My experiences with the Divine — Sai Baba
Prologue:
I was working for a software company at Mumbai and my roommate had finally got a confirmation on his transfer to Bengaluru after a long struggle. The wanderer in us made our lives vibrant. We wanted to visit all the places in and around Mumbai. One fine Friday, we both thought Shirdi is just 10 hours away from Mumbai and we should visit Shirdi, and Ellora Caves before he leaves Mumbai.
My roommate had a little faith in God, and I on the other hand was skeptical about existence of God. Our intention was to travel, explore the architecture of the Caves, and create memories for the rest of our lives. No spiritual intentions! However, both of us had the open mindedness to appreciate and respect all forms of culture, art, religion and schools of thought. So that afternoon, both of us got leaves approved for Monday, we booked at bus to Shirdi at 5 PM which departed from Mulund West around 9 PM. Travel itself was a great joy for us.
The next day, we had good darshan of Sai Baba’s samadhi. While having darshan, the thought that was running in my mind was- why is there so much faith and worship for a person who is no more? Are all the stories I heard about him during my childhood true?
Anyways, we finished the darshan stayed the entire night at Shirdi and the next day we visited Shani Shingnapur, stayed another night at Shirdi, next day we went to Aurangabad, Ellora caves and Ghrishneshwar. We enjoyed the travel and architecture throughout our journey and reached Shirdi by evening. That night we started our journey back to Mumbai by bus.
All through the three days, we recollected our memories of the past one and half year and thought that we finally had to bid a farewell 😅
Experiencing the divine
Mumbai: A few months later, one of the weekends I was at home on a bean bag, staring at the Avadumbara tree and the Dattatreya temple from my drawing room. It was lush green because it was the onset of monsoon.
The house I had rented was having 7 feet tall windows and it was drizzling at about 10 am in the morning. I had cleaned the room spic and span that very morning.
Just then I heard a knock on my neighbor's door. I looked through the keyhole, I saw a man, aged about 50 with the typical Maharashtrian 'Topi' and a ‘Jholi’. I knew my neighbors were not at home.
So, I opened the door to inform him the same, however, before I spoke he turned towards our door and told me he was on his way to Shirdi. I asked him, 'paani peeyenge?’ he said ‘han’. So I asked him to come inside the house and offered him a chair to sit. He was very happy with my gesture and said ‘aap ne seva kiya hai yaatri ka’. He told me he was a Naishthik Bramhachari. At that time, I didn’t know what Naishthik Bramhacharya meant (It means that the person has been a celibate in thought word and deed since birth). But I understood that he was a celibate, so I offered him about 50₹ thinking it would help him reach Shirdi. He had not asked for money though. After that he told me few noteworthy things:
- You do not like your current office.
- I was wearing a full sleeve t-shirt and he told me about a mole on my body, which I myself didn’t know. He said, you can check it later.
- You have recently visited Shirdi and it was a sudden plan.
- You’ll visit Tirupati in some time not far away.
- I am Jagannath (I didn’t know what Jagannath meant).
All of this frightened me a bit because I felt he violated my privacy 😂. I thought, okay he has powers, but he shouldn’t use them to read people just like that. At that moment I had forgotten that I was intensely seeking for signs which would indicate God’s existence.
At that moment, I realized the power of Bhakti. I was astonished!
He asked me to touch his feet. I didn’t have so much devotion at that time and I felt strange that a person is commanding my devotion(because I didn’t know who Jagannath was!) He asked if he can take the fruits on my study table. He said he will offer them to a temple he was about to visit that evening. I was okay with it. Before leaving he said, If what I said is true, I’ll collect, 500₹ from you on 5th of October.
I was planning to vacate the house and move to a residence managed by ISKCON. This plan was because of some other divine experiences which I’ll share in my later articles.
So, I told him I would be vacating the house and you probably won’t be able to collect the money. He said, that is up-to Baba; he will collect it and left after blessing me.
Everything he stated was true. The days passed and I moved to ISKCON in the month of August
Epilogue:
Later, I visited Tirupati. It was my first visit there. I was happy that I visited Tirupati before Shirdi and that a human being can’t dictate my future. For, I had still not realized what Jagannath meant.
While returning from Tirupati, I was waiting for my train at Renigunta station. A man approached me and told that he had lost his money and needed some help. He said, he’ll transfer the money once he reaches home. He showed me his ID card as professor in some college which I was not interested in. I pulled out 400₹ from my pocket and gave him. He asked my for my phone number and bank account number. I didn’t trust him with my bank details and phone number. So I said, it’s okay. Don’t worry about returning the money. Go back home safe. He insisted me for details multiple times saying he doesn’t like to take other’s money. I was adamant about not wanting to give details because he was a stranger. Finally he said, I will offer it at the Sai Baba temple near my house. That reminded me of my 500₹ due with Sai Baba. I thought it would be better to have some more cash in my pocket while traveling and went to search for an ATM since there were about 45 more minutes for the train to arrive.
I went outside the station and asked people for directions to an ATM. I asked about 3–4 people and everyone gave me directions towards a Sai Baba temple and then told there’s an ATM near the temple. I was astonished and thought I will offer the remaining 100₹ at the Sai Baba temple near my home in Mumbai.
Why am I publishing this story?
After all this I was still not convinced about who Sai Baba was and whether he was doing good for every person on this planet. So I put-forth another prayer- If I come to know who Sai Baba is, I will publish my experience.
It took a long time and enough patience, but my prayer was answered. I got to know a little bit about him from a Yogi Sri M. I was lucky enough to touch his feet! Check-out his book Apprenticed to a Himalayan Master. Sri M was born in a Muslim family and got initiated in the Nath Tradition (Sai Baba also belonged to Nath tradition and hence he was also called Sai Nath). In his book he explains why he was born in a Muslim family and how he met his Guru. Sai Baba always said ‘Sabka Malik Ek’ and Sri M’s journey in his book is a proof for it, so don’t fight in the name of religion!
A little deviation: Lot of people ask me this question- if there is only one god why there are multiple gods in Sanatana Dharma and why there are multiple religions. I can answer this question, however if the answer comes to you as a realization even at the mental plane, you’ll be much more satisfied and it will transform your character. You will start seeing all the religions equally. No one has to teach you equality and morality- that will be true transformation!
I was still not satisfied with what info I got about Sai Baba from one of Sri M’s satsang videos on Youtube. Later, I was following an account on instagram which was closely associated with Mahavatar Babaji. I did not know who Mahavatar babaji was, I followed the account because It was a temple’s page in US posting very beautiful pictures of Radha and Krsna. Those pictures gave me happiness. There I found out who Sai Baba was while reading one of the posts. I never used to read their posts, just enjoyed the beautiful pictures of Radha Rani and Madana Mohana like the one below.
That post told me who Sai Baba was and then all of Sai Baba’s serial that I used to watch as a kid, flashed from my memory and convinced me to write this article.
One more surprise,
While drafting the above paragraph, I found out that Mahavatar Babaji was Sri M’s Guru too. It was an aha moment for me! That temple is nowhere related to Sri M and is under the directions of a completely different Guru, but Mahavatar Babaji was their Guru too! I felt like this story was weaved by the lord himself to convince me of his presence and you got a chance to read it now, probably because you have/had practiced at-least a pinch of devotion sometime. All the above experiences with Sai Baba is probably 10 percent of my spiritual experiences.
All that’s happening in my experience is helping me realize one statement ‘Ekam Sat, Vipra Bahhuda Vadanti’ in simple words as Sai Baba said- ‘Sabka Maalik Ek’.
You can attribute everything to be ‘just a coincidence’, but not those 5 points told by Jagannath Ji! That was a miracle. It was the lord’s leela to answer a seeker’s prayer and reveal his presence. And tell me how many of such coincidences have you had in your life?
If you want to know my opinions and thoughts before I had spiritual experiences, and the depth of my understanding about Modern Physics and science, you can read these two articles:
