“In the Arms of God”

Just before I left for India in January of 1995, Linda, a reporter in my office, told me that her niece, a charming young girl of sixteen, had died suddenly of an asthmatic attack in December. She had been watching television with her mother at the time of the attack. Just two hours later, she was dead. Both Linda and her sister’s family were devastated. I had never really spoken to Linda about Sathya Sai Baba, but felt obliged to ask her if she would like to give me a letter asking Him for help. I gave her an article about Swami that had recently appeared in “The Economist”, and had mentioned to her a couple of things about Him, but other than that, she really didn’t know a thing. She wrote a touching note.

At first she asked Baba to “say a prayer” for her young niece. But I told her that odd as it may seem, Baba wouldn’t say a prayer. He would answer it, if the request was sincere and genuine and warranted a response. So I told her that she should try asking for something specific. She changed the letter and asked Baba if He could give a “clear sign” that Elizabeth was “safe and warm and with those who loved her the way she was loved when she was alive”, and she thanked Swami for His kind attention. It was a very sweet note. I managed to get the letter to Baba soon after I arrived, through a very helpful devotee in the first row.

The Monday after I returned home, Linda came into my office and said she wanted to tell me something. On Saturday her sister in Wyoming had called her on the phone and told her this story:

The preceding Monday (which was the day I had left India, only a week or so after giving Baba the letter), her sister was driving to work. The road she travels on goes through a certain area that gives her visibility of about fifteen miles in all directions. Black storm clouds rolled overhead as far as she could see, and it seemed as if there would be a downpour at any moment. This was a particularly bad day for her regarding her daughter. She was, in fact, “screaming her name in the car.” But as the car came up from a small dip in the road, she saw that the clouds had turned “pink and purple” and one cloud clearly spelled out Lizz, her daughter’s name, just the way she spelt it, with two zs.

She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She pulled over to the side of the road and got out of the car. As she stared at her daughter’s name in the sky, three more clouds rolled by: one in the shape of an eagle, one in the shape of a wolf, and one in the shape of an angel. The eagle and the wolf had special significance to her. In school, Lizzy had been part of an eagle tracking club. After she passed away, the club had found an eagle on the ground. They had the eagle stuffed and mounted and had a plaque fixed under it, with the inscription, “In loving memory of Elizabeth.” As for the wolf, she and Lizzy had been members of an organization in Wyoming that adopts and takes care of stray wolves. Then, of course, the angel was a heavenly indication that her daughter was more than just all right. She got back in the car, drove a while, but then stopped again when she remembered that her sister had given someone at work a letter for a holy man in India, asking for “a clear sign” that her daughter was all right.

Linda told me that for about fifteen minutes, there was a stunned silence between them on the phone. She also reported that her sister felt very much better now. After I assured her that this undoubtedly was Swami’s reply, she very promptly wrote Him a thank you letter.

Who wouldn’t?

The above is from an article published in the book “Encounters with Divinity — Sri Sathya Sai Baba”, January, 1999