My First Experience in India
My first visit to the ashram “Prashanti Nilayam ” of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba in Puttaparthi , Andhra Pradesh State, India, was in July 1995. I participated in the Guru Purnima festival held at Prashanti Nilayam, which took place from July 5 to July 15, 1995. Approximately 360 men and women from Japan attended the Guru Purnima festival at that time. We chartered an India Airlines jet and flew from Narita Airport to Bangalore Airport in Bangalore city. From Bangalore city to Prashanti Nilayam, we traveled by bus. The return trip followed the same route in reverse.
I first came to know about Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba in July 1993 when I attended a lecture. During the lecture, I heard about a man in India named Sai Baba who preached truth and influenced people with love, teaching them the right way to live as human beings. He was said to be able to materialize from his hands sacred ash called vibhuti as well as items such as rings and necklaces, attracting many people from all over the world.
Upon hearing His lecture, I intuitively felt that the words and actions of Sai Baba were true. After the lecture, I read many books related to Sai Baba. From what was written in those books, I felt that my intuition was correct, and I desired to visit Sai Baba myself.
In August 1989, I became physically disabled due to a spinal cord injury caused by a traffic accident. When the accident occurred, I lost all sensation from my neck down immediately after falling. Not being able to feel anything from the neck down meant I couldn’t discern where my arms, legs, or torso were; it felt as if my body had disappeared, leaving only my head lying on the ground.
Soon, I realized my breathing was abnormal as if I couldn’t breathe deeply. My body was signaling a critical condition. With no sensation from my neck down and my breathing becoming labored, I thought, “I might die. ” Up until that moment, “death ” had only been a word to me. Now, it seemed like an impending reality. For the first time in my life, I thought, “I might die. ” The next thought that crossed my mind was, “What happens when I die? Where will I go? “
While I had an idea of what “death ” was in terms of the physical state, confronting the possibility of facing it myself made me realize that my previous understanding of “death ” was merely superficial. All I knew was only the word “death ” and its association with a physical state. I had no clear answer in my memory about what actual “death ” entailed. In that situation, even if I became aware of such things, I felt powerless. I realized that most of what I had learned and experienced in life up until then had been about external matters, not about myself inside. I began to understand that perhaps the true purpose of being born as a human with a body was to discover who “I ” truly am and what my existence really means.
I was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. After about eight months of hospitalization, followed by approximately three months of outpatient rehabilitation, I was able to reintegrate into society. However, because of the spinal cord injury, I had lost muscle strength below the neck, and I suffered from motor function and sensory disabilities.
After rejoining society, I read many books and gained some understanding of the “true self, ” but this understanding was purely intellectual.
After getting to know about Sai Baba, I became convinced that he was the teacher who could impart the truth I wanted to understand. I studied various teachings of Sai Baba, and after two years, I decided to visit Prashanti Nilayam.
Since becoming physically disabled, it was my first time being on an airplane for about 11 hours. Given the diminished functionality of my body and overall muscular weakness, I was prepared for the burden on my lower back and potential muscle stiffening from maintaining the same position for an extended period. Still, I found myself enduring continuous pain, numbness, and spasms throughout the flight.
I arrived at Bangalore Airport on the night of July 5th, completed the immigration procedures, and stayed overnight at a hotel in Bangalore. Early the next morning, July 6th, I departed by bus from Bangalore city towards ‘Prashanti Nilayam’. The bus ride was about four hours long, and the bus I took was so worn that it wouldn’t have been surprising if it were decommissioned in Japan. The roads were barely paved at the time, and the vibrations from the bumpy surface directly transmitted to my body, causing various aches and making this bus trip another journey of endurance. I arrived at ‘Prashanti Nilayam’ in the afternoon of the same day. It was a long journey accompanied by physical pain, so the moment I thought we had arrived, I was overwhelmed with emotion.
‘Prashanti Nilayam’ is a very large ashram with dozens of accommodation buildings lined up, and people of all ages, female and male, from many countries were visiting. The accommodation building for the Japanese group was brand new. I heard that Baba had it completed the day before, on July 6th, so it would be ready in time for the Japanese group to use. Moreover, I learned that many Japanese people were staying and living in Prashanti Nilayam.
Life began at ‘Prashanti Nilayam’. During our stay, there were occasional water outages and power failures, but life itself was simple: attending Darshan in the morning and afternoon, having meals, resting in the room, and occasionally taking walks, so the days flowed leisurely and we were not particularly bothered by the outages. On the wall of the hall in the building where we stayed, there were two photographs of Baba displayed, one directly opposite the entrance and one on the right, each adorned with a floral garland. We noticed that the garlands hanging on the two photographs had grown large, hanging down towards the bottom of the pictures. Everyone noticed and discussed the enlarging garlands, but even as they continued to grow, eventually dragging along the floor, no one understood why. When the garland that was sprawling on the floor was replaced with a new one, the replacement too grew over time, and once again, even when it was replaced, a mysterious occurrence continued throughout our stay.
At the morning Darshan on the day before our return home (the 13th), groups of Japanese and Italians were called by Baba. All the Japanese and Italian people entered the Mandir (temple) located inside the Darshan Hall. Over four hundred men and women entered the Mandir, with men seated on the right and women on the left facing forward, filling almost every available space, and making it quite cramped between individuals. I sat on a chair near the wall, slightly behind the center.
Baba, walking through the aisle between the men and women, materialized a ring and presented it to a woman, then transformed another woman’s ring into a different shape and gave it to her. Baba returned to the center front of the aisle and, parting the seated men, came towards me in a posture like running, bent forward.
Even though he was coming my way, I never thought Baba would come to me. For me, not harboring such thoughts, it was a sudden event. Baba pushed through the seated men and stopped in front of me. At that moment, everything in front of my eyes became dim, and I could not see Baba. Baba told me to stretch out my hands, and I did as I was told.
As I opened my hands, a point of light appeared in the dim space above my eyes, illuminating the palms of my hands, and through that light, two streams of Vibhuti descended in an inverted V shape into the center of my palms. At that time, I could not see Baba’s hands or figure. I watched the two streams of Vibhuti illuminated by the light descending in an inverted V shape into my palms, momentarily captivated by the beauty of the scene. The Vibhuti accumulated into a small mountain shape in the center of my palms, and then the light disappeared. After showering Vibhuti into my palms, Baba enveloped my hands with his and stroked them several times, then caressed my head and back with His hands.
Even at that time, I did not see Baba’s form and just stayed still while merely sensing what was happening continuously. Then, when I felt Baba was leaving me, I said in my heart, “Baba, also the neck! ” These words came to mind instantly, but Baba, understanding what I said in my mind, stroked my neck with his right hand. After that, Baba left me, and while he was leaving, my surroundings was still dimly lit and I did not see Baba during that time.
After Baba had left me, I confirmed what had happened to myself. Both hands were whitened with vibhuti, and I realized that vibhuti was also attached here and there on the clothes I was wearing. The vibhuti was milky white, and I didn’t particularly smell anything. By the time I left the mandir later on, the vibhuti on both hands had mostly disappeared, leaving only a slight whiteness.
When Baba returned to the front, this time he presented a sari to each and every woman by hand and presented vibhuti in a small plastic bag to every man as well. Walking and hand-delivering to all of the more than 400 people sitting in a seemingly cramped condition must have been a tremendous effort. Although almost all of us were meeting Baba in the flesh for the first time, I thought Baba gave warm hospitality to each one of us. Finally, we all sang a bhajan in Japanese and left the mandir.
On the morning of July 14th, we departed from Prashanti Nilayam to return home. The return flight felt a bit more comfortable than the outbound one, but it might have felt that way because the journey was nearing its end. On the morning of July 15th, the plane arrived almost on schedule at Narita Airport, and our first journey to Prashanti Nilayam was drawing to a close.
After returning home, in a letter sent to a friend, I wrote, “The purpose of my visiting Baba was to know what kind of existence ‘I’ am, to introspect, and to go and see what Baba is doing. ” I had no feelings at all of wanting Baba to heal my disabled body or wanting something materialized by Baba, and I did not want to interview Baba either. I just went to see and to know what Baba was doing. During my stay, while I certainly did directly experience something mysterious, that is one thing and it goes without saying that “Prashanti Nilayam ” was a wonderful place for self-examination. Also, I realized that Baba is as Baba himself says, and exactly the existence I thought he was.
translator：Makoto Ishii