Mrs. Kamaraju’s Talk in Rockford, Illinois, USA
May 17, 2009
With Pranams at the Lotus Feet of Bhagavan
Sai Ram to all of you! Thank you, Swami, for giving me this wonderful opportunity. Thanks to the management of the Rockford Sai Centre. Thank you everyone. Thank you very much.
The One who is giving, the One who inspires, the One who encourages, the One who means well, and who wills us to perfection, the One who is our mother, priest, and everything—how to be thankful, how to be grateful to my Lord of the universe? Thank You, thank You, Swami!
WHAT ARE THE FOUR VIRTUES?
Chaturvidha Bhajantemam Jana Sukrutino Arjuna,
Aartho Jignasu Ardharthi Gnaneecha Bharatarshaba.
Four types of virtuous people worship Me:
The first are those who are in difficulties,
The second are seekers,
The third want worldly things,
The fourth are wise people.
So what is aarthi? Aarthi means ‘yearning’. Yearning for God is the real aarthi. Yearning to seek the knowledge of God is the real seeking. Yearning for the treasure of God, to be with God, is the real treasure. Yearning for treasure means yearning for God. Yearning for the knowledge of non-dualism is the real thing that people aspire to. That is the meaning of this sloka.
FAITH IS OUR INBORN QUALITY
Swami always talks about faith. Irrespective of whatever form we worship, Swami gives us faith in that form. He wants us to be firm in faith.
Swami says that faith is our inborn quality. Faith is the best. Swami says that we have faith in everybody, but we do not have faith in God. “Without faith, you are nobody. Without faith, you are worldly; but you don't have faith in God,” Swami says.
HAVE FIRM FAITH IN WHAT YOU PREACH
There was a village boy who used to take care of the cattle, and he used to go to the temple every day. Every day, one priest used to give discourses in the temple, so this boy would go there and listen to the discourses.
He went there for one year. The boy really liked the way the priest narrated all the leelas of Lord Krishna. They became imprinted in this boy. So then he used to come back home and think, “Krishna aa gaye, Lord Krishna aa gaye.”
He was very engrossed in devotion for Lord Krishna. One day this priest said in his discourse that if you pray from the bottom of your heart, God will definitely respond to you. So this boy made it a point to pray like that. One day he started to pray with complete devotion, without reading anything. That day, Lord Krishna appeared to him and the boy was so happy.
The boy went to the priest the next day and told him, “Sir! Sir! Panditji! I saw Swami! I saw Krishna! Lord Krishna gave me darshan!” That’s what he said.
This priest was very irritated. “You are telling lies! How could you see Lord Krishna? You have been coming to me for only a year; but I have been giving discourses from so many years and I have never seen Krishna. How could you see Krishna after only one year?”
This question was put to the boy, and he felt very badly and went home. The boy was crying because the priest wouldn’t listen to him. He didn’t believe him.
Again he started to pray to Lord Krishna, “Please give darshan to this priest.”
The next day, because Lord Krishna was very much moved by the prayers of this boy, the Lord again gave the boy darshan. And this time, the boy was so careful: he tied Lord Krishna with a rope to some trees so that he could go and call the priest. (Laughter)
He went to the priest and said, “Lord Krishna is there! Please come, I will show you.” And the priest went, but there was no Krishna. This priest couldn’t see Krishna anywhere.
The boy then said, “Lord Krishna, please show Yourself to him. Please give him darshan, then only will he believe my word.”
After listening to the prayer of the boy, Lord Krishna gave darshan to the priest also and said to him, “It is not so. It’s not always just about preaching. One should also put the preaching into practice. By this I mean you should have faith in what you preach.” That's what Lord Krishna told the priest.
We should have faith in whatever we do, in whichever form we worship. That’s faith. Swami talks about having faith in so many of His discourses.
SERVICE TO MAN IS SERVICE TO GOD
Swami stresses the importance of service, of doing service. Service to man is service to God. That’s why we see so many people who will be working in the General Hospital and Super Specialty Hospital in Puttaparthi, and they don't take anything in return. It is a mode of service. They serve there in the hospital.
The maintenance of the Super Specialty Hospital is carried out only by seva dals. It is maintained very well; it’s not like a hospital but like a temple. If you go and see the hospital, you will see that the whole hospital is maintained free of charge by the seva dals.
They are service-based people and they come in groups from faraway places like Delhi, Mumbai, and from other cities and states all round. These seva dals come from different places to do service by rotation in Puttaparthi. Service is available there; we can all participate when we go there.
It is the same message if you observe Nature: we use water, but trees use it to give fruits; then we take these fruits and eat them. Cows give milk, but we use the milk. They don't use it themselves for a selfish purpose. See, Nature also gives us the message of service to humanity.
Service is so important that whatever little we can do for society, we will be grateful to Swami because Swami has given us this birth in order to do so. It is for our own transformation, not for anything else. That's how we can serve society—in whatever way we can.
THE REAL SADHANA IS LOVE
The ultimate motive is love. Swami also speaks about the importance of love. There is no other service beyond this love. The real sadhana is love. “Love all, serve all” is the motto of our Sai. We can also do service; we can practice serving everybody. As Jesus said, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” That is practicing love in so many ways.
See how from two seeds two saplings will come. The saplings form a chain, and the chain grows. The chain represents a mother, and after that a sibling. That’s how love expands between family members.
SERVICE TO SOCIETY
When a boy grows, when he comes to the age of three or four, he is busy playing with his friends. Later on, he grows up and gets married and has his own children. The family-wise attention, compassion, kindness, and affection grow. It is transformation by love only.
Then after that, he becomes an employee: he goes to the office and loves his colleagues there. If he doesn’t love them or cannot cooperate with them, he cannot work in that office. That's how the expansion of love goes on. After this, when he becomes old, he will want to do some service to society. Out of love, this service comes.
He starts to think about his family. When the children are small, he goes to the market and buys two types of sweets and takes them to the house. He keeps one packet for the children, and the other packet for the rest of the family and whoever comes to the house. Because the sweets taste so good, the children finish both packets! But he doesn’t feel badly because he loves his children. When he was his children's age, he was so talented and happy. He doesn’t mind that they finished all the sweets. That’s how the love expands. He doesn’t want to be selfish anymore.
After that, whenever a mango is brought to the lady of the house, she keeps it in the fridge; only when the children come home in the evening does she cut the mango into pieces and serve it to her husband and her children. That’s how love grows and grows, more and more.
Then when the man becomes old, he wants to serve society. The love continues to expand like that; it goes on expanding. He thinks that everyone around is his family. He doesn’t limit himself only to his family. He sees everyone around him—everyone in society who is in need of help—and he goes to them and helps them. That’s how love goes on expanding.
Expansion of love goes on. Swami says we should love everybody: we should “Love All Serve All”. We should do some service to the society. We should obey these principles, and follow whatever statements, rituals, and messages that Swami gives us.
We can do all these things even in our restricted condition and with our limited financial means. Even ladies can participate in service programmes, which you are already doing I think, so I don't need to say anything more.
In Parthi, daily darshan also give us so many messages. We always need to get tuned to Swami. Whenever Swami comes for darshan, we have to observe every gesture, every one of Swami’s movements and looks, and then we'll be able to get some message.
SWAMI COMMUNICATES WITH US THROUGH OUR INNER VOICE
That’s how life goes in Parthi. If you are not tuned in, if you are thinking of something else—your children, your job or your problems—then no message will come to you.
His message will come to you when you are thinking only of Him, if you are contemplating only on Swami. When you pray, the message will come to you. Sometimes because of our sadhana, we will get them. Swami communicates with us through the inner voice.
Only a few people have direct contact with Swami; all the others can’t have direct contact with Swami. It’s not easy to be close to Swami nowadays. In previous days, it was a little easier; but now it’s not so easy. So Swami communicates with us through the inner voice. By doing some sadhana, you will come to know this inner voice. You will be able to know and listen to this inner voice.
In the beginning, I didn’t have this inner voice. After I did some sadhana, Swami started talking to me. Some time ago, in the beginning of our stay in Parthi, Swami used to say so many things to me. For every one of His statements, I would find two meanings! I didn't know how to follow it, or which way I had to take it. It appeared to me that there were two meanings in whatever Swami said to me.
After that, I went to one lady who helped me a lot in understanding Swami's statements and Swami's messages. Her name was Seshigramma; now she is no more. One day we were discussing Swami's leelas and she suddenly got up and went to the altar saying, “Swami has come here! Swami has come here!” So she went to give aarthi to Swami.
I wondered how she could know that Swami had come. How could she feel His presence? So I asked her, “How could you know that?”
She told me, “After you do sadhana, you will be able to know, and you can talk and have some communication with Swami.”
HOW SWAMI STARTED TO COMMUNICATE WITH ME
Then I wondered what sadhana I could do. I cannot go for nagarsankeerthan because I cannot get up so early in the morning. So I started to do some convenient sadhana, that is, to cook for somebody. I cooked for the family anyway, so it was convenient, and I could feed someone else too.
So I started cooking for this priest who lived next to my house; he was a Hindi scholar. His family was away from him, so I started cooking lunch for him daily. I used to send a plate of lunch. My husband would take it to him.
After few days, Swami started talking to me. He told me that since their family was from the north, they didn’t eat spicy food. Swami said, “You are putting a lot of mirchi (chili) powder in the food. Don’t put it in, as he can’t digest spicy food. Don't add mirchi powder.”
Another day Swami told me, “You are giving lunch too late. Don't do that. He is an old man, so send it early!” That's what Swami told me.
That was the first thing I heard from Swami. That's how Swami started communicating to me. That was the experience I had.
IF YOU ARE ANGRY, SCOLD YOURSELF, DON'T SCOLD ANYBODY ELSE
Another time when I was about to go to darshan, a message came on the TV, which I ignored. I went for darshan.
It was a Thursday and on the TV there was one of Swami’s discourses. During the discourse Swami talked about anger: “If you are angry, scold yourself; don't scold anybody else,” He said. That was His message.
I ignored the message and went for the darshan. I was sitting in the darshan line and Swami came to me and said, “Gurudev.” I wondered why Swami was saying that. I didn't understand why Swami was talking like that. I couldn’t understand.
Whenever I have a doubt, I go to Ganesha, and there I enquire of myself what mistake I have made that day. I go through all the things I have done from morning to evening so that I can make out my mistakes.
That's why I go to Ganesha every day. That day I went there; then after that, I went home, and only then I understood Swami's message: from the morning I had been scolding my maidservant for being absent for three days continuously. That's what Swami was referring to. When we are angry, we should not scold anybody. We should scold only ourselves.
Also, we should not scold children. Usually ladies tend to get irritated more quickly than men because we work all day! (Laughter) Swami used to tell me, “Forgive and forget.”
SWAMI KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT US
On another day my daughter-in-law and I were both sitting in the first line. It was the auspicious day of Saravana Suprabhata, the Friday when all us ladies do puja. Swami came down the line, but He didn’t give us padanamaskar. (I expected padanamaskar because we had done aarthi and also my daughter-in-law was there.)
But Swami didn’t give it to us. He stared at us and went back. In the evening, we were also sitting in the first line, but Swami didn’t come to that side. He took a short-cut and went to the other side. I was so embarrassed in front of my daughter-in-law.
I took it as a challenge: “Why did Swami do this?” I was embarrassed and also irritated.
Later, I understood Swami's feelings and Swami’s thought behind it, and why Swami had done this: Swami had made a short-cut and had gone to the other side, the bhajan side. While giving darshan, He normally comes to the main line; but that day he went up the bhajan line. There was a group of people sitting there, all of whom were from a tribal group. Swami went directly to them. He spent one hour there with them and gave them chains and made them so happy.
Then I understood that those people were in need of His presence and in need of His message, because they could not wait another day, or even another hour, as they needed to go immediately to take the bus.
That's how Swami can understand our mental state. He knows everything about us. Swami knows very clearly whatever we need, at the time we need it, and also the purpose behind the need. That's why Swami went to the tribal group and made them happy. That's how I could understand that it was my mistake to expect anything from Swami. If Swami gives, well and good; but we should not expect anything from God.
Whenever we need Swami, He Himself will come to us and give us what we need. That’s how Swami protects us and takes care of us as His own children.
RECEIVING A SAREE FROM SWAMI IS A BLESSING
Another day in Puttaparthi, at the time of Swami's Birthday, I distributed to all the ladies, while the men were waiting and watching. And then Swami gave sarees to all the ladies. That was a very nice scene, I must say!
Three days before Swami's Birthday, there were so many people sitting there—people from abroad, all the cinema actors, playback singers, all were there. Everyone was waiting for Swami to give sarees to them. Receiving sarees from Swami is a very auspicious thing. It is not simply a saree; it is a blessing from God. That’s why all the ladies look forward to receiving sarees at the time of Swami’s Birthday.
That day so many people were sitting there: the playback (recording artist) singer, Susheela, the cinema actors, Anjali, Janaki, and Jamuna, and also some other actors. One list was made of these ladies. Mrs. Shourie is in charge of the ladies, and she was reading out the names of the women who would go to Swami and get sarees. That's how it was going on.
I was sitting in one corner; I was also in the front and I was looking at all these people. One-by-one the names were called. So many volunteers were there, and they were holding the bundles of sarees of different types.
Swami was taking one saree at a time from the bundle to give to one of the ladies. He first went to the old ladies. He doesn’t simply give the sarees, Swami also makes them happy. Most of them are widows.
SWAMI SHOWERS HIS LOVE ON EVERYONE
Swami went and spoke to one lady. He said, “This is a white saree, but you don't wear white sarees. I will give you a coloured saree.” First he gave her the white saree, and then He exchanged it and gave her a coloured one. He knows the minds of people, what they like and what they don't like.
So that’s how he cracks jokes with them and gives out the sarees. After that, he called all the ladies one-by-one, all the donors and all the playback singers. All these people were going to Swami.
In this moment, looking at the atmosphere and the situation, I was able to write a poem. By Swami’s grace, I have written so many poems; at that time also I wrote a poem. The poem goes like this:
Karunantharangude Kadalivacchhi
Komalanganala Rammani Piluva
Sahaja Soundarya Sarasajakshilu
Paruguna Swami Darichera
Idhigo Suseela Soundaryanchu
Vanne Sarichusi Swami
Varada Hastaala Vastraalanicche Muddala Mohana Mopparagamu
Swami calls these ladies.
When the compassionate Lord calls these ladies,
These humble, beautiful, simple ladies,
They walk to Swami to get padanamaskar, and also a saree.
They are so happy to get a saree from the Divine hands.
That’s how they are blessed:
They get a saree and come back.
I didn’t get a saree that time because my name wasn’t on the list. I came home, and my husband asked me, “Did you get a saree?”
“No, I didn’t get a saree,” I replied.
So the next day, Swami asked my husband, “Did your wife get a saree?”
He replied, “No Swami, she didn’t get a saree.”
Swami said, “No? I sent the saree. Why didn’t she get it?”
That day I came home, and in front of everybody Swami gave the saree to my husband, and then he sent it home. That’s how I thought Swami had forgotten about me. But Swami never forgets anybody. He notices everyone. He recognises everyone. He will call everyone. That’s how He showers His love on everyone.
When He sent the saree through my husband, I was so happy. And there is one more thing: if you get a saree in front of all the people, that also adds to our status because everybody likes to receive sarees from the Divine hands.
I have received a saree directly from Swami's hands on a few occasions, twice or thrice. Usually He sends a saree through my husband. Anyhow, Swami has reminded me of His love for me for such a long time.
On one occasion, during Swami’s Birthday time, it was also my birthday; but my husband had forgotten. He was doing service in the canteen or some place there. I, too, went for service because during Sai’s Birthday time, many seva dals are needed.
After finishing my service, I came home. A friend was there with me. I told her, “It's my birthday today, but my husband forgot it.” Just then my husband came with a saree in his hands. He told me, “Swami gave you a saree! Even if I forget, Swami never forgets your birthday.”
That day Swami sent me the saree because it was my birthday. That’s how Swami keeps a watch on everybody. Whether we make mistakes or do good things, He notices.
SWAMI GIVES US CLUES
One day I was making sweets, Mysore pak. Sometimes during festivals, I send sweets to Swami. I made the Mysore pak and packed one box full.
The next morning I was ready. That day I had a vision that half of it was finished. I was very surprised and thought that Swami had taken the Mysore pak! I came to the kitchen, opened the lid, and saw the box was still full.
The next day I sent it to Swami. When it came back in the evening, just half of it was gone. That means Swami was only going to take half, as He had told me in the beginning. That’s how He gives me clues about what is going to happen in the future. It’s very difficult to understand His clues. We can understand only with faith.
When my mother passed away, it was very sudden. One month before, Swami had told me to go away for ten days. I wondered, “Why is Swami telling me to do this?” When Swami is in Puttaparthi, usually we don't go anywhere. Only when Swami goes out of town do we leave.
But that time Swami had told me to go away for ten days, though I didn’t understand why. “Where can I go?” I thought. “For two or three days, I can go to friends’ houses; but for ten days, where I can go?” That’s what I thought. Then I thought, “If I go for ten days, I can go to my mother.”
Swami's intention was that I go to my mother. He wanted me to spend time with my mother. I couldn’t understand it at the time, and also I didn’t want to leave Swami. But a month later, my mother passed away. Only then did I understand why Swami had spoken to me like that.
Swami will give some clues like that; but it is very difficult to understand Swami's statements because there are so many meanings. Two meanings will appear. One day there will be one meaning, and then another meaning will appear after few days. So it is very difficult to understand Swami's statements. They are so meaningful. It may happen after one month, it may happen after one year; we just don't know.
Thank you, Swami, for giving me this opportunity. Thank you everyone. Thank you. (Applause)
© Copyright Prof. Anil Kumar Kamaraju, Puttaparthi. All rights reserved.