Life with Sai, for Sai

Sai Chittaranjan was a student (from 2005-2012) in the Department of  Management and Commerce at the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. Currently, he is a Doctoral Research Scholar at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

The greatest good fortune of a ‘Sai student’ is to live with Sai and for Sai. I was born into a family of devotees. My mother had been blessed to serve as a faculty member of the Anantapur Campus of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. As a young boy, I knew that Swami was God simply because my mother had told me so. I am deeply indebted to my mother, for she showed me God and told me to always hold on to Him with unquestioning belief. As the years rolled by, this belief has been strengthened with numerous experiences and miracles that happened in my life and in the lives of others around me. Miracles of creation, miracles of medical impossibilities, and miracles of transformation—all of them are miracles of love.

Swami blessed my elder brother and me very early in our lives by performing the traditional ceremonies of Namakaranam, Annaprasanam, Mundanam, Aksharabhyasam, and Upanayanam (naming, feeding the first morsel, the first haircut, initiating into learning the alphabet, and initiating into spiritual life). My elder brother had joined the Sri Sathya Sai Primary School and I was very eager to follow him. The selection process included an entrance examination. More importantly, it required the grace of Swami. I had a simple prayer to Swami. I only wanted Him to bless me with a seat in His school. Before I learned how to write, I would ask my mother to write my prayers, and after I learned to write, I would write the same simple prayer, and during darshan [holy blessing] I would offer the letter to Swami.

During one darshan session, Swami passed me without accepting my letter. In my innocence, I believed that Swami hadn’t noticed me and therefore He did not accept my prayer. I immediately got up, called out to Swami, and rushed to Him. Even as the Seva Dal [service group] members came forward to control me, Swami turned, walked toward me, and smilingly accepted my letter. And in a few years, my simple prayer was answered. I joined the Sri Sathya Sai Primary School and started my journey toward becoming a ‘Sai student’. The path to being a ‘Sai student’ is not necessarily easy. It has its due share of tests and trials. We derive the courage and strength to face them from Swami’s reassurances and grace.

Swami has always emphasized cleanliness. This particular incident happened when I was in the third standard. As students of the Primary School, those of us who shared our birthday would go as one group to receive Swami’s blessings during that day’s darshan [holy sighting]. The senior most student amongst us would carry a tray of akshatas [rice for blessing] and chocolates. Swami blessed all the birthday boys with the akshatas and threw the chocolates to all the other students. The rest of the birthday boys carried photographs of Swami that He lovingly autographed for us as His birthday gift to us.

On that day, Swami finished the first round of darshan and went into the interview room. After a while, I became restless and began to draw on my palms using the marker pens we had brought for Swami to use for autographing the photographs. Even as I completed drawing on both my palms Swami came out of the interview room and walked toward us. We knelt down with the photographs resting on hardbound books. Swami came straight to me and took the book from my hand. He then asked me to show Him my palms. I sheepishly stretched out my palms that were blackened with the drawings. He looked into my eyes, and smilingly told me “Why are you dirtying your palms? Look at My palms. How clean they are!” So saying, Swami stretched out His palms and continued, “Your palms should always be clean. Do not write anything on them.” Then Swami blessed us and autographed the photographs. The Lord who teaches us the highest nuances of spirituality taught me a small lesson in cleanliness.

On another occasion, when I was in the fourth standard, our teacher asked us to sit silently in the classroom and study. She appointed a monitor with strict instructions that we were not to leave the classroom and left us some work. After a few minutes, there was commotion in the corridors and we heard students shouting that Swami had come to the Hill View stadium. All the students were rushing out to get a brief darshan of Swami. Many of us were certainly tempted to rush out for the darshan. But the rest of the class was sitting silently and the monitor was giving us a hard stare. Soon the commotion turned into a thundering of footsteps and shouts that Swami was coming into the Primary School building; still the entire class was seated as per the teacher’s instructions.

Suddenly the building burst into a chorus of bhajans [sacred hymns] and we realized that Swami had entered the lobby of the school building. I could hold out no more. Some of us dashed out of the classroom and were met by a happy surprise. At the end of the long empty corridor was Swami! The warden and a couple of senior devotees closely followed Him. Swami was walking toward our classrooms and we were the only ones around. There are 8 classrooms in the wing. As Swami walked toward a classroom, we rushed inside before Him and took the liberty of explaining the charts displayed in the classroom. We also showed Swami the altar and a small chair that was kept for Him in each class. And as Swami turned to leave the room, we rushed out before Him and ran into the next classroom waiting to ‘welcome’ Him. Swami visited all the 8 classrooms and we were blessed with the opportunity of ‘showing’ Him around the classrooms. We got the fruit of maintaining discipline that day. Had we rushed out of the classroom at the first commotion, we would have lost this beautiful opportunity of spending those precious few moments with Swami.

As Swami’s students we continuously work to please Him. When we excel He is there to appreciate our little achievements He is also by our side when we fail. I remember a touching incident that happened during one of the morning darshan sessions. Swami was interacting with some of the Primary School boys. Swami enquired about their academic performance. One of them had scored cent percent in mathematics and on hearing this Swami was very happy, He turned to the senior students told them that they should also study well. On seeing Swami happy the student further ventured that he had scored cent percent in Sanskrit also.

Swami was very pleased and asked the student if he can give a speech in Sanskrit. The student replied in the affirmative. Swami asked the student on which topic he would speak. After thinking for a moment the student informed Swami that he will speak about Lord Rama and Swami gave His assent. The student walked to the centre of the veranda and began to deliver the speech. He started faltering after uttering a few lines of his speech. He started the speech all over and again faltered. The student was extremely embarrassed and his eyes welled up. Soon he was sobbing. Swami smilingly wiped the student’s tears and embraced him. Swami wiped the student’s tears with His own handkerchief and reassured the boy. Once the sobbing subsided the student took his seat. Swami came toward the student and again consoled him. That incident reinforced in me that He is always by our side. He celebrates our success and also supports us when we falter.

The ‘career choice’ question arose for me toward the middle of the 12th standard. My mother wanted me to join the B.Com. (Hons.) [Bachelor of Commerce, Honors] program, in the Brindavan Campus at the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. I was torn between Commerce (Hons.) and pursuing law. I filled up the application for the B.Com. (Hons.) and decided that I would try to get it blessed by Swami. If Swami blessed it I would go ahead and work hard for an admission into the B.Com (Hons.) program or else I would pursue law. I sat in the first row during an evening darshan with the duly filled in application form neatly folded and kept in an envelope.

During the darshan rounds, Swami accepted the letters of the students next to me and also took my application form. This confused me as to whether this was a blessing or a sign that I should opt for law as the application form was now not with me but with Him! Swami finished the darshan rounds and retired to the interview room. I mentally decided to apply for law. In a few minutes, the door of the interview room opened and the brother who was serving Swami came toward me with my application form and its envelope. He handed it to me and said that Swami had instructed me to submit it to the Registrar (of the institute)! Swami had again decided the future course of my life. With Swami ’s grace I joined the B.Com. (Hons.).

When Swami interacted with the students, those seated close to Him would often be blessed with the opportunity to do pada seva [pressing the feet]. Usually the bhajan group students would be seated close to Swami and so they had the most opportunity. I always desired to do pada seva and mentally offered a prayer and soon forgot about the prayer. In the year 2006 Swami came to Brindavan. Swami ’s visit to Brindavan is a celebration for students because we get many opportunities to interact closely with Him.

On some of the evenings, He blessed us with Trayee sessions after the darshan. However, even for that year’s Trayee sessions the bhajan group members were blessed with the opportunity of being seated closest to Swami followed by other students. It seemed impossible to get an opportunity for pada seva. One evening, we received message that there would be no Trayee session for that day.

We dispersed from the Mandir [temple] and most of the students went to their rooms. Some of us were still waiting near the Hostel entrance when all of a sudden a message came that Swami had agreed to bless us with a Trayee session. Since it was very short notice we rushed into the Trayee Mandir without waiting to fall into ordered lines. I got a seat near Swami’s footrest and was very happy. This joy was soon replaced with a worry. I was worried that the bhajan group would arrive before Swami, and I would be asked to vacate my place for them. Swami arrived before my worries could materialize and that day I was blessed with the opportunity to do pada seva. Swami had answered my forgotten prayer. The story did not end with that single blessing.

Toward the end of my course, the final year students of the Brindavan Campus were blessed with the opportunity to offer a gratitude program. We all were very emotional at the end of the program. Swami reciprocated our love by blessing us with group photographs. After the photograph session concluded Swami asked us the strength of the group. Two of us went forward and gave Swami the answer. He signaled for prasadam [blessed food] and personally gave the prasadam to each student. After the prasadam distribution session concluded Swami again blessed us and retired for the day. It was only after this entire episode that I realized that my forgotten prayer was answered again! For the entire duration of the prasadam distribution and ensuing interaction I was blessed along with another student to do pada seva.

The Annual Sports and Cultural Meet of the Sri Sathya Sai Educational Institutions is a galvanization of human effort with a deep sense of dedication. The culmination of these festivities was an abundant outpouring of Swami’s blessings and grace. I was a part of the gymnastics team for many years. The performance time for the gymnastics team (along with other groups) was cut short during the Annual Sports Meet 2009. Due to the shortened time slot not all members of the gymnastics team were given adequate time to perform. Undeterred by the reduction in the allotted time for the gymnastics performance, we continued our practice sessions sincerely. Swami would visit the stadium every evening and bless the practice sessions.

One evening, after watching the Anantapur campus’ performance, Swami asked if there was any boys’ team performance. We were practicing a new sequence in the basketball court behind the Shanti Vedika. As soon as we got the message that Swami wanted to see the boys’ events’ practice we rushed in and set up the equipment. We offered our pranams to Swami and began our performance. Soon we reached a part of the performance where a few of us would use a trampoline to somersault over a car.

The only cars that were around were Swami’s car, the Vice-Chancellor’s official car, and the security jeep that followed Swami. The Vice-Chancellor’s official car, a red Maruti Esteem car, was driven in and positioned. The first three gymnasts somersaulted over the car and I was next. I mentally calculated my run-up and took off from the trampoline. Mid-air I realized that the car was positioned farther than usual, and my jump wasn’t calibrated to clear it. It seemed evident that I would not clear the car and in all likelihood I would crash onto it! That car had been used by Swami personally, and I was going to crash on to it! Luckily, I could complete a handspring and landed without damaging either myself or the car. I could hear a collective sigh as I landed. I got up and joined the rest of the team. We again offered our pranams and Swami blessed us profusely.

Later that evening as we sat down to discuss our performance, we realized that every member of the gymnastic team had got an opportunity to perform in front of Swami. In fact, Swami had given us so much time for the performance on that evening that we had even included our warm-up routines in the performance! Our omniscient Swami recognized our efforts and blessed us in a way that we hadn’t imagined, and we were grateful.

One morning, as I rushed to the College, the Warden stopped me and informed me that I was in the running for the Sri Sathya Sai All Rounder Gold Medal, and that I should conduct myself carefully and pray hard as the final decision was Swami’s. Two days before the convocation, the Registrar of the University informed me that Swami had blessed me with the gold medal and asked me to inform my parents. My happiness knew no bounds. The Sri Sathya Sai All Rounder Gold Medal is the only medal conferred based on the direct decision by Swami. All the other medals are conferred for excellence in academics. The medals for athletics, sports, and cultural activities are awarded during Sankranti [harvest festival].

On the morning of the convocation, as the ceremony began and as my name was announced, I could see Swami smiling at me as I walked up to Him, His eyes welled up and I could see Him becoming ‘emotional’. Swami blessed me with the medal and the photographers captured that love-charged moment. I am smiling in the picture, while Swami is ‘emotional’. It was another moment when I felt that Swami demonstrated a mother’s pride. True achievement for me was not the medal but to be reassured of a place in Swami’s heart. What more could I ask for when both my physical mother and my Divine Mother were proud of me!

I had asked Swami for admission in His educational institutes and I was granted the opportunity of becoming a ‘Sai student’. Over the years I learned that to love God and to live for Him is the greatest blessing, and that to love Him and to be loved by Him is the greatest joy. I learned that when I dedicate my every action to Swami, and perform it to the best of my abilities, Swami takes over the responsibility of the fruits of the action. Gratitude isn’t about giving or receiving. Gratitude is about loving and being loved.

~K. Sai Chittaranjan
Source: Sai Nandana 2015 (90th Birthday Offering)