Sai Baba creates Sumantra's ring
Baba
was on one of His yearly trips to Kodaikanal. Every
evening Baba relates stories of the yugas that have
passed. Ram, Krishna, Jesus, Zorashtra and other Avatars
would regularly feature among the evening talks. Baba
was once talking about the Ramayana and the topic of
discussion at one point of time shifted to Kaushalya,
the physical mother of Ram.
The following was
the story narrated by Baba:
Baba says that
Ravana was a vedanti and an Astrologer par excellence, who fell only
due the quality of desire not being under his control. Baba
said that when Kaushalya was born, Ravana knew that she would be the
mother of the child at whose hands he would meet his end. So to escape
that eventuality, he kidnapped the child (Kaushalya as a child when
she was only a few days old) and put her into a basket and set her
afloat in the river.
Dasharatha was the
king of Ayodhya. Sumantra was his Prime Minister. Sumantra was very
soft spoken, honest and a good natured man. He was on his errands of
the kingdom to see for himself the general administration. Tired after
a long journey, he felt thirsty and moved towards the river nearby. As
he readied himself to drink water form the river, He heard the cries
of a baby coming from a distance. Initially He thought that it must be
some child that might have come with its mother or so, but as the
cries continued for more than a certain period of time, He decided to
find out.
As he moved towards
the sound, he came near some bushes and to his surprise found a basket
....with a child inside it. He came nearer and removed the child from
the basket. As he was thinking as to who the child was and as to how
it had found its way there, he came across a symbol (most kings have
their own symbol which acts as the official seal) on the cloth
covering the child and recognized it instantly to be the seal of
Kingdom of Koshala. He immediately set out towards the kingdom and
handed over the child back to the king. Sumantra was to be treated as
a royal guest but refused for the following reasons:
-
Since the
situation demanded him to reach the child to safety first, he had
not been able to inform his king of his coming to the kingdom of
Koshala.
-
He was the Prime
minister of the Ayodhya kingdom and protocol suggested that he could
be a state guest incase he had come to the kingdom of Koshala either
accompanying delegation lead by the king himself or on the orders of
the king himself. Neither was the case now.
-
Considering
himself to be the servant of the kingdom of Ayodhya he expressed his
wish to return immediately to be on duty.
The king agreed and
accompanied him to the edge of the kingdom. Sumantra left for Ayodhya
leaving a deep sense of goodwill towards the kingdom of Ayodhya in the
mind of the people of Koshala.
Time passed and time
came for the marriage of Dasharatha, who was then the prince of
Ayodhya. The king of Koshala offered the hand of his daughter
Kaushalya in marriage to Dasharatha and citizens of Ayodhya readily
accepted this. The marriage was solemnised and as Kaushalya was
leaving the kingdom, the king of Koshala spoke the following words to
Sumantra:
?There was a time
when you came into this kingdom to return my daughter as a child.
Today too you have come but are returning to your country with the
same daughter you found near the bushes. As a parting gift I would
like to present you something.?. So saying the king bought out a
diamond studded ring embedded on the sides by rubies. Sumantra was
initially reluctant but accepted it on the command of Dasharatha
himself.
The narration ended
there and there was silence for a while with Baba transfixed as if he
was seeing through time. All students, teachers and staff who had
accompanied Baba on that trip sat awaiting instructions from Baba.
A few moments later,
Baba spoke ?That ring...... Would you all like to see that??. Not
waiting for a reply, Baba waved his hand in the air and in a moment,
the diamond studded ring embedded with rubies given by the Koshala
king to Sumantra in the Dwapara yuga, centuries ago, appeared in Baba?s
hand. As Baba held it for all to see, the students watched it with awe
at its architecture and splendour.
Many such objects
like the ones below:
-
Sita?s ear-ring
-
Sita?s Chudamani
-
Sita?s necklace,
which Hanuman bit trying to find out Rama?s name in it
-
A medallion
showing the exact pose of Rama before His coronation
-
A medallion
showing the exact face of Krishna
-
Symantaka jewel,
the precious diamond given by the Sun God to Satyajit, the father of
Satyabama, one of Krishna?s 8 patranis
-
The Hiranyagarbha
Lingam
have been created by
Baba over the last few years. All these only show His divine nature.
Source:
http://www.geocities.com/sai_ram108/mira16.htm
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