It was the year 1978 and as a child I accompanied my parents to Prasanthi Nilayam for Bhagawan’s Darshan. Those were the days when Swami gave His Darshan on the ‘sands’ i.e. the Mandir as it was then with sand surrounding it and people seated on the ground awaiting the arrival of the Lord. At the appointed hour, Bhagawan glided down towards the gents enclosure.
Swami used to initiate young children into ‘Aksharabhyasa’ or the initiation into the first letter, the primordial sound – ‘OM’. My parents desired that Swami perform the rite with His own divine hands for me. Typically, a child sitting in the Darshan rows would rise and offer a blank slate and a white chalk piece to Him. Swami would lovingly take it and write the letter ‘Om’ as in Sanskrit and bless the child. It was the divine way of initiating a tender mind which was blank and unassuming into the illumination of the primordial sound or divinity. With that letter ‘Om’, Swami not only initiated the spiritual association with Him, but also the association at a physical level. My father prayed to Swami if I may be admitted at His school in Ooty – the Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vihar to which Swami in his typical cryptic and mysterious way responded with the word ‘Santosham’ and a smile in benediction.
My parents probably expected a response in affirmation or negation, but Swami, as we students know, has always been the one who will guide us to the right path. It is for us to walk that path, use His gift of intellect and wisdom, and reach the goal. And so my parents approached the school only to be told that it was too late for that academic year, but they had an option to try again the next year. So my parents did come back in 1979 and admission was granted. The initial days in the school involved a lot of adjustment and learning to live away from parents who were several thousand kilometers away. But Swami never leaves anyone stranded. He ensured that the teachers were extremely affectionate and caring. And not too long after the term started, we came to know that Swami was coming to visit the school. As is sung in the Hindi song dedicated to our Lord, “Tum Aaye, Tum Sang Aayibahar”, the world for us rose to a new level of excitement. The memories of that first divine visit are clearly etched in my memory. Swami mingled with the children as if He knew each of them from their birth. On hindsight, the better statement would be that He knew us souls from several births and ensured we were here to bask in His divine presence. The special moments such as Swami walking down the aisle of our dormitory cannot be forgotten while some of us would be asleep and others pretending to sleep during the night! And oh! What a high when he would converse a few words to each child pulling a leg here, chiding the teachers there, and so on. The crowning event during this divine visit was when He lovingly posed with every child for an individual photograph – over a 100 children, but not one was neglected. Our Lord is willing to wait and do anything for us humans, only we need to latch on to the rope He has thrown at us.
The Wait
More visits by Swami to the school followed in the course of the next couple of years, each as intimate as the one before. Time flew and then we were informed that Swami had beckoned us to continue our further studies at Prasanthi Nilayam. So in the year 1981, the first batch of Ooty school students came into Prasanthi Nilayam not knowing how or what was the next course of action, but with the firm faith that Swami is going to take care of everything. We started our academic year in the Smt. Easwaramma High School, which Swami ensured had an English medium section that would support the needs of the students who had come with similar English-medium background. Like a silkworm metamorphosing into a butterfly, we too found our way gradually into the new Sri Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School. Years flew by as I completed my schooling and then went on to Brindavan for my graduation. Nothing dramatic happened during all these years as far as interaction with Swami at a physical plane. The divine moments whilst studying in the Brindavan campus were legendary. Amongst Brindavan students then, it was an informal statement that while Prasanthi Nilayam was His office; Brindavan was His resort where it seemed as if He was always in a state of relaxed bonhomie – laughing, lovingly advising and motherly care, all on full display.
The years passed by and in the year 1991, I found myself with His grace to be selected for the MBA programme at Parthi campus. Somehow by that time the hope of getting any significant interaction at a physical level had diminished. I have to admit, at times I even thought to myself; rather foolishly that, “Swami only talks or interacts, materializes objects for others. I will never be fortunate to receive blessings in that manner”. But it is said that God holds the key to a master plan.
The MBA programme had a summer project at the end of the first academic year. So in the month of June 1992 we were in Brindavan to fulfill that one month requirement interacting with different companies in Bangalore to which we were assigned to. During one of the Trayee sessions, I had the good fortune of being in the path where Swami was to pass on His way from His quarters to the hall where He granted the evening sessions to all students, staff and some guests. As He came close to me, I moved (or rather pushed others back!) to give Him some way to pass. He stopped in front of me, looked at me and then at the portion below my neck visible through the open portion of the shirt I was wearing. He put His finger there and suddenly asked me, “What are these marks on your body?” Frankly, that was the first time I had even seen those marks and I looked back at Him blank as ever. Swami just pressed that portion below my neck and went on to sit on the jhoola. But I was transported to a new plane! Swami had actually spoken to me after such a long time. All kinds of emotions were swelling within me but I allowed myself to enjoy recalling those few precious seconds of divine love.
God acts at the right time
A day or two after that very brief interaction, all the students were seated on the Trayee driveway for the morning Darshan. Swami gave His Darshan and had selected a few devotees for a personal interview. He glided back into the Trayee compound and then asked the selected devotees to proceed into the outer room within Trayee. As He was climbing up the ramp into the interview room, He suddenly stopped, turned to look at us students and asked in Telugu, “Where is that boy with skin problem?” The irony was that no one had a clue who Swami was referring to! I too heard this and I felt within my heart as if Swami was referring to the earlier interaction. I was sitting in the second row and I dared to slowly raise my head as if to draw Swami’s attention with the thought in my head that it must be someone else that Swami was searching for. What a pleasant shock it was when Swami beckoned me to run up to the interview room! My mind went blank for a few seconds still disbelieving the drama unfolding.
Even inside the interview room, it seemed to me that time had decided to wait on me. Swami was speaking to all the other devotees with hardly any attention to my existence within the room. When finally my turn did come, the first statement as I knelt before our Lord of the Universe was, “I know, you have been waiting all these years and wondering why Swami is not talking to you or materializing anything for you, isn’t it?” I was too stunned to even say a yes or no! My emotions could no longer be controlled as I let my eyes do the talking bursting out in tears ashamed at the thought that I had doubted the omnipresence of Sai. And then Swami said, “I know everything. Sai Baba is God”. The next instant, He became the true form of a mother consoling a weeping child, wiping away tears with His hands and patting my head and back. Only Swami could do this role change in an instant, one role that of the Supreme and the next the role of a human figure.
Many years later I pondered on the statement that He made to me. I wondered as to why Swami had to make that statement? My submission is that man from time to time forgets the basic fact on the existence of God or His omnipresence. God has to act in several ways to remind man about His presence. Maybe I was meant to be told directly on my face and so it happened. It is not that I was unaware of it but it was a loving reminder to reinforce the faith, to reassure that whatever be the challenges, Sai is there with us every moment.
My final year of MBA was filled with several interaction opportunities with Bhagawan. And the ‘skin problem’ was apparently an indication of some heart problem which I was asked to verify at the Super Specialty Hospital by none other than Swami. Nothing came of those medical checkups, at least that is what the doctors said, but I am certain Swami had already absorbed the problem even before it hit me so which medical science would detect it? Many of us students have seen Swami gesturing with His hand to wait. All these events in those couple of years proved to me that there is a time for everything. God will never fail when the time to bless the soul comes.
The questions are –
(1) Are we open enough to receive the blessings at the time when God grants it to us? And
(2) Are we doing enough to deserve those blessings? Let’s introspect and work to be worthy of receiving those blessings.
