Divine Leelas – Earlier days 10 ( Akshraya Pathram -Food for devotees) Old Mandiram was like “Dwaraka Mayi” of previous sareeram. Many type of devotees came to Swami. Some had unfulfilled desires in their lives. Some did not have children. Some were troubled with material constraints. In Swami’s presence devotees forget their troubles and they always experienced joy. Swami would materialise many idols of deities gave them to devotees to mitigate their problems.
Swami also used to create fruits and flowers. When the Lord, wills everything is in abundance and the devotees had experienced this many times. On one occasion, Swami created an apple which he cut into small pieces and passed around to all devotees. The wonder was that every devotee got a fair share from that same small apple. His will produce surplus (Akshayam) so that all could partake the divine prasadam. The apple looked fresh from the tree, was absolutely smooth and shiny. When the devotees asked Swami about the wonderful quality of the apple skin, he replied that blemishes represented strife in life, which resulted in rebirth. People used to come and stay for days in the old mandir, sometimes even for months. But nobody was ever denied of food. One day, due to some reasons, the fire in the kitchen could not be lit. Swami went inside kitchen room, and taking a cloth, wiped all the cooking vessels thoroughly clean. He then placed lids on all of them, and left the scene. At about noon time, Swami told the devotees to open the lids of the vessels. When they did so they were surprised to find varieties of cooked delicacies. This delicious food was served to all the devotees present, which was not a small in number. But the vessels never became empty! He had willed that all the containers to remain full till all ate to their heart’s content! In those days there was never enough rice or paddy in stock in the kitchen. However, none remained hungry. It was a very tiny room, where food was cooked for Swami. Devotees used to come from all over the country at odd hours. Once, a group of devotees of the popular Tamil saint, Sri Ramana Maharishi, came to see Swami. They had arrived at dusk, when the village was enveloped with darkness. Navigating down the road was a problem, and to compound the issue, they did not understand the local language, Telugu. However, one villager directed them to an elderly lady who knew Tamil. They told that they had all come from Thiruvannamalai hearing that God had incarnated in Puttaparthy. They had come to have Swami’s darshan, offer their prayers and perform puja to him. They enquired about the modalities of performing such a puja. They were told that it was not necessary, and that devoted singing of bhajans were enough. Swami was very happy to see these devotees . Swami advised them to stay back with their guru (Sri Ramana Maharishi) and to sing bhajans with devotion and dedication. During those days, there were no street lights. In the nights, the roads were totally dark A couple of bulbs glowed dimly. Devotees procured fuel for small generator. Once there was no fuel available. Hearing this, Swami asked for water in a bucket from the nearby well. He then directed them to pour the water into the generator tank. Wonder of wonders! The bulbs lit up throwing bright light all around. This amazed everybody. And yet, there were still a few doubting Thomases. Swami repeated this miracle once again. Swami again asked the devotees to fetch another bucketful of water and directed that it be poured into the generator – the bulbs continued to burn beautifully. Thereafter, nobody had any doubts about His divinity! With Love & Regards, "Mumbai" Srinivasan -- --- 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.
