Om Sai Ram

I told readers that I was once a member of the spiritual healing group in my previous post. Well, I went to India in December 2004 with the same group to pay homage to Sathya Sai Baba. We were there for eleven days.

I will relate in this post my experience there. We arrived at Bangalore very early in the morning and the hostel in which we were to put up was still not open yet. So we had to wait for quite some time before checking in there. There were many followers of Sathya from all over the world waiting to be accommodated.

The very purpose of our visit there was to see the living Buddha in person. We missed the morning chanting 'Om' session but we had the chance to view Sathya at around 9.00 a.m. On the first day, I was seated quite far away in the temple and could not see the enlightened one clearly.

The next day I woke up at 4.00 a.m. and lined up to be the first 100 people to enter a special room to chant one word 'Om' in unison. The vibration created will fill the room and this is good for all pilgrims. I was almost there every day 'oming' to my heart's content for my well-being.

Meeting Sathya Sai Baba was a daily routine. He would be at the temple twice - once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Usually, we were with Sathya in the morning and spent the rest of the time doing other activities such as meditating at the place where Sathya had meditated before he attained enlightenment, visiting the science museum and his hospital as well as shopping. The ladies liked to purchase jade from Kashmir. As for me, I went to browse books about Sathya Sai Baba. The books were very cheap and I bought quite a number of them.

There were three occasions when I was able to experience the power of Sathya Sai Baba. The first was being able to see Sathya at close range. When I could not see him closely the first day, I prayed to him to allow me to catch his sight at close range. My prayer was really answered. It happened like this. When I arrived at the temple the following day, there was no place in front and I had to sit far away. On that day he was late to arrive. The people in the few rows in front of kept leaving the scene and we inched forward. By the time Sathya appeared, I was occupying the fourth row and could him clearly. He seemed to be beaming at me when I looked in his direction .

The second occasion concerned miracles performed by him. One day, I missed the morning audience with Sathya and went in the afternoon instead. In full view of everyone, Sathya Sai Baba materialised a gold necklace for a boy who had done some good deed. It had been quite some time he did not perform miracles. As such, we were really lucky and destined to have witnessed it.

I felt Sathya Sai Baba’s power on the third occasion when he was “present” at the Malaysian team’s presentation as part of the Christmas celebration. In the midst of our performance, we felt so warm that we sweated although we were in a air-conditioned room. Later, the lady who was the leader of our group could see him sitting on the seat allocated for him. She told us that Sathya Sai Baba sat right from the beginning till the end of our performance and transmitted light to us making us feel warm as a way of blessing us and curing us of physical illnesses.

You may want to know why I have made “Om Sai Ram” as the title of this post. Well, we said it when we met anybody while staying in the hostel and walking around the temple. It is equivalent to saying “May you be well”. As for the real meaning, you have to consult someone who knows.