61. Golden chain
One of my acquaintances from the Ural (Russia), Alexander, received a beautiful gold chain as a gift from Sathya Sai Baba. Sathya Sai Baba materialized the chain during a personal meeting, and joyfully put it around the neck of my friend, saying this chain would protect him from all dangers. A week later Alexander went home happy.
A few months later, my friend went on a business trip to Kazan city. It was a hot summer and he decided to swim in the cool and rapid river Volga. After diving several times, he came ashore and relaxed on the sand. After a couple of minutes, he noticed the chain around his neck was gone.
Alexander was shocked as he was quite sure that when he entered the water the chain was around his neck. He distinctly remembered correcting it before diving in. Terrified, he didn’t know what to do. After standing for a few moments in a daze, he took to the stormy river again but this time to find his lost chain under the water.
It was clear it was simply not possible to find the chain in the fast waters of the huge river. Sad, he went back to the hotel and a few days later returned to his hometown.
The mysterious loss of the chain shocked my friend so much he went into despondency for a long time and almost did not communicate with anyone. Relatives and friends understood that something strange was happening, but he sparingly answered all questions with a request to be left alone.
In fact, it is the most common story: man dives into a river and his chain, perhaps, unfastens or simply flies off under the pressure of a strong current. Stories like this happen quite often. However, in this case, the loss of the chain meant much more because it was not an ordinary gold chain, but a gift from Sathya Sai Baba.
When Alexander later told me about his experiences of that time, he admitted that for a long time he could not tell his friends and relatives about it, because he blamed himself for his carelessness.
However, these events were only the beginning of the story. The miracles of Sathya Sai Baba are the subtlest, multi-step, divine game. This story has an amazing sequel.