An alumnus of Sri Sathya Sai University, Mr. Rakesh Menon joined the
Brindavan campus in the 1994 for his Bachelors in Commerce. After this he
pursued his Masters in Business Administration in the Bharatiya University in
the state of Tamil Nadu. He began his professional career in 2000 and since
then has served in the banking industry in India as well as in other countries
in various positions. Until recently, he was in the UK working as the Global
Product Risk Manager in JP Morgan, Europe. Currently, he is the Vice President,
Risk Management, in JP Morgan, India and is based in Bangalore.
Below is a Beautiful Experience in his own words :
“God could not be everywhere, therefore He made mothers.” But I had the
unique fortune of having the Lord Himself as my mother.
I was blessed to be at Swami’s feet between the years 1994 to 1997. I was
not a devotee before I joined Swami’s University, neither was anybody in my
family. But we had heard of Baba’s college as a unique institution which
imparted human values. One of my uncles got me the application form and brought
me to Puttaparthi, where I wrote the entrance examination. Swami, at that time,
was in Kodai Kanal. Nevertheless, the general ambience of the ashram kindled in
me the urge to learn more about Swami.
I was fascinated by the discipline in the ashram; how things happened in
clockwork precision, right from the stroke of the bell at five o’ clock at
dawn. It felt wonderful to be a part of the Omkaram, Suprabhatam and the Nagar
Sankirtan, and feel those positive vibrations. Furthermore, everybody
maintained silence irrespective of whether Swami was physically in Prashanthi
Nilayam or not. That made a deep impact on me.
Thus, in the summer of 1994, when I stepped into the portals of the
University at the Brindavan campus in Bangalore, I was yet to physically see
Swami. Now I was not a devotee but already a Sai student. And I was very
eagerly looking forward to the ‘Big Change’ that was to manifest in my life.
I hailed from a village in Kerala and now a higher education in a
different sort of institution in the city of Bangalore really appealed to me.
It seemed exciting, but I was not aware of what I was actually in for.
The first step to the change lay in my acceptance of Swami as God. But
how could I accept someone as my guru and God, when I had not even seen Him?
Wasn’t it foolhardy to invest my faith on a person, of whom I had only learnt
from hearsay? So I decided to test Bhagavan!
We were a group of three boys from the same place who wrote the entrance
examination together. And all three of us had got through the test! There was
one amongst us who had the habit of smoking. And as the hostel and ashram rules
strictly forbade this habit, this boy would go out on the sly, unknown to
anybody else, to take the vital puff!
I was aware of his furtive habits and so was the other boy. And we both
advised him against persisting with his covert ways, knowing fully well that it
might result in his expulsion from the institution altogether. But he remained
adamant. Instead, he pointed a finger at a photograph of Swami in the Sai
Ramesh Hall and said, “Let Him say and I will stop.”
I looked at the hall; there were at least 5000 devotees seated there,
waiting for Swami. It seemed Swami now had two more tasks to accomplish in such
a massive crowd before two Doubting Thomases could accept His divinity. First,
to censor the cigar boy and second, to trigger a Big Change in me.
Two days later, this boy got the chance to wave the arathi to Swami. I
was sitting close to him. When the bhajans ended, Swami picked up the match
box, lit the arathi, and told him in Tamil, “You said that if I ask you to stop
smoking, you would do that.” He put the match box back into the boy’s shirt
pocket and then continued as if nothing had ever happened. I was flabbergasted!
Nobody else knew about that conversation except the three of us.
And I can never forget the expression on this boy’s face – of utter
disbelief, shock and fear. Swami’s words were also heard by the third boy. And
we all looked at each other, astounded beyond words. In a crisp one-liner, the
Omnipresent Lord had neatly packaged the lesson of a lifetime; it was powerful
and unforgettable. This was my first direct experience of Swami’s omnipresence.
Sai Ram
--
---
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.
