IT'S ALL HIS GRACE
I was returning from a Bank Meeting at Madras on 7-2-65, by the Bombay Mail, having reserved a berth in the I class, up to Tadpatri, where I proposed to alight. I boarded the compartment at 10 p.m. at the Central Station, and when the train started, I prepared my bed and moved towards the lavatory preparatory to lying down for sleep. The compartment had a corridor into which the rooms opened and it had just one entrance door which took one into the corridor itself. That door was open. When I emerged from the lavatory, the train had passed Basin Bridge, where it did not halt. Somehow it happened that, instead of going through the corridor into my room, I went towards the open door and, so, I fell from the running train!
I felt as if some one suddenly pulled me towards him. That was all. I was not aware of anything that happened later. I only felt that I was seated, the very next moment, on a soft place. I wondered why I was there, whether it was all a dream.
Really speaking, I had fallen over from the Bombay Mail. The train had sped along. It was pitch dark all around. The station was about two furlongs away. It was a double track line, and trains were steaming up and down. If I had landed a few inches this side or that, I would have been crushed to death. Or I might easily have fallen under the bridge if the accident had happened a minute earlier.
I had suffered no injury. I felt it as a miracle worked by God that even my eyeglasses were unbroken, my wrist watch was ticking as usual and the purse in my pocket was there itself. I must have sat in that position for about twenty minutes, when I was overcome by confusion as to where I was, why I was there, whither I have to go from there etc. So, I just called out loudly into the dark night. But, who was there to answer me? A light engine neared me and passed over the rails without heeding me.
Perhaps, Sathya Sai, the Saviour of the distressed heard me; for, within a few minutes, the Station Master of Basin Bridge and a Police Constable came to where I was. From the ticket I had, they recognized me as a passenger from the Bombay Mail and they removed me to the General Hospital, Madras. Meanwhile, the Manager of my Bank hurried to my bedside, on receipt of a telephone call. The doctors examined me and declared that no damage had been done. They were surprised that a man who had fallen from a running train had suffered no injury at all and they attributed it to nothing less than a Divine Miracle. The Manager sent telegrams to my sons and to my house at Anantapur.
Meanwhile, at the same time, when every one at my house at Anantapur was asleep, a brilliant effulgence engulfed the entire house. My wife awoke and wondered whether it was a real experience or just a dream. She concluded it must be the glory and the grace of Sai; she laid herself down again, remembering the name of Sathya Sai Baba and went to sleep.
Since 1944, when Sathya Sai Baba first visited my house, such miraculous incidents happen off and on in my place and so, my wife had no doubt in her mind that it was a sign given by Baba Himself. It was a natural and automatic inference for her.
When morning came, the telegram from Madras arrived. Immediately, one of my sons started for Madras and my wife left towards Puttaparthi with my grandson, to see Baba! As soon as Baba saw her, He said, "Instead of going to Madras, you have come here, is it? There is nothing the matter with your husband, do not worry. I have seen to that. Do you know what would have happened to him if I were not there?" He then told her in great detail all that had happened to me. He also declared that the light which engulfed the Anantapur house the previous night was His way of intimating to them the fact of His protecting Presence.
My son took me from Madras to Kurnool, where another of my sons is a doctor; I was with him far a week. I had informed the Railway authorities that my bed, box etc were in that First class compartment and, information was received at Kurnool that they were all intact at Madras and that I could take them back from them.
I and my family firmly believe that it was Sri Sathya Sai Baba who miraculously saved me from this calamity. Whatever others may believe or not believe, we are His devotees for ever.
