Vitthal Basavaraj owns 14 acres of land. In a country like India, this would generally bracket Basavaraj among the wealthy land owners. But such is the travesty of weather and soil in some parts of the country that a man who owns 14 acres, has a hand to mouth existence. 

Basavaraj works as a contract driver in a small town of Sangli, Maharastra state, India, and earns around Rs.10,000 ($142) a month and  his family of five is just able to make both ends meet.   

“What is the point of having a large piece of land on which nothing grows, we get no rains and soil is  sterile. Ground water also is zero. We put bores but there was only air, ” Basavaraj said. In search of a steady income Basavaraj ended up driving transport trucks, travelling as far as 500 km from his village every few days. 

Basavaraj got married to a woman from his village Shanti and soon they had a son Someshwar, a little boy with bright curious eyes, who has a habit of extending his hand in friendship to anyone whom his mother approves. 

It was a happy family with Basavaraj’s parents pitching in for taking care of the little things concerning the boy and his Rs. 10,000 income taking care of the essentials for the family. But then little Someshwar’s cough would bother the parents a lot. The little boy would also get recurrent bouts of fever and would feel very week. Initially they thought it was a seasonal problem and it would go away by itself, but it did not.  

“We took the boy to the Government clinic in our village.  The doctor did a check-up and told that he felt there was something wrong with Someshwar’s heart, but he could not tell us more details and referred us to a nearby town of Sangli,” Basavaraj said. 

 “ We took the boy to a private hospital in Sangli. The doctors there performed a complete checkup and told us that the boy had a hole in the heart and apart from that they said something like a blood vessel had become constricted, and he needed a surgery.  That is what we understood,” the father added. 

The mother Shanti now entered the discussion. “Had they just said a surgery was required, it would have been still all right, but they mentioned that it had to be performed within a month or else my son would die. We got extremely scared,” Shanti added. 

The private hospital quoted a sum of Rs. 500,000 ($7100) for the surgery, which was far beyond the reach of the family. 

“From where were we going to get a sum that big. We did not know what to do and trusting the private hospital’s doctor, we felt the longer we delayed the less the chances for Someswar to live,” the father said. 

Basavaraj thought of selling off the land. But realized that selling the sterile land was of no use. “Who would buy such a piece of land anyway,” he said despairingly. 

Basavaraj then started sharing his plight with fellow villagers and hoped that someone would come back with some sort of a solution. Someone suggested him to go to Mumbai and check with some charitable hospitals there. Others asked him to check the State Government and Central Government health schemes, which provide aid to the needy. But as is the case always, Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba had planned the best for the little Someswar. 

“I had made all preparations to leave for Mumbai when one day I met this person from our village on the street. When this man came across me, he asked me if I was Basavaraj. I nodded. ‘So you have that little boy who has a heart problem and you are frantically looking for a place to take your boy to, ‘he asked. I nodded again. 

“ No need to go to Mumbai or any other place, I will tell you where to take your son to,” the man said finally

“I was a bit surprised, but was also eager to know what this stranger had in store for me.” 

“Take your boy to the Sri Sathya Sai Baba hospital. I had taken my brother’s daughter there for treatment. With Baba’s Grace everything went perfectly and the best part is that Baba’s hospital provides treatment completely free of charge.”

“I would not have believed it had he not been there himself. But when he had seen it himself, there were no more doubts in my mind. We started in right earnest to Puttaparthi,” Basavaraj said. 

One of the most unique aspects of the Bhagawan Baba’s hospital is the structure itself. With nine lovely domes and painted in refreshing pastels, the hospital looks more like a temple than a hospital as patients tell us. 

The building itself has a soothing impact on anyone who even glances at it.  Same impact it had on Basavaraj also. “All our misery and stress seemed to evaporate the moment we just looked at the hospital,” he said. “Where would one get to see a hospital like this ever,” Shanti added.  

Someswar was checked and the parents were told that the boy had to undergo a surgery. 

First the doctors performed an angiography for the boy and later referred him to the Cardiac Thoracic Vascular Surgery department of the hospital. 

“Here I came to know that all that the doctors had told me in Sangli about getting the surgery done immediately were not true. I feel they were just trying to scare us to get the surgery done in their place,” Basavaraj said.   

We see lots of patient having congenital heart disease being asked to get operated immediately in the outside world,but this may not be the case always .Depending on the case the surgery can be planned and done even after a while.This child had two holes and narrowing of one of the valves.The child underwent surgery successfully and is completely cured and he can go back to his life like a normal person.It is gratifying to see these patients who come very sick and walk out with a new lease of life.All this only and only possible in Swami's institute.  

The surgery was performed and the little Someshwar had an uneventful recovery. 

“After getting such a big surgery done we are inspired to do something for Swami. So I am planning to not only guide people here who require this kind of help. I will try to provide help to people around me, financial or otherwise. This is the minimum we can do to spread the happiness that we have received from Baba,” both Shanti and Basavaraj said. 

Shanti and Basavaraj also wish to join the Sevadal group from Maharastra and return to the Baba’s hospital to perform seva in the hospital.  

“How to spread the Love, all should learn from Baba,” Shanti and Basavaraj said.  

  Jai Sai Ram