Features | Experience of the Divinity of Bhagavan by Devotees | Group IV | Mr. Pall Erlendsson

Mr. Pall Erlendsson,
Flat No. 408, Sai Kailash Apartments,
Chitravathi Road,
Puttaparthi - 515134.

Mr.Pall Erlendsson, an Ayurvedic Physician and Massage Expert from Ice Land, presently settled at Puttaparthi relates a few of his experiences of the Divinity of Bhagavan in his own words.

'I belong to Kapavogur in Ice Land. In 1996, I was going to a center in our place to learn and practice Chikong - the Chinese counterpart to the Indian Yoga. There I saw the photograph of Bhagavan Sri Satya Sai Baba among the photographs of a few other great men.

'Who is He?' I asked out of curiosity.

'He is Bhagavan Sri Satya Sai Baba', they told me. That is the first time I heard of Him. One of those that attended the Chikong sessions was also a devotee of Baba. He told me more about Him and the miracles He was doing and the diseases He was healing. He also gave me a photograph of Baba. From the Beginning I had a belief in such extraordinary things and considered that such miracles are possible though I had not seen any. Therefore I began to get interested. Later one of my friends gave me a book on Sri Sathya Sai in English, which gave me more information about His life, miracles and message. I used to keep His photograph in my room and to look at Him in wonder and amazement.

After a few weeks, I began to feel His presence in the room and even began to talk to Him in heart to heart language. Miraculously, I used to experience His Divine Love and even get responses from Him for my enquiries.

One day, in 1997, I felt that Baba was asking me, 'what do you want?'

I could not readily think of any thing for it was the most unexpected thing that happened. I had a pet cat, which was unwell at that time. 'Heal my cat,' I said.

It is certainly a funny thing to ask when God asked you, 'what do you want?' But that is all that occurred to me at that time.

'No problem', Baba told me. After a few minutes, I saw the cat moving around. It became completely healthy. That is the first miracle I witnessed and felt amazed. It further strengthened my faith in Him.

I was continuing my dialogues with Baba. After a few months, I asked Him to show me a miracle. A day later when I was walking in our place, I noticed a butterfly going in front of me. Such large butterflies are not found in Ice Land. As I was wondering about its appearance, it disappeared after a few minutes. I deduced that its appearance was in answer to my prayer to show me a miracle.

I had a chain with a pendant. The pendant was a star. It was fixed in the chain in such a way that one could not remove the pendant unless one unlocked the chain. One day as I was walking along, I suddenly felt the Divine presence of Bhagavan. Was I imagining? The moment that thought crossed my mind, the pendant fell down at my feet. I went to the jeweller and asked him, 'is there a way to remove the pendant without opening the chain?'

'None', he replied after examining the chain and the pendant.

One day I returned to my room very tired. As I was going to bed, I lit three candles that were on the candle stand. All candles were full, as they were not lit earlier. After that I slept well for about 20 minutes enjoying the peace and tranquility of some divine origin that relaxed me completely. I woke up afresh, and was stunned to see one of the three candles still glowing, as full as it was, when I had lit it. The second was glowing with only half of it left. And the third one had such wonderful decorative designs made by the melted wax on it that I was amazed at the delicate intricacy and beauty of its design.

As the Divine-presence had been taking me thus step by step on the ladder of spirituality, I developed an intense desire to visit Prasanthi Nilayam and have darshan of the Lord in person. I booked an air ticket to fly to Prasanthi Nilayam via Bombay. I also booked my return ticket after one month. This was in July 1999

After spending two weeks at Prasanthi Nilayam, I felt like staying further, but I was undecided about the cancellation of my return ticket. I saw many people giving letters to Swami during darshan. Therefore I wrote two letters to Swami - one seeking to stay and the other deciding to leave, and prayed to Swami in my mind to pick up one. Whatever was His decision I was committed to follow it gladly. I sat in the darshan line. Swami came to me and took the letter that asked me to stay. I stayed on for two months and a half.

One day a friend of mine from Holland and I were in the darshan line when we were gripped by some sort of laughing energy, and we both began to laugh and laugh unmindful of the consternation on the faces of devotees around, who were generally solemn and quiet. We were both in the front row. We discussed among ourselves what should be our answer if Swami asked us, 'where have you come from?' 'Let us reply, 'from You, Swami!' we decided. Then Swami came to us. 'Where did you come from?' He asked my friend. He simply replied, 'Holland, Swami!' Then Bhagavan asked me the same question. I too forgot about our earlier decision and replied, 'from Ice Land, Swami!' What happened to us? How did we forget our resolve made only a few minutes before? It was Swami's leela!

I visited Prasanthi Nilayam in 2001, 2003 and again in 2005. This is the fourth time that I came here. For some time Swami was telling me,' come to Prasanthi Nilayam. I will provide you a wife'. Swami assured me this on the astral plane, of course, and not during His physical appearance at Prasanthi Nilayam. Though I wanted to go over to Prasanthi Nilayam, I had no money. One of my clients offered to advance me money for the visit, owing to Swami's grace. In December 2004, I had a strong feeling that the 'wife' Swami had promised to provide me was going to be an Indian girl. In our place we have some people who act as a medium and foretell the future. I went to one of them. There were two of them besides me at the time of the discussion. During the session all three of us agreed that it was going to be an Indian girl.

In January, 2005, I came to Prasanthi Nilayam. In the beginning of March, I ran into an Israel devotee, Ms. Veder (she is presently residing in Belgium) who asked me to write a poem on Swami for a news letter she was running. I wrote it and went to the lawns opposite the North Indian Canteen where she usually went after the evening bhajan, to hand it over. Then she introduced an Indian girl, Ms. Vishnu Priya to me. The moment I saw her I knew she was the girl that was going to come into my life soon as my wife. But I could not look at her for some time though I wanted to, for fear of offending the Indian decorum in such matters.

'She also wrote a poem in Hindi', Ms. Veder told me and asked her to read it and explain its meaning in English. She then asked me also to do likewise. I did as she bid me. We were all surprised to find the same thought about Swami flowing through two different language streams in the poems written by me and her!

Afterwards, we used to meet here and there. Our acquaintance grew. One day, I made bold to propose to her if she would marry me

'I came for darshan of Swami here', she replied, 'I have not thought about other things'.

One day Swami told me on the astral plane to buy a flat in Puttaparthi. He showed me the building also.

'I want to take a flat here ', I told her 'would you care to come and have a look at it?'

She agreed. I showed her a flat. She said, 'no, not this one'.

Then I showed her another. It is like the one Swami showed me on the astral plane.

'This is ok', she said, 'you can take this'. I took it.

'Would you like to stay in this flat?' I asked her, 'you can stay here'.

'In Indian conditions', she replied politely declining my offer, 'it is not proper on my part to stay in this flat'.

Afterwards, she went back to Hyderabad, which was her place. When she was leaving, I took her phone number and gave her my cell number. She condescended to answer my calls, but only to talk about Swami.

One day I had a feeling that Swami was telling me to go to Hyderabad and talk to her parents. 'Go! Go!' He said. I went to Hyderabad and met her parents. They agreed after, of course, some initial hesitation. We decided to have a registered marriage, but the Registration officials said that it was not possible. We sent a mail to the Embassy of Ice Land in New Delhi, and they promptly replied permitting it provided it was registered. But the Registration officials did not relent.

We even thought of going to Ice Land and marrying there, and went to New Delhi and applied for visa for my fiancée. Then one day we went to the Registration office in New Delhi. Surprisingly, the people there were very cooperative and suggested the way out. Later, I came to know that Ms. Vishnu Priya had prayed to Swami that day, 'If you want me to marry him, you will see that the marriage works out'. That was the reason for the change in the attitude of the Registration officials. Those that denied us even a hearing were now coming out with suggestions on how to overcome the technical obstacles. Finally we could have a civil marriage at Bangalore on July 11, as a follow up to our notice given to the Registration officials on July 8. Earlier Ms. Vishnu Priya told me that the marriage would be held on July 21, but I did not think it would be so. 'Swami told me on the astral plane', she insisted. It so happened that the wedding reception was held on July 21.

As the newly weds, we came to Prasanthi Nilayam. Police stopped our car near the bus stand.

'What is the matter?' we asked.

'Swami is coming', they told us. We got down and stood on the pavement. Swami came along in His car. He was going to the Institute. We had His darshan from close quarters and felt that Swami literally received us, soon after our marriage, in Prasanthi Nilayam and blessed us thus. We both are now staying in our flat as a happy couple. I am grateful to Bhagavan for bringing me to Prasathi Nilayam and also blessing me with a wife, true to His benign word '

-- Mr. Pall Erlendsson

(As narrated to Mr. B. Parvatala Rao at Prasanthi Nilayam on 24.07.2005)