Prasanthi Nilayam Is In The Heart

 Another day in the office?

I completed my second day at my new workplace. The 'Dwitiya Vighnam' (obstacle that arises because of not doing something newly started on the second consecutive day) had been cleared in that sense. However, I had a feeling of slight sorrow in my heart. I was missing Puttaparthi. I was missing my Radiosai days which had come to an end on my birthday, the 24th June 2020, when that divine name that Swami (Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba) had bestowed was replaced with a more corporate 'Sri Sathya Sai Media Centre'. It had taken me 9 months after that day to bid goodbye and the indications which Swami gave me during those months to take the ultimate step can be the subject of another separate post. 

I will miss you Radiosai. It was divine while it lasted.

My mind wandered to the beautiful days spent in contemplation of Swami and sharing His message and love in the digital dimension to the world at large. I remembered my dear brothers and the wonderful time we spent together under the fatherhood of our Swami.
"It was such a beautiful 13 years Swami. Why did it have to end like this?" I wondered.

I picked up my phone and called a few of my former colleagues. So happy they were for me, encouraging the blogging and vlogging which I had restarted, that I myself wondered what I was feeling bad about!
"It's just your attachment", I told myself, "the very fact that something has happened is proof that Swami wants it that way. Why do you associate Swami with Puttaparthi alone?"

It was 10 pm. It was time to hit the sack. The past few nights before sleeping, I had been reading a chapter from 'God in Action' which is a collection of talks delivered by the revered Prof. Kasturi, Swami's biographer. Today, I thought of a change and had kept aside the book 'Sri Sathya Sai Anandadayi' to read at night. Strangely, the book was missing and was nowhere to be found. That seemed to add to the general low that I was feeling and I decided to go back to just reading another talk by Prof. Kasturi.

He is everywhere

I flipped open the book and went to my bookmark. I turned the page to the next chapter and it read, "He is Everywhere."

The chapter that opened up perfectly for me...

Wow! That little phrase used as the heading was itself enough to make me feel better. As I read on, I realised that this was the perfect antidote for my sad disposition. Prof Kasturi emphasized on the truth that every country in the world and every part of every country was His Prasanthi Nilayam. Just reading that portion made a fraction of Prasanthi (supreme peace) descend in my being. Then, to elucidate further, Prof Kasturi narrated an incident of a lady devotee from Kerala. Most probably, the incident is set in the 1980s. 

Though she was devoted to Swami, her son wasn't and he often made fun of Swami. In due course, he got married to a girl who was also devoted to Swami and the couple shifted to Calcutta (Kolkata today) where the husband's workplace was. Over time, the son was frustrated with his job. Piling on his misery was the accusation of fund-misappropriation that was cast on him by the office. Totally defeated and dejected, he left a message for his wife,
"Please don't wait for me. I shall not be coming home."

Then, he decided to commit suicide. The worried wife immediately called up her mother-in-law, the boy's mother and informed her of the bizarre message. Not knowing what else to do, the mother wrote a letter, unburdening all her fears and worries to Swami. She placed the letter under Swami's photograph which was on her altar. Her faith and feelings instantly converted her home into Prasanthi Nilayam and the photograph into Swami! 

Back in Calcutta, the son was simply not able to take his life. He lacked the courage to attempt a few methods and always had a worry at the back of his head that in case his attempt failed, he would be jailed by the police as an attempt to take one's own life would be considered a crime. Thus, he spent the whole day trying to die but was simply 'not allowed to'. When he climbed the Howrah Bridge to jump into the gushing waters below, he clearly heard a voice which said,

"Don’t jump. Don’t die. Come to me. Come to Puttaparthi."

The perfect sync of the lad's story with mine

The son was now convinced that going to Puttaparthi alone would solve his problem. His focus on Puttaparthi was much greater than his focus on Swami Himself! He later told Prof. Kasturi that he could not sleep in the train nor think of anything else except Puttaparthi. In fact, when the wheels of the train were moving, he could hear, “Puttaparthi! Puttaparthi! Puttaparthi!” 

He got down from the train at Bangalore and went to the ticket clerk and asked for a ticket to Penukonda (from where he would take a bus to travel to Puttaparthi). The clerk asked him, "Why are you going to Puttaparthi? Sathya Sai Baba is here in Whitefield." This was because the Summer Course was on and Swami was in the Bangalore Ashram. But the lad insisted on going to Puttaparthi only! Realizing it was futile to reason with him, the clerk issued him a ticket to Penukonda. 

I paused reading the story at this point because something hit me in my face. I began to relate strongly with this son and my situation was no different from his. I was so obsessed with Puttaparthi that it seemed to have become a greater focus than Swami Himself! By divine 'coincidence' my new workplace was just beside Swami's Ashram at Whitefield! AND the company employing me was 'Sai Lakshmi Industries'. That is not all. Swami had physically visited the office premises more than a dozen times.

Swami then delivered the 'knockout punch' when Prof Kasturi suddenly revealed that the son's name was - hold your breath - Arvind! 

I froze. Indeed, why was Arvind more obsessed with Puttaparthi than Swami? 

The name of the lad in the story!

Swami's compassion

Prof Kasturi chronicles the Lord's compassion on Arvind. Exactly on the same day that Arvind travelled to Puttaparthi, Swami, who was in Whitefield, suddenly travelled to Puttaparthi (where Prof. Kasturi was), reaching there at 6:30 pm. Everyone, including Prof. Kasturi and Sri Kutumba Rao rushed up to Him and sought the reason for Swami’s unscheduled arrival. Swami said that He had come to take a few bags of rice to Bangalore for the Summer Course. Musing on this, the professor states that there was no reason why this little task couldn't have been assigned to anyone else. But then, it was not for the ‘rice’ that Swami was going; it was for Arvind's ‘rise’! 

The next morning, this man, Arvind, was in the darshan lines. Swami walked up to him and said, 

“Ay Calcutta! Go in!”

In the interview room, Swami chided him.

“What is this foolish thing you have done? Do you know the feeling of your mother and wife? I will see that nothing happens to you. I will get you transferred. You need not go back.”

Swami then told him that He would be going back to Whitefield. 

“But you stay back for 9 days before travelling out of Puttaparthi”, He instructed.

Swami’s Divine plan was wonderful. Arvind had very little money and so, he sent a telegram to his friend in Delhi asking for money, giving his address as “Arvind, Big Shed, Prasanthi Nilayam, Puttaparthi.” In the meanwhile, the mother and wife were in anxiety and gloom and had called all known friends to enquire about Arvind’s whereabouts. The friend in Delhi who received the telegram immediately called and informed the mother and wife who travelled as soon as possible to Puttaparthi. In 9 days time, Arvind was happy, his family was happy and everything had transformed for the better. 

The collection of Prof. Kasturi's talks.

His love for Ar(a)vind

It became difficult to read any more with the tears blurring my vision. I have experienced Swami strike 2 birds with one stone of grace. This was yet another such occasion where the ‘birds’ had the same name and were separated by decades. That is Swami’s infinite love and omnipotence. 

My wife and mother too had gone through so much anxiety and gloom on account of me being low for 9 months in a row. And I felt Swami was directly telling me, an Aravind from 3 decades later, the same thing He had told Arvind,

““What is this foolish thing you have done? Do you know the feeling of your mother and wife? I will see that nothing happens to you. I will get you transferred. You need not go back.”

With joy and gratitude oozing from my heart, I looked forward to my third day in my new workplace gifted by Swami. 

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