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Mrs. Kamaraju Video-Conference Talk in Illinois
May 28, 2009
With Pranams at the Lotus Feet of Bhagavan,
Thank you, Swami, for giving me this wonderful opportunity. Thanks to the Sathya Sai Seva Centre, Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you everyone. Thank you one and all.
Moogavoyina Manasuku Manjulagaanamu Vinipinchi
Mantramu Upadesinchi Margamu Chupi
Madhura Bhavaala Madhi Haayigolipi
Marapu Verapu Maaya Tolaginchi
Maa Bangaru Satya Sai Suguna Manoharadu.
The one who sings a beautiful song for the needy and the poor,
The one who gives the mantra to be chanted,
The one who removes illusions from our hearts and fills it with Divine thoughts,
To that beautiful, wonderful, miraculous God, I offer my salutations.
Living for God is service, living with God is education, and living in God is realisation. When you go to Puttaparthi, you must have had so many experiences in Prashanthi Nilayam. Going to Swami’s darshan is like attending school daily. We observe and learn many things in that school as well as in the Mandir.
People with all ailments and diseases, mental imbalances and stresses of all types come to Swami to earn His grace. Seekers who want to progress in spirituality, who want to intensify their sadhana, and wise people who want to elevate themselves, come. There are also those who have ambitious goals. All of them come to Swami.
What does Swami do? He never allows anybody to be lazy. First, He makes them get involved in some work or sadhana according to their mental constitution: service, bhajan, or education—whatever wing they fit. He puts them there so that they have some diversion. Instead of thinking about disease, they will think of their duties, at least for some time. He sees to it that our minds are occupied fully in service and sadhana.
This is my personal experience. In 1972 we came to Swami for the first time. That time I was not keeping good health. Many of our friends advised us to go to Parthi and have Swami’s darshan. We did not believe this so easily, until a close friend of ours (a great scholar) Mr. C. Amarendra-garu told us to go. Then we decided to go to Parthi immediately.
In August, we proceeded to Parthi accompanied by my mother and children. We stayed there for one week. My mother and I used to attend bhajans and darshan. My husband stayed outside, taking care of the children. There was nothing special, except that the Punjabi family who came along with us got an interview immediately on that day itself. But Swami never looked at us. My husband was in a hurry to go back to Guntur as his one-week vacation was going to be finished. So we packed up and came back to Guntur.
Though Swami never spoke or looked at me, I developed a lot of confidence in myself, which I had lost during the past six months during the toughest period of my life. Though my husband was very reluctant to come to Parthi in the beginning, after observing my improved health, he started to revise his opinion. He purchased many books on Baba. Being a Brahmo in the beginning, he started loving Swami’s message of the Brahman Himself as one’s preceptor and Guru. This was the beautiful experience of our first visit to Swami.
Living with God is education. When we were first in Parthi, people used to come to my husband to give some ideas or suggestions. For a few days, they came with prasad. Sometimes some fellow used to come and say, “Sir, please write a letter to Swami. He will give an interview to your family.” Another person used to say, “Swami wants you to make another trip to Puttaparthi. That is why He did not give you a chance this time.” Several such messages and suggestions were given by others, who framed their opinions based upon our circumstances.
Swami is never bothered about anybody’s views. He acts directly, according to what is His schedule for that day. He decides who should be called, whose letter has to be taken, who He must give namaskar to, which minister to meet, and what needs to be conveyed to the students. He may need to monitor the practice of the dramas going on in the college, or how everything is going on in the ashram, or who is in utter need of His darshan and sambashan.
Swami is busy the full day. If we observe His daily schedule, devotees can see Swami’s devices or techniques for fulfilling our desires. His patience and forbearance are a real education. Swami may not teach or reveal all the things directly, but He looks to everyone. He sends messages or communicates from within. Also, we will be aware of His Divine experience through some book, animal, or person.
Living with Him is an education. He imparts true education to us. As our comprehension progresses, there are so many doubts and questions that arise in our minds, for which we want clarification or solutions. In the beginning, we have to struggle or approach scholarly people to get answers to our questions. Sometimes answers come directly from Swami, either in dreams or visions. So, we get all answers from Swami.
When Swami used to come in my dreams, I always wanted to find out from scholars whether it was true or not. One scholar from Tirupathi told me, “Unless Swami wills it, you cannot get the darshan of Swami in your dreams.” That was his answer; but I wished to get the reply directly from Swami. That was what I wanted.
Kalalona Kanipinchi Kalatha Theerchu Nokachota
Dhyana Manduna Tochi Dariki Cherchu
Manchi Endhunundi Manchi Nadipinchu
Nithya Shanthi Daayi Sathya Sai
Swami may appear in our dreams,
Or Swami may make His presence felt in meditation.
With all His goodness,
He leads us to goodness.
So, that is the meaning of this poem. His ways are various, and they vary from person-to-person.
As I desired, in one of our interviews, Swami cleared my doubt. I was sitting along with two other ladies. Swami came there, looked at me and smiled. He asked me, “Does Swami come in your dreams?” The lady next to me was Chandralekha, Swami called her by her name. If we pray sincerely, our merciful God will come to our rescue.
Living in Swami is realisation. How to realise one’s own Self? The purpose of the Avatar is to make us aware of our own Self. How does the transformation proceed? Is there any scale that measures transformation or realisation? How does a realised soul act? The one who accepts or experiences the omnipresence of God, in the animate and inanimate world, has realised the Self. That is union with God, or oneness with the Creator and creation.
Such a one can communicate with birds, trees, and everyone through the language of the heart. Recognising his own Self in the creation around, the realised soul loves everybody, and in return is loved by everybody. The whole creation craves for His darshan. Wherever He goes, it becomes a temple. He can communicate with people about the past, present and future. Wild animals give Him way, bending their heads. Such a person is a realised soul.
Swami appeared in my dream once. Actually it should be called a vision; it is not a dream. Vision and dream are different. In one vision, He appeared and started telling me about all the qualities of ladies. Ladies should have beauty, love, compassion, affection, intelligence, patience, forbearance, character and wisdom.
In another vision, Swami started telling me many titles of articles. In the beginning, I never heard these names clearly. That was the time when we were in Bangalore. It was during the night at two o’clock. Swami started telling me various topics. I was very sleepy, so I could not write anything down. But Swami insisted that I should note down all those topics. However, I could not do that, as I was very sleepy. I thought I could remember them and write them early in the morning.
But the next day when I got up, I had forgotten all those titles. I told my husband that these are the topics given by Swami, and that he should compile a book out of these topics. But I had forgotten all the titles. So the next day, I prayed to Swami to again give the titles of these topics to me, so that a book could be compiled.
The next day, out of His mercy, the compassionate Lord appeared in my vision and started mentioning about these topics again, giving the titles. He gave me some more topics. That was at midnight. I kept a small pencil and a piece of paper under my pillow so that I could write down all the names of the titles and topics. The next morning I told my husband that this was the wish of Swami.
From that time onwards, I started searching for a person who could help me in this matter. I rang up one of my friends and asked him to come to our home to help me. One of our friends came to our house. His name was Mr. Venkatraman. He was working in the Department of Defense. He came there, bringing along with him a paper full of topics given by Swami, some of which were also modern topics. Some topics were related to science and some were related to spirituality.
I showed him my paper and he showed me the paper he had brought. We both came to an understanding that he would speak on his topic on one day, and I would talk about my topic the next day. Like that, he arranged many talks all over Bangalore. I got many scripts by the time all the talks were over. That is how Swami saw to it that it was a success. We could get the book printed after we came to Parthi.
Whenever Swami wants anything from us, He pushes us forward and indirectly arranges many people to co-operate with us, to supply us with whatever we want. Swami will help us whenever He wants us to do something. That is another personal experience of mine.
In Puttaparthi, we have busy schedules. But when we go to darshan, one thing that is very, very important is to in tune to Swami. We should be concentrating on Him throughout the darshan time. Whenever we are there, we should concentrate on Swami only. If we think about outer worldly things, or if we are thinking about family problems, we are not tuned in to Swami, so then we cannot get any answers or any solutions for our problems. If you pray from the bottom of your heart, Swami is sure to help you and come to your rescue. That is my personal experience.
On another day, when Swami was walking past our lines, suddenly I saw something like a ray. The vibrations came to me, but did not touch me; they went back. On another day, they came directly like an arrow and went into my heart. That is how I could understand this. When the rays did not reach my heart on that first day, I was thinking of something else—some family problem or about people who sat around me.
We should be always tuned in to Swami when we are in darshan. Our concentration should be on Swami only; only then we can get positive vibrations from Swami. These vibrations are knowledge. That is what I understood from my personal experience. When we receive these vibrations, it will help us a lot in writing, reading, or mental comprehension. We will definitely be lifted up.
On another day, Swami was coming to the pratishtapana of the Subramanya idol next to the Ganesha temple. All the people were sitting there because Swami was expected to come there and inaugurate that temple. That time I did not go to the inaugural function. I was sitting in my regular place in the Kulwant Hall.
After the inauguration and installation of that idol, Swami came in through the ladies gate. As He was coming, I could feel the presence of Swami. As Swami was going down the line, I could feel His vibration, which made me sit still. For a minute, I didn’t know what had happened to me. I could not utter a word or move an inch. That is what happened. After that, I came home and told my husband about this experience. But he did not believe me, as experience varies from person-to-person.
The next day, I could write a poem about the Golden Chariot, which I had not seen at that time. After I wrote that poem, the Madurai Chettiar family came and invited my husband and me to go to see that chariot. So, I wrote the poem first, and then went to see the chariot. This happened because of the vibrations coming from Swami, which helped me write the poem about the chariot that I had never seen. I never thought it would happen like this. It was a beautiful experience.
Later, I went there and saw the chariot. It was exactly as described in the poem given to me by Swami. The poem describes all the idols and features of the chariot. The poem goes like this:
Sapthasvaravitejudu Adityuraaga
Pasidikanthula Thodi Pranava Rathamu
Paramatma Vethukuchu Prashanthi Porametinche
Swamiki Swagatamu Paluka
Ihamu Paramu Ishta Kamyartha Siddhiyun
Kanchana Rathamunu Kanchina Vaariki.
That is the poem. Swami beautifully described the seven horses, Brahma, and the Sun god himself. The chariot came to Prashanthi Nilayam, searching for Swami. Swami came to the chariot that morning also. He made it holy by keeping His Feet in the chariot. That made the whole morning a jubilant function. That is how Swami gave me the poem.
Whenever Swami inspired me, I used to write poems like this. One day I went to a bhajan at one of my friend’s house. The bhajan was going on. The altar was decorated with nice chrysanthemum flowers, so the scene was very beautiful. I thought the garland was dancing, and immediately after the arathi, I came home and could write another poem:
Singaramu Olikinchu Chamanthi Haralu Seesamulugajesi
Karamba Kanakambarala Kavanumallali
Mallelu Mollalu Kollalu Kollaluga
Tete Telugu Tenegeethula
Kasturi Sannutha Sathya Sai Neeku
Sashtanga Namaskruthulu
That is the poem Swami gave me that day.
The beautiful, dancing Divine chrysanthemums are very eager to reach Swami’s Feet.
The flowers of mixed colours are yearning for Swami’s darshan.
The white jasmine and its species are very eager, jumping in joy to reach Swami.
The chrysanthemum flowers are dancing and waiting to reach Swami’s Feet. The jasmine flowers are for purity. Karamba flowers are very eager to reach Swami in the form of a garland. That is how even the flowers are very eager to reach Swami. They are also yearning for Swami’s darshan.
Also, if we the devotees have that real sincere yearning, Swami will respond to our prayers. May Swami bless us all and shower His compassion in this process of realisation. Thank you, Swami. Thank you everyone. Thank you, one and all.
© Copyright Prof. Anil Kumar Kamaraju, Puttaparthi. All rights reserved.