Om Namo Sainathaya
How Lord Sainath Guides us!
Dear Children,
A devotee’s daughter had requested Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji to come and pray with her father. When the Swamiji arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows. An empty chair sat beside his bed. Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit. “I guess you were expecting me,” he said. “No, Swamiji” said the father. Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji then remarked, “I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew I was going to show up.” “Oh yeah, the chair,” said the bedridden man. “I have never told anyone this, not even my daughter,” said the man. “But all of my life I have never known how to pray. At Sai Mandir, I used to listen to Bhajans, but it went right over my head. I abandoned even visit to temple or pray,” the old man continued, “until one day, four years ago, my best friend who is a staunch devotee of Lord Sainath said to me, ‘Bhaskar, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with the Loving God Sai Baba. Here is what I suggest. Sit down in a chair; place an empty chair in front of you, and in faith see Lord Sainath the God in that chair. It’s not spooky because he promised, ‘I will be with you always’. Then just speak to him in the same way you’re doing with me right now.’ So, I tried it and I’ve liked it so much that I do it for a couple of hours every day. I’m careful though, if my daughter were to see me talking to an empty chair, she’d either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to an asylum.” Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old man to continue the journey. Then he chanted Vishnu Sahasranama and prayed with him to Lord Sainath, applied Udi to him, and returned to the Mandir. Two nights later the daughter called to tell Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji that her daddy had died that afternoon. “Did he die in peace?” Swamiji asked. “Yes, when I left the house about at two o’clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me he loved me, and kissed me on the cheek. When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead. But there was something strange about his death. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. What do you make of that?” Sri Radhakrishna Swamiji wiped a tear from his eye and said, “I wish we could all go like that.”
Yours SAI BABAly
THE SAI AURA TEAM