'A BRUSH WITH DIVINITY' - By Dr. Mayur Pandya
Baba with the students in the deer garden at the Brindavan Ashram
“THE ONLY STORY IS HIS GLORY
THE ONLY GLORY IS HIS STORY”
This adage practically sums up the feelings of every individual who has sipped
the cup of Sai’s love. It has been and always will be a land of no return.
Once this Divine ambrosia touches the lips, the addiction is immediate, the
transformation complete. No one has remained the same after this ‘Brush with
Divinity’. When Sai’s love has touched our hearts, he chooses to bestow Divine
experiences to satisfy the doubting Thomas in us thereby strengthening our
faith in Him as our Goal, Guide and Guardian. One common experience which many
people are fortunate to receive is the taste of Sai’s Divine Omnipresence. In
the following paragraphs I hope to enumerate some such comments.
The Old Brindavan Bungalow
Having just joined the hostel in June 1978, we were instructed that none should
visit the post office which was in the Kadugodi village without due permission.
On this particular afternoon, I had to send home a registered letter urgently.
But, search as I may, I could not locate any senior member of the hostel. So,
I made a ‘wise’ decision of going to the post office and then asking permission
after returning. So I set about my job with a kick in my stride and walked
towards the post office. Brindavan Ashram has two gates: One through which the
devotees come in and the other through which the permanent residents enter
their homes. The latter being a short cut, I walked towards it through the
Mandir garden. As I reached the end of the Mandir portico, unconsciously my
vision turned upwards. My heart missed a beat, for, there was Swami standing
on the terrace looking down at me with wide eyes and a face so serious that it
could have made even a murderer feel like a small guilty boy. Being completely
terror stricken, the only instinctive gesture was to bring my palms together in
Namaskar and look up at the Lord.
I do not think I have remained long on my feet had not Swami’s face broken into
a beautiful mischievous smile and shaken His fore finger at me as if saying,
“Don’t you dare try to go out without permission again.” The next move brought
down all the barriers between Swami and I making my heart reach out to Him. He
pointed His fore and middle fingers at me, imitating a gun in the hand pose! He
closed one eye and ‘shot’ at me followed by such a beautiful smile that I fell
flat for Him. The ‘bullet’ found its mark, for I could feel the sweetness long
after Swami had turned around and gone inside. I subsequently made a brilliant
manoeuvre of making a bee line back to the hostel and quietly lying down on my
bed. I ruminated about how Swami had known about the wrong (small as it may
seem), I was about to do, and how He knew where and when I would exactly pass
by and how lovingly He had not only pointed out my mistake and forgiven me but
also touched my heart with His Love – all without a word being spoken. I asked
some seniors if it was usual for Swami to come out at that time (12:45 in the
afternoon). They assured me that Swami would have usually retired to His room
long before 12:45. This small but beautiful experience of Sai’s Omnipresence
was the very first and it has been safely tucked away in the chest of my
treasured memories.
Yet another, perhaps a more significant one, happened in 1980. I had the good
fortune of being one amongst the group of students being at the Mandir at night
on security duty. Along with us was as senior lecturer of the college. On this
particular day, the lecturer and I began to talk about Swami’s childhood days,
his Leelas and Mahimas and so on. A question was raised by me which was
something like this. “Sir, if you take into account the past years of Swami’s
sojourn on the earth, we find that not a single person has been in Swami’s
Sannidhi till present. In fact we notice a group of people being very intimate
with Him and then after a span of 10 or 15 or 20 years, another group of people
are very intimate. Does that mean that we too will leave and another group of
people will be intimate with Him..?” To this we both felt that in this brief
sojourn of 96 years, our Lord’s Love has to transform more and more people
rather than stagnate on a few individuals. With this we called it a day and
retired for the night.
Dr. Mayur Pandya with Baba on that blessed day
Then next morning after Darshan, Swami called the final year students to pose
for individual photographs with Him. Swami stood with the trees as a back drop
and one by one, the final year boys posed for the photographs and left. The
entire place was full of students (about 300 of them). All of a sudden Swami
turned around to me and with a twinkle in His eyes said to me “Ai, Mayur! See
boys are coming and boys are going, but Swami is always there, always
permanent.” A shiver went down my spine for it only proved that every word I
had said the previous night to the senior lecturer was known to Swami and even
in that huge crowd of boys, Swami knew where exactly I was standing to be able
to directly address me thus.
- Dr. Mayur Pandya
Former Faculty Member, Dept. of Commerce, SSSIHL
Source: Sai Nandana 1985 (60th Birthday Issue)
--
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"saimsg" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
