Om sai ram to all the devotees. Chapter 34 of the Sai Satcharitra has a paragraph wherein Baba and Shama converse. Shama asks baba “Deva, what is this play of yours? You first raise a storm and make us restless and then calm it down and comfort us” Baba replied, “You see mysterious is the path of action. Though I do nothing, they hold Me responsible for the actions which take place on account of Prarabdh (destiny) I am only their witness. The Lord is the sole doer and Inspirer. He is the most merciful. Neither I am God, nor master. I am his obedient servant and remember him constantly. He who casts aside his egoism and thanks him and he, who trusts him entirely will have his shackles removed and will obtain liberation”

Our baba is always besides his devotees in tough times and in happy times. A day prior to the 21 day lock down, my Bruno, pet dog who is a 2.5 year old Labrador who is like my son, vomited after his meal. Without a delay, I called his vet and asked if I should worry, he said its absolutely normal for dogs to vomit once in a while, if the vomiting persists then I should take him to the hospital. That day, he didn’t vomit the whole day, but the very next day he threw up twice, I had to take him to the hospital (which thankfully is near my home) but was in a fix regarding the nationwide lock down due to coronavirus and all the panic surrounding it. I told Baba its your responsibility to keep me and Bruno safe, I had baba’s udi and gave some to Bruno and left for the doctors. On reaching there the vet said its possible stomach infection as he was not de-wormed since a long time. I took myself to task for being negligent and irresponsible for not giving Bruno his monthly de-worming tablets and begged baba to keep Bruno healthy and promised him that I will not be irresponsible in future. The vet said he would he would conduct Bruno’s stool test to be sure. We stayed at the hospital for 2hours as Bruno was given IV drip, the poor boy was in a lot of pain due to the needles and was restless the whole 2 hours. On coming back home he slept like a baby and became slight active in the evening but still was not like his old energetic Bruno, he started making puppy like noises, hinting he’s in pain. I immediately called his doctor and asked what could be the possible reason for him to make such noises as he was already injected with the medicines, he replied that the stool test report says that Bruno has parasitic worms in his stomach and can be cured only if he has a particular medicine. He assured me that there’s nothing to worry as long as he’s having that medicine for 3 days.

A part of me was relaxed that the situation is under control but a part of me was also tensed considering that, that particular prescribed medicine is an animal drug would not be available easily considering the lock down, whether pet shops would be opened or not. Fellow devotees, the next day was Thursday, our baba’s day and I prayed to him saying that baba with your consent only Bruno has an infection and now you arrange for his medicine amid the lock down. Nothing is difficult for our Sai! I called up at the pet hospital’s pet shop asking for the medicine and they said that its out of stock and will be available only after the lock down now, but the shop owner gave me another shop’s number stating that they for sure would be having it and might as well deliver the medicine to your doorstep. Taking baba’s name I called at the other shop, got a positive answer regarding the medicine but said they can’t deliver as they are short on staff. However at that point of time it struck me that our neighbor's driver was on duty so I can ask him if he can get the medicine. He obliged me and went to get the medicine for Bruno and the same night I gave him his first dose.

Fellow devotees while the above episode was happening, I was going mad yet I held onto my baba’s feet knowing and having that assurance that Sai will not let anything happen as he stood with me before and he will stand with me now and will never ever let go off me. All that he asks for is Shraddha and Saburi! Om sai Ram!