49. THE RECLAMATION'

 

Accumulated merits of past lives, the good samskaras of this life and the sathwic traits that one develops, can alone bring one in the physical presence of Divinity Incarnate. Such people are indeed doubly blessed, for they repeat­edly have the good fortune of contact with successive manifestations of The Divine.

 

Man has strayed away from the Divine Path, down the ages. One purpose of the current series of Avatars is, to bring back man to the Pathway to God. There seems to be an uniform pattern in this return to the Right Road. There are many instances where the link has been established, to draw back the prodigal, first to Shirdi Sai and then onwards to Parthi. Hilda Charlton is one among the fortunate. She first tame to Shirdi. Falling into the pattern, she learnt there about Sathya Sai and moved on to Parthi.

 

AIf Tidemann Johanessen, Arthur Osborne (The Author of 'The Incredible Sai Baba'), H.H. Gayathri Swami, E.K. Kulkarni of Poona, C.Rama­chandran of Kirkee, Dr. Kushmun Billimoria and her family and Yogi Suddhananda Bharati are but to mention a few such reinstatements. This return to nativity is echoed forth in the statements of the following.

 

Dr. M. Chenna R eddy, once during a speech at Prasanti Nilayam said that he had been to Shirdi, a few weeks prior to coming to Puttaparthi and added, "I consider my coming to Puttaparthi, so soon after that, as a piece of good f or tune, for the sai Baba of Shirdi has taken Avatar here as Sri Sathya Sai Baba".

 

His Excellency Shri Govind Narayan, I.C.S. Governor of Karnataka, narrates that when he took charge of his first posting (significantly in the year 1540) in Faizabad, in U.P., he was presented with two pictures of Shirdi Sai Baba, by a visitor who was a devotee of Shirdi Sai. The Governor says that he has always preserved those pictures and considers that, that was the beginning of his journey to Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, which fructified in 1976 with darsans and his first ever interview with Baba Ever since he has been blessed with many inter­views and Baba's Divine Grace has been conferred on him in abundance.