The previous day we had gone to a small Shirdi Sai Baba mandir in Dwarahat.

We sat
in front of the idol and started to meditate. There was a photo of Babaji right
behind the statue of Sai Baba. To my surprise I found that the photo of Babaji
turned into the beautiful form of Lord Subramanya holding the vel (spear) in his
hand with a peacock standing beside him. He had long flowing locks up to his
shoulders and wore a loin cloth exactly like Babaji. His piercing eyes looked
straight at me and he said, “You have been worshipping me for many years. That is
why I am giving you this vision. Don’t you know that Babaji who you have come here
to see is my avatara (incarnation).” With these words, the vision disappeared to be
replaced by Babaji’s photo. I opened my eyes and everything was as it was before.
The whole scene had taken place within the span of five minutes. Immediately I
realised that I had been taken to Katargama with a certain purpose — to show me
that Babaji was indeed Kartikeya — Subramania. That was why Bhogarnatha had taken
him to Katargama to initiate him. Of course being the incarnation of Lord
Subramania, he needed no initiation but all avataras go through such mundane
activities. Having taken on a human body they have to behave like human beings.

The next day when I was laboriously climbing up that steep mountain path to the
cave, I felt the boy Subramania — Bala Subramania, was running in front of me,
turning back to look at me and encouraging me to climb. I suddenly realised that
the day was “shasti” — the 6th day of the moon according to the lunar calendar
which Hindus follow. Shasti is known to be Subramania’s day. I had been observing a
vow on shashti day each month for many years. Slowly everything seemed to be
falling into place.