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The Lord's Touch
Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba
The story of the construction of
the Mandir building at Prasanthi Nilayam is a chain of miracles
wrought by Bhagawan's grace. The most astounding was the
transport of the huge girders for the central prayer hall from
the railway station at Penukonda sixteen miles away. Girders of
40 feet length had come from Trichinopoly (now Tiruchirapalli)
to Penukonda by train. The road from Penukonda to Bukkapattanam
was a district board road with a sandy stream at the seventh
mile and it passed through a few villages with delicately built
houses(!) flanking the narrow road on either side with a few
acutely angled curves. There was a track of three miles, from
Bukkapatanam to Puttaparthi with a few dilapidated culverts and
low-level causeways and a broad expanse of the sand of the river
Chitravathi. Then there was the task of hoisting the heavy
girders on the twenty-foot high walls. Therefore, the engineers
gave up all hope of transporting the girders from Penukonda to
Puttaparthi and placed before Baba some alternative proposals
for roofing the prayer hall. But Baba did not relent.
One fine morning, the Road Transport Officer of Anantapur
district, who was a devotee of Baba, woke up to find a surprise
in front of his house. It was a huge crane from the Tungabhadra
Dam site that had stopped there and refused to move forward. It
had struck work! The driver was grappling with the engine in
vain. He could not make it move. He sought the help of the Road
Transport Officer who thought that the crane was Baba sent (!)
for transporting the girders from Penukonda to Puttaparthi. It
was agreed that the crane would transport the girders if it were
repaired. The R.T.O. hurried to Puttaparthi and prayed to Baba,
who materialised some vibhuti (sacred ash) and gave it to him.
This vibhuti was smeared on the engine and the driver was asked
to start it and lo! the crane started moving. The surprised
driver went happily to Penukonda railway station, lifted the
girders with the giant arms of the crane and started towards
Puttaparthi. The sight of this giant carrying the girders was a
great surprise for the villagers who greeted it by lining up on
the roadsides. The crane somehow passed over the culverts,
negotiated hairpin bends, lurched over the slushes and puffed
its way up the Karnatanagapalli hill! It did not move further,
may be on seeing the broad sheet of sand of the Chitravathi
River! Baba himself went to the crane, sat with the driver and
handled the steering wheel. Thrilled by the touch of the Lord,
the crane moved happily to the work spot and unloaded the
girders.
Source:
http://www.sathyasai.org/ashrams/prasanthi/history.htm
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