Sri Ghandikota V. Subba Rao with Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
[Mr. Ghandikota V. Subba Rao has been a devotee of Swami for many years.
He served with UNICEF and the United Nations, as head of the Energy
Section, for 34 years and took early retirement in 1985 to return to
India to be with his 92 year old father, Sri Ghandikota Subrahmanya
Sastry, the Rishi of the Sathya Sai Gayathri and a renowned Vedic
scholar. Mr. Subba Rao has been living in Prashanthi Nilayam since 1985,
on occasion translating Swami's speeches, giving lectures to overseas
devotees, and editing publications of the Sri Sathya Sai Books and
Publications Trust.]
A couple of days later I was also fortunate to witness a different type of miracle of Swami. A dozen or so
young boys were sitting for the investiture of the 'sacred thread', called the Upanayana ceremony, and a
prerequisite for this Samskara or 'sacrament' is the piercing of the ears, which normally takes place at a very
young age of the child. Several boys did not have pierced ears. Swami came along, spotted precisely those
boys whose ears were not pierced, touched their ear lobes, and lo and behold, there were holes in the lobes.
Swami then graciously materialized earrings which He himself inserted in the ear lobes. The highlight of this
ceremony was the materialization of the 'sacred threads' by himself. Swami gave them to the parents of the
boys since it is customary for the parents to invest their child with the sacred thread. That Swami is
omniscient has been attested to by a number of great scholars. It would suffice here to give two experiences,
one in the realm of traditional Vedic lore and the other in the field of modern physical sciences.
The postman had just delivered that month's Sanathana Sarathi in Telugu. I immediately opened it and asked
my father to convince me right then and there that whatever Swami spoke is Vedic in origin. He took up the
challenge with a smile, right then and there, and immediately gave me sentence by sentence the exact Vedic
quotes corresponding to Swami's words. I was flabbergasted by this evidence of Swami's encyclopedic
Vedic knowledge.
One day when I was sitting on the verandah of the Prasanthi Nilayam Mandir, a cable from my son in the
United States was delivered to me stating that the doctors twice confirmed the pregnancy of my daughter-in-
law. I immediately showed the cable to Swami and remarked that I believed that the pregnancy was due to
Swami's grace. Swami quickly retorted in the hearing of the people in the verandah: "'It is not at all a
question of your belief. When Sathya Sai guaranteed a few months before, that a grandson would be born, it
would have to...". I then realized that my words to Swami should have been phrased better!
Just a day prior to the birth of our grandson, Swami chided my wife for sitting around when we should be at
New York helping in the delivery of our first grandson! He then materialized crystal sugar candy, instructing
my wife that the candy should be put in the mouth of my daughter-in-law when the first labor pains started.
It was a near miracle that we could leave for Bombay in the evening, arriving the next day at Kennedy
airport in New York, to be received by our son and the pregnant daughter-in-law. That same night the first
labor pain started and the sugar candy was given to my daughter-in-law. A son was born in the night - a
comfortable and a normal delivery. Within 12 hours of the birth, Swami sent a telephonic message to me that
we should name the boy Jayavardhan, our first grandson in the family.
ENCOUNTER WITH DIVINITY
My first encounter with the glorious Sai phenomenon goes back to the early sixties. It was sheerly by
accident that I ended up on a Mahaa Shivaraathri day at Prasanthi Nilayam on a visit to a very close relative
whom I had not met for a long period. The first impact was made by the speech that Swami gave on that
occasion, explaining the profound significance of that night of the emergence of the Shiva Linga. It is an
unforgettable experience to watch at very close quarters the emergence of a couple of transparent Shiva
lingas from the mouth of Swami. It was another mind-boggling experience to witness at very close quarters
a virtual Vibhuthi storm which spread onto the entire stage, covering my clothes too. The unending flow of
sacred ash from an upturned empty vessel, held by Kasturiji over the idol of Shirdi Sai Baba, at the mere turn
of a hand of Swami was an extraordinary event.
VEDIC SCHOLARS HUMBLED
I was once present when some of the most learned Vedic scholars gathered at Prasanthi Nilayam. Two
adepts had differences over the complex procedure of the performance of the Vedic 'Soma Yaga' sacrifice
as to the exact configuration or arrangement of the sanctified bricks in the construction of the main altar.
They confronted Swami with their respective standpoints and doubts backed up by citations of authoritative
Shroutha texts. Apparently even the great ascetic heads of the Math's (monasteries) are themselves not
familiar with purely field practices of the elaborate yagnas. They are more familiar with Vedaantic and
philosophical subjects than with the details of complex ritual sacrifices. Perhaps these pandits came to test
Swami in a remote area of Vedic ritual knowledge. This is an area of Vedic knowledge which has been the
preserve of only a handful of traditionally trained specialized scholars. But to their astonishment Swami
specified and demonstrated the correct configuration of the sanctified and ritual place. Swami's procedure
did not coincide with the expert view of either of the two pandits. They later checked up their palm-leaf
Shroutha texts to confirm that what Swami had elaborated was exactly the same for that particular
sacrifice! The assembled scholars were greatly amazed and some of them returned humbled as well as greatly
impressed by Swami's knowledge in the field of Vedic knowledge
SWAMI'S OMNISCIENCE
The writer can also provide from his own experience Swami's omniscience in respect of a specialized geo-
science matter. Swami once asked me jokingly, I thought, what kind of energy I was dealing with as the
Head of the Energy Department of the United Nations in New York. He wanted me to indicate the various
primary sources of energy. Having headed the Energy Department at the world level for over a decade and a
half I thought I could answer Swami's question easily. I listed practically all the traditional and modern
primary sources of energy. Swami kept repeating there were still other sources. When I came to the end of
the list after His many promptings, Swami took over to tell me that I forgot to mention "Geo-pressured
energy". He explained in clear terms, briefly its character, its nature, occurrence, the fact of its being a vast
hydraulic source of power deep in the bowels of Earth, with a vast amount of gas dissolved in it in a
compressed form as it were. He mentioned that it is a triple source of energy, hydraulic, natural gas and
geothermal. Swami's description recalled to me in a flash this frontier source of energy, which is known to
only a few specialists in the world and which is yet to be exploited.
SWAMI'S ENCYCLOPEDIC VEDIC KNOWLEDGE
Swami's knowledge of Vedic learning on one side and on the other modern sciences is indeed astounding, as
attested to by a number of scholars and scientists. That Swami is a virtual encyclopedia of Vedic learning has
been attested to by my father Sri. Ghandikota Subrahmanya Sastry, a Vedic scholar of repute in Andhra
Pradesh. I remember having once challenged my father, who believed that references to Swami could be
traced to the Vedas and that in fact Swami is the embodiment of Vedic knowledge. My father's
understanding of the Vedas and devotion to Swami were such that he used to tell me that whenever he
listened to Swami's immortal teaching, the corresponding Vedic passage inevitably flashed across his mind. I
recall one such incident.
MIRACLE CURES
The writer has experienced in his family numerous extraordinary miraculous cures performed by Swami,
over a long span of association with the Sai phenomenon. The most astounding medical miracle of Swami
was in respect of my third son, who suffered from intense fever and pains due to the perforation of the ileum
at the end of the small intestine. Over a period of seven months, when he was hospitalized several times as
emergencies, he was attended by eminent specialists in three New York hospitals. He was subsisting only on
semi solids and non-fibrous "baby foods". The specialists in New York could not cure him, recommended
major surgery and said the young man would have to wear a permanent pouch. At this stage we decided to
fly to Swami at Brindavan. We were waiting for a long time under the Sai Ram shed. Swami amazingly came
straight to us and called us inside for an interview. He materialized Vibhuthi which He himself put in the
mouth of my son, and swept his soft divine hand over the abdomen. Then Swami declared that the boy was
cured as of that moment and could eat spicy hot Andhra food to his heart's content. Hail to Swami's glory!
That same evening, which happened to be Christmas eve 1977, Swami gave a dinner to all the foreign
devotees, to which He invited us too. I cautioned my son not to start eating the feast spread before us. We
had brought from New York his special foods including water for his drinking use. But he wisely ignored my
warning, literally took courage in his hand and ate the food to his heart's content, as Swami had said. We
returned to New York and the doctor there was astonished and called it an unbelievable medical miracle.
IMPOSSIBLE MADE POSSIBLE
That Swami can make the impossible possible is illustrated by the miraculous birth of my first grandson. For
seventeen years my eldest son's family continued to be childless. Eminent doctors in United States diagnosed
it to be a near impossible situation for the couple to have children. My son and daughter-in-law came
unannounced to meet me in Brindavan, Swami's ashram in Bangalore. Swami spotted them among the hundreds gathered there for darshan. He came
into Trayee Brindavan (Swami's residence) and surprised me by telling me that my son and daughter-in-law had just arrived. He
asked me to fetch them in for a joint interview. When the couple prostrated at His feet He blessed them,
materialized a special type of finely granular, very fragrant holy Vibhuthi, and declared before me and later with several
other devotees that Sathya Sai was now guaranteeing the birth of a Vamsha Vardhan (upholder of the
lineage) in the Ghandikota family. He instructed my son that he should inform me as soon as the pregnancy
of my daughter-in-law was confirmed after a few months.
DIVINE POWERS
In our country we consider Lord Rama as Maaya Maanusha Murthi - the embodiment of Maaya, concealing
his divine identity. We call Lord Krishna as Leela Maanusha Murthi - the embodiment of divine play and
drama. What should we call the present visible divine incarnation of Sri Sathya Sai, having witnessed nearly
over a quarter century unending, undepleted, astounding miracles of Swami? I have come to the conclusion
that it would be appropriate to call Him as truly a Mahaa Mahima Maanusha Murthi- the embodiment of
limitless plethora of powers and Grace out of His boundless love for His children.