Swami’s Omnipresence
Malathi & Ram Nayak, previously from the Doylestown Pennsylvania Center, had a very beautiful experience during their transit through Brussels Airport in Belgium. They have recently moved to California and now attend North County San Diego Center.
This is a testimony of our beloved Bhagavan’s love for His devotees, and how He stands by us at the time of crisis, providing timely help and showering His amazing grace and blessings on us.
We were on our long awaited pilgrimage to Parthi and Shirdi after a six year hiatus due to health conditions that prevented us from visiting our beloved guru. First we made a pilgrimage to Shirdi. After having a beautiful darshan [sight of a holy man] of Shirdi Sai Baba in the Samadhi mandir [temple where Shirdi Sai is entombed], we were resting for a few minutes on a ledge next to the walkway to the mandir. We were taking in the peaceful environment of Shirdi Sai’s mandir. Then, lo and behold! We both had a divine vision of Shirdi Sai Baba walking left to right in His physical form, blessing us with His right hand raised moving back and forth with a beautiful loving smile. His eyes, full of love, were looking deeply into us, and He then stood right in front of us. His form was exactly like the pictures we worship. He was wearing an orange robe and His head was covered with a thin light orange cloth.
We were so overwhelmed by the vision that we froze and could only scream, “Shirdi Baba, Shirdi Baba, Shirdi Baba,” with our eyes and mouths wide open. We were awestruck and totally speechless, and our eyes were glued to the beautiful mesmerizing form of Shirdi Sai Baba. Shirdi townsfolk were walking around as usual as if He was not there. He stood for a minute, then lifted His left hand up, blessed us and then turned around and disappeared. When we came back to our senses we ran looking for Him and He was nowhere to be found. This whole divine vision happened over a few minutes. What a wonderful blessing it was! Little did we know what was to come and how He was going to protect us and why we needed such a divine vision in our lives at the time.
After this sacred and memorable pilgrimage we visited Puttaparthi, where we had a peaceful darshan of our guru Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s Maha Samadhi [the place where the form was entombed]. This was our first trip back to Parthi since Swami left His form. Although it was a very emotional time for us, we felt Swami’s Divine presence and love. Swami continues to manifest in our lives to this day. We were so happy with our amazing spiritual experiences in Shirdi and Parthi and treasured Baba’s blessings to protect and guide us at all times.
On our return flight to California on March 22, 2016, we had a two-hour layover in Brussels, Belgium. We proceeded to the terminal lounge for some refreshments. Before we could sit down, there was an emergency announcement directing us to evacuate immediately from the airport. All passengers were asked to leave their carry-on bags and run to the airport tarmac. We were informed that there was a bomb explosion in the terminal A and that there were five suspected areas with bomb activity in our terminal B. Amidst the total chaos, we could see devastation in terminal A, ambulances were responding, police sirens were blasting, and the bomb squad could be seen.
We then stood on the airport tarmac for four hours in chilly one degree centigrade weather. Being a diabetic, my sugar was getting low, and my husband, a heart patient, was shivering while wearing just a cotton shirt. We prayed intensely to Swami for protection. A volunteer with an orange jacket took us to the infirmary, I was given a sugary snack and my husband was given a gold colored thermal wrap to keep warm. After an hour, they directed us to board the buses that were around the corner that turned out to be a 1.5 to 2 mile walk.
The buses dropped us at a train station, where our ordeal started. We, two seniors with health issues, were under the open sky without any knowledge of further emergency plans, in an unknown town. Some volunteers who spoke Flemish were reluctant to talk to us in English. This was the scariest moment of our life. Finally, someone directed us to the crisis center that was half a mile away. There the people were sitting on the floor without a clue as to what was happening.
After an hour, two college students gave us a list of area hotels and asked us to take a train to a suburb named Leuven. With my arthritic knee we walked half a mile to the station. While we were on the train, a bomb went off on a metro train. This was worse than the airport terminal bombing. We got off in Leuven and waited to hail a cab, with earnest prayers to Swami for help.
At that moment, an elderly lady on a bike approached us and said that her daughter had informed her about the bombings and had asked her to go out and help someone. She invited us to her home to be her guests. We were relieved and felt that Swami sent her to help us. She got off her bike, stowed it away on the street, and took us by bus to a beautiful town named Haverlee with lovely white houses, tall trees, and beautiful flowers. It was heavenly. She took us to her home and gave us a delicious vegetarian lunch.
She wanted us to spend the night in her home but due to lack of space she took us to a very nice lodge nearby, and we were able to check into the last vacant room available for the night. The people here were extremely warm and welcoming. We learnt that the Brussels airport would be closed for two more days and that our return to California was uncertain and could be delayed. We also learnt that the rest of the evacuated passengers were accommodated at the makeshift crisis center. Meanwhile there was no communication with the airline personnel or the evacuation team leaders.
Again we prayed to our Divine guru and every small step was made easier because of His Divine grace. Through social media messaging with our family in California and India we found out that a nephew was studying in Leuven. He very graciously and generously brought us the right kind of phone charger, warm jackets, and snacks. Just imagine evacuating from an international airport with nothing but your handbag, and now staying in a lodge, plus Swami connected us with our nephew who provided us with the help we needed at that time.
With an operational cell phone, we were able to connect with our children in California. Again, through Swami’s Divine grace, Mr. Rohan Balasuriya, Region 8 President, contacted the president of the Belgian Sai organization and we found out that there was a Sai center in Leuven. Three Sai young adults got in touch with us and one of them picked us up and arranged for us to stay with the Sai family who were running the center in their home; they were a very humble, loving, sweet Nepalese family.
It was so wonderful to see a big picture of Swami with raised palm (abhaya hastha) as if to say, “Why fear when I am here…in Leuven.” We fell right at His feet and thanked Him for protecting us amidst the chaos. We rested for a little while and then as we were eating a delicious dinner prepared by our Sai host family, our daughter-in-law and daughter called us to say that our airline was busing all evacuated passengers to Amsterdam. We had no information whatsoever from our airline. Yet, our daughter-in-law just happened to see it on twitter. We can only say that it was Swami’s grace. Fourteen buses had left Belgium already and the last one was about to leave.
Our helpful Leuven Sai young adults rushed us to the crisis center where most of the passengers had stayed for two days and we boarded the last bus. We spent the night in Amsterdam. Not until the next day in the afternoon did the airline representative come and tell us that we were going to Toronto. Our daughter quickly informed Sai devotees in Toronto about our situation. They were very kind to get in touch with us and offered their help. From Toronto the airline connected us to San Diego and we reached our home safely.
When we look back on the journey, we can only see Swami’s immense grace everywhere. When we were scared and panic-stricken in Leuven, He sent us a beautiful 73-year old Belgian woman who was fluent in English and who welcomed us in her home, fed us, and comforted us. She was ready to give us Euros for our expenses and she visited us the next day with her iPad to take pictures to send to our children so that they could see that we were ok. Due to her kindness we were at ease and did not experience the hardship of staying in a crisis center. When we called from the U.S. to thank her, she thanked us for giving her the opportunity to serve us. She said she prized the opportunity to practice kindness and wished the world were kinder.
Swami even managed to connect us with our nephew and provide us with the necessary help. He arranged for us to go to the Sai center in Leuven and made us feel at home in a foreign land. It was very comforting to be with Sai families. What more can we say about our loving Lord! Many times during this ordeal we felt His presence as though He was walking with us. Instead of succumbing to fear amidst the chaos while walking the streets of a foreign country, Swami made sure we were taken care of at every step of the way. No wonder He told devotees in the early days that Sai centers are beacons of light that maintain peace in the world.
This entire blessed journey reminded us of our beloved Swami’s promise when He signed Ram’s Ph.D. thesis almost 45 years ago:
He kept His promise: He is always with us and in us. We are immensely grateful to our loving Swami for giving us a new lease on life. We pray to Him to shower His love and grace on families who lost their loved ones and ease their pain. We pray that He gives us more opportunities to serve Him and to hold on tightly to His feet. May He sanctify our lives.
