This morning I had a miracle: the miracle of Datta. Datta has told us to keep applying the Vibhuti and to expect miracles every day. He has given us other tools: Yantras, mantras, pujas, malas, remedies from His Astroved. We try to do all of them, as best we can. Usually I am lazy. I am not the ideal. Well, this morning was different. I was so grateful that my husband’s life was saved last night. Last night, we had an ice storm. It was intense and all the sidewalks and streets were covered in ice. My husband didn’t leave work until 7pm; it was dark, the streets were slick with thick ice.

During this time, I did a puja asking Lord Muruga to take care of him and keep him from harm’s way. He calls me and says to me ‘I fell down hard on the ice and then crossing the street a car almost ran over me!” The car was veering into him and he didn’t know how, but it didn’t hit him.” It was definitely a miracle. He arrived safely home last night. I was so grateful.

So this morning, I decided to do all the rituals I could think of, to say thank you, remembering that Datta said ‘it is even more important to feed the gods than it is to eat,” and I had so much to say thank you for. So, I do my prayers and puja first thing! I did a puja, with fresh roses, rose water, sandalwood powder, honey, milk, orange juice, for Abishikam and this time, I showed light to all the Yantras and thanked them with beautiful rose petals and golden raisens. I prostrated before Datta’s picture and I did the full Tarpanam, as Datta taught us in NYC, which was lovely and said thank you to all those who contributed to my soul.

I then placed a ghee lamp in front of Datta’s photo with lots of fresh flower petals and raisens. Normally, I don’t do these things first thing in the morning! But for some reason I felt the ghee lamp was calling me to Datta’s photo. So, I put the ghee lamp in front of his photo and said ‘thank you, Datta. thank you for preventing the world wars. for saving people from death, from starvation. thank you for saving my husband’s life.’ I wiped Vibhuti on my forehead.

(during all these rituals, I keep repeating: “Om Namah Shivaya, Om Dattatreya Siva Baba Swaha, Om Namah Sivaya, Om Om Dattatreya Shiva Baba Namaha.” and I apologized to each deity, saying, ‘you understand, I feel compelled to pray this way today.’ I don’t know why I did this, but now I remember that I filled the house with these prayers to Datta.)

We are supposed to pray for what we want after we do these rituals. My prayer was to God and Datta: “take away my selfishness and take away my laziness, so I can allow your love to shine through.” So, I sit down at my computer, ready to go to work and suddenly, up pops a text message from Datta!

“Blessings. It is Datta. You manifested me by thinking about me all the time. write this miracle story!” (this was Datta’s first text message to me ever, and he was using someone’s computer who sometimes text messages with me. amazing. )

So, this is the miracle! Datta told me to write this up! Datta hears all our thoughts, and He makes things happen instantly. both by Him and by the manifested world, which He maintains for us. Datta is the miracle. We are the witnesses.

Om Dram Dattatreya Siva Baba