Sai Baba Appeared To Me As Old Man – Sai Devotee Karthik

Sharing herewith experience of Sai brother Karthik ji.

Karthik ji says: Dear Hetal Ji,

I am one of the sai devotees. I would like to share a couple of incidents that happened in my life and how baba saved me in critical times. May sainath bring you all the success in your life. Thank you in advance for posting this.

Om Sairam!

Before i start to share the incidents, let me tell a few words may be as an introduction. The way i moved to people and the manner i looked into the world 5 years back and now is entirely different. The reason is Shirdi Sai Baba. The way he entered into my Life and changed my life or in other words, the way he gave me his first darshan was a great thing that i could not forget in my life at any point of time. It was almost 5 years back. I dont want to go into more detail into those things. I feel i want to explain lot of things like my first darshan to shirdi, my dreams with sainath etc…but i dont think i could explain all in one post. Let me share a couple of incidents alone.

1. How baba saved me and my sister

It was in 2007 May, when i got the 4-wheeler driving license and as soon as i got the license my dad bought a car for me. He gave me the key and gave me the permissions to drive anywhere but slowly and carefully. My parents always believed in me and i always believed in Sainath. As everyone knows when a person gets a car at the age of 20, how would he drive? I would say i am a good driver and driving is one of my hobbies. But during those times i drove very fast. Almost around 90-110 km/hr generally when there was no body with me in the car. When my parents are with me they would not allow me to drive more than 50(max). It was for my sisters M.Tech convocation program. Me and my sister went in the car towards the college.

Though my sister insisted me frequently to drive slowly i was rushing as the time was limited. At one bus stop in a road, i decided to overtake the bus as it was stopping for people to get down. At the opposite side i didnt get a clear vision as that was almost like a curve. I drove fastly. But to my bad time when i was crossing the middle of the bus, the bus started to move and at the opposite of my side was a lorry coming at a great speed. I know i could not even slow down behind the bus as the lorry was nearing and i have almost crossed half of the bus. I knew it was going to be an accident and my sister was alone at my side. She was terrified and all that came to my mind was atleast to save my sister as she was married just 3 months before and none could answer her husband family. I saw the baba photo that i pasted in front of the driver’s seat and asked him “Give me an idea”. Suddenly a thought came to my mind.

There were two options. One to hit the lorry directly which would surely result in a major accident. Second was to try to overtake the bus with maximum speed but the lorry should not come closer before that. Baba gave me the second option. I pressed the accelerator to the maximum speed i can. Overtook the bus. Escaped from the lorry. The lorry crossed. But the bus hit the back side of the car. The car turned left side and I pressed the break. The bus driver also applied the break. Both the vehicles stopped. To my surprise both me and my sister didnt even had a pin point of damage. Damage was only to the back side of the car. I know the mistake was mine and asked the bus driver to leave with the bus. Later i called my dad and the problem was solved in a separate way. Two good things happened were 1. We were saved by Baba and damage was only to the car. 2. The accident happened near to a police station but since me and the bus driver went in compromise this issue was not noted by the police and escaped from police case issues. The reason is Baba.

From that time my speedometer never rised above 50. I say thank you to baba for saving 2 lives.

2. How i saw Baba Physically

I completed my B.E in May 2008 and by baba’s grace i got a job in one of the top MNC’s as a software Engineer. I worked there till December 2008. It was in 2008 December i had some of the worst things in my life. Lot of issues. It was almost i have lost my control. But though i was totally dejected, Baba didnt leave me. He saved me from that too. That incident showed me the fact that though the devotee forgets to ask a Guru, Guru like our Baba would not leave the devotees in trouble. I was usually a good learner and studied well. For example even my photo was published in papers for my marks in twelfth standard. I have not even thought about my higher studies after my B.E. But Baba thought for me. During the crucial time of December 2008, he gave me an opportunity to do my Masters in NUS (National University Of Singapore).

How i got that opportunity was only because of Baba. That course was intended for people with minimum 2 yrs of software experience. But i had only 7 months of experience. I had good B.E marks. But only because of Baba i got that masters opportunity. I firmly believe its one of Baba’s leela in my life. Though i got the opportunity and i came here to Singapore, during January 2009-February 2009 times i was worrying more thinking about the December incidents. One fine day, i was going to baba’s temple in Singapore. I was full of worries thinking about something. Nearing to the temple there was a signal (a bit lengthy). The green signal for people crossing the roads was blinking. I moved to other side of road and i dont know why but i looked back. The green signal for vehicles was on but there was an old man (almost like Baba with same beard) in the middle of the road. He was an Indian.

He was very old such that he could not even walk quickly. I wanted to help him to cross the road. I showed hands to stop some of vehicles which wanted to move and moved back to the old man and held his hands and helped him to reach the other side of road. He looked at me and smiled (siimilair to baba’s smile seen in some photos). I asked him why he came alone in that old age and told him atleast he could have brought some one for helping him. He was constantly smiling at me and all of a sudden a strange thing happened. He showed his hands towards me and said me, “I am in hunger. I want to eat. Give me two dollars”. In a country like Singapore we could not find beggars. And more over he was not like a beggar. But a question came to my mind how could a stranger just known some seconds before might ask money from me without even introduction.

Whenever someone asks food or money for food from me, my nature was to give money to them even from my childhood days. I thought that might be Baba as the physical appearance looked same. I didn’t want to think more about it. I gave that man 2 dollars. He asked me to leave. I went few steps forward and turned back to that old man. But to my surprise he was not there. I found out it was Baba only. I went to temple. Placed 2 dollar dakshina at baba’s idol feet. This happened nearly 1 year back. By march 2010, i got an internship opportunity which was given a stipend of exactly 2000$. Please note that its 1000 times returned of what he got from me. Baba usually says to persons around him that “Whatever i get as dakshina will be returned back 10 or 100 times to you”. But for me it was 1000 fold returned.

My mom told me i am very lucky as i have seen baba in person. I hope so. I strongly believe its baba who is leading my life and not me. He gave me good studies and good job.

All the success goes to the lotus feet of my Sai Nath. Om Sairam!

Thanks & Regards,
Karthik.N

© Devotees Experiences with Shirdi Sai Baba