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VI.
Power over Nature
The Celestial
Vision
The Sun, the Moon – It’s
all Him!
This amazing episode is narrated in the book
“Anyatha Sharanam Nasthi – Other Than You Refuge
there is None” by Smt. Vijayakumari.
The author recounts the golden days devotees
spent with Baba. Those times there were only a handful of
devotees in Puttaparthi and the Chitravathi sands were His
playground.
One day, when we were all walking towards
the Chitravati, Swami suddenly disappeared. While we were
searching for Him, we heard a clapping sound and, looking
up, we found Swami alerting us, "I am on top
of the hill." It was six in the evening. The
sun had softened the streams of its rays and was sinking towards
the west. The sky was filled with black clouds, as if it were
wrapping itself in a thick blanket. Swami said, "You
all look at me. I shall show you the sun."
Even as we were thinking, "how can the
sun come back after it has already set?" we saw newly
rising rays behind Swami's head. The whole sky was filled
with blue clouds. The rays began to turn red till they looked
fiery and exuded so much heat as to make us all sweat profusely.
The rays were intensely hot as if coming from the scorching
midday sun.
Unable to bear the heat we all made loud
appeals, "Swami! It is too hot". The heat subsided.
We were just settling down, when Swami's
voice came down to us from the top of the hill, "I
shall show you the Moon".
We saw behind Swami's head, the half-unfolded
honey-coloured rays of the moon. They soon turned white -
whiter and whiter still. That was that. We began shivering
in the cold. Our bodies became stiff. Our teeth began to chatter.
"Swami! Cold! It's very cold, Swami!" As we were
imploring Him thus, the cold slowly subsided.
While we were wondering what other miracle
He would perform, He announced, "I shall show you the
Third Eye. Watch it very carefully and attentively".
"Third eye! How does it look?"
we wondered. Swami's body was not visible. But His head appeared
gigantic, as if it were stretched across the entire sky".
Stupefied, great bewilderment filling our minds, we stared
at the sky.
On Swami's forehead, between His two eyebrows,
an orifice appeared. Fiery, fuming sparks began to come out
of the opening. Our eyes were dazzled by the brilliance of
those sparks. We were scared. More than fear for ourselves,
we were worried about what might be happening to Swami.
The sparks continued to gush out. When we
looked back, we found that many had fallen down, unconscious.
We did not know what made them faint. That scared us further.
We looked up, but could not find Swami anywhere. Feeling lost
and not knowing what to do, we began weeping. Suddenly, we
found Swami standing in our midst.
"What happened?"
He asked us, patting us on our shoulders. "Why
are you weeping? Why have these kids fainted?" Not
knowing what answer to give to these questions, we just hugged
Him and continued weeping.
As one or two of those who had fainted recovered
and got up, we mustered a little strength and, in one voice,
we all asked Him, "Swami! Are you alright? How come we
did not see You there?" While asking these questions,
we patted His face and body to reassure ourselves that He
was really with us. Swami laughed heartily and, reassuring
us that He was all right, He created Vibhuti with a wave of
His hand, and He Himself put it on our foreheads.
One by one, those who had fallen unconscious
persons began to stir. It was a strange experience. We felt
as if our bodies were moving unsteadily hither and thither.
We felt as if we were floating on air. Some inexpressible
joy seemed to pervade our entire being. It was some sweet
surge of affection. We did not understand its nature. Though
we were keeping pace with Swami, it seemed to us that our
feet were not touching the ground. Some were walking unsteadily,
as if drunk. We all felt we were in some other strange world.
It was a peculiar state of mind. We all reached the Mandir
and sat down for bhajans.
We could not sing properly. We felt dizzy.
That whole evening was spent in that state. When we found
ourselves in a similar state the next day also, we asked Swami
about it.
He said with a smile, "You have
been praying to have a glimpse of this Third Eye for many
past lives. In answer to your prayers, today, I gave you darshan
of it. But I did not show you even a thousandth part of its
brilliance. You could not withstand even that. Your present
state is the result of that spectacle."
Overwhelmed by this revelation, we all broke
down and wept. We washed His lotus feet with our tears and
told Him, "Swami, if only we had known this before, maybe
we would have enjoyed the Darshan more. We could not fully
utilize the divine boon You so kindly granted us. Really,
we could not endure its profound impact. We got scared when
we could not see Your physical form. We felt very anxious
about You when we saw the orifice on Your forehead".
He just continued to look at us with great
compassion and love and, feeling overwhelmed by the shower
of His affection soothing us like moonlight, and with tear-filled
eyes, we offered our lives at His feet.
He again created Vibhuti and placed it on
each of our foreheads. We gained a semblance of normalcy thereafter.
We felt ecstatic inwardly, dwelling on this rare golden opportunity,
this reward for some devotion in past lives, for some prayer
we must have said with golden flowers, or some luck we got
because of the good deeds done by our elders.
Beneath the golden temples of our hearts
we etched, in golden letters, what we saw was a unique vision
granted to us by our good fortune, to give us liberation.
More than anything else, just to be near
this Loving Father, and to get a golden opportunity like this,
is a significant event, a culmination of the merit of many
previous lives.
Reference: "Anyatha
Sharanam Nasthi – Other Than you Refuge There Is None”
by Smt. Vijayakumari. Page: 58-61.
Published by the Author, 1999.
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