Features | Experience of the Divinity of Bhagavan by Devotees | Group V | Mr. Vijaya Singham

Mr. Vijaya Singham,
14 - Jalan, S.S.3/10,
47300 - Petaling Jaya,
Malayasia.

Mobile: 98668-85414
E-mail: lavanya_149@iprinus.com

Mr. Vijaya Singham (69), who retired from the Education Department in Malaysia, narrates a few of his experiences of the Divinity of Bhagavan in his own words.

'My forefathers were Sri Lankans of Indian origin. My grandfather migrated from Sri Lanka to Malaysia. I was brought up in Indian spiritual environment interested in visiting temples.

I was married in 1967, but had no issues for a long time. My wife was carrying only to end up in abortions. In 1978, one of my relations who had been to Prasanthi Nilayam gave me a small photograph of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. That is how Bhagavan entered our house in the form of photograph for the first time.

In 1983, my wife was in the family way again. But one doctor who examined her said 'there is no heartbeat of the foetus! Come prepared to have DNC!' It meant abortion again. My wife was heartbroken. She was crying and praying all the night. On the day of the appointment, she went to the hospital. The same doctor who had examined her, examined her again and said, 'you don't need DNC. The child is alright. The heart beet is perfect!' We returned praying to the Lord gratefully. By God's grace, we were blessed with daughter, Lavanya, who is doing her Bio-Medical Science course in Australia now.

Though we were attending bhajans at our place, we could not make it to Prasanthi Nilayam till 1991. We came to India and stayed at Chennai in a hotel. We all went for shopping in an auto-rickshaw. As soon as we got down, my wife noticed that our bag was missing. Our passports, air tickets, keys, cash, jewellery and other valuables were all in it. We were shocked when she discovered the loss. We went to all the shops and places she had visited and enquired for the bag, but in vain. What to do? Loss of passports and air tickets is a serious problem. We sat in the hotel praying. We went and gave a police complaint also.

On return to the hotel, I went to the reception to enquire about the bag when my wife was in the room. She received a phone call. The person who spoke was a man talking Tamil with some Urdu slant as many Indian Muslims would do. 'My wife located your bag', the voice said. 'Thanks a lot!' my wife replied, and enquired who he was, where he was at that moment, and where we should go to pick up the bag. The voice did not give any address. He put down the phone. Was he Shirdi Sai? Probably because of his Urdu slant, my wife wondered if he was Shirdi Sai Baba. She told me about the phone call.

The phone rang again when I came into the room. I took the call, the same voice, the same Urdu slant in speaking, and the same message. I enquired, 'where should we contact you? Our hotel address is there in the bag.' 'I know. That's how I got your phone number' the voice said. Then I told unnecessarily that we had made a complaint to the Police, too. 'Is it?' the voice sounded scared. The caller then gave me an address. We went there with the Police who searched every inch of the area in vain.

Next day, the hotel boy informed me that I got a parcel, which I would have to collect form the post office. We had to fly to Bangalore that day. There was hardly any time to lose. I rushed to the post office and collected the parcel. My wife kept the slip in our bag on which she wrote our name and hotel address, our phone number in the hotel. That person who sent the bag to us carefully pasted that slip as the address on the parcel instead of writing the address, lest his handwriting should give him away. The parcel contained our passports, air tickets, keys etc., but not our cash and jewellery.

We flew to Bangalore and could visit Prasanthi Nilayam as planned owing to His grace. While going to Prasanthi Nilayam, I deposited our passports in the hotel locker by the way of caution. Here at Prasanthi Nilayam, while providing accommodation, the man at the counter asked, 'where are your passports?' I replied that 'I am not aware that the passports are needed here. So I deposited them in the hotel locker in Bangalore'. 'No' he said, 'you have to show them; go and get them'. We were helpless. We pleaded with him showing various other documents. He did not relent. We did not know what to do and where to go. My wife who was praying to Bhagavan was looking at the photograph of Bhagavan placed above that person in the counter. There was a garland placed on the photograph. Suddenly the garland parted at one end and began to hang vertically. The next moment the person at the counter changed his mind. 'Take the key' he said handing over the key to us, 'and occupy your room!' There was no explanation for the change of his mind. We gratefully took the key. As we were going to the room, I said 'strange! How suddenly he made a volte-face, of course, in our favour!' 'Bhagavan changed his mind' my wife said, 'when the garland on the photograph of Bhagavan gave way, I knew Swami had come to intervene and help us'. We had darshan of Bhagavan for the first time and returned happily to our place.

My daughter had an ENT problem. Owing to Swami's grace, it was discovered by chance in time. She was operated successfully. If it was delayed for a few days, there was a danger of her brain getting affected. We thanked Swami for protecting us and our only child thus with love and care.

My wife also had to be operated upon for some breast problem, and regained her health owing to His grace. We took a flat in Puttaparthi near Gokulam so that we need not worry about accommodation whenever we came to Parthi. When we came for Swami's 70th Birthday, we could stay in our flat.

Once I came to Prasanthi Nilayam with an American friend and another Malaysian. Swami came to us and asked the American, 'how many?' He said 'three, one American and two Malaysians'. Swami again asked, 'how many?' He said 'three Swami! Two Malaysians and one American.' Swami said 'go'. That meant we were called for the interview. Swami spoke about some spiritual matters. Throughout the interview session, Swami kept His Divine hand on the thigh of the American. He even gave the American private audition; and the American became a staunch devotee of Bhagavan. He later bought a flat at Puttaparthi, and settled down here leaving his all behind in the States.'

-- Mr. Vijaya Singham

(As narrated to Mr. B. Parvatala Rao at Prasanthi Nilayam on 25.11.2005.)