Sai Baba Made Me Donate Bone Marrow To A Person In Need – Sai Devotee Ramkumar

Today I am sharing experience of Sai Brother Ramkumar ji.

Sai Brother Ramkumar ji says: Sairam Hetal ji,

It’s been a while since I mailed any of my experiences and wanted to share one of my recent experiences with our Lord Sai.

I guess sometime in 2003 or 2004; I had registered myself in the National Bone Marrow Donor Program, while they had a recruitment drive in the local temple here. I had forgotten about that altogether. After 6 years, one fine morning in August 2010, I got a call from the Marrow Registry that I might be a potential match for a patient who needs Marrow Transplant. All they revealed was that the patient is a 70 year old male with some form of blood cancer. I was thinking about it and wondering if I should proceed further as I had some health concerns which I felt might not be conducive for me to donate. So I was wondering, if I could just go back on my promise given 5 years back and say that I am not interested in donating any more. Now it starts our Sai’s moves. I have a daily calendar prepared by C.B.Satpathy ji with quotes of Baba (predominantly from Satcharitra). Through this calendar, with His Sayings, Baba answers my questions, clears my doubts, guides me and even scolds me when I do anything wrong. When I turned the calendar that night, the message for next day was this: “To keep up my words, I would even give my life.” It was like Baba is slapping on my face and I decided right away that I will proceed further with the donation. So I worked with them for the preliminary testing. After a week, they called me back saying that I am the only match and asked me if they can proceed further with this.

Meanwhile, my mind was being vagrant with doubts and apprehensions. I wasn’t very comfortable with the procedure as I had done some research about the 2 ways it could be done. The more research I did, the more scared I was. My wife was not very comfortable either with me donating especially after I mentioned to her about the potential risks/side effects to me due to the procedure. I must admit that we also felt that it would be wise to consider if the recipient was a young person and would have to weigh the risks to me again considering the fact that I am donating to an old person. I felt really ashamed a few minutes later to think so and scolded myself thus “Who am I to decide that one have to live for so many years”. I chided myself that being within Baba’s fold, such a thought should have never ever occurred to me in the first place. After all, I am still a normal person suffering from the miseries/afflictions of this worldly life. While this was going on, Baba sent indications through the calendar saying that I should donate. Starting from September 19th, these messages followed in the calendar. “The donor sows the seeds, only to reap a rich harvest in future” followed by “The best way to receive is to give” on September 20th, “Masjidmayee calls for the debt: the donor pays it and becomes free” on the September 21st. Also, on September 27th, I happened to read a book called Sai Bhavana (which again is a brief summary of Baba’s sayings listed out in a book format for each day in the year). I opened to read that particular day’s sayings and the message for that day was “How God created Human to help others and that great persons help others even at their own suffering/loss and urged common man to help as long as he/she doesn’t lose much”. I used to read that book and Satcharitra every day but had stopped reading that for a couple of months. Why I read it that day, Baba only knows. It is all Baba’s actions. Still, my mind was torn between the donation on one hand and the side effects/risks on the other hand. Giving in to my mind’s selfish thoughts, I mentioned to my donor co-coordinator that I wasn’t feeling very comfortable doing and that they can consider me if they didn’t get any other match. After I finished talking to her conveying my decision, I wasn’t feeling alright mentally and begged Baba to pardon me and asked Him why I did so. I do have a book called “Baba answers your questions” where in you meditate on Baba and think of a number between 1 and 720 and then open the book for that number to see what Baba says. I did so and there was this message: “Do not indulge in over-analysis and inquisitiveness. Remember Shree Sai humbly and everything will be alright”. That was it. I called the co-coordinator immediately and told her that I have changed mind and asked her to continue with the process and schedule the surgery.

The day before the procedure, I had been to Baba’s temple and I shared this with one of my friends whom I met there. He gave me a picture of Sai that was dear to him and asked me to keep it with me throughout the procedure. I had not revealed about this to anyone and why I chose to tell him that day, I still do not know. May be Baba wanted to assure me that everything will go fine and He chose my friend as a medium to show this. Everything went fine though I had some pain for the first few days and now I am recovered completely from the harvest procedure. I just got a letter on one Thursday, a few days back, from the recipient thanking me for my generosity in giving him the gift of life and that he looks forward to meeting me when protocol and I allow to (as the registry doesn’t allow the donor / recipient to meet until the first year, only have anonymous conversations through them). I hope and pray to Baba that he recovers fine and continues to live a normal life at the same time thinking in my mind that all these actions were Sai’s – which made a selfish individual like me to donate marrow to a person really in need and that I am glad I came into Baba’s fold 10 years back!

Sairam
Ramkumar

© Devotees Experiences with Shirdi Sai Baba