16. Wonderful games of Little Krishna
After my first visit to Prema Sai Baba, I began to frequently visit the holy family’s house. At that time, I lived for a long time in the city of Mysore, in the ashram of Ganapati Satchidananda Swamiji. It was an hour and a half drive to the village of Doddamallur, and I could go there quite regularly, usually once a week.
When Prema Sai Baba was four years old, my wife and I began to stay for a long time at the house of Ramanna, who in the 1980s was the personal driver of Sathya Sai Baba. Ramanna has lived in the village of Doddamallur since 2010 calmly awaiting the next incarnation of Sai, knowing very well that Prema Sai Baba would incarnate there. As soon as Prema Sai Baba was discovered by a group from Manipur State in 2015, the happy Ramanna was among the first to start visiting the divine boy regularly.
Ramanna’s house consisted of two floors. He lived on the first floor, and my wife and I settled on the second. It was very convenient as Prema Sai Baba’s house was ten minutes away and we could communicate with him daily. This is how we lived in Doddamallur during the period when Prema Sai was four to six years old (2016-2018).
It is hard to imagine how the holy family lived when Prema Sai was discovered in 2015. Their house was right behind the ancient temple of Aprameya Swami, as Sathya Sai Baba had predicted. The house was extremely small and poor. There was one room where the parents, two children and a grandmother could barely fit. When Prema Sai Baba was six years old, devotees from Bangalore built a spacious and comfortable new home for the holy family on the outskirts of the village next to the jungle. After that, Prema Sai’s parents invited my wife and me to move to the new house, where we were given a separate room.
One of the first miracles I experienced in association with the divine boy was connected with the practice of the Gayatri mantra. For many years I have been practicing this amazing ancient mantra, repeating it several thousand times a day. Even during the lifetime of Sathya Sai Baba, many miracles happened to me as a result of the practice of the Gayatri Mantra. I talk about this in detail in my books.
When I started visiting Prema Sai Baba regularly, I decided to chant the Gayatri Mantra as much as possible in his divine presence. Sitting on the floor in his house, I practiced the mantra, and the divine child, who was six at the time, played nearby.
Suddenly, Prema Sai Baba looked at me and gestured that I should stop chanting the Gayatri Mantra. In simple English words, he explained that he knew I was practicing the Gayatri mantra and asked me to stop it for today.
I was surprised that the divine boy knew that in my mind I was repeating the Gayatri mantra. That day I stopped practicing this mantra. Naturally, the next day I continued my practice. I realized that it was a great blessing. Lord Sai constantly knows what and how we practice.