I was sharing a room with two Australians. They had their mattresses and nets comfortably
arranged when I moved in. I felt like a squatter. I set up my business on the concrete
floor in a corner of the room that would have been comfortable for one person. But
the Ashram was filling up with people from all over the world. Rooms in the ashram
were very inexpensive and were at a premium, hence the doubling and tripling up.
There was a small Western-style bathroom, (the Indian-style bathroom had what looked
like a bed pan cemented to the floor) and a sink with running water. Home sweet home!
I had told a few friends that I had hoped to lose some weight on my trip to India,
little did I know that Sai Baba must have heard me, and had me pay a price for that
desire!
Everyone was abuzz about the new super specialty hospital that had been built in
one year. "An impossible feat", said the President of India, when he had
visited the marshland where the hospital was to be built. "There’s no way to
bring heavy machinery onto that land", they had said. And the plans that Baba
drew up himself for the architecture would take at least 3 years. The next morning
after Baba’s announcement that the hospital would be completed the next year on his
birthday, and this before the first brick was laid!
Well, the land somehow became solid and only hand workers were allowed to work on
it. No machinery! It was built in grand Indian design and larger than a number of
city blocks. Everything was supposed to be free. And doctors from all the world came
to donate their time. The first surgery was a heart surgery and it was done on Baba’s
birthday. I went to take a look at it and indeed it was grand, but that’s not what
this story is about really.
I lay on my mattress on the floor listening to the Aussies swap beer stories and
how the women and fishing are so good, and what in the world are they doing here
anyway. They didn’t seem to get who this 'Sai Barbra' was, as they called him. A
week came and went and then one of the Aussies got dysentery. It was a bad case and
he was constantly in pain. It was difficult to get any sleep, and then I caught it.
With one bathroom to share it was comical to see. However the comedy had just begun.
I began losing strength and couldn’t go out to buy water or food. The Aussie who
was well seemed to forget I was there while his hands were full nursing his friend.
I seemed to lose track of time after a while, and I felt "This is not the way
I wanted to lose weight!"
I slept and didn’t eat and didn’t drink any water for I don’t know how long. I felt
as if I could leave my body at any time. I didn’t feel panic, or scared.
It seemed natural, but the thought or idea of it seemed wrong. I lived in a dream
state and no longer lived in the world, when the door of the room opened up and a
man from Minnesota asked where he could put his bed down.
The Aussie who was well was out of the room. The other Aussie was recovering, but
he wasn’t aware that I was even there! The man from Minnesota
yelled out, "This man is dying! What’s the matter with you people? He needs
electrolytes and water right away." I was given huge amounts of the stuff and
in a week or so I had recovered enough for him and I to engage in a conversation.
This is what he told me:
He said his name was Frank, but I’m not really sure that’s what it was. He had been
to see Sai Baba once for a few days, seven or eight years ago. He worked as a specialist
for the Honeywell Corp. His specialty was air conditioners.
Now it seems he had a dream where Sai Baba asked him for his help and would he come
over to India? Frank told his wife about the dream and she said no, he couldn’t go.
They couldn’t afford it and a hundred other reasons. The bottom line was, she placed
a heavy pressure on him.
"If you go, don’t expect me to be here when you get back", she told Frank.
Frank apparently hadn’t buckled under the pressure because here he was. A knock on
the door! "The head of the Specialty Hospital has a car waiting for you, if
you could join us as soon as possible" an Indian in a Nehru-style jacket said!
I said to Frank, "That’s pretty good attention, man." He said, "Yeah,
but I hadn’t told anybody I was here and I don’t know anyone at the hospital"!
Frank wasn’t easily ruffled at these seemingly impossible miracles. He was a yogi.
Even-minded, you know, at anything that entered his world.
The problem was the doctors were performing surgeries with broken air conditioners.
It was intolerably hot! The air conditioners were from the Honeywell Corp in Minnesota
and Frank got on the phone with his supervisor there and told them they needed about
a hundred s235890 model coils right away and could they send them over to India.
ASAP!
Frank’s supervisor said, "So you’re in India, huh? That’s great, we thought
you took off with a woman from St. Louis!" They both had a good laugh.
I’d watch Frank get up early every morning and do Yoga exercises. I was in awe at
his mechanics, and perseverance. He’d go to Darshan every day and get last row in
a crowd of 5-6,000 people, while I’d get first row and hand a letter to Baba that
I’d written for him, or sometime he’d ask me how I was doing!
Frank stayed 5 more days and never once complained about his seating situation in
the darshan grounds. He said, I’m where I am supposed to be. When I asked him, "What
will you do if your wife isn’t there?", he said calmly, "She’ll either
be there when I get back or not." I thanked him for saving my life, and he said
"God’s grace." We shook hands and he told me he was a big Barry Manilow
fan and if I ever performed out his way, he hoped he’d like my music as much as his.
So, a guy flies in from Minnesota after having a dream, saves my life, fixes the
air conditioning at the hospital, and flies home just like that! Barry Manilow
I just want you to know I love you!