I feel blessed as my association with the Avatar started quite early.  I am eternally grateful to the Lord for holding my hand and taking me through the journey of life.  When I look back, I realize how my life has always been embraced by His Divine grace.

My father came to Bangalore for his business trip. Mere serendipity led my father to visit Swami’s ashram in Whitefield, and in the first darshan itself, the all-knowing God walked straight up to him, and asked him to bring his family. We were then in Delhi.

He read many books on Swami and His teachings and talked to people around to know more about Swami. He got convinced about Swami’s divinity, but was certain that it was going to be difficult to convince my mother. Following Swami’s command, he took us to Whitefield, Bangalore with the pretext of a holiday trip. It was the early 1980’s and those days Whitefield was not as we see today. There were hardly any facilities.  We managed to get a room that was not very comfortable. Even basic need such as procuring milk was a herculean task. To add to our difficulties, Swami didn’t give darshan for the whole week! My brother was a toddler, and I was just 2 years old. It was getting difficult to stay there. Despite continuous banter from my mother, it was my father’s steadfast devotion that kept him focused.  Finally after a week Swami gave darshan. By then my deeply frustrated mother refused to go for darshan.  However later something pulled her towards the ashram gate. Her first look at Swami was enough for her to forget everything around. Divine magic happened.

We later followed Swami to Puttaparthi where Swami called us for an interview and asked my parents about my name. They said its Jagriti, swami lovingly said “Sai Jagriti”. He then created vibhuti, applied on my forehead and blessed me. This trip was a turning point in our lives and we went back laden with Swami’s love.

My mother used to play Swami’s bhajans all day long. One day as usual, the bhajans were playing in the player resting on top of the fridge. I was playing in this room and my mother was in the kitchen. She had earlier emptied and cleaned the refrigerator and left the door open for it to dry. Abruptly, the bhajan music stopped. While she came in to check, the bhajans started playing again. However, she noticed the door of the refrigerator was closed. Thinking in her mind as to “who could have closed it?” When she opened the door, she astonished to see me inside. I was blue and unconscious. She was alone in the house and didn’t know what to do. She just put me at the altar, sprinkled some water on my face, applied vibhuti and prayed. Within no time I gained consciousness and was fine. The incident was over and done until many years later when one day Swami asked my brother to speak in Trayee Brindavan. Nonplussed, my brother asked Swami, “Swami what should I speak?” And lovingly Swami replied, “Tell everybody about how I saved your sister’s life.”  My mother then recollected and told us how hard she had prayed that day!  Prayer has immense power. We must count our blessings and daily thank the Lord, for we seldom realize that His grace alone is the reason for our existence.

With Swami’s blessings I joined the Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vihar, Delhi, at the age of four. The best part was the school trips to Prashanthi Nilayam. In one of the visits, we got an opportunity to sing bhajans in the mandir. We had practiced hard and were excited to sing in the Divine presence.  Swami was sitting on His throne and soon it was my turn to sing. As I started singing, Swami got up and glided off to the verandah. I continued singing, wishing in my mind, for Him to come back at least before my bhajan ends. Unfortunately by the time He returned, my turn was over.  My happiness of singing in the sanctum sanctorum was marred by the feeling of remorse as Swami was not physically present for my turn. 

After darshan my father came gleaming with joy and said that while I was singing the line ‘mere ghar mein tum aao Ram’, Swami told him “See, your daughter is singing so nicely!”  Soon my brother also came and narrated the same. Swami had walked up to my brother and father, sitting at separate places in the Sai Kulwant hall, and shared the joy that they were already experiencing. Indeed, as the words of the bhajan suggested, Swami had come to our house in the form of overflowing love in each one of us.  Often, appearances are deceptive. We seek Swami’s love and sometimes feel that He is not responding. We might be longing for a trivial thing, but the Lord knows what’s best and has much bigger things planned for us. One bhajan and all of us received His benevolent love.  When we sing His glory with devotion, His heart melts in no time.

My parents came to Parthi for Swamis’s 69th birthday. Once the birthday festivities were over, they wanted to go back to Shimla but Swami asked them to wait. Swami then instructed Dr. Safaya, who was then the Director of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences, Prasanthigram, to get some tests done for my father and report directly to Him. The tests revealed that the major coronary arteries were blocked. My father was admitted in the hospital as he required immediate bypass surgery. Swami disclosed the news to my mother and asked her, whether she would want to call my brother who was then studying in the Brindavan campus. With firm belief in the Lord, she stated spontaneously, “Swami when you are there, I do not need anybody else.”

When we surrender wholeheartedly, Swami takes charge. He not only decided who the operating surgeon would be, but also the date and time of surgery. As expected, the surgery went off uneventfully. Even after discharge, Swami kept my parents in the ashram, and made sure even my mother was comfortable.  He enquired about my father’s health and even sent the doctor to the room to check on my father.  A year before his surgery, Swami had created a kumkum box for my mother, and blessed her profusely saying, “I will give you something big in future”.  Swami did mention later that he had given ‘New life’ to my father and was preparing us for a year.

In the summer after my exams, I came for darshan with my father. Swami was in Brindavan Ashram and was distributing passes for the ‘Summer course in Indian Culture & Spirituality’. My brother was a student in Swami’s college, so he had a student pass and swami gave a ‘Guest’ pass to my dad. Next day after morning darshan in Sai Ramesh Hall, they went to the auditorium to attend the program. I was left alone and wanted to have another darshan of Swami in His car as he would soon go to the auditorium. It was drizzling, so there were very few people on the road. Swami looked from the car window and smiled at me. I was mesmerized with that smile and lost in thoughts. I didn’t realize how time passed and soon I saw my father with a pass for me in his hands. My brother later told me that Swami had mentioned to him in the auditorium that, “I saw your sister standing in the rain”. After the lectures, my father was in the dining hall enjoying the delicious summer course lunch and Swami’s proximity. The Divine mother never fails to think of her children. He immediately remarked, “You are eating here, and your son is eating here too, your daughter must be alone. Where will she eat?” Swami then took the badge from a student who was serving there and gave it to my dad for me.

Swami says that when you take one step toward him, He will take a hundred towards us. I then got the opportunity to attend the summer course as a Sai student. This gesture of Swami was prophetic as I joined Sri Satya Sai Primary School at Prasanthi Nilayam as a student the same year.  He made sure that I was comfortable in my new school. Swami used to always enquire about the school, teachers, food etc. He would ask if I was getting chapatis, as I was from North India.

Being a child I then didn’t understand the significance but I now get shivers at the thought that the Lord of the Universe was going into minute details of food and clothing and also into major decisions like choosing the course of my life.  Once Swami asked me what subject I would choose to study in the future. I said I would take Science as I thought I would study Medicine. Swami casually mentioned, “Science is good but Home science is also good”. I had no clue what Home Science was so I blankly nodded and forgot about it. I took science in school and was getting ready for medical entrances.  My mother had the habit of writing in detail, every conversation with the Lord in a notebook. One day she was casually leafing through the notebook and right there staring her in the eye were Swami’s words “Home Science is good.” The best part was that Home Science was available at Swami’s College at Anantapur. My mother also realized it was the only course which could give me the opportunity to spend not three but another five years in His institute. There were no second thoughts and I joined the Holy campus of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning at Anantapur.

Little did I know that my studying Home Science in Swami’s college was to become a steppingstone for a bigger opportunity predestined by the dear Lord. I joined the Department of Dietary of the SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram in the year 2009. I feel blessed to get an opportunity to play a small role in the Avatar’s mission. After working here, I have realized that when we do Swami’s work wholeheartedly, He takes care of everything else. There are challenges every day, but when we perform our duties as an offering at His feet, the solution comes even as we realize what the problem is.

We cannot repay the Love and Grace showered on us, but we can share the love with all whom we come across. If we open our hearts to Swami’s love, we will realize that Swami’s love will engulf us in ways unimaginable. Life will then become an odyssey like a river of endless Swami’s love whose eventual destination is Swami Himself, the ocean of love.

JAI SAI RAM