, Sathyam Sivam Sundaram", said Baba once.

Source: Sathyam Sivam Sundaram

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