The Source, Sweetness and Sustenance of My life –
My Sai
By
Dr. Narendranath Reddy
Dr. Narendranath Reddy graduated with distinction from SV Medical
College, Tirupati. He had training in internal medicine at the New
Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry and did his sub-specialization
in Endocrinology and Metabolism at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New
York. He has been a practicing internist-endocrinologist in Southern
California for over 25 years. He is a Fellow of the American College of
Physicians and the American College of Endocrinologists and is Assistant
Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine,
University of Southern California. Dr. Reddy presented papers at the
American Federation of Clinical Research in Boston. He is Chairman of
the International Medical Committee of the Sri Sathya Sai Organization
and a member of the Prasanthi Council. He serves as a Director of the
Sri Sathya Sai World Foundation which is the governing body of the
Sathya Sai International Organization.
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First Divine Darshan
I had first darshan of Swami in
Puttaparthi when I was about five years old. I was taken by my
parents to see Bhagavan during the 1950 Dasara celebrations.
However, my father being an ardent follower of Sri Ramakrishna, was
not attracted to Swami thinking that he was a man of miracles. Sri
Ramakrishna warned that miracles are obstacles for spiritual
seekers. Unfortunately, we applied to the Avatar the restriction
meant for a spiritual aspirant. For, miracles are the natural
expression of the divine love of an Avatar. Because we did not have
faith, even the kumkum
(vermillion) that was given as prasad
disappeared on our way back home. My father was surprised that Swami
was taken in a procession on a palanquin just like a deity in a
temple.
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More surprising to him
was the fact that the devotees walked backward in the procession, facing
Swami, unlike the normal practice of the people marching forward with
their back, facing the deity. Later on, he and the other family members
learnt that the devotees faced Baba to observe the changes in His visage
(e.g. as Rama, Krishna, Durga, Laxmi, Saraswati), and also to catch the
sweets and medallions materialized and thrown by Him from time to time.
Later on, we
heard Swami's discourse in Hyderabad in 1970. We admired His speech as
that of a holy man but did not recognize Him as an avatar. Only after
coming to USA, Swami attracted us to Him through the Sri Sathya Sai Baba
Center in Hollywood in 1977. After my father's retirement my parents came
to USA to live with us as immigrants in May 1981, and all of us regularly
attended the Hollywood Sathya Sai Center. Very soon, the whole family was
attracted to Swami's unique and universal teachings.
My father
developed an intense desire to move back to India and stay in the presence
of the avatar and do some service in His ashram. Accordingly my parents
left for India in July 1983 and reached Prasanthi Nilayam on 15 July.
Bhagavan Baba graciously fulfilled my father's desire of doing service in
His Ashram by giving him an appointment in Sri Sathya Sai University and
have him serve as a member of Sathya Sai Central Office and Sri Sathya Sai
Books and Publications Trust.
‘This is the right time for you’
After my parents settled in
Prasanthi Nilayam, I used to visit the Ashram periodically along
with my family. During my first interview with Swami in 1984, I
asked Him why He made me wait all these years, although I had been
worshipping Shirdi Sai from my childhood and also I had first
darshan of Parthi Sai in 1950 itself.
Pat came the reply from Swami: "My
child, everything has its right time and this is the right time for
you. For example, when we have a cataract, the doctor
operates it only when it is mature; otherwise the eye gets damaged.
Also if you have a wound on your body and if you remove the scab
before the wound heals completely, there will be bleeding; when the
wound heals naturally, the crust will fall off by itself. Further,
if there is a fruit in the tree, and when it is ripe and falls, it
is very sweet. But if you pluck it when it is unripe you are wasting
the fruit because it will not be sweet. Thus, for everything, time
has to be right. So, this is the right time for you."
From then on, the divine romance
continued with increasing visits to Swami and interactions with
Swami. The main attraction which pulled us to the lotus feet of
Bhagavan is His unique and universal message of truth and love which
go straight in to one's heart. I have been interested in studying
scriptures from my early childhood. But only Swami made me
understand spirituality very clearly. Before exposure to Him, it was
more like intellectual gymnastics rather than practical experience.
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The Divine Wills a Family of Doctors
Swami is the master of
time - past, present and future; and we should carefully listen to His
every syllable and letter because He mixes the past, present, and
future, leading to our confusion at times. During one of those early
visits when I wanted to take leave I said as usual, "Swami I am
leaving". He said, "coming and going, coming and going". Now I
understand what He meant at that time because of my frequent visits to
the ashram recently. Also, interestingly when Swami called our family
for interview one time He introduced us to a different group that we
are all doctors. At that time, only my wife and myself were doctors;
but my two daughters who were not even in their teens, were also
included by Swami as doctors. However, Swami's words always come true
and now both of my daughters are practicing physicians married to
physician husbands. |
Blessings for Daughter’s Wedding
Swami
showered His grace on our family on several occasions but we can never
forget one special occasion for which we are all indebted to Him forever.
It was Swami performing the wedding of my first daughter in June 1995 in
Brindavan, Whitefield. Swami decided the place and date of marriage and
guided us all the way. Before I left Prasanthi Nilayam I asked Swami when
I should come. Swami said, “June 9” which was the day after the wedding. I
unperturbedly said, "I will come on June 9th if it is your divine
command". Swami laughed and told me to come three days before marriage.
Accordingly, my wife and I arrived at Brindavan three days prior to
wedding. Friends like Col. Jogarao were joking at us, "Oh! The chief
guests are coming".
Though they
were joking, it was true because Swami was the chief organizer who made
all the arrangements like menu, military band, and accommodation for the
guests, and arrangements in the wedding hall.
Swami
took personal interest in every minute detail including what
tablecloth to be used and how the servants were to be dressed and
whether they should wear gloves and how the guests should be properly
treated. One day He scolded me for not visiting and greeting the
bridegroom party housed in the guesthouse of Swami. Because when I am
with Swami I am oblivious to everything else.
Prior to
the wedding, even while I was going with Swami in the car He was
discussing every minute detail of the wedding arrangements. On the
wedding day, Swami was sitting in the hall throughout the ceremony and
was guiding us at every step. He was explaining to the people sitting
around Him about the spiritual significance of the Hindu wedding. He
was very loving and materialized the
mangala sootra (sacred wedding necklace) and came to the stage
and blessed the bride, bridegroom and whole family and posed for the
photographs.
After
the wedding when it was time for food arrangements, Swami came and
personally gave directions about food items to be served and showered
an abundance of love and blessings on the invitees. He gave all of us
bountiful gifts in the form of clothes and jewelry but the greatest
gift was His motherly love. When my daughter was 10 years old He had
promised that He would arrange the wedding procession with a military
band. He fulfilled the promise by arranging a wonderful military band
during the wedding. He also took part in
Narayana Seva which immediately
followed the wedding by serving the food and giving the clothes to the
few fortunate souls with His divine hands before the rest of us
followed His example. |
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My son-in-law who was new
to Swami did not realize what he was getting and was naive in his
behavior. But Swami, the great divine master, made him feel very
comfortable and began attracting him slowly by His nectarine pure divine
love. Then there was a reception party arranged in Hyderabad after the
marriage. I was not willing to go for the same. But Swami persuaded me to
go and even made arrangements for our family to be received in Hyderabad
airport and shown around Swami's temple ‘Sivam’ and the famous Kalyana
Mantapam in Hyderabad. When His grace comes, there is a torrential
downpour. There were many instances of His divine healing of various
physical ailments in different family members. I would like to share some
of them here.
Swami Saves Family Members
My
second daughter who is a practicing obstetrician and gynecologist, during
her teenage years after her return to USA from pilgrimage trip to
Puttaparthi, developed a high fever with toxicity. We consulted an
infectious disease specialist who diagnosed it to be typhoid pending the
blood cultures and started her on an intravenous antibiotics. Meanwhile
both my daughters started praying to Swami because this has a major
implication in USA. If this were typhoid my daughter won't be allowed to
come to school for many months and the whole family will be investigated
for a carrier state. To our pleasant surprise as they were finishing their
prayers we got a call from the laboratory that blood cultures were
negative for any bacterial growth. When we made our next trip to see
Swami, He confirmed how He cured her serious illness. We were all moved to
tears with His Love.
My
father had acute and severe back pain in 1996 when he was
seventy-five years old and he was severely incapacitated. In
desperation my mother summoned me to come and help them in this
critical situation. I immediately started from Los Angeles and came
to Bangalore where my father was brought by ambulance from
Puttaparthi. The MRI of the spine was done which showed two huge
disc protrusions impinging on the nerves causing excruciating pain.
We consulted an orthopedic surgeon in Bangalore, a Neuro-Radiologist
and a Neuro Surgeon in USA.
They
all recommended that he should go through surgery right away to
relieve the pressure on the nerves. When I asked Swami He advised
the surgery to be cancelled and gave the best medicine: materialized
vibhuthi from His Divine hands to be rubbed at the site of the pain.
Needless to say the pain improved remarkably and till to-date he is
able to function well without any neurological deficit. In contrast
at the same time, I had a forty-six year old patient in my practice
with an identical problem seen in 1996. She went through neuro-surgery
in USA and was later permanently disabled and had to quit her job.
This shows how our sweet Lord is better than the best neuro-surgeons.
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There was a
major health crisis in February of 2000 when my father had convulsive
seizures and we had to call paramedics for emergency medical attention. He
was unresponsive and was taken to the closest emergency room immediately.
He had extensive medical work up and the neurologist feared he might be
having a brain tumor. However the final diagnosis was encephalopathy due
to electrolyte imbalance namely severe hyponatremia. By Bhagavan's grace
and blessings to our pleasant surprise all this was corrected by
intravenous fluids and he was discharged home within 24 hours. When the
paramedics were attending on my father, my mother ran to the shrine room
where she was loudly and frantically calling for Swami's help. During our
next trip Swami was telling us how my mother was holding on to His feet
and crying for help. Again this shows His omnipresence and prompt loving
response to the devotee's prayers.
In 1985, I
was involved in an auto accident in California, USA when a large
30-foot-truck hit my car. The car was badly damaged, but I didn't have
even a minor injury. When I saw Swami in Prashanthi Nilayam, He narrated
the details of the accident and how He saved me from the danger. In
addition, He remarked that I remembered Him only after the accident, but
not at the time of the collision. Compassionate Lord! He remembers and
protects us all the time, though we forget Him at times.
Swami’s Personal Lessons
Once when I asked Swami
that if life is a dream, whether He is also a part of the dream. Right
away came the answer from the Lord of Truth—that He is in all the four
states of waking, dreaming, dreamless and
turiya (transcendental) states. Thereby He revealed that He is the
Supreme attributeless and formless Brahman, everything, everywhere,
forever. For all the grace and love Swami showers on us I felt we never
did enough service to the Lord. In my humble way I expressed to our dear
Lord Sai my desire to do service by translating His discourses on the life
of Shirdi Sai from Telugu into English. However, Sai Shiva gracefully
admonished me with the revelation that real service is to find out "Who am
I." I pleaded with the Lord about the difficulty of this path, because of
the Vasanas of several life times, standing as obstacles. Bhagavan kindly
encouraged me by saying that one can get rid of the darkness of a cave
prevailing for thousands of years in an instant by lighting a lamp. So
does the light of wisdom dawn on us with His grace and our sincere
yearning.
My chosen deity was
Shirdi Sai before I came to Swami. So in my first encounter with Swami I
told him that during my worship I offer flowers first to Shirdi Sai and
then to Sathya Sai. Swami in His large-heartedness said it is all right to
do that because all names and forms are His. In fact He said I could put
flowers on my own head because I am also Divine. Another time Swami
conveyed a similar message when I was going in the car with Him. Many
devotees throw flowers on Swami's car and one western lady devotee was
trying to throw a flower on Swami's car but because she was weak it fell
on herself and it did not reach the car. Swami looked at me and said, "See
the poor lady. She wanted to worship Swami with a flower but it fell on
herself; without knowing she did the right thing because she herself is
Divine".
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During our first visit to Prasanthi
Nilayam my wife was seriously ill with dysentery and could not come
for darshan for three days. I felt she had to be taken to Bangalore
to be hospitalized but by Bhagavan's grace she recovered and came
for darshan on the fourth day and sat on a chair along with disabled
people. That day Swami came to me while sitting in the darshan line
on the sand and said, "Your wife has come".
I did not realize that she came for
darshan till I went home to my room. I wondered how He knew her
among thousands of devotees recognizing her presence. As He says,
God knows everything but pretends as if He knows nothing; whereas
man knows nothing but pretends as if he knows everything. Another
time when we were in the interview room, there were many devotees
and one of the men was trying to introduce a young boy as the son of
his brother devotee. Even before he introduced, Swami said he knows
everyone and confirmed the statement made above.
During my first interview I gave a
book for Swami to bless with His signature and right at that time
lights went off and there was no electricity. I wondered how He
could see and sign. Meanwhile, He looked straight into my eyes and
said, "I can see even in darkness a small ant crawling at a
distance".That time I was wearing glasses and Swami pointed out how
His vision is better than mine even without glasses. I said, "Swami,
that is because of your Divine power".
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But Swami corrected me
saying that He does not use His Divine power for such personal things but
it is because of His disciplined way of living and eating. He said I could
also have similar capacity if I also lead a disciplined life like Him.
Let me relate an
incident, which indicates Bhagavan's spontaneous revelation of His
divinity in a casual conversation. One time we expressed concern to Swami
that the small amount of food He takes cannot sustain a human being and
prayed to Him to increase His caloric intake. My father remarked that like
Yogis, Swami perhaps derives energy directly from the five elements.
Spontaneous was the Divine rebuff that the five elements depend on Him for
their sustenance!
The Truth, from the Lord of Truth
When in Brindavan Whitefield
Swami used to call me along with late Mr. V.K. Narasimhan, Sanathana
Sarathi editor and on many occasions He used to talk about spiritual
topics with us. One day Swami was talking highest advaita because He
mentioned everything is a dream and said what we experience in the daytime
is daydreaming like the night dreams we have in the night. After our
session when I was with V.K. Narasimhan who is a strong vaishnavite and
follower of Ramanujam, he expressed strongly that the Advaita philosophy
of Sankara has ruined India. He said, "Who will be interested in God where
all the flowers are of the same color and there is no variety of the
flowers, and who will be interested to see the empty screen when there is
no projection of the beautiful pictures on the screen?" I just listened to
him and kept quiet though I did not agree with his views.
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The next
day again Swami called both of us and I innocently told Swami about
the discussion we had in the previous evening and I wanted Swami to
tell me the truth. Swami replied clearly, "I am telling you the
absolute truth that experience of oneness is alone real and everything
else is an illusion like a dream. Don't be influenced by V.K.
Narasimhan's viewpoint which is applicable to him but not the highest
truth." On another occasion I was with Swami in his house in
poornachandra during a session when Swami poured lot of love on me.
I
exclaimed, "Swami, let this bond of love be for ever, and I want to be
born again in Your next avatar to love You and serve You". Swami said,
"That is not correct; your aim should be to have this as your last
birth and you should desire for no rebirth. How can you be sure that
you can be close to Swami like this in your next birth?" I also told
Swami, "Let this relationship of love be permanent and never
changing". Swami said, "Why should
you have such doubt? I am a powerful magnet and always will attract a
pure needle and metal. If metal is not attracted that is because of
the rust and dust covering the metal. So keep yourself pure and your
relationship will be the same forever".
When I
said, "Swami, let me have prapthi
(fulfillment) like this". He said, "If I want I can create
prapthi; I can make the vessel
bigger so that it can receive more grace. It means that Divine grace
can transcend all spiritual laws". |
Another time when I was
going with Swami in the car, Swami said, "Emi
Samacharam (what news?); say something". I said, "Swami, please grant
me the boon that I will always remember your divinity and never be deluded
by your world-bewitching maya".
Swami said, "Do you think you are greater
than the sages like Vasishta, Viswamitra and Jamadagni who were also
deluded by the maya of the Lord? Be
always alert."
Miracles in Kodai
In 1994
Swami invited me and my wife as His guests to Kodaikanal. During that
time we had many wonderful experiences including going on a picnic
with Swami. During one of the days, Swami went to one devotee's house
and plucked two plums from a bougainvillea vine and gave them to two
of the students to eat. I felt I wish I could have them. We were
resting in a house arranged by Swami that evening and when we woke up
next morning, there were two plums on the nightstand next to the bed.
Myself and my wife shared them both and enjoyed the delicious plums.
Then we enquired if anybody had left them there, but nobody was aware
of the plums. Then I realized how Swami fulfills even minor desires of
His children without even asking. Swami gave me a chance to share this
incident in Trayee Brindavan with the students after our return from
the Kodaikanal trip.
During
this trip Swami gave me a chance to sing to Him on two occasions. When
in Kodaikanal it was cold in the mornings and I used to wear a
sweater. Swami pointed out my sweater and mentioned how He was simply
wearing a robe without sweater. From that day onwards I did not wear
sweater learning a lesson from Swami to transcend the pairs of
opposites like heat and cold. When we went for picnic with Swami there
was a big caravan that went with Him. When we got down I was wearing
my sports shoes and then Swami pointed to them; then I got the hint
and right away I removed my shoes. Consequently I didn't have a fall
because of the floor that was slippery due to soft pine tree branches
on the ground. Some of the students who were wearing shoes fell
because of the slippery ground. Following Swami's hint saved me from
the fall. During this trip Swami gave me five chances to speak in
front of Him and He was telling how though I was in USA I was good in
Sanskrit and that I learned devotion from my mother. |
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But during my last talk
Swami cut me short suddenly with a sharp remark when I quoted a Bhaja
Govindam sloka about how man wastes his energy during his childhood
playing with toys and when he is youth with sensual pleasures. Swami felt
it was not proper to say such things in front of students. However, late
Mr. Sampath, V.C. of Swami's University supported me saying that it was
Adi Shankara's composition. Still Swami did not agree. Then I realized
that Swami was trying to crush my ego which was showing its head because
everybody including Swami was praising my talks. Swami is thus an
ego-crushing machine because for spiritual seekers ego is the greatest
obstacle.
How blessed
and fortunate we are to have this beautiful, Sweet and loving Lord to
protect us and guide us! Let us make use of this unique chance to adore
Him, Worship Him, practice His teachings and merge in Him, Who is our
Source.
Source: http://media.radiosai.org
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