Letters from India

13. Plane Ride - Jan. 1985

Plane Ride

January 26, 1985

Bombay, Maharashtra

Dear Family,

Weeeeeeel the plane ride, what can I say? :-) The night before, I walked out on our little sink-verandah and looked around the surroundings of our very own Hotel Karpagam. There were usually a few cows around, but that night I counted 10 (that’s ten) cows within 1/3 a block on either side of the place where I was staying. Now that’s auspicious! So, I knew tomorrow would be auspicious.

The day started with Dawn Darshan - we sat in the 2nd section so it would be easier to get out, so we could go straight to the airport. Sai made the Darshan really special because it was His last in Madras. He put both His Hands up in Blessing after the Arathi, and turned granting all Darshan and Grace, smiling.

After, we went to the airport. Guess who was there, but SH and Rita! We joined them, and started to form the line. First in line means first choice for boarding passes, and luckily SH knew that Sai would be sitting in 8-A, and His party of 8 had reserved seats 7-A, 7-B (no 7-C through 7-H on plane); 8-A through 8-F. Sundaram had gotten the intuition to reserve 8-G and 8-H, but she said later all they could see was arm-and-leg Darshan of Sai, not much Face Darshan.

Anyway, Barbara got 10-B, Diane 10-C and me 10-D. good because I was at an angle and could see more of Sai; but for Barbara it was the best for her because she liked to be as close to Sai as possible.

Imagine waiting in the lobby to board the plane, knowing Sai is going to be on the flight - !

We got on the plane and I admit, I had some doubts that Sai would be on it. After all, we had only heard second hand. Plus it’s Sai’s nature to change flights at the last minute, which He’s done before.

But then, THEN, Sai’s trusted English translator came on, and a bunch of white-clad, familiar Swami-people! I got a close look at the translator, as he went to his seat 8-D, directly in front of me, and I KNEW… I KNEW.

Theeeen, everyone tensed – Swami’s car had arrived!! (He drives up to the plane to get in – planes here, you don’t walk through a neat little cave and there you are in the plane; here you walk to the plane which is in the middle of the airport.) HE walked in, ran His Divine eyes over the plane, and took His seat.

All through Madras, I had been thinking, ‘Hmmm, it would be nice to have one close-up Madras look from Sai.’ But no banana. Got plenty of looks & stares from the stage, but nothing up-close. So, when I got on the plane, I thought, “Ah well, no ‘Madras look’. Swami’s Will, I guess.”

So anyway, soon after Sai got on the plane and settled in His seat, He turned right around in His seat and looked directly at the section I was sitting in – it was easy to tell He was looking at only three or five seats, and I was one of them! He ran His eyes over the section – and during that gave me three deep, intense hard stare-looks! Half a minute after that, He turned back, the plane started and we took off! My idea of a “Madras look” had been fulfilled to overflowing, more than I ever expected! Sai has a way of doing that … you should come and experience it.

This put me in a predicament though, because now I had no more updated desires to be fulfilled! Only the one for Moksha was left. You see here, you (or at least I) come for two desires to be fulfilled: Darshan and Moksha. Then He puts tiny other desires in your heart and mind to keep you occupied or to purify you, or to tire you of all desires or for SOME reason.

Well anyway, He had kept these things fairly constant with me – ‘Take these letters, bless this necklace, give me this Madras look,’ etc. On this Madras trip, He had fulfilled the two other spiritual desires I had, ones I wouldn’t never believed He would fulfill so soon. Now, with the somewhat hugely more trivial Madras look fulfilled also, I was left with no more desires at all, except liberation. I searched and searched for that familiar tiny desire lurking, but there was none to take the empty place! Odd but true! So with this flight, Sai Baba graced me to enjoy it to the fullest because when God wills Himself to be awakened in this form from His self-inflicted maya, He will do it. It’s all Him and in His hands, all in God's’ hands so “Just be quiet and I’ll do the rest,” as God says…