The Illusionist

When Sai Baba was frisking gold rings and chains from the air and was giving it to his devotees, a Japanese interrupted him to ask a question. When he got the permission to ask, the Japanese asked Sai Baba, “Can you convert the mountain behind you into gold, just like the way you can do this gold rings and chains ?”

After a brief pause, he said to that Japanese guy, “Come tomorrow.”  And, that “tomorrow” never came.

I was in my second year of college when my English lecturer told me about the incident to our class.

A couple of years ago, India TV ran a program disclosing some of his tricks Sai Baba does in front of his devotees, with the help of spy cameras. The program host had also had invited scientists to explain the reason behind those tricks. But, these revelations hardly mattered to his believers as they believe the television was running scam campaign to taint the image of Sai Baba.

At around 1997, my ex-boss had the hardest and most personal experience of Sai Baba’s art of magic or illusion. It was her uncle, who was suffering from cancer, causing him a lot of pain. Her uncle and aunt went to Bangalore for check-ups. The visit required them to go through Chemotherapy to stop the growing tissue in his stomach. The couple, being believers of  Sai Baba, went to visit him during their Bangalore visit. Sai Baba saw the sick believer and did a magic.

In their next visit to the hospital, the oncologist was puzzled after seeing their fresh sheet of x-ray report prior to the chemotherapy. There was nothing in that  x-ray report, not a trace of cancerous tissue. The delighted couple canceled their chemotherapy treatment and returned back back to Nepal.

But they didn’t realize the sad truth: cancer was never treated. Within a month of his return back to Nepal, he had to go back to the hospital in Bangalore due to unbearable pains in his stomach. New tests showed that, within that one month period, the cancer had spread all over his stomach. The chemotherapy would have stopped it, if Sai Baba hadn’t done his ‘magic’.

My ex-boss’s uncle died within two months of his visit to Sai Baba. A death, which could have been postponed for some time if not for forever; came too early to him just because he believed more to an illusionist than doctors and their combined conscience.

They say, at the time of desperation, we believe what we want to believe not what is said to be believed.

Moral of the story – an illusionist can not cure diseases. He may conceal it for a short time but, it resurfaces itself.

Ed's Note : This article has already been published in Xnepali.com on February 4, 2011