Mr. Birendranath Bardoloi hails from the
East Indian state of Assam, and has had
the good fortune of serving as a faculty
member in the Department of English, Sri
Sathya Sai University (Prasanthi Nilayam
campus) for over two decades. Presently
retired, he spends his time between
Prasanthi Nilayam and his other home,
Sri Sathya Sai Sishu Sadan, an orphanage
he founded many years ago, in Assam.
The Lord
Beckoned…
I had first read about Bhagavan Sri Sathya
Sai Baba in an issue of The Illustrated
Weekly of India which appeared some
time in the mid ‘60s of the last century. In
one of the pages, Mr. S.B. Chavan, a
political figure of the country at the time,
could be seen worshipping Bhagavan Baba in
his altar that was filled with Bhagavan’s
pictures. I felt deeply touched by the form
in these photographs.
Later, I read
a discourse of Bhagavan Baba on the mind, or
rather on its non-existence, which appeared
along with an image of Swami on the opening
page of the magazine Bhavan’s Journal.
The discourse
had a direct appeal to my heart. It was not
a philosophical treatise meant for a school
of pedants, it had no jargon or a logician’s
jugglery; it was simple and appealing. It
was an intimate rendering of one heart to
another, between father and son, as it were.
As for
Bhagavan’s photograph printed in the
magazine, the fairly large and circular tuft
of hair on His head looked like an aura, all
radiance. His head and His glowing face
appeared to be a picture extraordinaire.
“Here is a form unlike all other images of
highly evolved souls I have seen before.”
This was my instant response to the
discourse and the photograph of Bhagavan
Baba.
Not many days
after this great experience, my
brother-in-law brought me a chunk of
Vibhuti (sacred ash), and a soiled copy
of Professor Kasturi’s Sathyam Sivam
Sundaram, Part I (the biography of
Bhagavan Baba). The book must have
acted as a messenger of God passing on from
hand to hand in towns and villages.
At the time of
his giving me these two priceless gifts, my
brother-in-law put two straight questions to
me: 1) Do you believe in God? 2) If so, do
you believe in His descent on earth in human
form? The answers to both these questions
were an emphatic “yes”.
Even for those, who have
been fortunate enough to obtain
a glimpse of Bhagavan Sri Sathya
Sai Baba by staying near Him
physically for a certain length
of time, it is a well-nigh
impossibility, an unattainable
El Dorado, to dwell and
understand, and then share about
His glory and mystery.
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And now, my
life had changed overnight. Many
reassurances were given to me over the
years, each miracles followed by another. I
knew I had found my Master. He chose me as
one of His humble servants. He found an
excuse for me to serve Him in His University
in the department of English. He blessed me
with a beautiful family of four lovely girls
who have flown their nests now. He continues
to live in my heart and work through me.
“In
your childhood, you used to make shiva
lingams” - Baba
Even for
those, who have been fortunate enough to
obtain a glimpse of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai
Baba by staying near Him physically for a
certain length of time, it is a well-nigh
impossibility, an unattainable El Dorado, to
dwell and understand, and then share about
His glory and mystery. However, I shall
share an instance or two to the best of my
limited knowledge.
My late mother
would often tell us about her years as a
girl. Climbing trees, going to school,
knitting, and praying were her favourite
pastimes. One of her creations was a tiny
lump of clay that she called her Shiva
lingam. She would spend hours on end
having animated conversations with this
source of joy, the Shiva lingam.
Krishna was
another attraction, our family deity. My
mother, in all her naïveté, talked to
Krishna lovingly calling him “Gopal”. She
would complain about her children, cry to
Him, ask for His guidance, beg for
reassurances, etc. Did our omnipresent Lord
note all of this, more than ninety years
ago?
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The lingam created by Baba on
Maha Shivarathri day in 1974
and bestowed on the author's
mother two years later
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The silver pendant gifted to
the author's mother, depicting
Ashta bhuja
(eight armed) Durga,
and on the other side the
letter, Aum.
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In 1976,
Bhagavan Baba gave my late mother a
lingam, an atma lingam, as He
had called it, in the interview room. Baba
said that the emergence of that lingam
had taken place on the Maha Shivarathri day
in 1974. Swami had waited for two long
years, as He alone times events to
perfection.
He further
explained that he had kept it especially for
her, saying
“Tumhara bhakti bada hai, isliye
tumko yeh bada lingam deta hoon.” (Your
devotion is big, so I give you this large
lingam.) He continued, “In your
childhood, you used to make Shiva
lingams out of the clay taken from a
termite hill, although your family God was
Gopal.” Overwhelmed with the
joy of receiving the lingam and
bewildered at the revelation by Baba, she
could only manage a nod.
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Mr. Birendranath Bardoloi's
mother
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The lingam
was the size of a swan-egg, only heavier
than it; greenish-blue in colour. Wherever
she went, she carried it for its daily
worship and abhisheka. If you
rotate it, you can see a number of
impressions, such as Bala Gopala
(Child Krishna) with a laddoo
(round sweetmeat) in His right hand,
Muralidhara (Lord Krishna) playing upon
His divine flute,
Rama-Lakshmana-Sita-Hunaman and
Lord Shiva as Kailashpathi
(Lord of Mount Kailash).
Bhagavan Baba
was then, as much with my mother here inside
the interview room in Prasanthi Nilayam, as
He had been with her at North Guwahati,
Assam, when as a child she would blissfully
worship her clay Shiva lingam! He
was that very atma lingam, the
all-pervasive God.
Bhagavan would
address my mother as ‘Ma’ (mother).
Such was His love for her! He always had
some gift or the other for her, and once
blessed her with an emerald-studded gold
ring and a Spatika Japmala.
On another
occasion, He gave her a large-sized round
silver pendant of 1-1/2 inch diameters. On
one side of it was the image of Ashta
bhuja (eight armed) Durga, and
on the other the letter, Aum.
While giving it to her, He told her
that although divinity has many forms,
“Guru
(Preceptor) is one” – “Guru Ek Hai.”
In one of the
interviews with Swami in 1985, in course of
the conversation with us, looking at my
mother lovingly, Bhagavan asked about her
well being. My brother told Swami that he
wasn’t really able to take care of her as he
lived far away in Assam.
Bhagavan
assured him that He would take care of her
all the time and created a Lingam.
It was a Netralingam (eye). One can
see a very charming eye with a beautiful
eyebrow over it. Baba said it would
constantly look after our mother and that
she would never be alone.
The
Lord’s Unsurpassable Mercy
Ten years
before this, I was witness to an
extraordinary incident. Kiran Konwar, a
devotee of the town, came to my house with a
request to hold bhajans at her
residence. Her father, a retired draftsman
of the Geological Survey of India, was on
his death bed. She hoped that Bhagavan’s
Grace through bhajans might restore
her father.
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I opened my eyes for a
moment. Did I notice a very feeble
movement of the fingertips of the
“dead” man’s left hand, lying on a
plank, lifeless all this while? Was
it my imagination? Evidently it was
not, for, slowly but steadily, the
movement turned into a rhythmic
drumming, keeping in tempo with the
talas (the beats on the
tabla and tambourine) of the
bhajans. Exultant and ecstatic,
we continued singing with renewed
enthusiasm, realising that Bhagavan
had taken over. |
At 10:15 a.m.
on the following day, I went to Kiran’s
house accompanied by my nephews, Rupak and
Hirok, both still in school at the time. I
saw the body of a man laid down on a wooden
plank in the entrance room, ready to be
taken for the final rites. Alas! Kiran’s
father had already left the planet. I was
late! The draftsman’s relatives had already
gathered there having arrived from nearby
villages. His wife was sobbing inconsolably,
and so were Kiran and all the others.
Undaunted, I
decided to start the bhajan
session. We began at 10:30 a.m. and sang
with a burning ardour amidst the poignant
scene. Our hearts turned heavy with devotion
as we reminded ourselves of the glory and
grace of our Lord. It seemed as if we were
floating on the wings of a timeless time.
I opened my
eyes for a moment. Did I notice a very
feeble movement of the fingertips of the
“dead” man’s left hand, lying on a plank,
lifeless all this while? Was it my
imagination? Evidently it was not, for,
slowly but steadily, the movement turned
into a rhythmic drumming, keeping in tempo
with the talas (the beats on the
tabla and tambourine) of the bhajans.
Exultant and ecstatic, we continued singing
with renewed enthusiasm, realising that
Bhagavan had taken over. The word
‘enthusiasm’, by the way, has its origin in
Greek ‘entheos’ – ‘having a God
within’. ‘Enthusiasm’, therefore, is a state
of one’s being in God.
At the end of
the aarti at 2:00 p.m., I saw a
large chunk of Vibhuti sticking to
the back of Rupak’s old green woollen coat.
There were also sprinklings of Vibhuti
all over the place and over the resurrected
old man as well. The grateful man happily
ate the Vibhuti and folded his
hands in front of Bhagavan’s photograph.
Kiran wept like a child, her heart filled
with gratitude. It is another story that
Rupak later studied at Bhagavan’s college in
Brindavan and also had the great fortune to
serve Swami closely for many years.
Healed
By His Himalayan Love
In 1974, I
attended the conference of the All India Sri
Sathya Seva Organisation in Rajamundry (East
Godavari district). I was on crutches as I
had fractured my ankle two months prior to
this.
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Swami with the author (far
right) and members of his family
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One day, I was
returning to my camp from the morning
session of the conference when Swami’s car
passed me. In the vehicle, with Swami were
Dr. Vinayak Krishna Gokak, the first Vice
Chancellor of the Sri Sathya Sai University,
Prasanthi Nilayam, and Professor N. Kasturi.
Swami looked
at me and waved. Later, Dr. Gokak told me
that Swami had asked Professor Kasturi what
had happened to me and why I was limping.
The conference
over, I was on my way home. At the Rangia
railway station in Assam, as I was getting
off the train onto the platform, there
appeared a shabbily-dressed man. He looked
at me and said, “Tumhara paon mei dukh
hai, nahin?” (“You have pain in your
foot, haven’t you?”) He then very gently
touched my affected leg. I felt embarrassed,
and telling him to ignore my pain, I hobbled
off to my wife and others as fast as I
could.
When I got
home and started walking from the gate to
the verandah of the house, I found that the
pain in my ankle had almost vanished! Well,
who could have been the shabbily-dressed man
but for the Omnipotent One?
A few days
later, I was in my office (serving as the
then Principal of the Rangia College), when
a tall person wearing a dhoti,
kurta, and a headgear, approached me,
standing outside my window, with a cotton
bag hanging from one of his shoulders.
This person
had not been seen by any of the staff
anywhere in the neighbourhood before. He
took out a bottle of oil from his bag,
asking me to extend the palm of my right
hand. I obliged rather hesitantly.
Now, I had my doubts. Who
was he? How did he know of my pain?
I couldn’t help asking him his name
and where he came from. He
continued: “I have no name, not even
a specific home or village or town
to live in. I appear wherever I’m
needed.” As soon as the fakir
disappeared, so did the pain
from my leg. I did away with the
crutches once and for all, humbled
beyond words. |
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He poured a
little into my palm, and asked me to rub it
on my forehead and head, and then said, that
would heal my leg completely. I said, “But I
have pain in my leg, not on my head or
forehead.” “It doesn’t matter” was all he
said. I offered him some money, but he did
not want to accept. I persisted; finally he
took it saying, “Okay, I will spend it on
Bhagavan’s work.” Now, I had my doubts.
Who was he?
How did he know of my pain? I couldn’t help
asking him his name and where he came from.
He continued: “I have no name, not even a
specific home or village or town to live in.
I appear wherever I’m needed.” As soon as
the fakir disappeared, so did the
pain from my leg. I did away with the
crutches once and for all, humbled beyond
words.
The
Magnanimous Eternal Provider
After finding
God in the form of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai
Baba and experiencing His abounding love,
the zeal to sanctify my life by worshipping
Him, through service to society, became more
intense. And as a result, in the early
1970s, a few of us started an orphanage for
20 boys on the bank of a river in Rangia,
Assam.
The orphanage
was named Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Sishu Seva
Sadan, for which we decided we would not
raise funds. The boys were to be given
living accommodation, food, and clothing, as
well as be properly educated. We kept a few
cows in the orphanage so that the children
could have milk everyday. This ‘ambitious’
venture obviously strained our limited
source of income. But we had immense faith
in Bhagavan.
There would be
Aumkaram (chanting of Aum)
and Suprabhatam (ritualistic prayer
to wake the Lord) in the mornings and
bhajans in the evenings at the Sadan.
On Thursdays and Sundays, there would be
nagar sankeertan (bhajans sung
by a group of people while walking past
every lane in the neighbourhood). Soon
enough, so suffused was this place with
divine vibrations that it came to be called
an ‘ashram’.
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Swami, the University's Divine
Chancellor, with the teaching
staff (author far left)
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One evening, I
was sitting on the verandah of my house, a
little dismayed, asking Swami if it was a
wise decision to have taken the
responsibility of 20 boys’ lives, as I saw
resources dwindling.
Bhagavan’s
response was perfectly timed. My telephone
rang. From Guwahati, a Sai devotee, Wing
Commander T.C. Punetha’s voice greeted me:
“Jai Sai Ram. I’m Punetha speaking, we are
visiting tomorrow morning with some clothes,
blankets, and food for your boys.” An SOS
message was hardly just sent! Our dear Swami
always responds to a prayer, albeit in His
own way.
On my leaving
Rangia for Prasanthi Nilayam to join as
faculty in 1979-80, the Lord Swami sent His
emissary Col. Sukhvinder Singh of Patiala to
take care of the boys. Each child, in course
of time, excelled not only in school, but
also in other activities like sports,
painting, and poetry writing. One boy was
even selected for the N.C.C. Parade in New
Delhi on Republic Day.
Two of them
won prizes in All India Sports competitions,
while another went on to be the first
graduate of the village and also received
the first prize for the best motivator for
‘Village Development Work’ in the country in
October 2000. As for the small Gokulam,
the cowshed of the Ashram, the
first few cows had female calves as family.
It is amazing how Bhagavan takes care of us
constantly.
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The place has today grown
into an institution, which takes
care of 2,000 needy families,
besides providing employment for 300
men and women. The able secretary
guiding the orphanage is a humble
instrument of the Lord for whom
Swami’s words are His life-breadth.
Bhagavan Baba, indubitably, is our
only real Provider. And how many
times I have experienced this in my
life! |
The Ashram
would celebrate festivals like Guru
Poornima, Lakshmi Poornima, Vijaya Dasami,
Saraswati Puja, Diwali and, of course, Maha
Shivarathri. On these occasions, the Rangia
Bhajan Mandali (small Sai centre)
alongwith the boys and workers of the
Ashram would sing Akhanda Bhajans
(non-stop bhajans for long
hours). The calves were named
Poornima, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Shyama,
Sankari, all after the deities worshipped in
these festivals.
I was blessed
to be present at the naming ceremonies of
each of them who reminded me of the
fortunate cows of Lord Krishna’s Gokulam
at Brindavan, thousands of years ago. The
same kind Lord has bestowed prosperity on
this humble establishment too, probably
pleased with the willing and pure hearts who
are serving there only for the joy of it.
The place has
today grown into an institution, which takes
care of 2,000 needy families, besides
providing employment for 300 men and women.
The able secretary guiding the orphanage is
a humble instrument of the Lord for whom
Swami’s words are His life-breadth. Bhagavan
Baba, indubitably, is our only real
Provider. And how many times I have
experienced this in my life!
A
Little Girl’s Surprise Gift
In one of our
visits to Prasanthi Nilayam, my eldest
daughter, Manisha, a teenager at the time,
looked sullen one morning after darshan.
Swami had blessed devotees with sarees
and shirts that day. Manisha was not one of
them for obvious reasons; she was too little
to be draped in a saree, but she
didn’t think so. She walked off the
darshan ground feeling a bit unloved.
She went home that day and sat in front of
the altar next to my mother complaining that
Swami ignored her altogether.
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Swami telling us:
"Forms may be many but God is
one."
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My wise mother
had words of consolation for her. “Swami
responds to a heart that asks with faith.
Ask Him for anything with all the faith in
your heart.” Manisha hardly closed her eyes
and prayed when she heard a knock on the
door. Mr. Kutumba Rao, the in-charge of the
ashram at the time, was at the
entrance with a saree in hand.
“Swami has sent this saree for Bardoloi’s
daughter.” Manisha ran back to my mother,
elated and shocked at the same time.
Why
Fear When He is There, Everywhere
We do not
realize often that each of us is special to
Bhagavan. Each prayer is heard and answered.
He just times it to suit the need of the
hour. He says,
“Why fear
when I am here?” ‘Fear’ means
fear of anything, imaginary or real, danger,
disaster, or death. “When” means “anytime,
or all the time.” “I am here” means “I am
everywhere, I AM IN YOU and not outside you,
not separate from you, whether I am at
Prashanthi Nilayam or at Brindavan or
anywhere else.”
Swami spoke to
my family and me one day in the winter of
1984. During the interview, Bhagavan noticed
that my wife showed signs of anxiety of a
mother like most mothers do. Swami placed
the palms of His hands on her head and mine,
and reassured us,
“Why fear
when I am here? These four girls are my
girls, not yours. I shall take care of them.
Do not worry.” My wife knew those
words were meant for her. Our all-knowing
Lord knows every passing thought of ours.
All of us have
no reason to fear. For, we have the Lord in
our midst. We have Him placed in our hearts.
All we need to do is Love Him dearly. We
belong to Bhagavan, we are special indeed.
We are one big, sweet and loving family.
Source:
http://media.radiosai.org/Journals/Vol_07/01MAY09/04-Bardoloi.htm