Features | Experience of the Divinity of Bhagavan by Devotees | Group III | Mr.Roberto Jagdish Jerrybandan

Mr.Roberto Jagdish Jerrybandan
Venezuela.

Roberto Jagdish Jerrybandan from Venezuela is an ardent devotee of Bhagavan. He narrates his experiences of the Divinity of Bhagavan in his own wards.

‘How fortunate are we, I can affirm – all the western devotees of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. There are no frontiers for the power, mercy and love of our Avatar, the one that sits on his divine throne, and walks gracefully among his children.

By Babaji’s grace, I was able to accomplish a trip to Prasanthi Nilayam in August 1990, in a group of Venezuelan devotees, 12 in all, of whom I was the only English speaking person. We left Caracas with our hearts full of expectancy to meet the Avatar.

Maria was the name of a 22-year old girl of our group, married, with 3 children, from a middle class family. She was from the suburbs of our city. She was a nice girl, but she had a problem. She suffered from Lupus. I got to know this at the Airport, when we were about to leave. The man who organized the group was a Sai devotee, had decided to take her to Swami’s feet, just a few days before our departure.

Swami’s leelas are undoubtedly great and so full of love. When Maria’s illness was detected, and she was in the hospital, waiting for death to come, she began praying to Baba for her health. She told the doctors that this master from the Far East could cure her. They thought it was all part of her agony and they paid no heed to her.

Maria looked for a way to travel to India. She had not a cent, she lived with her in-laws and other family members in a very small apartment and the economical situation was all the same for and against her trip. Her husband, who worked as traffic officer of an Airline, could have never bought her an air ticket to India, not even after two years of savings. He tried getting a discount ticket with a major Airline in Venezuela, but fate did not smile at him. However the Lord willed it and through the generosity of one of the group members, the ticket and expenses were taken care of. So Babaji had begun showering grace on her, even before the trip had begun.

I can only recall Maria as a silent girl who had never before traveled farther than to a town near by, or in the country itself, sitting in the plane with a deep insight as if searching for the infinite; her request was to exist for a few more years to see her children grow up safely.

At our arrival at Prasanthi Nilayam, a few days after, we had an interview with our Swamiji. He came in, switched on the fan for us, sat on His throne, and pointing at her face said: ‘her blood is poisoned’. Immediately after these words, he began waving His divine hand and there it was! A beautiful silver coloured medal, with Swami’s face imprinted on the front side and ‘OM’ on its reverse. He told the girl to ‘put it on in a chain’. He also materialized vibhuti, which she ate after a few minutes with the same stillness in her eyes, that I saw before.

Days passed by and Maria’s situation wasn’t getting any better. I really thought that our Swami had blessed her for her departure from his beautiful world! But one small detail called for our attention. The medal was turning black, her limbs were swollen, the coetaneous expression of her disease was even worse than when we left Caracas. One evening she got very high fever. At the Sai hospital a medical prescription was given to her. We were informed that if the symptoms continued, we would have to transport her to a clinic in Bangalore. That night we all went to bed just waiting for Sai’s verdict. She had no more fever and however after the consecutive 3 days, her condition improved and we knew that our Sai was taking care of her.

We departed to Whitefield, where Baba had gone without our even knowing that he had left Puttaparthi. We arranged everything to follow our Lord, to beautiful Brindavan. ‘What would happen there? Will He see us again? Will Maria get completely cured? Or on the contrary will she depart from this world soon?’

We had, according to our schedule, just one more week in India. Most of us had work, back waiting for us. Brindavan was a unique experience. Swami called us in again, and among other things he pointed at her face declaring ‘her face is better, no?’ At our amazement, Swami’s face became very, very dark for an instant and then returned to its original expression. Back in Venezuela, her medical doctors could not believe it. Her clinical status was that of a normal sane human being with not a trace of Lupus, in Maria’s system.

-- Mr.Roberto Jagdish Jerrybandan,

(Source: The article is extracted from the book ‘Baba is God in Human Form’ by Mr. Prem Luthra – Serial No. 15)