The engineers who were to construct the 65 feet high Hanuman Statue in the Hill View Stadium in Prashanti Nilayam for the 65th Birthday were at a loss regarding the design of the huge structure taking into account the huge weight, the load distribution on all sides, stability, etc.

When they approached Bhagavan, Swami told them that a certain pose of Hanuman would give them the required structural stability, and to illustrate what pose He had in mind, He materialized on the spot a golden idol of Hanuman, the way He wanted!

Later, the engineers did a complete structural analysis through computer simulation and discovered that indeed this particular structure was far more stable than anything they had come up with earlier!

Advocate Supreme

Amar Vivek, a former student of Swami’s Institute and a distinguished lawyer serving in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, recently shared over an interview with the Radio Sai team how Swami came to his rescue in a very critical case.

This happened in May 2001. Amar decided to fight the case of a retired school teacher whose house was being illegally grabbed by a police officer by forging the documents. The notorious officer, in retaliation, framed 30 false allegations against Amar but that did not deter Amar in going ahead with the case. On 15th May, 2001, Amar returned home tired, exhausted and nervous after presenting his case in the court. Very apprehensive of the verdict, Amar went to his bedroom and started praying and crying in front of Swami’s photo. Just as he was doing this, he heard Swami’s soothing voice from the photo!

Swami told him that it was actually He who was handling the case for him and even mentioned three specific instances as evidence. The first – a few days ago, a person by name Rishi, a government employee, had dropped by Amar’s house and given him some very crucial documents for the case. Swami told Amar 'Who do you think arranged for that?'

The second and the most important – in the court when Amar was cross examining the police officer, to his utter bewilderment, the police officer answered all the questions against himself! It was a grueling 4 hours session and all the time the police officer said what Amar had never expected! Swami said to Amar 'Who do you think sat on his tongue and changed his words?'

The third – Swami mentioned to Amar the exact date of the verdict, 17th May 2001 and even told him that it is the holy day of Thursday and that Judge Sant Prakash (his name meaning, The Sage's Light) will read out the verdict in his favour.
Needless to say, Amar won the case, thanks to Swami’s grace.

Doctor Divine

Instances where Swami has guided doctors are innumerable. Doctors in Swami’s Hospitals, both in Puttaparthi and Whitefield, know it better than anybody else. Here we give just one incident narrated by Dr. Shantamma of Swami’s General Hospital.

This happened in 1985 concerning the baby of the present principal of the Higher Secondary School, Sri Shivramakrishnaiah. This baby, Sujaya, was actually Swami’s gift to the couple as the couple did not have any child for 14 years and she was conceived after Swami gave prasadam to the principal’s wife. When Sujaya was brought to darshan, Swami blessed the child and told the mother to take the child to the hospital immediately. Dr. Shantamma who was attending on the patient says,

"When the baby was brought to the hospital, she was in a collapsed condition. It was 18th July 1985 . The baby was dehydrated…. we started Oxygen inhalation. We were not able to get the veins as all had collapsed. I wanted to make a small cut on the skin under local anesthesia so that a cannula or a needle can be put into a deeper vein, but the parents cried and refused. I came to Swami, told Him about it, and He said, "Don't do the cut as they are very much scared. Go and see the baby again." The anesthetist and myself went and saw that there was a prominent vein on the hand itself, which was not there earlier! We started I.V (Intra Venous) drip. The baby had severe peritonitis – inflammation of the abdominal membrane. Copious greenish fluid was coming through the naso gastric tube. With all necessary antibiotics and other medicines, the baby's condition did not improve. It was already one week, the I.V (Intra Venous) Line was changed 2-3 times. We were tired of pricking the baby repeatedly. I went and told Swami. Swami said, "Don't worry, the baby will become all right". He materialised vibhuti and told me to apply it all over baby's body. It was done.Distension of abdomen-lessoned, bowel sounds appeared, and the baby passed motion, the naso gastric tube aspiration became lessened. We were a bit relieved of our tension.
After 2 days, the baby developed high fever, and the temperature went up lo 104-106* F. In spite of all medicines, and good nursing care, the baby became delirious, and restless. Once again I went and told Swami, "Swami please take over the management of the baby, I cannot handle the case any more in this condition of the baby. The parents are very anxious and worried. They have given up all hope". Swami looked at me deeply and said, "Yes, it is my responsibility, you do as I say" I agreed, Swami materialized vibhuti, and told me to apply it all over the body. When I came back to the hospital, we applied vibhuti, removed all the tubes and stopped all medicines as the baby was in this condition for nearly two weeks. We allowed her to sleep peacefully. We told the parents that was all we could do and started praying to Bhagavan. The baby slept through the night and her heart beat, pulse, respiratory rate, and motion became normal! The next morning, Swami asked me, “How is the baby?” I said, “It is a miracle. The baby has improved.” Then Swami said, “You say improved? It is all right now, fully normal.” Swami made her well without physically visiting the baby patient."

Question the Dean of the MBA programme, Prof. U S Rao, about Swami’s inputs on Management and he will tell you, “Bhagavan explained the concepts of 'Reengineering' and TQM (Total Quality Management) to the management students and asked us to incorporate them into the core courses of the MBA programme more than ten years back when no other management Institute had thought of introducing these into their core syllabus.”

Ask a few management students and they will tell you how Swami chose the project and research topics for them and how He actually guided them in their work.

Shirish Patil, a management student of Swami’s Institute belonging to the 1996-98 batch, recollects a revealing incident -

During my second year of MBA), all my classmates had decided to offer our project work at the Lotus Feet of Bhagavan Baba. During the evening darshan, we kept all the projects piled up for Bhagavan Baba’s blessings. My project work (Analysis of the Indian Petrochemicals Industry) happened to be the bulkiest and when Bhagavan Baba asked, “Whose work is this?” I raised my hand; Bhagavan Baba asked me to hand over the project work to Him. As Bhagavan Baba went through the project, I knelt by His side. He then said, “You have made a mention of Rakesh Mohan Committee in your analysis,” and before I could react, He turned the pages (about 150 pages) and straight went to that particular page and said, “See I told you”. Then He asked, “Why should I have interest in what is written in your project work? I wanted to show you that I know everything!” I took Bhagavan Baba’s Padanamaskar (salutations at His Feet) and He then created Vibhuti for me.

Thus, Bhagawan is the invisible guide for their project work for every student in the Institute.

Sai Is At The Heart of Science

The students of the Physics department of the Institute will gladly recollect how on so many occasions Swami had elaborated on Energy, Laser, Optics, etc. And the faculty of Chemistry Department will tell you how Swami once explained in detail the composition of petroleum and all its products and by-products, their uses, their composition and their demerits.

And what to say of biology, zoology or the environment! Swami has dealt in so much detail about all these topics on so many occasions. Of course, Swami’s favorite is Spirituality and like a great master He beautifully provides a spiritual dimension to all disciplines of human knowledge. Yes, He has talked about the mysteries of the Universe, creation, the distance between galaxies, the planets and the constellations….everything on the earth and in the sky!

“Mine are not Lectures, they are Mixtures” - Baba Swami often says His discourses are not lectures but ‘mixtures’. A wholesome mix of the spiritual and the standard, which makes it practical, interesting and illumining. He is the greatest of teachers and a Teacher by example and advice. A philosopher can learn from Baba the art of laying bare enigmatic thought processes in a simple and straightforward manner. A painter of genius meets his challenge in the ever-varying expressiveness of His face and eyes. An actor learns from Him those subtle inflections and intonations of the voice that best express the soul. A trained teacher finds a master of profoundly new methods in Baba. As the Geeta says, "The Divine is the best, the mightiest, the most charming, the wisest, the highest and the most intricate Being; an incarnation of the Divine bears this stamp on its personality." Not only is He Himself an inspiring theme; His charm and every conversation releases springs of inspiration hidden away for a long time in the minds and hearts of people. And how they are transformed for good! Prof. Kasturi beautifully narrates this process in Sathyam Shivam Sundaram saying, “…His speech with even casual visitors becomes a pat on the back, often a prick to the bubble, a stab to the ego, a candle in the darkness, a stick to the lame, a path in the wilderness, a rose amidst the thorns, a beacon that beckons to nobility and divinity.”

- Heart2Heart Team Go to the links below to read the other parts of this cover story