I have always been a curious person, be it in my academic or spiritual pursuits. My bachelor’s and post-graduate studies were in physics, and I got a doctorate in Physics in 1973. However, when I did not get a job at one of the national laboratories in the U.S.A., I became interested in medical school. I applied and was accepted to the fifth largest medical center in the United States, a 1200-bed hospital, at the University of Texas in Galveston. After receiving my M.D. in 1977, I completed an internship and residency in psychiatry at the University of Texas, Galveston. My background in plasma physics, along with my medical studies, inspired me to look for research opportunities. The U.S. Navy was interested in recruiting me as a researcher, and in 1983, I accepted a commission in the U.S. Navy as a Lt. Commander in the Navy Medical Corps and was assigned to duty at the prestigious Naval Health Research Center in San Diego.
The story has been quite similar in my spiritual quest as well.
I am convinced that if we follow Swami’s teachings, we can develop better spiritual understanding and progress spiritually.
Introduction to the Holy Man and the Psychiatrist
Even as I was finishing my psychiatry residency, both my wife (Carol) and I got interested in Yoga. I read two books by Swami Rama (a renowned saint), ‘Yoga and Psychotherapy,’ and ‘Living with the Himalayan Masters.’ I even had the good fortune of meeting Swami Rama in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, where he had established the Himalayan Institute. Carol and I would frequently travel to Houston to buy books on Yoga, philosophy, and spirituality. In 1978, when I was at the bookstore, a customer asked me whether I had heard of Sathya Sai Baba. When I said that I had never heard of Him, the gentleman said that Sai Baba is a man of miracles in India from where he had just returned. He encouraged me to buy a book about Sai Baba. I moved to the section in the shop where they had books about Swami, and I was naturally attracted to the book Sai Baba: The Holy Man and The Psychiatrist by Dr. Samuel Sandweiss.
Picking up the book, I saw from the picture that Swami appeared to be a handsome, strong, and good-looking Westerner! It was my curiosity that made me pick up the book and add it to the pile that I had already selected for purchase. When it was time to leave, Carol told me that I should put back some of the books and not carry such a large pile home. Strangely, I put back Swami’s book on the top shelf, along with a few others. As I just turned to leave, one book literally flew off the shelf and struck me on the head. It was the book on Swami by Dr. Sandweiss! It had to be Swami, I thought! Carol immediately said, “You better buy that book!”
I was soon reading the book voraciously.
Our Plan and His Masterplan
In the beginning, it was our fascination with Yoga that drew us to India, particularly to Rishikesh and the northern regions where many Yogis are known to reside. Reading ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Paramahamsa Yogananda (a renowned saint) further fueled our curiosity.
During this time, after I had accepted my commission in the Navy, Carol and I along with our son moved to San Diego. Our unsold home in Galveston was left in the hands of our realtor. During the summer of 1983, Hurricane Alicia ravaged our home in Galveston, leaving the bottom floor submerged under five feet of water. With the help of our realtor, we managed to have it restored and then sell it. We were pleasantly surprised when we found there was enough money left over from insurance and the sale of our house for a trip to India! We planned this trip for the summer of 1984. My wife, Carol, meticulously crafted our itinerary, charting a course from Bombay (Mumbai today) through Udaipur and Jaipur to Agra, Delhi, and Kathmandu before returning to Calcutta (Kolkata today) on our way to Bangalore (Bengaluru today) and Madras (Chennai today) in the South for our return trip home.
During this planning phase of our trip, I remembered the holy man mentioned in the book we bought in Houston. Intrigued, we resolved to seek out His whereabouts to see how we might see Him before leaving India. That’s when I sifted through the book and saw a divine masterplan in place. I was staying very close to Dr. Samuel Sandweiss! I soon got his phone number and called him. He invited me to come over to his home, and he would share how I could see Sai Baba. The next evening, we went to his house. Others had also gathered there, and a speech had been arranged. The guest speaker was Mrs. Elsie Cowan, who narrated a most extraordinary experience, describing how her husband had been resurrected from the dead by Baba. However, I did not venture to talk about Swami with the host or any of the others who gathered there. I wanted to learn about Him directly from my own experience.Thus, in 1984, we traveled to India as planned.
The Strike on The Plan
We loved our trip from Bombay across northern India to Delhi and then to Kathmandu. From Kathmandu, we were supposed to travel to Calcutta. However, we were delayed in leaving Kathmandu because we had only gotten single-entry visas for India, and we used that single entry when we flew into Bombay! Thus we were not allowed to leave Kathmandu until we could get new visas. Over the next three days, our Sherpa guide helped us get a new visa and a new flight out of Kathmandu. Thus, we finally arrived in Calcutta three days late. We had missed our original flight to Bangalore. We then learned that India, particularly Andhra Pradesh, had been experiencing a general strike for the previous four weeks. The Governor of Andhra Pradesh had been removed by the Parliament, which upset the people and led to the strike. There were long waiting lists for flights from Calcutta to Bangalore. On the second day of waiting for a flight to Bangalore, while standing in a tourist shop, we suddenly realized that we might not get to see Swami. Our time in India was coming to a close for this trip. It was a revelation. Tears came to our eyes as we felt very sad. We felt a very strong desire to see Swami! Later that day, Swami blessed us with a flight to Bangalore!
We arrived at our hotel in Bangalore and found out that the Ashram was closed, and no taxis or buses were traveling to Puttaparthi. Despite the odds, our longing to see Swami drove us forward. We sought advice from the concierge. Imagine our joy to learn that bus service had just resumed that day! We thanked our stars! We hurried to the bus station, only to find that the bus was absolutely packed with eager travelers after the prolonged hiatus.
However, we were determined to reach our destination, and our taxi driver proposed his brother’s vehicle as an alternative transport to take us to Puttaparthi. But there was one condition: we had to leave immediately! It was an old Ambassador car, and its tires were threadbare. But we were determined to get to the Ashram and did not want to leave India without seeing Swami. So, we left Bangalore with only the clothes we were wearing and some small traveler’s checks I was carrying.
The Journey to God
I was already beginning to realize that the journey to God is not an easy one. It requires patience, perseverance, and endurance. We were barely five minutes into the journey when we ran out of gas! My son and I pushed the car to the nearest fuel station and, after refueling, started back on our journey. All along the way, there were many roadblocks with large stones, reminders of the just-concluded strike. We stopped at all these roadblocks, and I had to get out of the car to clear the stones. Finally, when we reached Prasanthi Nilayam in Puttaparthi, I realized we were almost the first to arrive after the strike.
When we arrived at the Ashram, afternoon darshan was just over, and Swami had returned to His room. Our driver told us he would spend the night in the Ashram and that we had to leave just after morning darshan. We were to have one darshan of Swami. But what a blessing that would be! At the Accommodations Office, we were given a space in a shed. This was particularly difficult for Carol, who does not enjoy anything like camping! We went to the village and got mattresses, bedding, some utensils, and water, and we had some appropriate clothing made for us. Carol used the water and stainless steel cups to soak her contact lens overnight and then more water to moisten the lens before putting them in her eyes the next morning! It was a new experience, and we were really roughing it because we were determined to see Swami at any cost whatsoever.
Darshan
The next morning, we finally had Swami’s darshan. There were barely about 30 or 40 people. That’s all! From a situational perspective, it was the aftermath of the strike. But I knew He blessed us to have an intimate darshan.
For me, the darshan was a mystical experience. Swami seemed to be transparent and simply gliding across the ground. It was so beautiful. We all left the Ashram deeply feeling His divinity. It was a life-changing event for us.
His Calling Card
We didn’t have time to stay longer. After just one darshan, we had to return to our hotel in Bangalore. But our driver persuaded us to travel to Srirangapatna, near Mysore, where a devotee by the name of Mr. Halagappa had set up a temple for Swami. All of the pictures there were covered with Vibhuti. Mr. Halagappa showed us the medallions of Shirdi Baba and Sathya Sai Baba. They were copper-clad enamel pictures and exuded a sweet liquid called Amrith (divine nectar).
As a physicist trained in pure sciences, I was hard-pressed to believe anything that couldn’t be readily replicated in a laboratory. But what I saw was simply fascinating. These medallions were oozing Amrith at the rate of a drop every 10 to 15 seconds! There were no tubes attached, and the liquid was coming out of nowhere. It was a miracle in plain sight! Energy was being transmuted into matter!
I was shocked to witness such a thing for the very first time in my life. Although I have always been a firm believer in God, I was mainly focused on the intellectual aspect until that point. But that was the beginning of my focus on purely spiritual perspective. We returned to San Diego, and I went back to work and my regular routine, but I was convinced that I would be reading and learning more about Swami and visiting Him more frequently.
Indeed, I had received Swami’s calling card!
The First Interview
In 1987, the United States State Department tasked me with exploring the potential for transferring medical technology between the USA and India. I enthusiastically accepted the assignment and headed to Bombay (now Mumbai), where I collaborated with King Edward Memorial Hospital and other healthcare institutions. After completing my work, I embarked on a planned trip to Bangalore with the primary goal of visiting Swami. Arriving in Bangalore, I learned Swami was returning to Whitefield from Prasanthi Nilayam in two days. I found accommodation close to the Ashram and eagerly awaited His arrival. When Swami finally arrived and I saw Him, I felt like I was being totally ignored! I also noticed people were handing letters and notes to Swami written by them. We also saw a presentation by a devotee from Africa, who was reading out the poetry he had written. So I thought, “I, too, will write a little poem, and I will pray to Swami for an interview.” That evening, I wrote a poem:
Father,
Although I am far from home
I never feel alone.
You are the Dweller in my heart
And we will never part
Will you please hear my plea
And grant an interview with Thee
and when Swami came out for darshan, I offered Him an envelope with the letter and my poem in it. When He came out for darshan, He went around, took my little letter, and said, “Go!” So, I went into the compound of Swami’s residence and had my memorable first interview with Swami in 1987.
After briefly talking to all the devotees called in for an interview in the outer room, Baba called each person for a private interview in an inner room. Finally, He came out and said to me, “You are next!” He then called me inside. I was carrying a japamala (rosary) and a quartz egg that looked like a Shivalinga, and I wanted Swami to bless them for me. At first, He said, “You worry too much! You worry about the past, the future, and your family, and you worry about your job! I will worry about all those for you. You just worry about the present!” And then He pointed His fingers toward Himself, swept them up and down, and said, “The Omnipresent!”
He looked at the items I was carrying, picked up the quartz egg, and said, “This isn’t a Shivalinga. I will make you a real Shivalinga tomorrow; be ready!”
He talked to me about some personal matters, after which we returned to the outer interview room. He continued seeing others, and at the end, He gave each person a handful of vibhuti packets as we left the sacred room! I was the last person leaving the room, and I noticed someone had dropped a packet of vibhuti. As I reached down to pick it up, He laughed and said, “You want some more?” I turned around and said, “Sure!” So He gave me another big handful of vibhuti packets.
The Miracle Linga
So I left the interview room with everyone else, and later that night, I was wondering, What did He mean when He said ‘be ready?’ That evening, I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I just wanted to focus on remembering Swami and thinking about the memorable interview with Him. The next day, during darshan, He looked at me again and said: “Go!” So I went to the waiting area outside His residence. Soon, everyone who was called gathered in the interview room. After a while, He motioned for me to come forward and give Him the quartz egg I had been carrying.
“What is this?” He held it up so everyone could see it, but nobody answered Him. He then said, “This is glass; it’s only glass. I am going to make it a real Shivalinga.” He held the quartz egg in the palm of His right hand. Then, with the open palm facing up so everyone could see it, He gently blew on it several times without moving His hand. The reticulated quartz egg turned into a solid black Shivalinga, to the amazement of everyone!
He held it up and said: “This is a real Shivalinga.” He continued, “It is made of the five elements.” He stopped and looked at me, asking, “Who does this belong to?” I looked up to Him and said, “To You, Swami.” He smiled, nodded yes, and pulled a silk handkerchief out of my pocket. He wrapped the Shivalinga in the silk handkerchief and put it in my shirt pocket. Then He said to me, “Immerse it in water every night and drink that sanctified water. It will help to calm your mind.” I have been carrying “His Shivalinga” with me ever since, and I faithfully place it in water every night as per Swami’s directive. But I believe that the Shivalinga is on loan from Swami. It still belongs to Swami.
I carry the sacred linga with me wherever I travel. As I mentioned, I have traveled far and wide, and consequently, I have been exposed to many unpredictable and precarious situations. Whether it was a German police barricade at Frankfurt airport or a bomb scare for my family at Heathrow airport, I truly believe that we have come through these situations with flying colors because of the blessed linga!
I can go on and on about personal experiences. But based on my lifelong experience, I am convinced that if we follow Swami’s teachings, we can develop better spiritual understanding and progress spiritually. To love Him above all and to love our fellow beings as ourselves are the most meaningful learnings of my life. I believe the same transformational miracle can happen to others, too, when we have an outpouring of love and practice His teaching that love transforms whomever we interact with.
Dr. Mike Congleton holds an M.D. in Psychiatry and a Ph.D. in Plasma Physics. He came to Swami in 1984 and has served Him with devotion as an officer in the SSSIO for several decades. Swami blessed him with several miracles and interviews.
Dr. Congleton served as the President of the Sathya Sai Baba Society, established in 1970 with Bhagawan’s blessings and guidance. He was also the National Council President and the Central Coordinator of the SSSIO–USA.
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First published in Eternal Companion Vol. 3, Iss. 7