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III.
Divine Manifestations
The Miraculous
Flow of Vibhuti
How Bhagawan would cause Vibhuti
to flow from an empty vessel
‘Vibhuti Abhishekam’, the worship
of the silver idol of Shirdi Sai Baba with Vibhuti was one
of the events associated with the Shivaratri festival. This
abhishekam used to be performed by Bhagawan Himself. Howard
Murphet, who witnessed this astounding spectacle during the
Shivaratri celebrations in February 1966 describes it in his
book, “Sai Baba – The Man of Miracles :
On the stage is a large silver statue of Sai Baba of Shirdi
in His characteristic sitting posture. Mr. Kasturi takes up
a small wooden urn, about a foot in height, and filled with
Vibhuti. This he holds above the head of the silver statue,
and lets the ash pour over the figure until the urn is empty.
He shakes it well to make sure that the last grains have fallen
out, then continues to hold it above the statue with its open
top downwards.
Now Sai Baba thrusts His arm as far as the
elbow into the vessel and makes a churning motion with His
arm, as women did when making butter in the old days. Immediately
the ash begins to flow again from the vessel and continues
to do so in a copious stream until He takes His arm out. Then,
the flow of ash stops.
Next He puts His other arm in and twirls
that around. The ash streams out over the statue again. This
process goes on, Baba using alternate arms, ash pouring from
the empty vessel while His hand is in it, and stopping as
soon as He takes it out. Finally Shirdi Sai is buried in a
great mound of ash - much more than the vessel could possibly
have held.
Now the urn is placed on the floor: the miraculous,
ceremonial ash bath is over. There is a joyous, elevated atmosphere
all around; Mr. Kasturi's face is more radiant than ever,
Baba's movements and manner are the acme of unselfconscious
grace. It's all wonderful, yet having watched Him pull handfuls
of ash out of the empty air I am not so greatly surprised
to see Him stir it in large quantities from an empty pot.”
Reference: “Sai Baba:
Man of Miracles” by Mr. Howard
Murphet. Page: 42-43 (Paperback Edition). Published
by Macmillan India Ltd, 1972.
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