Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
pravesh
or entry into the innermost hearts of others, the power to
open up new channels of thinking, the power to exercise the
will for the benefaction of individuals or the race, and the power
to restore life to the dead. An Avatar is an integral manifestation
of the Divine.
Without Dr. Gokak's patient encouragement and example, I doubt
I would have had the fortitude to persevere with the enigma of
Sathya Sai Baba. To see this venerable grey-haired figure, this man
of immense erudition, author of some sixteen books, chancellor of
a university, sit like a child at Baba's feet or openly weep with emotion
when talking about him - this gave me pause whenever I was
irritably about to write the whole thing off to experience. Gokak's
encyclopaedic knowledge of Indian philosophy also helped me free
myself of the narrow Christian dogma that prevented my acceptance
even of things I'd actually experienced myself.
The Sivarathri Festival, the Night of Siva, is held on a full moon
sometime in late February or March. This had always been the
most important holy day of the year for Baba's devotees, one
connected exclusively to the Siva avatar, and one where what most
considered Baba's most significant miracle was regularly performed
before hundreds of people. As it turned out, I was among those who
saw this public miracle for the last time. Baba had often said that the
phase of miracles would pass. He also told the early devotees that
Puttaparthi would one day be a great city. That seemed absurd for a
place barely a village, not even on any map. He also said that there
would come a time when the crowds around him would be so large
that people would be happy to see a glimpse of him from miles
away. On days when there were often no more than thirty or forty
people in the ashram and he regularly talked and even sang to us
like a friend, this too seemed far-fetched.
A huge crowd gathered in the Poornachandra (literally Full
Moon) Hall as darkness fell. People had been arriving from all over
India and beyond during the previous days. The atmosphere
crackled with expectation. Brahmin pundits chanted the Vedas as
drums thudded and discordant reed horns wailed. The drums and
