My wife Prabha and I had visited Shirdi Sai Baba`s temple in 2002 as a part of our visit to many temples in India. At that time I was not an ardent devotee of Sai Baba. My favourite deities have been Balaji and Ganesha over the years. Baba has entered my life only in the last four years. My interest in Baba was kindled by a series of articles on Baba`s miracles I had read in Ananda Vikatan, a popular Tamil weekly, a few years ago. Suddenly I started seeing Baba`s images every where and his name being talked about by many people. One day when I was having a conversation with my family in my drawing room on Baba, my grandson who was two years old then pointed out at the small marble statue of Baba sitting on the corner display table along with other figures. I felt that Baba was giving me a message and promptly shifted the idol to my Pooja Room. I decided to visit Shirdi with a friend and had made all travel arrangements. We were to leave for Shirdi on 24th March,2020. But the announcement of Lockdown starting from 26th March made us cancel our trip. I was disappointed.
I decided to visit the popular Sai Baba temple in Mylapore on a Thursday before the Lockdown came into effect. It was around 5.30pm. There was a long queue and the temple was heavily crowded I was not confident of standing in the queue for long. While trying to get a darshan of the deity from the outside gate, a thought stuck me. I went to the Security and asked him if there is any special paid darshan of Baba. He promptly directed me to a table in a corner where a volunteer was giving senior citizens tokens to get a quick darshan of Baba. I rushed and found that I was receiving the last token for the day after which the counter was closed. I was allowed to enter the sanctum sanctorum through a side entrance and have a glorious darshan within five minutes. I could even touch the feet of Baba with my head. Obviously Baba had chosen me for his special attention. I came out delighted and fully charged with new energy. What happened next only reinforced my growing interest in Baba.
For the first three weeks of the lockdown I was staying with my elder daughter trying to complete my novel which I had started writing. I learnt that my daughter was already a great devotee of Baba. I found the English version of the original biography of Baba in her Puja Room. I decided to read a couple of chapters every day and completed reading the book during my stay. I was by now totally hooked to Baba. So subsequently whenever the lockdown was relaxed I started visiting Baba temple in Tiruvanmiyur which is close to my home in Sastri Nagar, every Thursday.
I learnt from a reliable source that Sivasankari, the well known Tamil writer was an ardent devotee of Baba. Thanks to my involvement with Tamizh Puthaga Nanbargal, a Tamil book readers` forum, I got to know her well. I decided to visit her during one of the relaxation periods. It was she who told me that Baba decides to enter people`s lives as and when he wants to bestow his grace on them. She herself had become a devotee of Baba only 15 years earlier when she was in her mid sixties. Baba had entered my life in my mid seventies. Sivasankari was kind enough to present me with two books on Baba which she had translated from English to Tamil. One of them was the abridged version of Baba`s biography. I took to reading this biography once a month as a part of my parayanam ( ritual reading) . I feel indescribable peace settle on me every time I finish reading it.
I must share an unforgettable experience I had recently. It happened a few weeks ago. After visiting the Shirdi Sai Baba temple in Tiruvanmiyur, my son who was driving my car and I were cruising along on a side road connecting to L.B.Road. Suddenly we realized that a Car from the opposite direction was coming towards our car. To avoid a head on collision my son started veering the car to the left. Before we could blink- `Bang`- the opposite car hit the rear door behind the driver, got deflected and stopped after hitting two men on their two wheelers running in front of him. In a dazed condition when I came out of the car I realized that my son and I had narrowly escaped a major head on collision which could have been, if not fatal, would have necessitated hospitalization with serious injuries. Fortunately both of us escaped without even a scratch. However our car was badly damaged. I thanked Sai Baba, whose darshan we had just a few minutes earlier, for saving us from a catastrophe. The very thought of the accident, even after several weeks, sends shivers down my spine!
My vow to visit Baba`s temple in Shiridi became a reality on 29th March,2022, exactly two years after the original plan which got thwarted because of the pandemic. I had a wonderful VIP darshan of Baba on 29th evening and 30th morning. Needless to say it was an enriching experience.
Om Sai Ram!
( An edited version of this article has appeared in the latest issue ( June,2022) of Dignity Dialogue)
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