The Divine Transformation by Ms.Srividhya Sivakumar
An Alumni of the Sri Sathya Sai University, Anantapur Campus,
Ms.Srividhya Sivakumar graduated with a degree in Physics in 2002. She is a
Journalist by profession.
I was in the 9th grade when my mother started believing in Swami.
At that time, my mother had contracted some kind of an eye infection and
had lost nearly 70 per cent of her vision in the left eye. I was born an
atheist. But a series of incidents in my life turned me to the person I am now
“ a lover of God ".
My mother later told us that during the period of her illness, whichever
hospital or doctor or even pharmacist she visited had a picture of Swami and
from every picture Swami appeared to beckon her. He kept calling her to Him!
I had heard and read many instances of the various miracles Swami had
performed for His devotees. But there is a huge difference in reading about
these miracles as against personally experiencing them.
I was in the 11th grade and had gotten up early in the morning to prepare
for my final exams. My mother had been to Puttaparthi only a few days before
and as a result our house was full of Swami's photos. There was this one photo,
on the wall in the dining hall, which bothered me every time I had to pass by
it. In that particular photo, Swami appeared to be staring angrily, unlike the
other photos in my house in which He was all smiling.
But that morning, things changed, and changed forever. As usual when I
passed by the photo I gave my by now routine smile to Swami. But this time, the
angry-looking Swami from the photograph smiled back at me! Now these were only
miracles that you typically read about in books, but here I was, standing in
front of a photo and looking at the man in the photo smiling back at me!!!
Was I hallucinating? I immediately posed Swami a challenge. I told him
that if what I had seen was true and not some figment of my imagination, then
He needs to come up with a miracle that all of us could see. The very next day,
amritham, or divine nectar came from that particular photo of Swami! And as I
had wanted, all of us could see it!!!
But then nothing comes easy with Swami. He has this knack of testing you
till the last minute and just when you are about to give up, He does some magic
and turns things around.
Then I nurtured dreams of studying in Swami's college which I did join
and studying there was an eye-opener. I was face to face with students who
loved Swami but had different ways of expressing it. My 1st darshan of Swami
came only after I pined for Him.
But there was another occasion when I had to cry and crave for Swami’s
darshan. And that happened a good 8 years later. In 2007, when Swami had come
to Chennai for the ˜Athi Rudra Maha Yagnam", some alumni members such as me had
been assigned the security duty at the Yagna site. But since only a few days
back I had taken up a new job and was under probation, I could not be very
liberal with taking leave.
I had nevertheless taken the first 3 days off. But when the 4th day came,
I knew I had to go to office. So, I decided that I will leave for office after
having Swami's darshan when He would come to the Yagna site. On that day, news
came in that Swami would not be coming to the Yagna site. My heart sank for
this meant that I would have to leave for office without seeing Swami!
I caught an auto rickshaw to go to my office. But the vehicle barely
covered a kilometer, when I got a message on my mobile phone that Swami would
be coming to the Yagna site now from SUNDARAM!
And so I reached Sundaram, when Swami's car was just coming out! I was on
the opposite side of where Swami was seated and so there was no one but me on
that side. I was now standing just feet or two away from Swami! Without
realizing, I had tears running all over my cheeks.
But His benevolence did not stop with that - Swami turned around and
looked at me! He gave me the most beautiful, all-knowing smile that only made
me cry harder. Seeing Swami by itself was a difficult emotion to handle but now
seeing Him look at me was beyond everything. Seeing me crying so much, Swami
smiled again and raised his hand in a blessing gesture before His car zoomed
past me.
Swami's mission is divine and will go on with or without us. That means,
it is only up to us to seek and get a role from this divine director, however
small it may be and play it to perfection, or rather, pray that He makes us
play it perfectly. To whom much is given, much is expected.
Source :
http://media.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_06/01AUG08/07-Srividhya.htm#
OUR LIFE IS HIS MESSAGE
Sai Ram
