Features | Experience of the Divinity of Bhagavan by Devotees | Group IV | Mr. Kirti Parekh

Mr. Kirti Parekh
Prasanti, Pachhli Golwad,
Billi Mora - 396321
Nausari District, Gujarat.

Mobile: 39770-39848

Mr. Kirti Parekh (58), who voluntarily retired as Assistant Marketing Supervisor from a leading Industrial House at Atul, relates a few of his experiences of the Divinity of Bhagavan in his own words.

'I am a native of Balsar. I have been interested in visiting saints since my youth. One of our relatives at Balsar was a devotee of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai. Vibhuti began to emanate from the photograph of Bhagavan in their house for a few years from 1964. I was then a student. That made a profound impression on me. We used to wonder how vibhuti and, sometimes, amrit also were emanating from the photograph.

In 1994, I went to Shirdi. It was my first visit to that place. When I went to the mahasamadhi mandir of Shirdi Sai, and had darshan of Baba's murti (idol), I felt an inexplicable attachment to the place as if I had come to my own place. Since then I began to chant in my mind continuously, 'Aum Sri Shirdi Sai Nathaya Namaha'.

Around early eighties, a mandir of Shirdi Sai was constructed in our village. I had the good fortune to be associated with it. An idol for that temple was being sculpted at Mumbai. My son, Neelai Parekh, eight year old at that time, was not well. Local doctors could not diagnose the problem correctly. So we took him to Jaslok Hospital at Mumbai. As we were going to Mumbai, we wanted to contact the sculptor to ascertain how the work was progressing.

But when my wife, son and I arrived in Mumbai, I discovered that I had forgotten to bring the address of the sculptor. I felt much discomfiture. We went to the hospital and got the boy checked up. Doctors prescribed some medicines. It was a Thursday. The time was noon. We were walking along a road when my wife suddenly cried, 'our idol is here'. She is not a devotee in the sense I am. 'My patients are my God', she would say. She has been working as a paramedical person in a hospital in our place. We went into the shop pointed out by her. There was an idol of Shirdi Sai. The shop-keeper, who heard my wife's remark, said 'yes, it is your idol'. I asked him who ordered it. 'It is for Balsar', he told me. I was surprised. Though we forgot the address, Swami brought us to the correct place without any effort on our part. We saw the idol, ascertained the progress of work and returned to Balsar.

The date for installation of the idol was fixed. One day, my senior in the office who was a trustee of the temple said, 'if both of us go to attend the installation ceremony, who will be in the office? I will attend it, and you be in the office'. This was 15 days prior to the installation. Godavarimata of Sakori near Shirdi was to perform the installation. In the end, I was asked to go to Sakori and bring Mataji. I went to Sakori and met a petty official there. 'I am here to invite Mataji for installation of Shirdi Baba's murti', I told him, 'but I don't know the modalities'. He explained and asked, 'what will you tell her if she asks where are you staying? Say, I came here only and I have no plans to go anywhere'. I followed his advice. She was pleased with my observing all modalities correctly, and asked me to stay in the ashram. It was decided that we would start for Balsar at 9 a.m. the next morning. I could go to Shirdi early in the morning, have darshan and attend kakad-arati before I returned to Sakori in time to accompany her.

'When we reach Balsar, all bigwigs will surround you' I told Mataji on the way, 'would you remember this poor fellow?' 'Certainly', she replied, 'I will come to your house also'. True to her promise, Mataji came to my house even though her followers were telling her that she had no time, and spent one hour and a half with us. That was owing to the grace of Baba.

In 1983, we shifted to Billi Mora. I opted for voluntary retirement in 1998. After retirement, I began to get involved in seva activities, bhajans, etc. We could start a hospital also to do service to the poor.

In 1999, I came to Prasanthi Nilayam for seva. It was my first visit to Parthi. To be frank, I did not like the way sevadal members were treated. I felt harassed and said to myself that I would never again come for seva. During the period of seva, we could go for darshan when we were not on duty.

'If you are really Shirdi Sai reincarnated, you will come to me direct', I prayed in my mind, sitting in the darshan lines. Swami came direct to me. This happened not once but many times during the days of seva there. I was happy and realised that there was no difference between Shirdi Sai and Parti Sai. On the last day, I took with me a new handkerchief, five photographs of Bhagavan and a letter. My colleagues said, 'you don't get that much time to get all those things blessed'. Swami came, took the letter, blessed the kerchief and the photographs, and gave me padanamaskar. 'Swami! Give me something as your memory'. Swami kept his hand on my head and blessed. Since that year, I have been coming to Parti for seva every year, forgetting my earlier resolve not to come for seva owing to the harassment meted out to sevadal members by the permanent residents here.

In 2003, the marriage of my son, Neelai was fixed. I went to Shirdi, placed the invitation card at the lotus feet of Baba (idol) and came to Prasanthi Nilayam. I sent one card to Bhagavan by courier. We had darshan and returned. On December 27, I think, we went out to invite a few relatives for the wedding and returned to our house.

As we opened the door, there was fine smell of sweets being prepared. There was no cooking being done at that time in our house. Our surroundings are slum areas. There was no scope of such pure ghee preparation of sweets being done in their hutments. We enquired in the house of our father-in-law who is our neighbour. They, too, were not preparing any sweets. The fine smell enveloped the whole bazaar to the wonder of all. It was lingering around for one hour and a half. We all felt that this was the leela of Bhagavan. We brought cooks from Ahmedabad to prepare sweets for the marriage exclusively. The wedding date was January 27, 2003.

By a strange coincidence, the number of varieties of sweets prepared was 9; the number of curries prepared was 9; and the number of varieties of chat prepared was 9. All those that partook of the food in the marriage feast praised the taste of preparations and said that they never had eaten such tasty preparations earlier. It is, I think, Bhagavan's leela which was indicated to us by means of fine smell of preparing sweets that had occurred earlier in our house.

We constructed a new house in 1996. At the very entrance in the balcony, I put two photographs of Shirdi Sai and Sathya Sai. In the morning of February 27, 2004, we returned home and found vibhuti emanating from those photographs. The vibhuti fell on the floor in heaps. Soon the word spread and people from nearby houses and the vegetable market thronged my house. Before we could do anything, they began taking the vibhuti so that in the end we were left with none. This began to take place daily - may be in the morning or in the evening or whenever Swami felt like giving.

Another notable thing was that while vibhuti was emanating, fine fragrance was also filling the air in the whole house and street. This went on for several days. On July 4, 2004, Friday, kumkum emanated; it was very bright. Vibhuti was coming on the walls and floor, as well as in the garden. It went on for one month and a half. Vibhuti used to appear on chappals left outside by visitors. Sometimes chandan (sandal powder) also used to emanate with fine fragrance spreading in the whole bazaar. Once, OM was found written with vibhuti on a bicycle parked outside our house.

On August 1, 2004, wheat, milk, sugar, salt, amrit and sindho (rocky salt) also emanated. After a few days, OM used to appear in the house written in vibhuti. Once a co-devotee, Mr. Mahesh Sony discovered vibhuti under pooja altar. It was in the form of letters reading 'Om Sri Sai'. The letters were a bit hazy, but the next day the letters were recoated, and became bold. There was also a footprint of left leg. Our devotees deduced that it was of Shirdi Sai. What all came in our house, came in the house of my father-in-law also with some little variation.

On Krishnashtami day, my daughter-in-law who came from a Jain family made rangoli. On Tuesday; the red colour 'OM' written in rangoli by her changed into yellow. She was happy that Bhagavan had given an indication accepting her rangoli. In my house, Vishnu-sahasranama was recited, doing worship with tulasi leaves. I wanted to give half of the tulasi leaves in my father-in-law's house, and made the leaves in the plate into two halves. In between, vibhuti emanated. When they lighted the lamp, they found vibhuti on the lamp (oil-wick) also. My brother-in-law, Mr. Ranjan Parekh and Mrs. Lina Parekh saw vibhuti actually emanating from Bhagavan's photograph.

Vibhuti emanated on a small pair of padukas in the pooja, and even on the velvet-covering of the peetham.

We put two white kerchiefs on the hands of a chair on either side. The chair is kept in the pooja room for Bhagavan. On both kerchiefs, vibhuti emanated. Whenever vibhuti or chandan came, there was fine fragrance. On Krishnashtami day, small footprints in vibhuti appeared on kerchiefs. I thought they were of Balakrishna.

On the Birthday of Bhagavan in 2004, big-size foot prints appeared on Kerchiefs on the chair. Vibhuti appeared on that day at 8 places. When pooja was being done with 108 names with rice, chandan emanated. Once, all lights began to glow even when switches were in off position. Vibhuti also appeared along the path to Bhagavan's chair which was decked with flowers on His Birthday.

On Mahashivarathri day in 2004, shivalinga emanated in our pooja. We kept it in water as we were going out. Next day, that is, amavasya day, another shivalinga emanated in the verandah. I was out of station for two days. When I returned, there was a crystal tortoise in the verandah. It is such as the one found in Dwarakamai in Shirdi. On the back of the tortoise is meru yantra.

Two more days later, Ganapati idol emanated in the verandah at about 9 p.m. Some said that it was made of five metals.

Once, different types of materials like haldi root, nagakesari, etc emanated. I kept them in a bottle. Instead of diffusing their original smell, these items are giving the perfume of kasturi (musk).

In November 2004, we attended community marriages performed by our community. On return we found a rudraksha in our house. It is called three-jati though it has panchamukha. Next, another rudraksha appeared. It is called Gourishankar with two-jati. Then another panchamukha rudraksha appeared. In all we received a Ganesh idol, two shivalingas (one white like the Amarnath linga, and the second crystal) and three rudrakshas, and pooja samagri such as haldi root. In our father-in-law's house, one tortoise, five shivalingas (three crystals and two black) appeared.

Once I did recital of Shirdi Sai Saccharitra and kept the book on the table. Kumkum emanated on it. One of my co-devotees gave me a set of 13 small books on Sri Sathya Sai for sale. She gave me one complimentary copy also. Vibhuti came in between the books for the entire set. On the complimentary copy given to me, vibhuti, kumkum and sugar emanated.

Once there was fine fragrance of scent all over, and we could not locate its source though we searched the whole house. Finally, I located it as coming from the idol of Shirdi Sai. Earlier vibhuti had emanated on it. Now all vibhuti dropped down and oil like liquid was seen on the idol. The fine scent was emanating from it.

Once I took some rose flowers to my father-in-law's house. I gave the flowers to them for pooja. But when they were about to put them on idols, they saw kumkum on all those flowers. 'Swami accepted them even before we offered them at His feet', the family of my father-in-law thought.

We celebrated navarathri once. On that day, we placed a plate with a new cloth, kumkum, prasadam, etc in the pooja given by one of our relatives. I was not at the house. When I returned, there was vibhti on all those offerings.

Once vibhuti emanated on six cucumbers. My wife began to clean them with a view to cooking them. I stopped her, 'let me take a photo', I said. I tried to put vibhuti on the cucumbers to take the photograph. I could not. Then I realised that we can not do even after serious effort what the Lord can accomplish with ease.

Innumerable are the leelas of Sai shown in our house as well as in our father-in-law's house. It is just not possible to describe all Bhagavan's miracles. I have just narrated only a few miracles of what we have experienced, not all.'

-- Mr. Kirti Parekh

(As narrated to Mr. B. Parvatala Rao at Prasanthi Nilayam on 21.06.2005)