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Posted on: July 17, 2018

Dancing in Ecstatic Joy to the Tune of His Divine Melody

Mr P Vijay Bhaskar

Part 02

One important lesson I learnt while being in Swami's physical presence was that when we are sitting with Him we should be very careful about every thought because suddenly the mind will come up with something and He will immediately ask, “What is this ra? Why are you asking Me this question?”

One day a foolish thought came to me when Swami went to the Sai Ram Shed for darshan in the morning. There was a person on wheelchair trying to frantically catch Swami's attention. From his facial features I could make out that he was completely at odds with himself. Swami did not look at him but just walked on.

At that point of time a thought came to me, “Why is Swami not looking at him? At least He could have cast a glance at him. That fellow is trying to catch His attention.”

Immediately Swami came to me and said, “What do you know about the karma theory?” I was stunned! This has happened to me innumerable times. Suddenly He would ask, “Why are you asking Me that question?” even as the thought was progressing in my mind. So I realised that I need to be extremely careful. I realised it then, but the realisation dawns on me even more deeply now.

Swami in those days used to give many chances to students. He used to have rabbits, peacocks and different types of birds in Brindavan. He would say, “I am doing all this so that I can give you chances.” He used to visit the Gokulam day in and day out. He need not have come but only to give us chances to be with Him He did what He did.

Let me share a few examples about Swami's omnipresence. One day I went from the hostel around 4 pm to the Gokulam. Those days Brindavan was completely filled with green foliage. In fact there used to be flame-of-the-forest trees (Butea monosperma) all across from the pathway to the main entrance of Swami's residence. When they were in full bloom it looked as if Swami was playing hide and seek! He used to come out of one trunk and then from another. Brindavan was that idyllic! The Brindavan nowadays is slightly different in that aspect.

He Watches Our Every Move

I went to Gokulam and somebody tapped me and said, “Swami is calling you.” There was a door using which one could enter Swami's room upstairs from the backyard. There used to be a wooden staircase and so I went up. There was an L-shaped corridor upstairs. The moment I entered Swami was on the right-hand side sitting in the dining hall on a swivel chair.

Swami's habit was that He used to sit in such a position that He would be able to see the boys standing there. So when I went up, He looked at me and asked, “Where are you coming from?”

I said, “Swami, I am coming from Gokulam.”

He said, “Atla kadu ra (Not that way). Where did you come from?”

I said, “Swami, I came from hostel.”

By that time I was seeing the people's faces around. I distinctly remember that Prof. Sudarshan, brothers Radhakrishna and Tarun and Mrs Ratanlal were there. I could make out from their faces that something was happening which I could not understand. So when said, I came from hostel, He said, “Atla kadu ra. You explain how you came from hostel.”

So I explained, “Swami, I came out of the hostel room, climbed down the two staircases, came down, came to the entrance of the hostel and went ….”

He persisted, “No, no! What did you do during that time? Tell!”

I said, “Swami, I just walked and crossed Principal Narendra's room and then came to the side gate.” Then Swami stopped me and looking at all the others in the room He said, “Did I not tell you that he is entering through the side gate?”

It seems that there had been some talk of Swami's omnipresence at that point of time. Swami had once saved an elderly couple when they were travelling in a railway compartment. Fire broke out because of a short circuit in the fan and He went as an electrician and saved them and in that context there was some discussion about His omnipresence.

Swami said, “You think that Swami is in the dining hall and that He doesn't know anything? For instance, Bhaskar has just started from his hostel room. He has come to the first floor and now he is in the second floor. He is now walking on the cement path and he has now crossed Narendra's room...”

In other words Swami was giving running commentary as I was walking! “He has crossed the porch. He has gone past the first mango tree, second mango tree, third mango tree, entered Gokulam. Now you go and call that fellow!” So the point which Swami proved was that He is omnipresent and that He knows everything in real time.

However, this is just the external story. The internal story is something different. Whenever Swami came to the hostel He would take one matchstick and light all five wicks in the lamp. Similarly with one act He achieves multiple objectives. For all of us this was a lesson that Swami was omnipresent and omniscient. But there was another lesson too!

Swami looked at me very lovingly and served some tiffin and snacks and asked me to eat. I didn't understand why He was showering so much love on me. He asked, “Do you know the story of Abou Ben Adhem?”

Abou Ben Adhem was a very pious man and he served others very assiduously. One day an eagle came to him and showed him a golden diary with a list of people who love God. In that list Abou Ben Adhem's name was not there but he told the eagle, “Please tell God that I love my fellow human beings very much. I also love the Lord very much. Please tell Him that.” The next day when the same eagle came, it showed him the list of those whom God loves and there in that list Abou Ben Adhem was the first.

After Swami completed this story in Telugu He told me, “You are in Swami's list!” The reason is six months earlier Swami wrote to me a letter and told me a particular way of doing a sadhana. Since He had so lovingly told in a written communication, I thought I should do that sadhana. So I kept doing it as a yagna for six months and that day I felt that He was giving confirmation to say, “You have been doing the sadhana very assiduously and therefore your name is in the list of those people whom I love as the first.”

Even if Swami is amidst hundreds of people if He wants to tell something to you alone He will tell in a way which others do not understand and cannot hear but only you can hear. While going out He brushed against me and said, “Sadhana is going on very well.”

This is how Swami achieves multiple objectives by a single act of His. In that particular experience He finished telling everybody that He is omniscient and omnipresent and that He knows everything on a real-time basis. But He also confirmed to me that He was happy that I was following the sadhana He had told.

Reaching the Skies With His Grace

There is another significant experience of how Swami helped me in the context of education. In those days, early in the morning by 3.30 we boys would get up and milk the cows. By 6 or 6.30 we would finish the work and then do our other duties. By 7 or 7.30 we would be ready, by which time Swami would come out.

Swami visiting the Gokulam in Brindavan Ashram. Mr Vijay Bhaskar (first from right) was one of those chosen by Bhagawan to serve in the Gokulam during his student days

When my M.Com. third semester exams were on, one day when I got up at 3.30 Mr Ramabrahmam came to me and said, “Bhaskar, there was rain last night. Why don't you go and till the land?” We used to grow Guinea grass those days. Owing to the insistence of Ramabrahmam garu Swami acquired 60-65 acres of land around Brindavan and we used to cultivate it.

So when Sir told me to till the land I came out and saw the land. But it had not rained that much. Unless there was sufficient rain to wet the land it was very difficult to till it. But I didn't have the heart to say no to him because he was a person who would get upset easily and I thought I should not upset him.

Though I had an exam, I didn't have the heart to tell him no. So I took the tractor after all my morning tasks around 6 and I started tilling the land. As it was very hard it took me quite a bit of time and by the time I finished about four acres of land it was around 11 am.

Then somebody came running to me and said that Swami was calling me. I finished my bath and went up. While running up I saw one of my classmates Shivaram there. I know that it was a costing exam but I didn't know whether it was costing I or II. I had earlier planned to study for the exam that morning but I could not do it because of the tilling work. I asked him on my way up, “What is the exam today?” and he said, “Costing II.”

The moment I went up Swami looked at Ramabrahmam garu who was there and told me, “Your grandfather does such things only. Why are you tilling the land till this time? Your exam is at 1 o'clock.” I said, “Swami, it is ok.” He asked, “What is the exam today?” In my hurry I said, “Swami Costing II anta” (meaning, 'it seems it is Costing II')

Swami was visibly upset and said, “What do you mean? You don't even know what exam it is?” He then served some food and told me to eat. I ate and then He said, “Take namaskar.” After I took namaskar He said, “You take Mrs Ratanlal's car and go.” So we took Mrs. Ratanlal's car and went for the exam.

As I drove the car I asked my friend, “Please tell me the main chapters in today's paper.” The exam had one theory part and one problem part in every question. So as my friends kept telling me different chapters, I kept guessing which theory question would come in that chapter and which sum might come. We went on like that till we reached.

We went to Central College, parked the car, went inside and took the exam. You may or may not believe it but the examination paper was exactly in the format we discussed! Somebody may say that it is our hard work but that is Swami's grace for you! His grace for us becomes all the more evident 20-25 years later.

Prof. O. R. Krishnaswamy was the head of the Department of Commerce when we were students. I lost touch with him after I came out of college. He met me sometime in the 1990s in Prasanthi Nilayam. He was a great soul. He embraced me and cried. I said, “Sir, what happened?” He replied, “Bhaskar, you know what? The record which you hold for the highest marks in all the subjects in all the four semesters of M.Com. is still a record in Bangalore University!” Somebody may say that I had done very well because of my effort but this is what Swami's grace is. His grace sees us through and through and through!

His Words are as Inscrutable as Himself

Now let me give you a couple of my own experiences of how difficult it is to understand Swami. My maternal uncle, my mother's younger brother, met with a serious accident in end of 1968 and he was fatally ill. He had a brain haemorrhage and was in hospital.

My mother went to Swami and He called her for an interview in which He gave prasad and said, “Not to worry, he will come to me.” Mother gave the prasad to my uncle. We were all very happy but after 45 days he passed away. After the ceremonies were over my entire family including grandfather went to Swami. The first thing He said when He saw grandparents and my mother was, “I told you he will come to Me. He has come and he is happy.”

See how we understand in a human way! That is why I said the frame of reference is completely different. If somebody is not well and Swami says, “He will come to me” we think that the person will physically get well and go to Him and take His blessings. But His words have a much deeper meaning!

There is another similar incident. Swami had asked me in the first year of M.Com. to start Gokulam in the backside of the college. One day Rama Koteshwara Rao, my batch-mate, and I were doing Gokulam work. In the evening after finishing work in the Gokulam I rode a bicycle and he was my pillion rider.

	Swami with students and Ramabrahmam garu (centre in front of Swami). Mr Vijay Bhaskar is seated, first person from the right.

The moment I turned the cycle on the road I saw several devotees standing on the road turning towards the college and doing namaskar. I instantly knew that Swami was coming in His car behind because those days He used to go for a drive.

I told Koteshwar, “See, all the devotees are looking this side and they are all attentive. I think Swami is coming. Just take a look behind.”

He looked behind and said, “Arrey bhai (Oh brother)! You have really made my life miserable. Swami is actually coming in His car.”

If we got down and if Swami saw us with devotees He would not be pleased. So I said, “Sit tight and let me cycle as fast I can. Let us go back to Brindavan.” I cycled very fast but as luck would have it Swami's car overtook us.

Swami went beyond the railway gate towards Whitefield. We went in and freshened ourselves. When we went inside into the old Brindavan bungalow, Swami was in the safe room. He looked at me, “Yenti ra?  What is this? You are moving around with workers?” Since Koteshwar was a student, I said, “But Swami he's not a worker he's a student.”

I thought, 'Why is Swami saying he is a worker?” That brother came from a family of landlords and he was a well-to-do person. He also studied law but a few years later he had the urge in him to do some industry work. So he set up a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) unit.

At that time there was peak electricity crisis in Guntur and labour was not available because of lack of water and electricity. This poor fellow was stuck with that SME and for three years he was struggling alone. One day when I finished college and went to meet him, he said, “Bhaskar, I have set up a unit. Why don't you come with me?” When we went only one person opened the door in that ramshackle unit. It was working at only 30% capacity. For the next two hours I saw Koteshwar working along with that lone labourer in that unit.

Koteshwar said, “Bhaskar, do you remember that Swami used the word ‘worker’ sometime back? We wondered why He referred to me that way though I was a student. Actually I don't need to do all this but because of the present labour crunch I have been a worker for the last four to five years.” What Swami says even in a very casual manner has a deeper meaning!

The Promised Raksha

After my student life the most important experience is that of my ill health. Even to this day as I stand in front of you my life has been a continuous saga of Swami's protection. All the cardiac complaints which a human being can have I have had!

In 2002 I had a massive heart attack. After initial treatment I told the doctors I will go to Hyderabad because my cousins are there. I went there but in the flight itself I collapsed. How I got revived in the flight is a miracle in itself. Subsequently the doctors did angioplasty and found that my heart was very weak. Then I developed a series of complications. I got pneumonia and arrhythmia. I was in the ICU for quite long. I didn't know all these things but was just lying in the bed. Doctors were discussing how to take care of my long-term treatment after stabilising me.

I was lying in the hospital bed in an eight-bed ICU in a private hospital in Hyderabad. Another patient and I were there — only two of us. One day in the afternoon around 3 or 4 pm, I had slightly dozed off. There was a sudden tap with three fingers on my right thigh near the groin. That was the place where doctors had been doing overdrive pacing for the past two days. Normally in an ICU every five minutes some nurse or the other comes and pokes you for some blood sample. So I thought it was a nurse. But three times there was a tap on my right thigh near the groin. I woke up with a start. I looked around and nobody was there. The duty doctor was sitting somewhere far away. I immediately knew that it was Swami.

You may ask me, “How do you know that it was Swami?” I got the smell of vibhuti and kasturi (musk). These smells used to come when Swami was around. This was our experience as old students. So I knew instantly that it was Bhagawan. I just cried my heart out and thanked Him.

The next morning around 11 am I got a similar tap three times on the left shoulder. The same day the doctors removed the overdrive pacing which they were doing through my right thigh. They had consulted a super specialist and they told me, “Sir, now we have decided that we will implant an AICD (Automated Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator).” The place they showed was exactly the same place where Swami had tapped. Even on this second day I could sense the same way vibhuti and musk smell. I realised I was saved by Swami's grace.

At that time my cousin's son was studying B.Com. in Brindavan in his final year. Swami told him, “Bhaskar is out of danger. Everything shall be okay.” This is just to tell you that Swami takes care of us. Why He has done what He has done only He knows.

We can go on because there is no end to Swami's experiences. On this Maha Samadhi Day, I think the true aradhana to Swami is that whenever we close our eyes either for bhajan or in meditation or in the pooja room the most important way is to visualise Him correctly — as our own Atman.

True Samarpan is that on a continuous basis all through our life we should offer patram, pushpam, phalam and toyam to Swami. I only pray that He gives us the strength to do this complete offering to Him on a consistent basis throughout our life so that we realise Him and we continue to be blessed by Him.

Jai Sai Ram.

Go to Part 01

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