sai_pranam

Ruby Lingam, from the Amarnath Cave

He repeats what Shirdi Sai Baba said so often: “I give them what they want, so they will want what I have to give!” ...

A couple of years ago Baba gave me a special gift, in a highly unusual way; I think you’ll agree the story lends weight to my assertion of Baba’s divinity. A man named Rouf (pronounced “Roof”), who owns one of the shops near Baba's ashram, saw me on the street one day and told me he'd had a “Baba dream” about me, and that he had something to give me. I was a bit put off, but several weeks later finally paid him a visit, and as we sipped sweet tea in his shop, he told me his story:

"Last summer I went on a pilgrimage to some holy places up North. Hardwar, Rishikesh, Kashmir, and then the Amarnath Cave, in Himalayas. It's closed eight months a year from snow, no way to get in. And in this cave, you've heard of it? There's this naturally formed Lingam, a huge one, made of ice. [A Lingam is an elliptical symbol of the Supreme Being, used in the worship of Lord Shiva.] Shiva and Parvati actually lived in this cave - it's one of the holiest shrines in India. So I'm sitting outside this cave - and suddenly these two white birds... What are they called? Doves. Two doves flew out of the cave. And as they flew over my head, one of them dropped something in my lap. And in that moment, I heard, 'This is for Ram Das.'"

"Wait,” I said incredulously. “You heard that inside, from God? Or from the bird?"

"Yes, yes," he replied, with the affirmative Indian head wobble. "The bird."

Rouf reached down and unwrapped a small package, and then held up the precious object: a radiant red Lingam. "Ruby!" he said. "A ruby Lingam."

"A Prema Lingam!” I replied, awed at the beautiful cosmic egg God had given. (Prema means ‘Divine Love’.)

"Yes." Rouf held it up to the light and smiled. "But the problem was," he continued, "I didn't know who is this Ram Das. I had forgot your name. So I prayed for two weeks, every day, "Baba, who is this Lingam for? Who is this Ram Das?" Finally, one night Baba came in my dream. He showed me you, and said, 'This is Ram Das. Give it to him.'"

Rouf handed me the Lingam, which fit beautifully in the palm of my hand. I was speechless - what a bizarre story! Like something out of Tolkein, except the "Lord of the Rings" who had sent this was the supreme Lord of Love, incarnate in human form! What an amazing leela - what a gift!

I held the sacred object to my chest for a while, drawing in its energy, and then said, "You know, Rouf, there's another interesting aspect to this. In the book I'm working on, there's a ladder of concepts you can climb to reach the Truth. Once you climb it, you then step off the ladder onto the Roof - the Supreme Reality, where no mind exists, where no concepts can ever reach. So in my book, the word 'Roof' is equated with the Supreme Being. And this gift has come to me from the 'Rouf'!”

God bless Rouf for passing the Lingam on to me, without the slightest hint of request for payment of any kind. May he ever live up to his high name!

Clearly, Sai Baba stops at nothing to express His love for His devotees... Is it not obvious, He is an incarnation of God?

His True Mission

In understanding Baba's miracles, it's important to remember His own words on the subject: He says that in comparison with His true mission, His miracles are “like a mosquito on an elephant’s back.” He repeats what Shirdi Sai Baba said so often: “I give them what they want, so they will want what I have to give!” He says He has come not to manifest rings or bless us with promotions and healings - the purpose for His incarnation is to usher in a new age of Divine Peace on Earth, and establish divine qualities in our hearts:

“This Sai has come in order to achieve the supreme task of uniting the entire mankind as one family through the bond of brotherhood, of affirming and illumining the Atmic Reality of each being in order to reveal the Divine, which is the basis on which the entire Cosmos rests. This Sai has come to instruct all to recognize the common Divine Heritage that binds man to man, so that man can rid himself of the animal and rise into the Divine, which is his goal. This Sai has come to show that Love - Prema - is the easiest way to reach the Divine.”

Baba’s Own Words

And what does Baba Himself say?

“The totality of Divine Energy has come unto humanity as Sathya Sai. This is a human form in which every Divine Entity, every Divine Principle, that is to say all the names and forms ascribed by man to God are manifest.” He says He is the Father who sent Jesus - but then adds that we are also God, but have forgotten.