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XIII.
Transcorporeal Journeys
The Lord rushes
to the Devotee
How Baba blesses His devotee in
her last moments
Throughout the 1940s, and for much of the
1950s, Baba would frequently go into a trance signifying a
journey out of His body to save a devotee in danger or, in
some rare cases, to bless a fortunate soul with Divine Darshan
during its final moments on the earthly plane. Prof. Kasturi
says, "On such occasions, symbolic of death, destruction
and the end of the temporary and the evanescent, sacred vibhuti
issues from the mouth of the body that Baba leaves behind
in order to proceed to the death-bed." Prof. Kasturi
cites the following example:
At about 5.20 p.m. on November 15th 1958,
Baba was reading a letter aloud to some people around Him,
when suddenly He exclaimed, "Ha!" and fell to the
floor. The body was still for ten minutes, then it appeared
to cough. Puffs of vibhuti were coming from the mouth, shooting
out to a distance of more than a foot and a half. At 5.35
pm., having been unconscious for fifteen minutes, He resumed
the reading where He had left off, quite naturally and showing
no signs of exhaustion.
When requested, He told the devotees where
He had been – the town of Dehra Dun in the state of
Himachal Pradesh in the foothills of the Himalayas. There,
He said, the mother of a doctor, quite well known in the ashram,
had just passed away. Baba had gone to help her through the
time of transition, which was about 5.30 p.m.
He also remarked that the doctor, her son,
was present at the woman's death in Dehra Dun, and that people
were singing bhajans in the room there. He further described
how the old lady had at the end announced to everybody: "This
is my last breath", and then expired.
Two days later, on November 17th, a letter
came to Baba from the doctor whose mother had died. He wrote,
"My mother drew her last breath on Saturday, at 5.30
p.m. We were doing bhajan during her last hours as per her
wish. She was remembering You constantly."
Reference: "Sai Baba:
Man of Miracles” by Mr. Howard Murphet. Page: 139. (paperback
edition, 1972). Published by Macmillan India Ltd.
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