Satsang Efficacy of Sai Grace

Satsang Efficacy of Sai Grace

Efficacy of Sai Grace
Scriptures say that of all the debts the most irredeemable is the debt we
owe to parents. My father, Shri K. Sathyanarayana Murthy, born in 1911 or
so, spent his young days in abject penury without even two square meals a
day. Last of the children, he were the only one to have a pretence to
education. So much were his indigent circumstances that he had to study many
times under street lamps of flickering tapers of those days. His efforts,
though full of enthusiasm, ended with IX Class because of poverty. Later
when he was married, his in-laws helped him to complete his Matriculation
and provide him with a job in the ex-Nizams Railways.

He was a very ordinary man with common weaknesses .in facing the problems of
life. One divine quality he faced was his utter devotion for his children's
welfare- 6 sons and 2 daughters. Before them he was a man of complete
self-denial rarely found in others. The legacy of his defeated efforts at
education in his young days perhaps spurred him to provide his children with
the highest of education despite his ridiculously low salary. In doing so,
he stretched his efforts beyond human limitations to the extreme point of
snapping. He chose to work in leave vacancies of Station Masters, hopping
from station to station, just to earn some money to supplement the growing
family needs. In the process, he literally went hungry everyday for lack of
cooking bane's at way-side stations. His family could not accompany him for
short durations at each place and these small places had no hotels in those
days. His health therefore failed miserably and at the young age of 30 he
acquired diabetes even though he had no such lineage among his forefathers.

I am giving this detailed background with a view to enable the readers to
appreciate how the grace of Shri Sai Baba works differently with different
devotees. My father had no pretence to any regular form of worship nor did
he have any big idea about the spiritual side of life. Nevertheless he had
the normal devotional bent of mind towards all Hindu Gods. Somehow he came
to know about the greatness of Shri Sai Baba in his pearly career and
anchored all his hopes on Him. He started making trips to
Shirdi along, with his family members whenever he could afford it.
Thus a good number of times we all visited Shirdi not knowing the
full impact of Shri Sai Baba's greatness.

However, all his efforts in life came as an anti-climax in a series of
failures. His mild manners were taken advantage and exploited by
many. He had to face crisis after crisis ill running the family
because of long hospital! Sat ion of family members, thefts of
valuables, education of children at distances etc. The
relentless Lord Sai was severe on him giving him no scope
to see any silver lining on the horizon. He faced rebuffs in his
service too. Once, the Pointsman in a drunken state took away keys
without my father's knowledge and gave signals to receive
two opposite goods trail simultaneously one night. My
father noticed it at the last moment and he immediately
lifted back one of the signals and frantically ran and stopped the
train beyond the home signal. Still he was technically held
responsible and had to face punishment and humiliation. The
purple patch of luck was like an elusive pimpernel in his life. Shri
Sai, the beacon light for all others, was a mere spectator before my
father's macabre drama of life. Any other man in his boots would have
cringed back and committed suicide. But not nay father. He
was a man, dedicated for a purpose. He took all calamities in his stride.

(to be contd.....)
K. Navin Chand
Hyderabad

Source Shri Sai Leela Magazine June 1982)