32. NEARNESS IN NATIVITY
The serpent, 'Naga', occupies a holy position in the Hindu
pantheology -Siva wears a garland of a serpent:, Vishnu reclines on the 'Sesha-naga
(thousand-hooded serpent)'. In the incarnation of Rama, Lakshmana is regarded
as the incarnallon of Sesha-naga and once again when Narayana incarnated as Sri
Krishna the inseparable Naga accompanied Him as Balaram. Thus Hari and Naga
remain concurrent down the ages. No wonder therefore that when the Lord
incarnated at Shirdi, the village so chosen signified a distorted form of 'Sira-Vadi'
the word Sira means snake and Vadi stands for place.
In striking similarity Sri Narayana in the reincarnation of
Shirdi has chosen for His nativity - Puttaparthi - 'Putta' which means an ant-hill
in which a snake has taken up its abode. 'Parthi' is a modified form of
'Vardhini' or propagation.
The neonate Hari was accompanied once again by the naga when the
cradle in which He was placed, moved in ripples. To the utter astonishment of
those in proximity, a majestic cobra slithered out from under the sheet and
vanished spontaneously.
The two 'Leela-dharis' that we are experiencing the good fortune
of mentioning about, also have manifested as nagas, as if in response to the
yearning for darshans of the Lord. Shirdi Sai appeared as the serpent coiled
around the Lingam in the Naga-Sai Temple at Coimbatore and also as the reptile
coiled around the kamandalu at Chincholi. Sri Hari in the years of Sathya Sai
has also been similarly manifesting in the naga form. Once whilst He was away
visiting Mysore, He appeared as a white cobra coiled around the portrait of
Baba, during the overnight Deepavali bhajans at Parthi. In this instance a bold
devotee addressed the cobra and said, "If it is really you, Swami, give us
proof of it by hitting the ground thrice with your hood". The cobra
responded by hitting its hood three times on the ground.
There is a coloured photograph of Sathya Sal taken by the
Malaysian author J. Jegathesan and widely circulated, on which a huge serpent
is seen wound around the 'pushpa-haar (floral garland)' of the Lord. Needless
to add that there was none at the time this picture was clicked.
On 19th January, 1970, Sathya Sai appeared at the residence of
T.S. Sethumadhavan Nair at Palghat, as an exquisite golden snake which had
shining pearls all over its body. There were three eyes on the hood, of which
the center one shone like a torch.