Saturday, August 29, 2015

"Can you stay with Me for 10 days?!"




1) "Can you stay with Me for 10 days?"
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"My wife and I went to Hampi to have darshan of Kanchi Swamigal who was camping there. I had His darshan at 10 am. He asked me, "For how many days are you going to stay here?”

"For three days", I replied.

He thought for a while and said, "Can you stay with Me for 10 days?"

I excused myself saying, "I have come on three days casual leave. My office will not extend it!"

The Swamigal said, “ All right you stay here for three days.”

But at 4 pm that day Swamigal told me, "In the morning when I had asked if you can to stay here for 10 days, you said you would not be able to so. Now, I want you leave for Hyderabad tonight itself!"

I was shocked to hear this from Him. Why is He asking me to leave today itself? Was something wrong with my family members back home? Such worries began to consume me.

I bid farewell to Swamigal and left, obeying Him implicitly!

I reached the railway station and cancelled my tickets which were originally for departing Hampi 3 days later. When my wife and I were talking to each other and saying we would travel in an unreserved coach, the Station Master overheard us and informed us that someone had cancelled two berths a little earlier!

He said, “If you are interested I can allot those vacant berths to you.” :)))

Oh, what to say of Swamigal's compassion for me! He had arranged two berths for us!

The next day as the train approached the suburbs of Hyderabad, we found people throwing a stones on the train. We were asked by the Travelling Ticket Examiner to pull down the wooden shutters. And stones were pelted all through the next 45 minutes until we reached Kacheguda station in Hyderabad.

When we alighted from the train we asked the locals if anything was wrong. They said that the Janata Government in Delhi had arrested Indira Gandhi at 7 pm the previous day. As Andhra Pradesh was being ruled by the Congress Party, its members were protesting!

Mrs Gandhi was arrested only at 7 pm. The Swamigal asked me to leave at 4 pm itself! And believe it or not, the trains were cancelled for the next 9 days! In the morning itself He knew that there would not be train services for 9 days and that is why He had asked us if we could stay for 10 days!

And now when I think of how my Compassionate Mother took care of me, I shudder at His mercy!"



2) "Did you not hear Swamigal call out your name?"
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"On one occasion, I went, along with my wife, to Karvetnagar in Chittoor district where the Swamigal was camping.

It was evening. He was not in the camp and I was told that He had gone to a nearby village. The people told me that I could reach the village quickly if I could go through the dried fields. Otherwise, it would take a long time, if I took a circuitous route.

As I went along the narrow bunds separating the fields, I found the Swamigal returning to Karvetnagar, walking briskly on the narrow bunds. I walked along with Him to His camp.

There is a big tank in Karvetnagar. When the Swamigal was conversing with some others, I found a foreigner standing, with folded hands, on the other side of the tank. I went to him to find out from which country he had come.

Even as I was talking to him, my wife came running and asking, “Did you not hear Him calling you, Ganesan, Ganesan...?”

Shankara, what blessings!

I immediately returned to where the Swamigal was.

He asked me, “What do you propose to have for dinner?”

I replied that we had brought chapathis with us!

Endowed with great humour, He said, “You brought some chapathis because you did not expect the Sanyasi to you food for dinner?!” :)))

When I just smiled, He said, “I know you have programmed to leave early in the morning. Don’t do so. The government has deprived the Raja of Karvetnagar of the privy purse it had promised. He is now down and out. You wait till lunch time and have food in his house. And, you give him whatever you can!”

The Walking God not only provided food for me but also some money to the former Raja of Karvetnagar.

What a compassion!


3) "Swamigal raised His hand and the car stopped that very instant!"
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Once I went to Nandigama, in Krishna district, in my car to have Darshan of Swamigal. I was told that He had gone to a nearby river for a bath. So, I drove my car towards the river. I had to go on an embankment. After I drove a short distance I saw the Swamigal returning along with some persons.

As the embankment was not wide enough to take a U-turn, I started to reverse the car. After few seconds, Swamigal on seeing this, raised His hand. And the car stopped at that very instant! I found agriculturists working in the nearby fields shouting and running towards me. I wondered what was wrong. When I looked back I saw that if the car had moved even an inch it would have fallen down the bund!

Soon, the farmers helped to push the car forward to safety! The Walking God had saved me by stopping my car.

*****

I chanced to meet the richly blessed 'The Hindu' Ganesan Mama and his Mami at my wife's cousin's 60th wedding celebrations at Hyderabad on July 29th, 2015 and boy, did I get a treasure!

Mama was the reporter of The Hindu based out of Hyderabad and had interacted with Swamigal for almost 30 years!

In the picture are Mama and Mami with my wife and myself!