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XIII.
Transcorporeal Journeys
“My Shoulders
Are Aching”
How Baba saved Mr. Radhakrishna
from a watery grave
This incident concerns Sri. V. Radhakrishna
of Kuppam, whom Bhagawan had seven years earlier ‘raised
from the dead’ (See Mr. Radhakrishna
– the ‘Lazarus’ of our times). This
time, he was again sick and suffering a good deal of pain.
The morphine injections administered by the doctors to subdue
the pain had left him in a state of drowsiness. In that state,
he happened to wander near a well near his house and fell
into it. The well was about ten feet in diameter, and had
thirty feet of water. It had smooth edges and no holds to
raise oneself on. His daughter, Vijaya who was present in
Kuppam at the time of the accident takes over the narration
from here:
My mother awoke at about 3 a.m. and saw that
father was missing from his bed, so she went to search for
him. Outside she called his name and presently she heard a
voice shout, 'I'm in the well.'
She ran over and looked down with an electric
torch. There he was. He seemed to be standing in the water,
about up to his waist in it, but she knew that there was nothing
there for him to stand on. She called down to him but he did
not reply, just remained there in the water.
She rushed inside and awoke my two brothers
and me. So we went over, but we did not know how to get him
out. There was a stone slab across the top of the well with
a gap on either side, through one of which he must have fallen.
My eldest brother, Krishna Kumar, tried to reach my father
from the slab, but father was too far below for this.
We must have been making a lot of noise because
the Chief of Police suddenly appeared on the scene. He told
us later that he just happened to be passing that way from
the railway to his office when he heard us. It was not his
usual nightly route home, and he does not know why he went
that way. Incidentally, he was a friend of our family.
With ropes and a pulley and a basket they
finally fished my father out. I'm not sure exactly how, because
I kept out of the way. But it did seem to me at the time that
Krishna Kumar had superhuman strength in pulling my father
up. Yet now I believe that he was helped by a force from below.
My father seemed half-conscious when they got him out. He
was taken into the house and put on his bed. We sent for the
doctor. Then as we waited, we heard father say, 'When will
I see you again, Baba?' just as if Sai Baba was standing there
in the room. No doubt He was, though we could not see Him.
When the doctor came and examined father,
he would not believe the part about his being in the well,
but the Chief of Police was still there and confirmed our
unlikely story. The doctor said there was no shock and in
fact the patient was much better than he had been before his
misadventure. There was no need for any treatment or medicine,
he said, just a cup of strong coffee was all father needed.
Radhakrishna himself narrated to Mr. Howard
Murphet, his version of the events:
"I knew that it was all Baba's work,
keeping me up in the water. So, on the same day I hired a
car and we drove to Puttaparthi. As soon as we arrived, Baba
greeted us from the balcony. Then, laughing, He called down,
"My shoulders are aching with holding you up
for so long last night, Radhakrishna!" Indeed,
earlier that morning Baba had told other devotees that He
had been "away" during the night helping Radhakrishna
who was in trouble!
Reference: "Sai Baba:
Man of Miracles” by Mr. Howard Murphet. Page: 144-145
(paperback edition, 1972). Published by Macmillan India Ltd.
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