The Story of my Miracle!

Hi Guys, It's 1 AM at night and I've just returned home after having coffee with this couple friends of mine, and am very inspired to write and share a story of mine with you. After we were done catching up on our lives, the conversation took an interesting turn where we were discussing the existence of good and evil in this world. The wife has, a few years back, taken some interesting courses with me on various forms of Spirituality, which always leads us to discuss how our lives have changed (or not) because of it and so it wasn't unusual for us to be chatting on such an obscure subject. The topic then turned to the subject of this post of mine, which is what has inspired me to get home and get on the computer- Miracles. We discussed some of the Miracles I've seen in my life and some they've witnessed in theirs, and I'm absolutely blown away by some of the amazing things that touch our lives that some of our closest friends don't know about us. I was shocked that I've known them for years and they still didn't know about my wonderful story, just like I didn't know about some of theirs, and realized that for all the articles I've had published, or all my personal posts I've blogged, I've never ever written about this beautiful Miracle I've seen take place in my own life.
This post is not supposed to be advocating any particular religion, or any religion at all really. Most people in this world believe in something greater than us out there, whether they'd like to call it God, World Spirit, Absolute Being, Creator or Universal Energy. People also believe that through history there are men and women who have been more in touch with this Godlike energy, and are either more enlightened or have the ability to break the laws of physics at will. Each religion has such gurus or prophets being referred to in their holy scriptures, but for the sake of neutrality I will use the term they are referred to in the realm of Spirituality- Ascended Masters. My story is to do with one such Ascended Master who lived in a place called Shirdi in India in his lifetime- Sai Baba of Shirdi, also known as Shirdi Sai Baba. He performed many miracles in his lifetime that have been documented by his followers and devotees, who were of both Hindu and Muslim faith as Sai Baba never disclosed his own religious background and followed practices of both religions. In his lifetime, Baba lived as a fakir or beggar and never owned any possessions of his own till he died in Shirdi in 1918, after which a place of worship was constructed around the area he used to live. People from all around India, and often from around the world visit this Temple, sometimes to ask for things, sometimes give thanks or sometimes merely pay respects to what was once the home of this Fakir.
Many years back, probably when I was just a teenager, my Father too had decided he wanted to take his family to Shirdi, and insisted one Weekend we accompany him there. We lived in Mumbai at that time and had never been to Shirdi before, and being kids we complained about having to give up our weekend to head there. The long drive was tedious and tiring and once we got to Shirdi we complained about there being "nothing to see" there. India has some marvelous sites for pilgrimages and the one we used to frequent was massive with lots of gold around its structure, with the statue of the Deity often glistening in Crores of Rupees worth of diamonds. In Shirdi we were welcomed by a hut that posed as a place of worship, a tree that Baba sat under, a wheel he used to grind wheat on, and little else. My parents and Aunt and Uncle who had accompanied us, tried narrating some stories about the miracles Baba had performed, but were not really well versed with any of the stories, as none of them were devotees of his either. The time came for us to head back to Mumbai, and as was customary in Shirdi, we were given some flowers to adorn our cars, which we did before we began our journey back home.
My parents along with my Uncle were being driven in a car that rode in front, and my sisters and I rode in with my Aunt in the car that followed. It was a long tiring journey and we chatted in the car as we rode across the empty stretch of land. There were no cars around us and no trees on either side, and it was still bright out. It was just both our cars that drove along the road with empty fields on either side. When my Mother narrates the story, at this point she likes to pause and let people know we were all awake for what happened next, as those who know me know I fall asleep instantly in any moving vehicle, and she probably considers me being awake a mini miracle in itself! Anyhow, we were riding along when my parents car in front suddenly pulled over in the middle of the road. This is a time before mobile phones existed in India, and we leaned over to see if we could figure out what the problem was. We later found out that the flowers that had been tied to the front of my parents car had hit their windscreen and the driver had stopped to take them off. At that moment, we only knew that their car had stopped and it was my Aunt who first noticed the man who seemed to appear from nowhere, standing in the middle of the road. "Look!" she gasped, "It's Baba!"
The man was fair as milk and wore the same saffron robes that we saw Sai Baba wear in the pictures we had seen of him. There was no doubt in anyone's mind present there that we were indeed looking at the Master who was very much deceased, and not for a second did we think, "oh look.. here's a beggar that looks just like him!" I wonder now what we were thinking and why we didn't jump out of the car and have a chat with him or do SOMETHING, but I just recall us all being transfixed, like we were in a daze, and we sat in our car just staring over at him. We later found out that my parents pretty much had the same sort of reaction on noticing and recognizing him, and only my Father got out of the car to give him some money. Our eyes stay fixed upon him as my Father took blessings from Him, just as our eyes stayed fixed on Him when my Father got back in and the cars started moving. It is always upon narrating or thinking about this next part is what really gives me goosebumps- in front of our eyes, just as the cars started to move, Sai Baba disappeared into thin air.

Whenever things are going wrong in my life or I'm questioning the "Why" and the reason to certain things, I like to think of this story and remind myself that I'm one of the few fortunate people in this world who KNOW that there is something greater than us out there! I was extremely fortunate to be on the receiving end of what I can only describe as a Miracle, and I like to also think I was extremely fortunate to have my entire family with me who can verify that I wasn't hallucinating or seeing things. I hope reading my story helps bring a slight bit of comfort to you, or maybe just a little bit of amazement.. or even some Peace? If you do have your own personal miracle to narrate to me, or have any questions or comments about mine, I'd love for you to write in to me in the comments below. Narrating this story brings me such immense joy, as it's always a reminder to me about Love and God and Goodness in this world and other such fun things, so thanks so much for reading and being a part of that!
-