Sai Baba has myriad ways of showing His love.

Out of the innumerable experiences of His mercy, I am narrating one, which is the closest to my heart.

After my husband’s surgery in June 2005 life was never the same. My husband underwent a surgery for brain tumour and by the grace of God, it was removed. But, our life was a rollercoaster ride thenceforth; the doctors told my husband that he had to depend on steroids and hormone replacement injections throughout his life.

Each day is a blessing and I thank God for blessing us with more days, where we experience His Grace.

We stay in Bahrain and the school vacations fall in August, so during one such vacation in 2007, our two children, in between watching television, reading books, indulging in art work, getting in a brawl were also getting bored. It was during this time, that my neighbour and her sister-in-law, who was visiting her (neighbour) visited us.

Both of them are dedicated teachers at the Chinmay Mission, and seeing the children twiddling the thumbs at home, they in unison said, ‘‘Why you don’t send the kids to our home, we would teach them small bhajans ?’’ I was only too delighted to hear there suggestion, as not only would my children learn some bhajans, but they would also be kept busy.

After they came home from their bhajan class, I would ask them to sing what they had learnt and when they sang, the beautiful verses that came from their mouth, tempted me to learn those songs and I put forth my request to both the aunt’s (that is how I addressed them). Both of them were thrilled to hear this request and invited me over to learn the bhajans. After two days, the visiting aunt realised that I could be taught lengthier songs, so she told to come in the morning and scheduled the children for noon. Soon, we were four ladies going to this aunt to learn abhangs (devotional songs in Marathi, which have been composed by great saints of yore).

For my troubled and worried mind, this proved to be a wonderful diversion and each day I would finish my household chores as fast as I could, so that I would not miss my class. After a few days, the visiting aunt voiced to us, that she wished to hold a ‘kacheri’ (a concert) in the temple. I skeptically told her, “Aunty, humhare aise naseeb kahan jo Bhagwan ke saamne kacheri karein !” (Where are we so fortunate to hold a concert in the presence of God !) But, aunty was very positive that we would get the opportunity to sing in the temple.

Around this time, once again fate had plans of her own ! My husband started complaining of pain in his left foot and soon we realised that there was some kind of a lump which seemed to be growing bigger by the day. Upon doing a sonography the doctors advised him to undergo a surgery for the same. But, because his sugar levels were high, the doctors advised him to first try to bring his sugar under control, as due to high sugar levels the healing process would take a long time. I started giving him a massage on that foot every day as it hurt him. The pain was so intense that he could not sleep; even the touch of shoe would stir pain.

During this time, we had heard that a miracle had taken place in a Sai devotee’s home, where ‘Udi’ had started trickling from a framed photograph of Baba. My skeptical mind did not want to accept this, I thought, “This can’t be true; in all probability the photograph inside the frame may be old and the paper must be crumbling or probably the wall which was holding the photograph must be old and the plaster must be peeling, etc.”; but what I saw with my own eyes, was hard for me to believe or digest. I could see the ash coloured ‘Udi’ stuck to the feet of Baba and at the base of photograph and the stand which held the photograph had a small mountain of the ‘Udi’. Our teacher as if on cue, asked us to start singing one of the abhangs taught to us by her. The other ladies and our teacher began singing; but I was so choked and overwhelmed, that no words would come out of my mouth and the only offering I could offer to Baba for showing me this miracle, were tears ! Tears flowed down my eyes, without any restraint, it felt as if my eyes were saying ‘sorry’ to Baba for having distrusted His miracle !

All of us assembled there were given a small pinch of the ‘Udi’ and when I got my share, I was left wondering, ‘how will this small amount suffice for my family’. And yet, I could not ask for more, as I also knew that I was not the only devotee of Baba who would come to seek His blessings or partake of the ‘Udi’.

I went home and applied the ‘Udi’ on my husband’s forehead and on the scar where he had been operated for his brain tumour. A little of the ‘Udi’ which was left on my finger tip, I sprinkled into his coffee and yet, there was a residue of the ‘Udi’ left on my fingertip, saying “Om Shri Sainathay Namaha”, I rubbed the residue on the lump that was growing on his left foot. In the evening after applying ‘Udi’ on my children’s forehead, once again, I applied the residue on my husband’s foot. I did this religiously till all the ‘Udi’ got over.

I received some more ‘Udi’, and I again followed my ritual to the T. A week passed and both my husband and I forgot all about the foot, he stopped complaining about the pain in his foot and because of that it slipped my mind to ask him how his foot was. Suddenly, one day, a fortnight, after I had finished applying the last of the ‘Udi’, I remembered the pain in my husband’s foot and asked him, “Hey ! Subhash ! I forgot to ask you, how is the pain in your foot ?” That is when with a start we both looked at his left foot. What we both saw, was something our eyes could not believe, the lump was no longer there ! Both of us examined his foot closely; but the lump had vanished. A miracle had happened ! Where a surgery had been advised, Baba worked on it through His ‘Udi’ !

I am sure Baba is also working on my husband’s health condition. I believe that he will not have to rely or depend on external medicines to enable the smooth and normal functioning on his body. With this Shraddha in my heart and the Saburi in my mind, I keep praying to Baba to work His miracle !!

Om Shri Sainathay Namaha !