When He Was Challenged…

What happens when you challenge The One Who Is beyond all reckonings, most mysterious… call Him ‘All-Mighty’??? When humans cannot reckon with such ‘Almighty’ deals, he get pushed to the receiving end, leaving profound lessons to the world, of the ever incomprehensible mystery of That Supreme Divinity. An incident from the life of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, as chronicled by His biographer-cum-translator Prof N Kasturi.

Bringing an interlude to a story-telling, Prof Kasturi writes…
One person challenged Swami like that. Swami was touring in Kerala, South of India. The language there is Malayalam. I know that language, therefore, I went with Him to translate His Telugu speeches into Malayalam. He went from place to place. Along with us came the director of a radio station, so that he could record Swami’s speeches and play them through radio. The last speech of Swami was in a place, where He said, “I am not satisfied with this short tour of this area. I shall come after Shivarathri and visit  every place where you have a samithi, and be there for as long as you want, giving you joy, happiness and peace.” The director of the radio station has taped this speech and he came back to Calicut where he was the director of the radio station. Swami had not visited that place and the people there were anxious to know what Swami has said about His next visit. The director of the radio station said, “Ah! Swami has said, ‘After Shivarathri I will come and stay here as long as you want.’ I have taped it, and it is here with me. You know what I will do after Shivarathri? I will wait for a week and if He does not come, I will take this tape to Puttaparthi and if He calls me for interview, I will play it before Him, and challenge Him!” He used to the word “Challenge.” Those people said, “We will hear it then.” He asked his assistant to bring that tape and play it. When it was played, that statement of Swami, and my translation of it, were not there at all! Also, there was no gap anywhere in the tape! That is what happens when you challenge Swami.

II Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavnatu II