| Sai sister
Vidya ji wanted her father to share his experience which he had gone
through while applying VISA to reach her. The waves of situations
which were created by Lord Sai Baba are really interesting and how
in the end the ocean is seen calm and settled.
Sai sister Vidya ji from USA says: Dear HetalJi, OM SAI RAM. Thank
you so much for the nice blog, which unites all us Sai devotees and
binds us into a family. I have been reading your blog since April
2011 and I found it, when I needed all the "Shraddha and Saburi" to
keep me going in life through all the problems and challenges that I
was and I am still facing now. Reading all the various experiences
of the devotees helps to have faith and wait until the right time,
when Baba will bless me with success. I could relate to so many of
the experiences of other devotees since I am facing most of them
now.
I am Vidya Yakkundi, a devotee of Baba since I was a young girl. My
experiences with Baba are innumerable and I would like to share them
with all of you very soon. Here, in this email, I included my
Father’s recent experience with Sai Baba and how He helped my
parents with the visitor visa. I asked my father to write it, so he
can express how he felt all through the situation. You are welcome
to do any editing and correction, if necessary since it’s a long
email. Baba please shower Your blessings on all of us.
Sai Baba Is Always With Us: Our Recent Experience
Our daughter and son-in-law live in USA. They have been asking us to
visit them since a while, to stay with them and see places and
experience the culture there. However due to my job demand, we
couldn’t go until now. Recently, I retired so found time to visit.
Since my passport was to expire soon, I applied for the new one and
the normal process took a very long time. Later, I tried to
understand the visa process, documents etc, which again took a long
time as I was doing it all by myself and I was retired. Our son-in
law and daughter sent us all the necessary documents and finally I
filed the application.
When I was looking to book the interview date, I found that the
interview slots were unavailable in the Hyderabad consulate. We were
very worried, since maybe now we might have to go to Chennai or
Kolkata for the interview, which was difficult for us due to added
expenses and as well as tiring travel. We waited for couple of days,
praying to Baba daily to help us. Later, after few days, I spoke
with officials in VFS offered to help if we wanted to change to
Chennai consulate or he said, we could wait couple more days. We
waited with faith in Baba and at last one day the interview slots
were open, but I had difficulty booking it online as I am not very
familiar with computer. Finally, I decided to take the help of the
Travel agent and book the interview which I did. But unfortunately,
I and my wife got different timing for the interview and though I
thought at least it is on the same day, but I was worried.
Amidst all this tension and confusion, we also had relatives
visiting us suddenly for a family function at my brother’s place. My
mom-in-law was very sick with severe fever, cold and cough. She was
very weak and being 76 yrs old didn’t help either. We took care of
her and gave her medicines and my wife was so busy taking care of
her day and night that she could hardly support me with the visa
application etc. After she recovered slightly, she wished to go back
to her native place and we personally accompanied her there and my
wife continued to nurse her. We had to come back for visa interview,
so we returned in a week. Through all this, my wife didn’t have any
concentration to understand the visa process, or familiarize with
the documents and the questions. Incidentally after the day, we
reached Hyderabad. The road transport strike was on and all buses
were off road and cancelled. We thanked Shri Sai Baba over and over
again, who gave us the push and the inner voice kept urging us to
return early even though my wife was reluctant to leave her mother.
On return, the strike was on and it created panic as to whether the
visa Interview would be held and if we would be able to attend it.
The strike took an even more severe turn with autos and others
joining it. With all these issues bothering us, we had to face more
problems. My wife suddenly developed severe fever, cough and cold
just 3 days before our interview date. I was so worried as to what
to do now. All the negative thoughts preoccupied my mind and I felt
terrible. We prayed to Baba and contacted a doctor who prescribed
antibiotics for my wife and we started it. I also gave her UDI to
drink and applied UDI on her regularly. My wife felt weak and she
could hardly concentrate or understand the documents. I was very
worried by now.
My daughter and son-in-law kept our morale up by feeding us positive
thoughts through all this. I had totally resigned to my fate and
surrendered wholeheartedly to Sai Baba. My wife’s fever suddenly
came down a day before the Interview day. I felt relived, but I was
still worried if my wife will have enough stamina to manage the
interview, stand in the long lines. I also had thoughts about
postponing the interview date, but I kept quiet and did not pursue.
I spoke to the VFS official again to help us and he advised us to
seek help at the entry. At last my wife had one day to familiarize
herself with visa process, documents and questions. She did her best
and I thanked Baba for it. I could not sleep the night before
interview and was praying to Baba to help us out. A day before, our
son-in-law asked us to apply Baba’s UDI and that everything would be
alright. My daughter indicated that with Baba’s blessings we would
have a smooth day and that Baba would take care of everything. These
positive thoughts kept our confidence.
On the interview morning, we got up early and decided to maintain
our positive thoughts irrespective of the results. We had faith in
Baba and Baba did help us. Even though there was strike, a curfew
was declared too. All the roads were clear on the way to the
consulate. I briefed the security about our situation and my wife’s
ill health. He allowed us to go together and the same thing happened
at the main gate. At the scanning section, they opened our files and
found the UDI Packet and they said that they can’t allow it inside,
but If we wished we can apply it on us. We applied the sacred UDI
and my wife swallowed the rest. At every step from there, people
helped us. We informed them about our different timings, but when
Sai’s helping hand is there, why we fear. We were inside. Our
documents were being checked. Our fingerprints were taken and
finally we found ourselves together at the visa interview counter.
Our interview went very well and all worries fled. Within no time,
we came out of the consulate with happy news and awed at how Baba
helped us. His blessings and mercy is ever on those who look up to
Him and have faith in Him.
We came out and reviewed the whole process. We had a tough time with
lots of disturbances before the interview. But we felt that SAI BABA
was always with us and guiding us and moving with us and seeing
everything. We felt very happy, cool, and clear in thoughts during
and after the interview. Our faith in SAI BABA keeps us going in any
situation to come out with flying colors. I am happy to have family,
who has full faith in SAI BABA. My daughter wanted me to share this
experience with everyone, so I have written whatever we went through
in a hurry. Please excuse me if there are any mistakes.
GOPAL R DESAI
OM SAI RAM OM SAI RAM OM SAI RAM OM SAI RAM OM SAI RAM OM SAI RAM
Submitted to
SBOI-Group |
