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 ËœAthi 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
