Features | Experience of the Divinity of Bhagavan | Group V | Dr. D. J. Gadhia

Dr. D. J. Gadhia,
U.K.

Late Dr. D. J. Gadhia was a medical graduate from the Karnataka University, later from the University of Liverpool, UK and also from the Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene, London. He worked at the Medical College, Jamnagar in India and as Chief Medical Officer in Tanzania. An ardent devotee of Bhagavan, he was associated with the Ashram at Prasanthi Nilayam for several decades. In the following write-up, he narrates his experience of the Divinity of Bhagavan in a book published by him before his demise.

'Many years ago, when I was a medical student in India, I was saved from a train accident by Sri Sathya Sai Baba near Salem Railway Station. Bhagavan later confirmed it to me in the interview room.

I was sent by Sri Sathya Sai Baba for higher studies in the United Kingdom where I found that I was too late for admission to any course in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Baba appeared to me in a dream and directed him to go to Liverpool where I obtained a place in the school of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

I, after graduation, was sent by Sri Sathya Sai Baba to Jamnagar where I worked as a lecturer in the M. P. Shah Medical College. By Baba's grace, I gave Swami's Divine messages and established Sai centres in various places in Gujarat. At about this time, I was at a bus station when an overhead electric cable suddenly snapped and, brushing past my shoulder, struck and killed a dog instantly. I thanked my beloved Swami for saving me.

Beloved Swami showered His Divine blessings during my marriage at Ptasanthi Nilayam, and materialized a necklace (mangala-sutra) for my wife. One day in Whitefield (near Bangalore), my wife asked Sri Sathya Sai Baba whether they could go to Kampala in Uganda, East Africa where my parents were living. Beloved Swami replied 'when everyone is coming to India from Uganda, why do you want to go there?' As the parents kept calling us, we had no alternative but to go. Beloved Swami blessed us and materialized two rings for our protection.

In Kampala, I applied for registration with the Medical Councils of East Africa in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The Ugandan Medical Council suggested that I should work for six months before full registration and I was posted to a hospital in Mbarara. After one day's work, Beloved Swami appeared in a dream and instructed me to leave the job immediately. The next day I returned to Kampala where my family admonished me for leaving the job so soon. The very next day, however, I received the Tanzanian certificate of full medical registration and was appointed Chief Medical Officer at the H.H.The Agakhan Dispensary in Arusha, Tanzania.

On the 5th May, 1975 in Tanzania, a car in which I was travelling to see a patient met with an accident and I was pronounced dead while still trapped in the car. Beloved Swami, by 'trance', immediately appeared on the scene of the accident in the form of two Africans who rescued me and brought me back to life. During a long period of recovery, the fractures in the leg healed, but there was much pain due to overlapping in the shin bone. Two orthopaedic surgeons in the United Kingdom tried their best and said that the 'defect' would be permanent.

As the last resort, I and my wife went to Whitefield Ashram near Bangalore, where Beloved Swami cured the 'defect' by materializing pink-coloured vibhuti which He applied over the shin bone. Instantly, the constant excruciating pain disappeared! Thus, Beloved Swami brought me to full recovery.

Back in Tanzania, I was involved in another remarkable incident of Bhagavan's grace. After giving Swami's divine message in a temple at a place called Mwanza, I set off by plane for Entebbe (near Kampala in Uganda). During the flight, the engine of the small plane seemed to be in trouble. At the next stop in Musoma in Tanzania, I almost decided not to carry on with the journey but, in the end, I took the risk and continued the journey. During the last leg of the journey, the pilot struggled to keep the small plane in flight and eventually landed safely in Entebbe. About an hour later, news came through that the same plane had crashed in the next lap of its journey from Entebbe, killing all on board!'

-- Dr. D. J. Gadhia

(Source: The devotee's article in the special souvenir Tribute published by the Sri Sathya Sai Books & Publications Trust on the occasion of the 80th Birthday of Bhagavan.)