A Day in the Patha Mandir - As narrated by Bombay Srinivasan

 

( Compiled Article - Felt I can hold this beautiful piece in my Blog to the delight of the audience )

During those days there were no rituals like omkaram,suprabhatam or nagarasankirtan. Swami was everything for devotees. At 3 AM one could hear farmers going to their fields, singing folk songs. That was the Omkaram for devotees those days. At 5 AM one could hear milk vendors saying ,"Please buy my curd, milk and flowers". This was the suprabhatam for devotees. In any case they had to get up by daybreak.At dawn, Swami would rise, wash himself and drink the hot beverage devotees offered to him, and move happily with them and talk to them also. At 9 Am after Swami had taken his bath, devotees would offer him the breakfast they would have prepared. Swami would taste a bit from each, joke a bit and offer the same as prasadam for everyone.

After breakfast, anyone could do padapuja to Swami. There was a old cane-chair in the Old Mandir which would be placed in the hall. Requesting Swami to place his lotus feet on a plate, devotees would wash the feet with scented water, wipe with kumkum. Then they would offer Swami naivedhyam which he would partake a little. Devotees would then offer harathi to Swami and everyone would do padanamaskar. While doing padapuja, Swami would ask devotees to sing with devotion, instead of mechanically. Bhajans would start at 11 AM. There was no regular bhajans those days.....just long songs. Any person could sing during bhajans. Swami would sit on that red stone and also sing. His sister, Venkamma would also sing with him. The hall was very small and men and women sat on either side. Some men sat behind Swami fanning him. Despite that, Swami's robe would be soaked wet due to the scorching heat. At the end of the session, Swami himself would do harathi to please his devotees and then distribute prasadam to everyone.

At 1 pm, everyone would assemble for lunch. Swami would take a little food from everybody, mix it, eat a little and distribute the rest as prasadam. Later he would rest for a while. Even in those days Swami never took sweets, ghee, milk or curds. When pressed for a reason, Swami said he had had enough during Krishnavatar.

In the evening at 4 pm came the most awaited phase for the day. He would take devotees to the Chitravathi riverbed. There, he would sing and ask the devotees to sing as well. He would materialize from the sand - idols, photos, fruits etc and give them to the devotees. He would also talk about spiritual matters and give the devotees great joy. On one occasion he took out and apple from the sands and cut it into 4 slices. He started giving them to almost 50 devotees seated there. As he gave them,the slices multiplied on their own and everyone got a slice. Swami would say, "I am sankalpasiddha, not siddhasankalpa".While returning to the mandir, Swami would walk in front and advice the devotees to follow him singing songs. There would be bhajans for a while in the mandir and after harathi everyone would have dinner. In the night Swami would walk around the mandir with a torch. Puttaparthi was full of snakes and scorpions. They sometimes lived with devotees. No one was bitten by them, thanks to his grace. Even dogs and cats were allowed to move freely inside the Mandir!

Oh Sai Rama - A Heartfelt Poem

 

Oh Sai Rama , Let your name be my Sahasranamaa

Let my devotion to you be consistent , 

Whether or Not , Challenges are insistent 

Let my Love for you be my highest Gain , 

Whether or Not , I am tested by biggest Pain , 

Let my Hands forever Hold your feet ,

And Let that be my biggest Treat , 

Let my Legs motion Towards All Things Sai Approved , 

And If not, Let my Intentions to move be Removed ,

Let my Mind hold your sight open or closed ,

And if not, let my eyes never Open or Close ,

Let my Breath inhale the Incense in your Presence, 

And let that be my breath's Essence ,

Let my Sleep be filled with your Dreams ,

And Let that bring me to Blissful tears in Streams  , 

Let my vocal Chords Vibrate on Your Name ,

And Let that alone Reverberate in all my Time Frame ,

Let your Mental awareness be my only Force of Living ,

And if not , let your nearness be my only Source of Living ,

Oh Sai Rama , Let your name be my Sahasranama ,

Oh Sai Rama , Let your name be my Sahasranama,

Oh Sai Rama , Let your name be my Sahasranama

samastha lokah sukhino bhavanthu

The Invisible Guardian in my life until the Vision

Jai Sai Ram .

Many of us will have an introductory moment in our journey with Swami,  and I am no exception . But, when one day I started connecting the incidents, I was amazed how he has been silently overlooking me in his own special divine way. I am narrating here the various instances in my life how Swami has been in touch with me, without me noticing it .

The Emblem

All through my growing up years back in Mylapore, we had this bureau made of metal , around 5 feet in height in average condition which we used to store clothes. This was something which was given to us by our paternal aunt, whose husband allegedly had been a swami devotee, which I came to know only in 2020 . That uncle had long passed away. That bureau had this all religion circular emblem which we all identify with Swami's call of One religion  [also shown above in this post) . Is that emblem sticker on the bureau not enough for him to watch me grow up when I had no idea about the Avatar ? . The warmer thing to note here is that, thanks to my parents, sister I got tuned to Swami's Shiridi Avatar without reason and somehow his hold on me was established all through my journey up the years in all my good and bad moments.  

The College Connect

Fast forward , high school pretty much had me hooked on to my academics and I scored very high marks and got into a good College. I met this guy, who was from a different department and somehow by swami's inspiration we both started talking when we travelled in the college bus. He used to come up and tell me Swami's experiences and I used to tightly hold on to my then Guru and Overall guardian , Shiridi Sai. Internally I used to think, no one can equal my Baba, this guy is just trying to brainwash me with stuff and somehow I never even spared a moment to take interest in Swami. Now, when I look back, my eyes well up with tears, thinking why Swami didn't drag me by the ear through someone , some random person alteast once to Sundaram , in Mylapore to quell the noise and sculpt the misshapen intellect once and for all. But he alone knows what is best for all of us and I just have to accept that as his own will.  

The Doctor Connect 

I also remember meeting a Doctor Dr .G Sairaman, who used to have a big Smiling Swami portrait as shown above and I have frequented him whenever any of us fell sick including once when I got dengue. The doctor had a calm demeanor about himself and was tall and had a good grip of his medicinal craft. Imagine the odds, when a well gifted doctor was just 10 minutes away from our home  who practiced medicine and was a Sai devotee. The familiarity that swami has been silently sowing in my unsuspecting mind. This is still from my Mylapore days. 

Enter The Telugu & Andhra Connect 

Then came the time of placement when we attended interviews and I had to go to hyderabad for the training period in the company where I got selected.  I stayed with my paternal uncle, who is an ardent Iyyappa devotee, and he had so many portraits. In those 3 months of my stay there, so many good things happened. I developed a beautiful connection with my cousin, who didn't have any comfortable vibe towards me though every summer vacation she used to come all our house for stays and bonding over childlike stuff but we never felt any vibe between us. It was so non-existent.  But in the time I stayed in their place,  now we are so close and it all sounds so crazy how things change between people . My uncle , pretty much leads all the affairs of his house and he had so many photos of all gods in his wall , hung with all old flowers and dried leaves and papers etc . I took interest and devised a plan with my cousin to clean up the entire place . There were 3-4 Swami photos of different sizes and not once did I even register his face or bothered to even look in his eye out of the slightest curiosity. Now in 2020, when I was going through my pictures, I saw his portraits and It all flashed , how he still kept looking out for me when I was in the training period of my very first employment. Also to add here is that,  like Swami often says how he will achieve multiple things with one stroke,  I also learnt telugu language through my self interests and purely his sankalpa. I speak fluent telugu now orally and we all know Swami's mother tongue is Telugu . In one  event in my life, swami made me learn his mother tongue, establish a beautiful bond with my cousin, made me clean up the altar of my uncle which had his photos .

Forgotten Sai Injections

Back to Chennai, I continued to be loyally associated with Shiridi Sai until my USA trip happened. I came back home, started printing out his pictures, making small cards, hanging photos , reclining photo cutouts in absolute relish for seeing him constantly when my eyes caught sight of a Shiridi Sai Cardboard collage which I had done a few years ago in my previous house. If you see this picture, he had convinced me to paste one of his photos in the ALL Shiridi Sai cardboard cutout and through that picture he had been silently monitoring me. In this excitement, I began to raid my old purses, family bags etc to uncover some more pictures buried between old papers and cards . One was Swami beside his Samadhi picture and 2 of the Sai Trinity pictures. I immediately did some crafting work and made them off portrayable quality. 

And Now

All through my life, until he officially onboarded me under his wing, his signature of the Silent Guardian has been there all along . These days, I choke up terribly thinking of my missed opportunity of having not seen in his Sagun form of a body, when I could have massaged his legs, washed his feet and drink that water as holy tirth. But, it all happened for a reason. He alone knows when I was ready enough to receive him. The comfort and consolation for me is that, he cared, is caring and will always care about me and somehow he will makeup for the physical intimacy I missed out with him. Until then, sai love continues.. 

Today is Swami's 95th Birthday Celebrations . May swami Bless us all to make us the ideal devotees who don't get affected by the pair of opposites and maintain singular Devotion and concentration on the Lotus feet of Swamiwaru Bhagwan Baba .

SamasthaLokah Sukhino Bhavanthu