There happened in the latter part of 1953 an event almost as dramatic in its way as Christ's raising of Lazarus from the dead. I heard of it from a number of people, including the man most closely concerned, the "Lazarus" of the case, Mr. V. Radhakrishna. Then I finally had the facts carefully presented by Mr. Radhakrishna's daughter, Vijaya, who was an eyewitness, and who wrote down the details at the time of the happening in the diary she has always kept of her experiences with Sai Baba. While relating the experience to me she had her diary before her.

Mr. V. Radhakrishna, who is a factory owner and well-known citizen in Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh, was about sixty years of age when in 1953 he paid a visit to Puttaparti. With him on this occasion went his wife, his daughter Vijaya and the latter's husband Mr. K.S. Hemchand. Vijaya was about eighteen and had not been long married. Her father, she told me, was at the time suffering from gastric ulcers, with various complications. He was really in a very bad way, and one of his reasons for visiting the ashram was the hope that he might get relief from his frightful suffering. He had known Baba for some time.

The great religious festival of Dasara was on, and a good number of people were visiting Puttaparti. Mr. Radhakrishna was given a room in the same building where Swami lived, and spent all his time on his bed there. Once when Baba came to visit him, Radhakrishna said that he would prefer to die rather than go on suffering the way he was. Swami simply laughed at this, and made no promise of either healing him or letting him die.

One evening Radhakrishna went into a coma and his breathing was that of a dying man. Alarmed, the wife dashed off to see Swami. The latter came to the room, looked at the patient, said, "Don't worry. Everything will be all right," and left. On the next day the patient was still unconscious. Mr. K. S. Hemchand, the son-in-law, brought a male nurse of the district who, after failing to find any pulse and making other examinations, gave as his opinion that Mr. Radhakrishna was so near death that there was no possibility of saving him.

About an hour after this the patient became very cold. The three anxious relatives heard what they thought was the "death rattle" in his throat and watched him turning blue and stiff. Vijaya and her mother went to see Baba who was at the time upstairs in his dining room. When they told him that Radhakrishna seemed to be dead he laughed and walked away to his bedroom. Vijaya and her mother returned to the room of the "dead" man and waited. After a while, Swami came in and looked at the body, but went away again without saying or doing anything.

That was on the evening of the second day since Mr. Radhakrishna had become unconscious. The whole of the next night passed while the three stayed awake and anxiously watched for any signs of returning life. There were no signs. Yet they still had faith that Baba would somehow or other, in his own way, save Radhakrishna, for had he not said that everything would be all right?

On the morning of the third day the body was more than ever like a corpse - dark, cold, quite stiff and beginning to smell. Other people who came to see and sympathise told Mrs. Radhakrishna that she should have the corpse removed from the ashram. But she replied, "Not unless Swami orders it." Some even went to Baba and suggested that, as the man was dead and the body smelling of decomposition, it should either be sent back to Kuppam or cremated at Puttaparti. Swami simply replied, "We'll see."

When Mrs. Radhakrishna went upstairs again to tell Baba what people were saying to her, and ask him what she must do, he answered: "Do not listen to them, and have no fear; I am here." Then he said that he would come down to see her husband soon.

She went downstairs again and waited, with her daughter and son-in-law by the body. The minutes dragged by - an hour passed - but Swami did not come. Then when they were beginning to despair entirely, the door opened and there stood Baba in his red robe, copious hair, and shining smile. It was then about half past two in the afternoon of the third day. Mrs. Radhakrishna went towards Baba and burst into tears. Vijaya too began to cry. They were like Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, weeping before their lord who, they thought, had come too late.

Gently Baba asked the tearful women and sorrowful Mr. Hemchand to leave the room. As they left, he closed the door behind them. They do not know - no man knows - what happened in that room where there were only Swami and the "dead" man.

But after a few minutes Baba opened the door and beckoned the waiting ones in. There on the bed Radhakrishna was looking up at them smiling. Amazingly the stiffness of death had vanished and his natural colour was returning. Baba went over, stroked the patient's head and said to him, "Talk to them; they're worried."

"Why worried?" asked Radhakrishna, puzzled. "I'm all right. You are here."

Swami turned to the wife: "I have given your husband back to you," he said. "Now get him a hot drink."

When she brought it, Swami himself fed it to Radhakrishna with a spoon. For another half-hour he remained there, strengthening the man he had "raised". Then he blessed the whole family, placing his hand on Mrs. Radhkrishna's head, and left the room.

Next day the patient was strong enough to walk to bhajan. On the third day he wrote a seven page letter to one of his daughters who was abroad in Italy. The family stayed a few more days at Prasanti Nilayam, then with Baba's permission returned to their home in Kuppam. The bad gastric ulcers and complications had vanished forever.


When I spoke to Mr. Radhakrishna himself about the experience I asked if he had any memories at all of the time he was unconscious and to all appearances dead. He replied, "No. When I became conscious again I thought at first that it was just the same day. Later they told me it had been three days I was unconscious, that I was 'dead' and actually starting to stink. But Swami can do anything he wishes. He is God."

When is a person dead? Does any man know? Some who have seemed dead by all medical tests have in fact returned to their bodies - often, unfortunately, after being placed in their tombs, as evidence of movements by "corpses" seen later, has proved. When Jesus received word that Lazarus was dead, he said to his disciples, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth but I go that I may awake him out of sleep."

Sai Baba himself, during the early years at Shirdi, once left his body for three days. He asked a close disciple to guard the body, saying, I am going to Allah. If I do not return after three days, then get my body buried at that place," indicating a sacred neem tree. An inquest was held. Officials declared Sai Baba dead and ordered the corpse buried. But the disciple, with the help of some others, stoutly opposed the order, and would not surrender the body. Then at the end of the third day Sai Baba returned to his tall Shirdi physique and lived in it for another thirty-two years.

When Mr . N. Kasturi was a few years ago writing something about the incident of Mr. Radhakrishna being raised from the dead, Baba told him to put the word "dead" in inverted commas. So maybe we should say here that Mr. Radhakrishna was very near to death, more than half-way through death's door, when Baba called him back to life. Perhaps the same could be said of Lazarus.

Some people Baba saves from serious illnesses, or from the threshold of death. Others he does not. Why does he use his miraculous healing power for some and not for others? Why does he not cure all, save all from death? Many people ask these questions.

In the same way one might ask why Christ did not cure all the sickness around him in his day. And why was Lazarus the only one he called back from the tomb? Did Jesus - and did Sai Baba later - make a special effort against the power of death for a greatly-loved family of close devotees? Maybe, but I think there is more to it than that.

When Jesus was informed that Lazarus was sick he made the enigmatic remark: "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." So what would normally, under ordinary conditions, be a death-dealing disease may be an occasion for the glorification of God through the works of a God-man. Then, too, there is the profound and complex question of karma. To what extent is the specific ailment or the approach of death karmic, and how far should the God-man interfere with the patient's karma?

There are two cases within the same family; one where it seems the claims of karma could be put aside, so to speak; and the other where it is wiser not to interfere.

Once when Mr. G. Venkatamuni's mother, nearly 80 years old, was so close to death that all relatives had been warned of her imminent end, his wife Sushila took a jappamala given her by Sai Baba and placed it on the old lady's breast. Baba had told Sushila that the jappamala could be used in emergency as a healing charm.

The patient immediately began to show marked signs of improvement. This happened about ten o'clock one evening and when next morning a number of close relatives arrived, summoned to bid the old lady a last farewell, she asked in a puzzled tone why they had all come. She was soon hale and hearty again, and lived several years more.

Later, however, when one of G. Venkatamuni's sons, an epileptic, took very ill and seemed to be dying, Sushila decided to use the Sai Baba jappamala to try to save the boy. She went to bring it from where it was lying among other things in a case in the family puja room. But she came back without it, telling her husband in a distressed and bewildered tone that she could not get hold of the jappamala. She had tried to pick it up several times, but each time it had somehow eluded her hand. She could not explain this strange thing, an object seeming to avoid her grasp. What could it mean? Talking it over, husband and wife could only decide that, for some reason, Baba did not want the charm used on this occasion.

The boy died. Soon afterwards the parents called to see Baba. They, had often listened to his wise words on the true nature of death, yet they were but human, and wore long sad faces. Moreover, they were a little hurt to find that Baba himself was far from mournful; in fact he was cheerful and smiling.

He said to them: "You must not sorrow over the boy. I have just seen him again, and he is very happy 'over there'. He had just a little karma to work out here on earth, and when he had completed that he was ready to go. It was much better, much happier for him to go."

Then the parents understood that they had really only been sorry for themselves in their loss. And they were comforted to know that the boy they loved, who seemed dead, was in fact alive and well beyond his suffering physical body. Mr. and Mrs. Venkatamuni's faith in Sai Baba did not for a moment waver. But there are some devotees whose belief is shaken when someone near and dear dies. Several have told me of this, saying the situation is often aggravated by sceptical relatives who say: "Well, why didn't Sai Baba save him?" Even the faith of deeply-devoted and highly-intelligent followers can suffer an eclipse under sufficiently tragic circumstances.

For instance, Mr. V. Hanumantha Rao, mentioned earlier, had a sick son who had developed polio at the age of about six months. To make matters worse the boy was an only child.

Mr. and Mrs. Hanumantha Rao met Sai Baba when their son was about four years old. The young, lovable Swami became like one of the family. But he puzzled the couple by often referring to their child as -"my boy", and he always called the little fellow "Siva" although his name was actually "Iswari Prasad Dattatreya". Swami would often say to them, "Siva is the rope that brought us together, and holds us so."

The parents did not understand this and many of the young Swami's sayings, but he performed uplifting miracles in their presence, and they had great hopes that he would cure their son.

The boy was very happy when Baba was present but his health grew worse. Polio affected the brain; there were frequent fits and after a few years little 'Siva' died. And with his death the rope was broken. The bereaved parents stopped seeing Sai Baba. No doubt they felt that he had somehow failed them.

Yet the time they had spent with him, his elevating spiritual influence, his silent and his spoken teachings, had had a profound effect upon them. Soon after the death of his beloved son, Mr. Hanumantha Rao devoted a large part of his fortune to establishing and maintaining in Madras an orthopaedic centre for children crippled with polio. The centre, one of the few of its kind in India, is named after the little boy, Iswari Prasad Dattatreya, to whom it is a memorial. The children there are given medical, surgical and rehabilitation treatment and a regular education. It lies just across the Adyar river from the Theosophical Society Headquarters, and I have several times called there to see Mr. Hanumantha Rao. I have watched the joy that lights the faces of the young cripples when the old retired transport commissioner walks into wards or classrooms. Also I have seen them in wheel chairs or held up by frames and crutches saluting with deep reverence the bust of little Iswari, which stands in the hospital entrance. They feel that, in a certain way, he died for them; that it is his spirit which has brought them modern scientific help in their sufferings and the hope of a happier life.

When this couple had triumphed over their great sorrow and turned it to a worthy and constructive end, a veil seemed to fall from their eyes. They saw how wrong they had been in blaming Sai Baba for not keeping their boy alive. As Mr. Hanumantha Rao said to me, "There must be suffering in the world; it belongs to the nature of things here because Man brings it on himself." They understand that the divine one cannot lift all the karma from Man's shoulders, and also that much good can in fact come out of what seems to be evil from our limited view point.

So Mr. and Mrs. Hanumantha Rao returned to the one who for them is the focus of divinity on earth today, and they are among his most deeply devoted disciples. In their home they keep a special bedroom set aside for Sai Baba. The room is never given to anyone else and their constant prayer is that Baba will grace it whenever possible with his presence.

My wife and I have several times been at the Hanumantha Rao home, one of a small group there, when Sai Baba paid a visit. It is a special joy to watch him there. As in former years he seems to be one of the family happy, carefree, boyish, full of fun. It's as if he is the son, yet at the same time the father and mother and god of this gentle sweet old couple. The soul of the child that led them, the rope that drew them towards the light, is, I feel, somehow still there though unseen.

In a number of cases where Sai Baba has not cured or saved - has not performed the outer miracle - I have noted a similar inner and really much more important miracle. He has perhaps cured the desire to be cured and brought acceptance; he has healed the soul-wounds of loss, and lifted minds and hearts to a better understanding of life. He has brought a new and broader vision about suffering and death.

It is the same pattern now as it was long ago at Shirdi. Then and there he healed and saved the lives of many. But some he did not save. One of these was the daughter of his great devotee H.S.Dixit. So people murmured, "If Sai Baba could not save Dixit's daughter at Shirdi, what is the good of a Sadguru?"

On this point the profound Sai Baba apostle, B.V. Narasimha writes: "One might as well say when dear ones die, 'What is the good of God?' Faith is not a guarantee that there will be no death or evil in the world in life. But, as in the case of Dixit, intense faith makes the devotee brace himself up against all inevitable calamities and learn more and more of God's scheme for our life. Life is not intended to be a bed of roses and a treasure house of wealth Faith enables the devotee to see what life is, and what God's plan is, and improve his own attitude to life."

In this, as in his former incarnation, Sai Baba has sometimes said that to cure a certain person, to save from death, or to remove some inborn physical blemish, would be to interfere unduly with the person's karma. And in such cases he has left the person concerned to bear that cross.

From all this we might conclude that some diseases are karmic and some are not. Some are the result of our own actions (most likely in a former life) and are part of the great moral law of compensation. We must expiate our past misdeeds by bearing the consequences and learning thereby. On the other hand, some afflictions diseases, accidents, and so on are only to a limited degree, if at all, brought about by our own actions. And with such we do not need to suffer long in order to learn some specific lesion from our own past mistake.

Likewise with regard to death. Generally, I think, time of death is not strictly pre-ordained; there are several points, let us say, along our life-line when you could meet with death, but it is not an absolute karmic necessity that you should die at the first or second of those points. Nevertheless, in Man's present state, death is an essential to the pattern of life, and in the end every man must die. Though Lazarus was called back from the tomb, some years later he died. And so must any man whose life Sai Baba saves. When that final point comes at which it is best to die, at which it is unwise and detrimental to the soul to prolong life, then what enlightened saint would interfere? The Illuminati, the God-men the great Yogis know when that "right time" is for those who come to them as, of course, they do for themselves. When the ancient writings say that the yogi conquers death, they do not mean that he lives forever. They mean that he himself decides the right time for him to depart this earth, and then he goes, leaving his body, consciously, of his own volition.

But, as mankind is today we cannot expect Sai Baba, or any other God-powered man, to dissolve away the whole heavy cloud of Man's karmic sins, curing all diseases, making all the cripples walk, cleaning all the lepers, opening the eyes of all the millions of blind that exist in India alone. The most he can do is lift a little of Man's heavy karma here and there and point the way.

Mr. N. Kasturi has written of the following incident.

At about 1.30 p.m. on June 21st 1959 Baba's close disciples were alarmed because his temperature shot up suddenly to 104.5 degrees. About five minutes later the thermometer registered a fall to 99 degrees. This was a mystery to them, and Baba did not at the time enlighten them.

However, that evening he was having dinner with a number of his devotees on a terrace in the moonlight. Among them was a young man from Madras who had been for some time staying with Baba, but was leaving the next day. Suddenly Swami said to him: "When you go to your mother tomorrow, tell her that she should be more careful about fire. "

This aroused considerable curiosity and some anxiety. So Baba told them that the lady's sari had caught fire that morning in Madras while, she was in her puja room but that the flames had been extinguished in time. The sari was ruined but she was unharmed.

After dinner one of the devotees thought of putting through a trunk call to Madras. Baba agreed, and it was done. The lady came to the phone herself and gave the enquirers more details of the accident. Then Baba spoke to her, and the listening devotees heard him laugh and say, "Oh, no, I did not burn my hands. I just had an increase in temperature for a short while."

Some years later I had first-hand confirmation of this story from Mr. G. Venkatamuni whose wife, Sushila, was the person concerned. Yes, her sari had caught fire while she was in the puja room, he said, and in a moment she was enveloped in flames. Panic seized her, but she had long been a devotee, and the first words that sprang to her lips were "Sai Baba". Immediately the flames died away and Sushila; knowing from experience the power of Baba at any distance, felt quite sure that he had somehow come to her aid in the crisis.

Forgetting for a moment that he had not come to her in his physical body she had asked him on the telephone if he had burned his hands. Yet this is not such a foolish question as might at first sight appear. Psychic research workers have found many case histories of astral travel where a shock to the astral body has caused effects, such as wounds, burns and bruises, on the physical body. This is brought about by the occult law of reciprocity. Baba's sudden rise in temperature seems to have been a mild example of this.

Throughout the 1940s, and for most of the 1950s, Baba often went into a trance during his out-of-the-body journeys. Suddenly and unexpectedly he would become unconscious, and those near him would know that he was away, probably with some devotee at a distant place. On returning, he might or might not tell those around him something of what happened.

On occasions there would be reciprocal effects on Baba's physical body indicative of what he was doing. Sometimes, for instance, a few words of what he was saying at the distant place would issue from his physical lips. At other times vibhuti would emanate from his body. This latter was usually when he had gone to be present at the death of a devotee. Mr. Kasturi says, "On such occasions, symbolic of death, destruction and the end of the temporary and the evanescent, sacred vibhuti issues from the mouth of the body that Baba leaves behind in order to proceed to the death-bed."

Kasturi then gives an example. At about 5.20 p.m. on November 15th 1958 Baba was reading a letter aloud to some people around him, when suddenly he exclaimed, "Ha!" and fell to the floor. The body was quiet for ten minutes, then it appeared to cough. Puffs of vibhuti were coming from the mouth, shooting out, Kasturi says, "to a distance of more than a foot and a half".

At 5.35 pm., having been unconscious for fifteen minutes, he resumed the reading where he had left off, quite naturally and showing no signs of exhaustion. When requested, he told the devotees where he had been - Dehra Dun in the Himalayas. There he said the mother of a doctor, well-known in the ashram, had just passed away. Baba had gone to give her help at the time of transition, which was 5.30 p.m. He also remarked that the doctor, her son, was present at the woman's death in Dehra Dun, and that people were singing bhajan songs in the room there. He further described how the old lady had at the end announced to everybody: "This is my last breath", and then expired.

Two days later, on November 17th, a letter came to Baba from the doctor whose mother had died. He wrote, "My mother drew her last breath on Saturday, at 5.30 p.m. We were doing bhajan during her last hours as per her wish. She was remembering you constantly."

Here is another example of Baba's knowledge of things at a distance and his power to intervene. In the early 1960s when Mr. K.R.K. Bhat a Divisional Manager of the Life Insurance Corporation of India, there was a case of bribery and corruption among his subordinates. This was in connection with an important promotion and some anonymous letters had set an official enquiry in motion.

It was found that several people were involved in the plot but the main culprit seemed to be Mr. Bhat's male stenographer who, however, tried to protect himself by shifting the responsibility onto his chief. He stated to the enquiry officer that he had simply carried out Mr. Bhat's instructions in all that he did.

It began to look as if Bhat, although completely innocent, would become involved; it being a question of one man's word against that of another. Bhat could think of no way in which to establish his innocence, and he began to be very worried. If he were found guilty of involvement in such an affair, the effects would be drastic to his career.

Finally the whole matter hinged on whether Bhat had or had not received personally in his office, and signed for, a certain registered letter. The stenographer stated that his chief had done so, whereas Bhat knew for certain that he had not. It should have been easy to check with the appropriate post office and find out whose signature had been given for the letter on the known date. But the postmaster stated that he could not assist because it had happened too long ago. The records, he said, were kept only six months, and then destroyed. The relevant letter had been received more than six months before.

At this point Baba began appearing in dreams to Mr. Bhat, who was a devotee. In a dream-vision Baba assured Bhat that the records were in fact still at the post office. They had not been destroyed as stated. In the end the postmaster was forced to admit that this was true. He made the excuse that his predecessor had let the old records pile up, and that there were so many - in fact over three years' accumulation - that he had neither the time nor the facilities to destroy them. He maintained, however, that as the mass of documents were not in any order but all in a jumbled heap, it would be quite impossible to find the one little paper so important to Mr. Bhat. There was absolutely no point in making the attempt, he said, as it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

That night Swami appeared again in a dream to his devotee, Mr. Bhat, saying that a man should be appointed to search at the post office, and that the relevant document would be quickly found. Following this, Bhat at last persuaded the postal authorities to attempt what he wanted. A clerk was put on to begin a search through the great stack of papers. Quite at random he picked out a bundle and began going through it.

"Miracles of miracles," said Mr. Bhat. "There was the document I needed so badly - right in the first bundle." It showed conclusively that the stenographer had signed for the vital registered letter on behalf of his boss. This cleared the latter of suspicion. The stenographer and several other men were found guilty of corrupt practices, and the Corporation administered appropriate penalties. Sai Baba's all-seeing eye and intervention from afar had saved his devotee from injustice.

"Not only is he above the limitations of space, but of time too," Mr. Bhat declared. "When we were at Prasanti Nilayam early in 1965, Swami told my wife privately that I should retire or take long leave, but must somehow stop work and be away from the office by June lst that year.

"He did not say why, but I had learned by this time to follow Swami's advice. However it was quite impossible for me to clear up all my business affairs, train my successor, and hand over by June 1st. I could manage it, I found, by July 1st, so I decided that that must suffice. I would be a month later than Swami had intimated, but I hoped that would be all right. I was wrong.

"On June 4th I had my first heart attack. Baba had obviously foreseen it and given me the warning. The strain of work had brought it on, no doubt, and if I had taken his advice I could have avoided it. Well, through his grace I am still alive and able to do many things that the specialists say I must not do."

Many other people have told me that Baba has foreseen events of importance in their future. Not only dangers to health and limb, but many things that loom large in their daily lives - births, marriages, new jobs, business opportunities and examination results, even to the precise marks that will be obtained.

Here is an amusing example of his precognitive power. Mr. G.K. Damodar Row, a retired judge, was at the time in question Governor of the Lions Clubs for several districts of Southern India. He was about to leave for Chicago to attend an international convention of Lions Clubs there. When he called at Prasanti Nilayam and told Sai Baba, the latter asked him to take a parcel, containing vibhuti and other items, to a group of Sai Baba devotees in California. Damodar Row was delighted at the prospect of delivering the parcel, not only for the joy of doing something for Baba, but also because he looked forward to seeing his devotee friends in California.

But the difficulty was that the Indian Government would allow him only enough foreign exchange to travel to Chicago and back by the shortest route, that is, across the Atlantic. He found it was quite impossible to obtain officially the necessary dollars to make the extra journey from Chicago to the west coast of America.

Reluctantly and sadly he told Swami that the hard facts of foreign exchange control and geography made the mission to California quite impossible. Swami was silent for a moment, then said: "Nevertheless you will go to California, so don't worry, just take the parcel." In Chicago Damodar Row called a number of times at the office of the airline company by which he was travelling to enquire if there was any way in which he could possibly make his return journey across America and the Pacific. But there was none.

The girl of whom he used to enquire frequently in the Chicago office got to know him and, noticing the image of Sai Baba on his ring, asked him about it. He told her that it was his guru and that furthermore his guru had said that he, Damodar Row, would go to California - so there had to be some way in which it could be done.

"I'm very sorry to disappoint you and your guru," she replied with apparent regret, "but there's just no way that I can do it. I would help you if I could."

Then one morning she greeted him joyously: "Your guru was right!" she cried. "You are going to California."

When, with a leaping heart, he asked her how, she informed him that there had been a strike of pilots in the airline by which he was to travel back, and that now she would have to re-route his return to India by another airline. In this way she could send him via the Pacific, and he would be able to make a stopover at Los Angeles.

Thus, as Baba had foretold confidently weeks earlier, the parcel was duly delivered to the Californian "Sai Family". I was myself at Prasanti Nilayam when Damodar Row came there straight after his return from America. He was still highly elated when he told the story, and all hearers shared his joy in the telling. No one doubted but that Baba had foreseen the strike, and the manner in which it would affect Damodar Row's movements.



Through the years since Sai Baba's following first began at Shirdi last century there have been numerous reports of him appearing in a materialised form at places far away from where his body actually was at the time. He may make the appearance in his own form or in some other, such as an old friend or relative, a beggar, a workman, a sadhu or holy man.

Sometimes, it seems, he creates a temporary maya, or illusion, of the form. Sometimes it may be that he "overshadows" a real living person or animal, making them do what he requires, and himself noting the response or reaction from the devotee concerned. Then he tells the devotee about it at a later date. Or he may at the time make some remark to people where he actually is, physically, at the time which gives a clue as to what has happened at a distance. Then this is confirmed later.

One example took place when H. S. Dixit received a letter at Shirdi to say that one of his brothers at Nagpur was ill. He told Baba about it, saying regretfully, "I am of no service to him." Baba replied, "I am of service."

Dixit could not make out why he said this, and what he meant. But he found out some time later, for just at that moment at Nagpur, a sadhu arrived and used the very words of Baba, "I am of service". The sadhu cured the brother of his illness. And Dixit realised that across a thousand miles Baba saw what went on, and did what was necessary.

That may, perhaps, have been a real sadhu "overshadowed" by Baba but one that appeared to a devotee in more recent years in Delhi seems more like an illusive creation, a temporary form taken by Satya Sai Baba.

This story was told to me by Mrs. Kamala Sarati, wife of the late Mr. R.P. Sarati who was at the time of the event Additional Secretary of Defence under V.K. Krishna Menon, the Indian Minister for Defence. The incident concerns a man named V.S. Chidambaram, a violinist who was Kamala's music master. Not being herself too sure of all the details, Kamala kindly wrote on my behalf from Madras, where she now lives, to her old music master in Delhi. He replied giving a full account of the event, and Kamala passed on the letter to me.

It happened in Delhi back in 1950 at the time when both Kamala and her music master, Chidambaram, had been devotees of Sai Baba for about two to three years. Both had visited Puttaparti some five or six times and Chidambaram was at that period living in a room in Sarati's house in Delhi.

One morning the music master, then a man of about forty-five, was riding his cycle along Minto Road between New and Old Delhi. He had been out teaching some pupils, and was due back home to give a violin lesson to Kamala at eleven o'clock that morning.

As he cycled along he was turning a problem over in his mind. It used to cost him a lot to travel all the way to Puttaparti and although he had had some beautiful and wonderful experiences there he began to wonder if he could really afford the journey. He writes: "I was just thinking whether Baba was a real incarnation of God and whether it was worth spending so much money in going to Puttaparti to see him."

It was then that an old sadhu came cycling fast behind him and caught him up. The music master noted that the holy man was wearing a robe and had a cloth tied around his head, just like the pictures of Shirdi Baba. The old sadhu stopped, and, Chidambaram did likewise offering his salutations. The sadhu remarked that he would like to speak alone and privately to the music master, and as the street was busy and noisy suggested they go to a quiet spot. Chidambaram, realising that he would be late for Kamala's lesson, made some protest, but the sadhu said it was only a question of ten minutes. The music master says, "I had the feeling that this sadhu was like Shirdi Baba, and so I consented to go with him." After walking some distance down a side-road, pushing their bicycles, they came to an old tomb. The sadhu sat on this, putting one leg over the other in the manner of Shirdi Baba. The music master, after making customary gestures of respect and reverence, sat on the ground before the holy man.

Sadhu: (after about a minute's silence) "Who do you think I am?"

Chidambaram: "You seem to be like Shirdi Baba."

Sadhu: "All right. See my hand." He held his palm before Chidambaram. The palm became like a mirror in which was reflected in radiant colours the figure of Sai Baba of Puttaparti, sitting in a chair and smiling.

The music master gazed at the vision in awe.

Then the sadhu unbuttoned his robe and under-shirt to expose his chest. There again Chidambaram saw a vision of Puttaparti Baba. This time he was "sitting with a garland around him, shining and blissful".

The music master was completely overcome. He began to tremble and "shed tears of joy". Then the sadhu rubbed his back as Satya Sai Baba so often does for devotees in distress, smeared him with vibhuti and fed him with some candy. Both of these were materialised from the air in Satya Sai Baba's inimitable way.

Assuring the music master that the two Sai Babas are one, the sadhu said, "Don't lose heart under any circumstances. It is because of my love for you that I have come. Now let us go."

As they walked away Chidambaram begged the sadhu, whom he now believed was the Sai Baba he knew and adored, to come with him to the Sarati home. But the holy man would not do so. Chidambaram writes, "I watched him cycle off up the quiet side-road. In two minutes both he and the bicycle had completely vanished." The music master could not himself ride, being too overcome with emotions, and so, he says, "Loading my bicycle onto a tonga [cart] I went home."

Kamala told me: "He was very late, and I was wondering what had happened. Then he arrived in the tonga - and in such a state too! I thought he was ill. When he could speak coherently, he told me all about the experience. Since then he has had no doubts, and is very devoted to Sai Baba."



This story concerns Mr. V. Radhakrishna of Kuppam, whom Baba seems determined to keep on this earth as long as possible. In 1960, seven years after he had been raised from the "dead", Radhakrishna was again sick, and was suffering a good deal of pain.

He told me: "One night the doctor gave me a morphine injection and I went off to sleep. But it seems that I got up later and wandered about in a state of unconsciousness. I don't remember anything about it, but I must have fallen down the well near the house. The well was open, about ten feet in diameter and some fifty feet deep, with about thirty feet of water in it. The sides are of smooth stone, and there are no ledges, or anything whatever to hold onto, or stand on."

His daughter, Vijaya, who was present at Kuppam at the time of the accident, takes up the story from her diary notes.

"My mother awoke at about 3 a.m. and saw that father was missing from his bed, so she went to search for him. Outside she called his name and presently she heard a voice shout, 'I'm in the well.' She ran over and looked down with an electric torch. There he was. He seemed to be standing in the water, about up to his waist in it, but she knew that there was nothing there for him to stand on. She called down to him but he did not reply, just remained there in the water.

"She rushed inside and awoke my two brothers and myself. So we went over, but did not know how to get him out. There was a stone slab across the top of the well with a gap on either side, through one of which he must have fallen. My eldest brother, Krishna Kumar, tried to reach my father from the slab, but father was too far down for this. We must have been making a lot of noise because the Chief of Police suddenly appeared on the scene. He told us later that he just happened to be passing that way from the railway to his office when he heard us. It was not his usual nightly route home, and he does not know why he went that way. Incidentally, he was a friend of our family.

"With ropes and a pulley and a basket they finally fished my father out. I'm not sure exactly how, because I kept back out of the way. But it did seem to me at the time that Krishna Kumar had superhuman strength in pulling my father up. Yet now I believe that he was helped by a force from below. Well, you know what I mean ...

"My father seemed half-conscious when they got him out. He was taken into the house and put on his bed. We sent for the doctor. Then as we waited, we heard father say, 'When will I see you again, Baba?' just as if Sai Baba was standing there in the room. No doubt he was though we could not see him.

"When the doctor came and examined father, he would not believe about his being in the well, but the Chief of Police was still there and confirmed our unlikely story. The doctor said there was no shock and in fact the patient was much better than he had been before his misadventure. There was no need for any treatment or medicine, he said, just a cup of strong coffee was all father needed."

Radhakrishna himself told me: "I knew that it was all Baba's work, keeping me up in the water, so on the same day I hired a car and we drove to Puttaparti. As soon as we arrived, Baba greeted us from the balcony. Then, laughing, he called down, "My shoulders are aching with holding you up so long last night, Radhakrishna!" Earlier that morning Baba had told other devotees that he had been "away" during the night helping Radhakrishna who was in trouble.

What can one say? Was Baba at Kuppam in subtle form, seen only by Radhakrishna in another state of consciousness? And was he employing his tremendous psycho-kinetic power, an attribute of the psyche as yet only glimpsed by parapsychology, to hold Radhakrishna's body above the water-line in the well?

Today in India at many different points some psycho-kinetic force is operating frequently in association with the name of Sai Baba. Its most usual manifestation is in the production of vibhuti on holy pictures, mainly on photographs of Baba but also on pictures of gods and avatars in the same shrine-rooms. The ash may be sticking to the glass on the outside, or it may be under the glass of the pictures. It may come as a small patch that gradually grows until, like a layer of hoarfrost it almost covers the entire picture. Or on the other hand it may appear all at once, practically smothering the picture in a moment.

Dr. D.S. Chander, the dental surgeon of Bangalore, is one of many who have experienced this strange phenomenon. He told me that vibhuti suddenly appeared on all the pictures of his shrine-room; then, after about a month, it completely vanished. He felt uneasy about its disappearance, as if perhaps the divine grace were withdrawn because he had done something wrong or left undone something which he ought to have done.

His wife often assisted him in the surgery, and it was his custom to ring a bell when he needed her for something. One morning when he rang the bell, his wife happened at the moment to be putting flowers in the shrine-room. All the pictures there were clear, she said, with no traces of ash on them. She was sure of this because after the sudden disappearance of the ash, she always looked hopefully for any signs that it might be returning.

Leaving the flowers, she went off quickly to the surgery to see what her husband needed, and when she returned a few minutes later all the Pictures in the shrine-room were again covered with vibhuti. She hurried back to tell her husband, and as she passed through the sitting-room she saw, that there, too, Baba's photos had patches of ash on them.

Most of the vibhuti vanished again after a month or two. But a little remained to keep the doctor happy, and was still there when I paid him a visit.

My wife and I have been taken to see various houses in various cities where this strange phenomenon is taking place. I noted that when the ash is on top of the glass it adheres tightly to the surface, although some falls off and collects on the bottom of the frames.

A woman in one home told us: "At first it came on the outside of the glass, and some people said that we must have put it on ourselves for publicity or something. So then it began forming underneath, between the glass and the picture."

I examined some of the pictures where the ash was under the glass. The backs, in most cases, were securely glued on and certainly looked as if they had been undisturbed for a long time. Apart from that, these people and all the others we met in connection with the ash phenomena were not the types to indulge in imposture. They were devout, religious people - filled, it seemed to me, not with egotism and spiritual pride, but with humility, veneration and awe regarding the benevolent power that had left its mark in their homes.

In some houses various things appear in addition to the ash: other powders used in ritualistic worship, drops of ampita, tiny statues of Hindu gods, flowers, and sometimes garlands placed around the pictures.

The dynamic, psycho-kinetic force associated with the name of Sai Baba is working in other incredible ways. Here is an example. Mr. K.E. Kulkarni of Poona used to visit the local Shirdi Baba temple of that city every Thursday. On one occasion he had taken with him to the temple some pamphlets and photographs of Satya Sai Baba. In the bag he had six pamphlets in Hindi, six in English and about the same number of photographs of Satya Sai.

He started giving these out to worshippers in the temple. This drew a crowd of about a hundred people around him. They all wanted the Hindi pamphlets and the photographs - apparently none could read English. Kulkarni began to distribute the few he had, and was about to say regretfully that he would bring more next week for those people who were disappointed.

Then putting his hand in the bag for the last pamphlet he was completely stunned to find it not empty but half full. Looking in he saw a big bundle of Hindi pamphlets and another bundle of photographs. As it turned out there was exactly the number needed to go round. Every one was satisfied and not a single copy of a Hindi pamphlet or a photograph was left over. Only the six English pamphlets remained in the bag. These had not been in demand, and none had been miraculously added to their number.

Other psychic happenings reported from here and there include automatic writing, and written messages seen by clairvoyants either in rangoli powder or on plain walls and ceilings. These messages purport to be from Sai Baba. The people closely concerned with such phenomena (at least the ones I have personally met) seem sincere and high-minded. They describe enthusiastically how the messages are used to help the sick, to give ethical training in action and habit, to assist people in distress concerning their personal relationships, their jobs, and so on. So the power at work seems to be a good, compassionate one.

But there is, of course, a danger in communication phenomena. For one thing, as occultists know, the lower astral plane contains plenty of impostors, pretenders and worse, ever ready to seize a chance of communicating with this world. Therefore psychic forces not so good, not so benevolent, might easily begin to manifest under the guise of the great spiritual name. Thus people may be fooled and misled. And the eventual result would be to foster man's pride, egotism and lower desires rather than his higher spiritual aspirations.

There were indications that greed and desire for notoriety were already being stirred among followers when a notice appeared in the ashram magazine, under the direction of Baba. The notice said: "Some persons misuse the name of Baba, and announce that Baba is in communication with them, giving them messages, answering questions and granting interviews, their object being to earn money or fame." The notice goes on to say that such phenomena have to be explained either as the manifestation of spirits or as sheer fakes by cranks or crooks: "It is the duty of devotees to stop all such trickery by wise counsel and firm denial."

Baba makes it clear that recipient must judge the genuineness of any psychic happenings for themselves, but they should never use them as a means of drawing a crowd around for publicity, fame or making money.