In the year 1978 when I was working at the Sriharikota centre of Indian Space Research Organisation in the accounts department a new person joined our organisation from Hyderabad. Within a few days we came to know that he was a devotee of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. There would be Bhajans at his home in which we all were invited. I enjoyed the Bhajans.  I also attended the Seva activities, which would occur regularly. I felt drawn to the Bhajans and the Seva activities. Around two years later we all got an opportunity to visit Puttaparthi. We engaged three buses and travelled from Sriharikota to Puttaparthi. We came to know that Swami was very happy that we had visited Puttaparthi. “Sriharikota varu vaccharu,” Swami seemed to have told to a senior functionary of the Ashram, who in turn mentioned it to us.  

We were provided special place during the Darshan by Swami. And later Swami made sure to provide all the people, around 150 of us, Padanamaskaram. While walking in our midst Swami came close to me and I had a wonderful opportunity to have His Padanamaskar. The moment I touched His feet I went into a deep trance. I lost all sense of time and space.  This feeling persisted for quite some time and when I finally came to my senses, people sitting next to me were congratulating me with beaming faces. They told me that after my taking Padanamaskar, Swami had created vibhuti and had Himself put a vibhuti tilak on my forehead. I was surprised as I did not know anything what had happened during my state of trance. When I checked my forehead, there was actually vibhuti on it. I was pleasantly surprised. That was my first physical interaction with Swami and that is how my amazing journey to Sai began.  

In my life there have been many incidents, of which I wish to mention three here. All three show our Dearest Swami’s omnipresence, omnipotence and omniscience.  

We have three daughters and a son. On June 5, 1991, 9.00 pm after all had had our food we all got up to wash our hands. But our second daughter Geeta could not get up and when I asked what happened she said that she was unable to get up and her right leg was aching badly. She started crying. 

I tried to help her but despite our combined efforts, she could not get up. Immediately we took her to our nearest hospital. The doctor did a complete check-up and told that the problem was beyond the facilities that the hospital represented and we needed to visit a higher centre in Chennai and told me that an ambulence will be arranged next morning for the purpose. When asked what was wrong with our daughter, the doctor remained tight-lipped and repeated that we would be required to take our daughter to Chennai.

After getting her back to the house we prayed to Swami took Swami’s Vibhuti and applied it to her legs.  

Next day being Sunday I got up early to go to Nagar Sankirtan. I wanted to participate in the Nagar Sankirtan, take Swami’s blessings and then proceed to Chennai. I asked Geeta also to pull herself up and at least sit in the Sai Temple, if it was difficult for her to walk during Nagar Sankirtan. But she adamantly refused to get up due to severe pain. Even my repeated pleas fell on her deaf ears; I shouted at her and went my way to attend Nagar Sankirtan. 

 As the procession of Nagar Sankirtan was winding its way back to the Sai Temple through the streets, I  witnessed my daughter and  my wife, Kasturi walking quickly towards Swami’s temple, quite ahead of us. From there I checked my daughter's gait and was surprised that she was walking with a steady gait without any problem. After Mangal Aarti, Geeta immediately got up and requested all to remain seated and said that she wanted to speak to all assembled for a few minutes.  I was wondered what she would tell. 

Geeta narrrated what happened after I left home that morning. “After father left the lights were out and I was trying to sleep when suddenly, the lights came on again and I heard the door of our shrine room behind my back open. When I turned around I saw Swami’s hand slowly opening the door. I was amazed. Swami in our home!!! But I did not feel scared at all. Swami walked up to my bed and said, “ Bangaru, your father asked you to go to the temple, you did not go?” “Swami I have bad leg pain,” how could I go,” I replied. 

“ Don’t worry I will make you get up,” Swami said. And He then proceeded to lift me up by my shoulders and said, “ Now you walk with me.” With that Swami helped me to walk with him a few steps and asked me how my leg pain was, suddenly I realised that my leg pain had vanished. Swami then instructed, “ See get ready now. Take your mother along with you. Nagar Sankirtan is getting over, after the aarti tell all the people assembled what happened here. OK?” Then the same way He came He went back into the Shrine room closed the door behind Him and disappeared.,” Geeta concluded. 

The same day I went to the doctor in our local hospital along with my daughter. He was surprised that Geeta was walking again normally. The doctor then told me that the leg was in the initial stage of paralysis and he had not heard of anybody getting cured like this ever. This refrain from the doctors kept repeating itself many more times in our lives.   

The second incident involved my son, Sri Hari Ram, who is the youngest in the family.  At the age of 15 one day when he was playing cricket a friend of his threw a stone at him in jest. This stone hit him on the bridge of the nose. With blood flowing out , we took him immediately to a local hospital. The ENT specialist there looking at the injury took x-rays from four different angles and concluded that the bone at the bridge of the nose had almost disintegrated. “ it has become chutney, Mr. Thulasi Ram. We cannot do anything here in Sriharikota, you will have to take him to Chennai,” he told us. And warned that even with all the surgeries, the nose will still remain crooked.  We returned home. Worried that my son would be condemned to live with a crooked nose, I went up to my son and applied some Swami’s vibhuti on the bridge of the nose gently. Sri Hari Ram then slept off. 

The next morning he woke up with no pain, and instinctively touched the bridge of the nose, there was no deformity, it had become perfect as before the injury. I checked and myself could not find anything out of place. Swami put back the broken pieces of the bone without any surgery being required. The doctors were nonplussed when they saw a perfect nose bridge, which they themselves had called a ‘chutney’ the previous day. Never seen or heard anything like this in their profession as doctors.   

The third incident involved my second daughter, Naga Rani. 

It was Christmas time in the year 1994. Our whole family was planning to visit Prasanthi Nilayam for the Christmas. My second daughter was running a bit of temperature and also had cold and cough. We were not much bothered because we thought it was a seasonal flu, which would subside in due course. We got into the train and reached Prasanthi Nilayam. The Ashram was filled with devotees and we had difficult time in finding a place to stay. To relax for a while we spread a bed-sheet under a large tree in the ashram where now stands the North Indian Canteen. The situation of my daughter suddenly deteriorated. Her face became red and swollen and she was overtaken by bouts of shivering. We had some three to four bedsheets, which we wrapped around her body yet, her shivering would not reduce. While this was going on, a passing doctor looked at her and told us that we must rush her to a a hospital immediately.  

I got up and found out that the Ashram doctor was available in West 4 block. I took my daughter to that doctor. A look at Naga Rani , the doctor was stunned. “Her problem is far bigger than what I can handle, take her immediately to the Sri Sathya Sai General Hospital. I am afraid she may not be able to make it through the night,” he whispered to me. I was shocked. I immediately rushed to the auto-stand, but it proved to be futile exercise, none was willing to come. Just then Swami had retired to his residence. And those days we knew which one was Swami’s window. The light in the window was on, indicating that Swami was inside the room. I looked at the window and said, “Swami, she is Your daughter, if you wish, keep her with us or take her back to You,” and started crying. Walking back to the place where we were resting, I witnessed a little struggle going on between my wife and my daughter. My wife was asking Naga Rani to keep the bedsheets wrapped around her, while my sick child was resisting it. “I don’t need the bed sheets any more, I am not shivering, nor am I feeling cold,” my daughter was saying. Then I looked at her face, it had completely turned normal, no swelling, no redness and she had no fever. This was Swami’s, the Divine Doctor’s immediate response to my fervent pleas, and literally three drops of tears.  

I joined the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Prasanthigram, in the year 2005, how I joined the hospital is also a unique story.

While I was associated with the Sai Activities in Sriharikota, I got the first opportunity to perform seva in Prasanthi Nilayam only after my retirement in 2005. I was sent to the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Prasanthigram for seva. In those days at the entrance of the hospital there used to be a STD booth  run by the hospital where at a nominal cost, patients and attendants could make STD calls. Being an accountant by profession, I was asked to take care of that booth. 

With Swami’s Grace I extended my seva from 7 days to 3 months. My seva had ended in March but I stayed on till May 15. On May 16, I was planning to leave. That night Swami came in my dream and pointing at me with his index finger, told me, “I want you”. His tone was firm. My sleep was broken. But then I thought it just to be a figment of my imagination. “Why would Swami want me, of all the people?” I thought.  

The next morning, I had packed my luggage and was standing at the bus station outside the hospital to board the bus back home. Some strange feeling began to envelop me. I felt like making a courtesy call to Mr. Appa Rao, the Finance head of SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram, before I left.  I knew him as everyday I had to meet him regarding the accounts of the STD booth.  I took a few steps, halted and then returned to the bus station. The feeling of meeting Mr. Appa Rao, again started taking a strong root. Again I started walking and this time did not return like earlier. I knocked at Sri Appa Rao’s door and went in. The first words Mr. Rao told me were, “Thulasi Ram, the hospital needs a person to work in the accounts department, are you willing to take up this job,” he asked. My jaw dropped. When I recovered I replied, "Of course, sir!"

So since 2005 I am working at the SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram, in the accounts department, all this is only due to infinite Grace of Bhagawan Baba.