Stories - The glue that holds societies - 5

The things that would materialise would fascinate all of us. At some meeting it would be a Shiva ice linga made of sweetened frozen milk; at another it would be that a flame would be burning in a Sai Baba image and the image would have a rudraksha seed plastered into it; at times a plate would be filled with cashew, almonds, raisins and pistachio; elsewhere silver rupee coins of the British era in India would suddenly be seen together with other coins with divine images. Honey would be a very frequent product. One couldn't predict what would come up, and all of us would be very eager to see what would spring up at a congregation.

As our association became more intense, the group began organising visits to Shirdi and to various other Guru Sthans (Places of Guru worship) in India. At such tours, invariably something spectacular would happen. At Pithapuram in Andhra Pradesh in 2008, a wooden arm-rest used by hermits in India (a contraption made of wood with a two foot vertical rod having a broad cup like structure to rest the elbow while squatting on the ground; See photograph on left)  and a cloth bag sprang up out of nowhere. Shanthamma was advised to hand over those items to two unmarried girls who were in the group.

Once at Shirdi, a two foot long sword shaped chrome steel object with a ring materialised (see photo on right). The object had nine holes in it, which was supposed to have a deep symbolic meaning. Shanthamma was advised by Swamy (Sai Baba) that she was to observe a particular Sadhana for a period of forty days with that object. Subsequently, if anyone who was plagued with a lot of difficulties requested her for help, she was to place the object over the body of the candidate at various places in a manner prescribed and that it would provide great relief to the sufferer over time.

Last year (2010) when the group was visiting a place called Ganagapura in northern Karnataka, Swamy presented Shanthamma with a bundle wrapped in a red cloth. Swamy told her that inside the bundle was His seat and ornaments and clothes. On opening the bundle she found a tightly packed square piece of tiger's skin with rudrakshas (ornaments of Swamy), cloth pieces and sacred ash. (See photo left)


The Rationalists of Bangalore famously used to assert that the things that would materialise were only of the size that could be hidden within sleeves of a shirt or a scarf. But I vouchsafe that the lady wore only a tight fitting short-sleeved blouse and when we went out from our rooms to the temple she carried nothing that could conceal such large things. Further who would ever conceive of such strange objects like the sword-shaped rod shown above or even the wooden arm-rest?

However, I would like to mention that as I seem to understand it, these events are some things that happen to her, and it seems as if they are beyond her conscious control. She can't seem to will it consciously. Perhaps the energies around her cause such events but without her being able to guide it in a given direction.

               (To be continued ... )