TAK... TAK... TAK

“Aaspathrulu, doctorlu, mandulu… emi akkara ledu”. Hospitals, doctors medicines… no need for any of them. “Oka naadu, nenu, tak tak tak! Anni sari chesthanu.” One day, tak, tak, tak. Like that, I shall set right everthing !

Baba told me thus, snapping his fingers to produce the soung, tak… tak… tak, when He spoke. I was overwhelmed with joy and thankfulness; for, just imagine what He was promising to set right: My wife was suffering since three years from acute osteomalacia, with pathological fractures of the pelvic bones. The doctors were sure about that; many experts had examined the patient with great care. They had told me that prolonged stay in bed and persistent treatment might be able to give some relief. They told me it was due to the absorption of the osseous substance of the bones, which causes, as in my wife’s case, softening and rarefaction, followed by spontaneous fracture. She was emaciated and exhausted, the pelvic bones were affected much, becoming weak. The spine was paining badly and the doctors said, she will be bed-ridden for years and her limbs will become shortened and useless. Opiates and drugs to dull the pain were the only medicine that could be given, besides various costly experimental palliatives.

What a terrible life for a poor middle class family with five children and the breadwinner holding a Government job, requiring long journeys frequently! I was hit very hard by the calamity. No one held out the slightest hope. Baba was my refuge, some good friend said. I came to Puttaparthi. I was called by Baba and this was what He said! Now, you know why I was so full of joy and thankfulness.

Well, I returned home to Besagarahalli, in Mandya District. Three months passed and there was no improvement in her physical condition. In fact, she became worse; my faith in Baba began wavering. My home was a cell of pain and grief. Without regular food and sleep, racked by pain and worry, my wife became a shadow of her former self. Baba’s words were her only solace. She and I held on to them, in spite of the despair.

I awoke one morning rather early, because I had to leave for a distant village on Government work. I was surprised to find a lamp burning in the kitchen. When I asked, “Who is there?” it was my wife who replied. Yes ! she had lit the fire and… would you believe it? She was preparing coffee for me!!

She said, she had a dream; or, was it a dream? Baba had come to her bedside and ordered her to get up, come down from the cot and do Namaskaram to Him! And, she had obeyed! While she was at His Feet, Baba with many a consoling word, patted gently on the diseased joints… she could hear the sound the bones made inside her… Tak,Tak,Tak! She had become quite right. “Anni sari Chesthanu. I will make everything alright”, He had said. He had kept His Word! When she looked up, after a while, with tears of gratitude in her eyes, the Lord had disappeared. To the great amazement of all of us, and the doctors who had shaken their heads whenever her recovery was mentioned, she has started from that very day her daily routine of work, as if nothing at all had happened to her.

The bone specialist who had studied the X-ray photographs of my wife was informed of this miraculous overnight cure. He declared, “During my five years stay abroad, I could not see a single case of osteomalacia cured, among the several which I treated. It is beyond the ken of a human physician. God has blessed you”! Nothing is impossible for Baba. What He says, happens.

N.S. Raghavan.
(from the Sanathana Sarathi)