Divine Instructions - August 7th, 2004

Divine Instructions - June 27th, 2002

Divine Miracles

   - The weekend of May 6th & 7th,2000

   - The miraculous meeting

   - The Lord's Will

   - The Dream of March 24, 2006

Divine Interview with SDSC Members

Divine Instructions

INTERVIEW GIVEN BY SVAAMI TO MEMBERS OF SARVA DHARMA SERVICE CENTER INC. ON JUNE 27, 2002.

Svaami called five of the members of SDSC for interview at about 2.45 PM. It lasted until 3.20 PM.

After materializing a green stone ring and putting it on the right hand ring finger of one of the members, Svaami asked us to go into the inner interview room. After we sat down, “What is in it?” Svaami asked me pointing to the package I took with me. I opened the package and said, “Svaami, last time we were here, You blessed this project and said, “By Svaami’s Grace this will materialize.” Svaami said, “Santhosham, santhosham”. I said, “Svaami, we are here to give you a progress report and for asking your guidance. Please help us.” Svaami went over each paper as I tried to explain “Aerial view, front elevation, floor plan, these are structural drawings done by Naresh Lalla. 70 % of the structural drawings are done. Svaami said “There is more work to be done …Svaami will take care.” I told Svaami that we don’t have much money and He said “Andaroo vasthaaru Evaroo dabbivvaru” (all come and no one gives money)..Svaami will take care.” I showed Svaami the three letters and tried to say that employers match donations by employees. Svaami was looking at the advisors’ page and I told Svaami that Prof. Anil Kumar is one our advisors and requested Svaami to instruct us through him. I told Svaami that I had been made President for 2 years and every two years, we meet …and Svaami interrupted me and said, “Don’t’ change, you remain for sometime” (“Kontha kaalam meere undandi”). Svaami looked at the members list for some time, returned the package to me and said, “You keep it” I asked Svaami, “At the time of foundation, can you please give us something to put in?” Svaami said, “Put some vibhoothi and start construction.” I asked if it is okay to put some soil from Puttaparthi in the foundation. Svaami said, “Yes, take some.” I said, “we have some”

Divine Miracles

The miracle on the weekend of May 6 and 7, 2000:

It was Easwaramma Day on May 6 to be celebrated at Robertsville School, Morganville, NJ. Prof. Anil Kumar was to arrive after the celebrations and give a talk. The week before that, my wife and I spoke with him on phone. After the enquiries of personal nature, we spoke with him regarding Sarva Dharma Service Center Inc. He recollected our conversation about that few years earlier at Brindavan. I updated him regarding the project and he was genuinely interested in it. He offered to take a package of information to Svaami if we had one ready for him when he came to New Jersey. So, in the next few days, we obtained all the needed information including the site plan and architect’s rendering of the proposed building and made a very attractive package fit to be presented to the Lord of the Universe. On May 6, we obtained the flight information and were prepared to go to the airport to receive Prof. Anil Kumar and his wife. They were to arrive at Newark at 3.30 PM. by Northwestern airlines. We knew that arrangements for the guests’ transportation from the airport to Robertsville school were made and we knew that we were only going to be there at the airport as members of the reception party. My wife, I and Kutumba Rao Lanka set out to the airport in his car. Before we started, I took the package meant to be given to Prof. Anil Kumar with me since there was one page whose place in the package needed to be changed as suggested by Vani and I wanted to do that while Mr. Lanka drove the car. We arrived at the airport at 2.55 PM and found Sai Krishna Bharadwaj and his father, Govinda. After a while Ravi Shankar and Sanjay Ghandikota joined us. We talked while we waited and talked about Ramesh Wadhwani sending Bob Singh to pickup the guests and drive them to the School. Ravi said that he could drive the guests if Bob was not there. The plane arrived at 3.18PM, a few minutes before schedule. We received the guests enthusiastically and started walking towards the exit. The guests did not have checked in baggage. When we discussed where we were parked, Ravi and I had a feeling that Ravi and Sanjay were parked closer to the arrival gate than we were. We walked with the guests to their car only to find that both cars were parked right next to each other! Prof. Anil Kumar joked and said that we could take half of them in each car. Ravi came to me and said “Please take the guests in your car”. We were thrilled at the offer. The baggage was put in the trunk of Sanjay’s car and Ravi requested the guests to sit in Kutumba Rao’s car. I had the chance of driving the car with Prof. Anil Kumar sitting in the front passenger seat. We drove for about an hour to reach the school. After enquiries of wellness and jokes by the professor, Vani and I showed him the package and explained him the project while Kutumba Rao sat in the rear seat and participated. Prof. Anil Kumar was visibly impressed by the project and the package and reiterated that he would certainly present it to Svaami. In his speech at the school, he announced that Swami would be visiting U.S., since He is keen on visiting Argentina. At this time he mentioned that he knows about the building that is being planned here in NJ. Following this, Rajen Ghayal announced that few people in NJ have been planning on a building project in the name of Sarva Dharma Service Center and said that all should support the efforts. After his address, we asked for few minutes of his time to talk about Sarva Dharma Service Center. I introduced Sugathan, Venkat, Ram Nayak, Adi Aleti, and Krishna Murthy to him. He again said he was happy about the project that he would present it to Svaami and would request Him to come and inaugurate it. We requested him to be the Sathya Sai Messenger for the Center. He said we would have to ask Swami and get his approval for that. He asked for a transparency of the building for him to show to the students and others when he returns. We made that transparency and uncle had modified his letter to Svaami to include a prayer to allow Prof. Anil Kumar to be His messenger to the Center. Next day, May 7, Vani, I, Kutumba Rao, his wife Rani and Harish went to Poughkeepsie in a car and attended Prof. Anil Kumar’s meeting. We gave him the finalized version of the package to Swami. Before he took it, he asked Vani and I to sit and wrote on a piece of paper the text of a telegram from him to Svaami to be given through Western Union by me that night. He wrote: ‘PRANAMS AT YOUR LOTUS FEET. MORGANVILLE, NJ. MEETING VERY GRAND. ATTENDED BY MANY. INTERESTING TO NOTE THE PLANS FOR SAI SERVICE CENTER, A BUILDING PROJECT TAKEN UP BY YOUR BENIGN GRACE. BUILDING PLAN IS VERY GOOD. AREA SPACIOUS. CENTRALLY LOCATED. ALL ARE ENTHUSIASTIC. PRAY SWAMY TO BLESS THE PROJECT AND INAUGURATE. ALL ARE WELL, SWAMY. PRAY BLESSINGS…ANIL KUMAR.” After his speech, we gave him the package and he said again that he will give us a follow up after presenting it to Svaami. He also gave us his Puttaparthy telephone number and asked us to keep in touch with him. That night after returning to New Jersey, I gave the telegram to our Lord. We think the events of Saturday and Sunday were clearly pre planned by Svaami. We only planned to receive them at the airport, did not plan to drive them from airport to the school. Until 3.30 PM, we did not know that we were going to drive them. The package was with us, again, not by intention. He announced in public that Svaami was coming to US and about the building. Ghayal followed that up by asking all to support the project. Prof. Anil Kumar said spontaneously that he would request Swami to inaugurate the building. All of this is a miracle that took place between 3.30 PM and 7.30 PM on May 6, 00. The next day, Prof. Anil Kumar himself asked us to give the telegram to Svaami and included the word ‘inaugurate’. He offered his telephone number and asked us to be in touch with him and promised to follow up on his presentation to Svaami.

The miraculous meeting

The eighth annual meeting of SDSC was held on Dec. 9, 2000 and was sparsely attended despite scheduling Sai Lahari concert and giving one and a half month publicity at SSS centers in NJ, NY and Pa. There was an air of disappointment in the minds and to talk about the action items in the near future, another meeting with few invited members was arranged for Sunday, Dec. 17, between 2 PM and 4 PM. The notice was sent by e mail two times. The previous Saturday night and Sunday morning, there were thunderstorms with 50 MPH winds etc. At 10 AM Sunday, Dr. Sugathan called me and asked if we should postpone the meeting because of inclement weather. It was raining incessantly and was very windy. There was a flash flood watch until 1.30 PM and continued stormy whether forecast until 5.30 PM. I was not for postponement and Dr. Sugathan wanted me to talk to Venkat, which I did. By that time, at least 5 people were supposed to be coming and Venkat said he would participate by phone if the meeting took place. After that I went to take shower and as a habit I spoke, pleaded and almost challenged Svaami in the shower, to see that this meeting is well attended. My contention was that this meeting is not for me or for any one that is coming for the meeting. It is for You and the project. So if You scheduled the cyclonic weather, You could have it but see that the meeting is well attended and ends successfully. At about 1 PM when I was returning from errands, the storm did not only stop but the Sun came out. After that, members started coming in, it became cloudy but after the meeting started, the sunshine was bright again. The temperature went up almost to 50 degrees. When Vani returned around 4 PM from her errands, she commented that she had to open car windows while driving. The meeting was attended by no less than 12 people and went on very well with lots of ideas and discussion. The meeting ended around 4.30 and all attendees dispersed. The storm started again after 7.30 and went on until 9.30 PM or so! If this is not Svaami’s intervention in the storm for the sake of successful meeting, what else is it?

Lord's Will

It was raining very hard outside, and I still had to drive to school. It was only 7 AM, and the dark, overcast, early Monday morning sky and downpour showed no signs of relenting. I gathered my umbrella and jacket and half-heartedly decided to head out of the door, knowing full well of the very difficult driving conditions I would encounter due to the combination of early morning rush hour, poor visibility, and heavy rain. The thought of skipping class flashed through my mind. I scurried back into my apartment to check the calendar: March 28th. Final exams were to start in two weeks. It would not be prudent to skip class this close to finals. As I begrudgingly opened the door to my 2nd floor apartment and left, I started to recall the incident I had read about just the day before on Sarva Dharma's web site, and the events that had followed.

The incident narrated a "miraculous" event with regard to the weather that had occurred. In this incident, a Sarva Dharma meeting had been scheduled for evening time, but it begun to downpour ferociously several hours prior. As the coordinators were reluctantly preparing to cancel the meeting due to concerns of poor attendance, some of them privately prayed to Baba that since this meeting was striving to make progress for His Cause alone, that He should facilitate the meeting by ridding the clouds. As an hour before meeting time neared, and since some board members lived 45 minutes distance away, not much time remained, and the downpour continued. Moments from impending cancellation, though, a sudden and pointed stoppage in the rain occurred. The meeting did occur, and was a great success as all members attended and made significant progress on several issues. An hour after the meeting, as the members had safely reached back home, once again a ferocious downpour began. Sarva dharma article attributed this sequence of events to a direct, miraculous intervention of Baba.

After reading this incident, I was making preparations for going to sleep. It was around 10 PM on Easter Sunday. As I prepared to go to bed, an unusual bright light entering my room startled me into examining its source more closely. As I stepped onto my balcony, I could scarcely believe my eyes, as I saw a deeply penetrating yellow-orange light that filled the entire night sky. It stretched in every direction for as far as the eye could see. The hue in the sky was a very deep amber or saffron color; it afforded my eyes a glimpse of my surroundings that would ordinarily be impossible to achieve at such a late hour of the night. In that light I could quite clearly see the parked cars and trees that were hundreds of feet away. It was as if the luster of the sun and the darkness of the night sky had reached a harmonious accord to express themselves simultaneously. After several minutes of absorbing the beauty of this surrealistic vision, I went to sleep. Now, the fierce lashing of the rain on the ground yanked my mind back to the present. I walked down the stairs towards my car, and opened my umbrella. The gray skies stretched for as far as the eye could see. "How much of an interventionist is the Lord?" I thought to myself. Does he really feel compelled to interfere in trivial matters like the state of the weather? With the Lord tending to so many earthly and cosmic matters of higher magnitudes of importance, I was skeptical that He would meddle in the affairs of clouds and sun. I came to the conclusion that Sarva Dharma miracle was a coincidence - and that the spiritual, faith-seeking instinct within us leads us to manufacture divinity where, in fact, there exists mere chance occurrence. Having concluded my internal deliberation on this matter on that note, I returned my mental focus to the challenge of driving through this downpour. As I turned onto the small road leading out of my apartment complex, chuckling about how our faith can lead us to classify mundane events as "miraculous", suddenly an audacious thought dared creep into my mind. "Ok Baba," I defiantly thought, "if you are indeed master of all domains, silent witness to all thoughts, and invisible orchestrator of all events, then why don't You banish these gray clouds and thundering rain and summon the sun? Can you transform the weather for me as you had purportedly done for the Sarva Dharma meeting?" A moment later, I happened to glance up at the sky. What I saw was one of the most stunning visuals I have ever experienced. In the blink of an eye, I saw the clouds racing away towards the horizon at absolutely blistering speed, as if the cloud Maker had demanded they return immediately to His heavenly palace. Bursting through the envelope of gray that had permeated the sky just a moment ago, the sun now shone with such brilliance that I could not look at the sky, as if the Chief of Planets himself had ordered it for an impromptu performance. Within a few more seconds, the angry roar of pouring rain had been completely replaced by the melody of birds' chirping, as if a musical Composer had signaled for the orchestra of His Creation to begin.

I stopped my car right then and there on the small road, and got out of the car to make sure I was seeing properly. In the same sky where there had been a menacing blanket of clouds seconds past, now not even a single one dared linger. I have never seen such a pronounced and rapid change in the weather. For a moment, I had the surreal thought that only I had perceived this entire experience. I looked around. Normally at that time, children are waiting for the school bus, and cars are exiting the apartment complex and heading to work. Today, there was nobody anywhere to be seen. A bunny rabbit happily hopped past me, as if to celebrate the emergence of his beloved sun.

I had learnt that absolutely nothing, from the dance of a single blade of grass, to the creation and destruction of solar systems, was outside the purview of the Lord's will.

By Gunjan Verma, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.

The Dream of March 24, 2006

The dream materialized on March 24, 2006, night before the day of Concert at Bharatiya Temple.

In the dream, a large group of devotees are gathered in a temple to attend either a concert or conduct bhajans for the SDSC. I am not sure what the program is but it is very clear it is for SDSC and it is for the same occasion as the next day’s concert. As the program commences, small flakes of what looks like snow, but smells of vibhuti starts to descend in the hall.

As time progresses, it becomes more intense and starts to blow sideways. It then starts to hit a wall and starts to collect in the wall. Soon a shape starts to form. The shape is that of a large dancing Ganesha.

As everyone gets ecstatic, the dream ends…..