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Posted on: Jun 23, 2018

How Swami Has Solved Every Problem of My Life

Mrs Meera Sharangat

Part 01

In this moving piece Mrs Meera (name changed) from United Kingdom bares her heart out about the terrible tragedies of her life - from a failed marriage and difficult pregnancies to abominable office politics and shocking job losses.

But all through her ordeals, in stunning ways she has experienced the power of Bhagawan’s formidable grace, guidance and protection. His love reached out to her in most remarkable ways at most unexpected hours and comforted her soul every time she was in dire straits.

Deeply touched and transformed, all she says now is, “I only want to be His silent instrument forever. I am nothing without Him. I cannot imagine myself without Him any moment.” As you read through this, we are sure you will connect with it at various levels and hopefully derive inspiration to be more steadfast in your goal of seeking Him and serving Him.

The Sweet Sai Enters My Heart

I was born in a Sai family in Gujarat, India. My paternal grandfather was very devoted to Swami and even had the vision of Him as Lord Shiva on his very first visit to Puttaparthi. Thus he, my grandmother and my father worshipped Swami; His photo was there in our altar at home.

After my mother got married into this family, she saw Swami's photo and accepted Him as the family deity. She never lost any chance to attend bhajans or Sai centre activities. She got into the habit of tying a rakhi to Swami's photo every year during Raksha Bandhan.

In my childhood I used to wonder about this and ask her, “Who is the person in this photo to whom you tie rakhi every year? Why is this photo in our altar?”

My mother simply replied, “He is Sai Baba.” I stopped asking her further questions and began treating Swami as God because His photo was placed along with the photos of other Gods in the altar.

My father had been active in the Sai organisation during his youth but later there was a long gap for some reason. When I turned 12, he again became a regular at the Sai centre. I too started attending Thursday bhajans along with my parents as I did not want to stay alone at home.

Sometime in the early '90s I came to Puttaparthi with my parents for seva in June. It felt like a summer vacation as travelling by train was a very thrilling experience for me in those days.

When I saw Swami in darshan for the first time I had several questions in my mind: “Is he man or woman? How can God have a human body?” and so on.

However, slowly I got attracted to Him and began rushing to sit in the front line during darshan.

Being a child I got the chance to hold a tray filled with sweets. Because of this, other ladies allowed me to sit in the front line expecting Swami to come to our side. When I think of it now, it looked as if I gave Swami a ‘sweet bribe’ and He fell for it too! Well, I know it was just His love.

Intense Units of Grace in the Intensive Care Unit

Such summer vacations went on regularly for a few years but one year my mother suddenly developed high fever and had difficulty in breathing. She had to be on oxygen support for a month. Finally she was admitted in a big hospital where the doctors took a signature from my father stating that they would not be held responsible if anything untoward happened, as hers was a severe case and there was very less chance of survival.

My father was in a helpless situation and he requested the devotees in the nearest Sai centre to offer heartfelt prayers to Swami during the bhajan sessions. I too kept crying looking at Swami's photo and started complaining to Him.

Within a few days Swami appeared one night in the ICU where my mother was. The cleaner lady was present. My father was there too but he was resting.

Next morning when my father was arranging everything around my mother's bed and putting vibhuti on her forehead, the cleaner lady saw the photo of Swami next to my mother, and asked my father, “Is he your relative?”

My father was a bit surprised but said, “Yes, He is everything for us but why do you ask?”

The lady replied, “This man came into the room last night to see your wife. I thought he must be your relative. You were resting then.” Hearing this, my father was thrilled.

My mother had earlier undergone several tests and even MRI scans which showed that something was abnormal in her body. She was in fact taking only taking liquid diet for a long time but after this incident all her reports showed that everything was normal.

The doctors were amazed to see this overnight transformation. She got discharged quickly and our lives returned to normalcy but our devotion to Swami multiplied manifold.

A Marriage That Broke My Life

In 2000 when I was pursuing B. A. second year, my parents got me engaged with an NRI boy from our caste. Due to the visa formalities I signed the marriage certificate even though the wedding had not formally happened yet. The boy went to USA after the engagement ceremony.

But after that things started going topsy-turvy. In a few months the boy started rejecting me. It came to the point where he wanted to break the engagement.

My parents and I shed tears every single day. Eventually, in a few weeks my engagement ended. My despondent parents again started searching for a suitable boy, but no one was ready to accept me because of my past. Many people suggested my parents to look for a divorcee for me.

This was the most painful experience in my life. It was like a black dot on my character. I had to focus on my studies as well.

Just to overcome the mental stress of this painful experience I started taking free tuitions for kids from poor families along with pursuing my academics. With Swami's grace I got first class in B. A. English Literature and second class in M. A. English Literature.

We continued our visits to Puttaparthi on and off and Swami also kept accepting our letters but the tragedy in our life continued.

Swami Finds the Match for Me

During one visit in 2003, my father broke down in tears when Swami accepted his letter, but this time Swami gave him vibhuti and said, “Bacchi ko dedena (Give it to your daughter).”

The same day I was seated in the first line in the ladies’ side and Swami accepted my letter too but I did not get the chance to touch His feet.

However earlier that morning Swami gave me kumkum (vermillion). This is how that happened.

When I was at the main Ganesh mandir that morning praying to Lord Ganesha, the priest climbed down the steps. He cleaned some coconuts and flowers which were scattered around, and then gave coconut pieces as prasadam to devotees standing there. However for some strange reason to me he gave kumkum instead of a flower or coconut piece!

So this way Swami had already given me kumkum before he gave vibhuti to my father later in darshan. However even after receiving this blessing we had no change in the situation and we began to lose our patience.

Our faith in Swami began to waver. My father started losing hope of getting any kind of response from Swami with regards to getting me married, but he continued doing his daily puja and attended the Sai bhajan centre regularly.

One night in the middle of 2003, Swami came in my father's dream and in a stern voice said, “26 ko hoga bacchi ke shaadi (Daughter will get married on 26th)”. He did not mention the month or year.

My parents and I were waiting on the 26th of every month to see some change. Finally in the first week of June 2004, we found a newspaper dropped in our house by mistake; we had not asked for it.  

My mother accidentally saw a matrimonial ad in this paper and got interested. She showed it to my father but he rejected it saying, “We cannot trust strangers. Let us leave the matter to Swami.”

My mother decided to ignore my father's words and phoned the boy's father and arranged for a meeting. My father finally agreed to come because he had a meeting with his client near the place we had to go to. So my parents and I went to meet the family.

When the boy entered the room in white clothes, I felt he looked like a typical Sai student. Before we could start a conversation his father said, “We have one condition. Only if you agree can we proceed.”

My parents had no choice but to listen to his condition. He said, “We have already decided the marriage date as our son is here for only two weeks. It has to be 26th of June. This cannot be changed.” My parents and I were stunned and looked with amazement into each other's eyes; obviously it was Swami all the way!

Once my parents agreed for the date, they and the boy's parents asked the boy and me to go into a separate room and converse for a few minutes. The boy just asked me to speak in English as he wanted to check my fluency in the language, as this is very essential in the UK.

I was not good in spoken English. It was not my first language in school. But somehow, I spoke well that day. I think it was purely His grace. The very next day the boy and his family said yes and my wedding finally happened on the chosen date— June 26, 2004.

Swami took care of everything such as visa formalities and details about the old broken marriage. My husband clearly said he was not bothered about my past as he was only interested in the present. He said he looked forward to a good future with me. This marriage undoubtedly was a miracle in my life.

From 2000 to 2004 I had spent each day in tears and had lost all hope of getting Swami's help. I kept complaining to Him and was upset with Him just as a child does with its mother. Out of frustration, I even did things that I should not do but whatever mistakes I did knowingly or unknowingly I shared everything with Him in front of His photo with tears.

When we came to Puttaparthi I gave Him letters physically wherein I had mentioned about my stupid mistakes. Swami accepted my letters with a smile. I used to feel relieved. It was all confidential between Him and me.

Today when I look back at those experiences, I realise how Swami was protecting me by ensuring that I did not select the wrong person because He had already selected the best person for me who is my husband now. Whenever anyone rejected me in the past it was not because there was a fault in me, rather it was Swami rejecting him and not letting that person enter my life.

The Kids Were ‘Delivered’ by Swami!

After marriage I came to the UK. I was very happy and settled down well into married life. My parents were much relaxed. In 2005 I was blessed to be pregnant with twins.

The same year my husband lost his job because his company shifted to another country. However by Swami's grace he got the chance to work from home with the same company until he got another job which was again a Sai miracle.

Thus Swami provided me with my husband's 24-hour availability as I had no choice to invite my parents to stay with me during that time. Interestingly, once my twin sons were born my husband got a job much better than what he had lost.

Swami took care of my twin pregnancy complications too. When I went into labour I delivered the first child normally, but the water bags were already breaking down inside me and so the second child was struggling. The doctors planned to get him out through operation, but it was very risky as the baby was stuck inside for 30 minutes and had got entangled.

But just as the doctors picked up their instruments to make a cut on my body, the baby came out through his legs naturally. So there was no need for a surgery. In fact, I was the first in that hospital's history to have delivered twins normally in the operation room!

One thing I must say: as soon as my contractions started for the delivery, I held Swami's photo in my fist. I clearly told everyone around me not to take it from my hand even if I became unconscious for an operation.

During the 30-minute gap, my husband who was my birth partner in the operation room did not even touch our first child because the second child was at risk. But finally Swami by His grace brought out the second child also through normal delivery. It was a big miracle which made everyone speechless in the operation room.

Even after the kids' birth, Swami has been taking care of them. He once saved me and my kids from a big accident. On another occasion He restored my kids back to me when they got lost in a Christmas fun fair; they were only three years old then.

After the kids were born, we started living happily and kept thanking Swami each day. I also started attending a Sai centre in UK for bhajans.

Go to Part 2