Those who visit Om Sai Mandir regularly are familiar with the miracles that Baba often performs at the mandir out of His sheer compassion. Many have witnessed the balloon miracle in the past and are familiar with the manner in which Baba has demonstrated His leelas. Today was an encore.

This afternoon, during the Rudram prayers, Baba manifested His presence yet again. Baba, as we all know is omnipresent — not only everywhere, but in everything — and to prove this, He often shows us how He controls every single atom of this vast cosmos. For the benefit of devotees, we are narrating the events that occurred today:

It is not unusual for balloons to float in the air but when they start behaving like a live human being, one can see God’s hand at play. As the prayers were going on this afternoon, a balloon floated and first touched Baba’s feet on the upper floor of the mandir. We did not pay much attention to it but then suddenly the balloon started moving toward the door on the second floor and then took a right turn and directed itself toward the steps leading to the first floor.

Under normal circumstances, a balloon would just float in the air, but this one started WALKING DOWN the steps, mimicking the steps taken by a live human being. It would rise, come down, touch a step, then rise again again and touch the lower step … until it reached the first floor in a hopping fashion, as if someone was walking down the stairs. Balloons float, they don’t hop or walk. We still did not take it seriously.

Then soon thereafter, the balloon took a U-turn (almost as if someone was driving it) and approached the very place where the prayers were being chanted. It then came and stood there (see picture) — still and motionless.

The way it was standing reminded us of how Baba used to stand while inspecting devotees’ prayers. The strangest thing was that the balloon stood right there until 1008 chants of Maha Mrityunjaya Mantram were completed. It did not move for almost thirty minutes.

Those who have seen Baba walk would instantly recognize His characteristic swaying motions and graceful, floating walk. When one witnesses Baba walking, it gives the impression that He is gliding on thin air, almost floating.

As soon as the chants were finished, the balloon moved toward the devotees who were participating in the chant, as if it was Baba’s gesture of blessing the devotees. Then we performed Baba’s afternoon arati. Until then the balloon was steady but as soon as the prayers were completed, it moved away from the area IMMEDIATELY — in a snap.

Just as a background these balloons have been at the mandir since almost two months but they never behaved in this fashion. What’s more wonderful is that this nearly deflated balloon had suddenly regained shape.

The fact that it first touched Baba’s feet, moved down the steps like a human, made right turns and U-turns, stood motionlessly at the same spot until the prayers were being performed, moved away the moment prayers were over … all of this adds up to just one fact: Baba was orchestrating the whole show.

The excitement did not end there, though. In the afternoon, when devotees were praying in front of Baba, the balloon started approaching each devotee individually and would stand still in front of the devotee. Then it would move to the next devotee and stand in front of that devotee … only at the spots where prayers were being performed, nowhere else.

Last year, Baba performed many similar miracles. During one such instance, a bunch of balloons moved across the room, touched Baba’s feet, and went to the lamp in front of Baba, after catching fire from the lamp, the balloon bunch circulated around the table in front of Baba and finally burnt some papers that were there. Thereafter, the fire extinguished on its own before we could do anything.

On every occasion, the balloons ALWAYS touch Baba’s feet first before moving in any direction. Once it could be a coincidence, but if every time Baba’s feet is touched first it cannot be a coincidence.

To give devotees a visual map, we have provided arrows indicating how it all happened. The steps can be seen in the background as well.