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Posted on: May 12, 2015
Surrender, Trust, Accept
- The Life Mantra of Sai Student Susmita Patnayak
Part 02
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He was ready to provide anything we wanted and then Madam said that the girls were going to skate in front of Bhagawan and needed a floor. He had a cement floor made overnight for us in front of Shanti Vedika in the Hillview Stadium. Swami came for the practice sessions and sat on that Nandi (statue of Shiva's bull). He was guiding us, inspiring and protecting us all through the rehearsals and on the final day He sat with all the guests on stage looking impressed, surprised and praising us, like a doting mother. He would comment to the VIPs seating on the dais, “See how my children are doing, how well the girls are performing?”
Our presentation was quite simple at that time - some roller blades, rope and bar exercises and stunts on motorbikes. Yet Swami showed such excitement over our everything, and was telling everyone around, “Girls are doing on their own with nobody to teach them.” He encouraged us and give us all the credit for everything He was helping us with.
The Joy of Serving in His Name
After the first sports meet, in 1984 – 1985, Swami declared that we all go back home for the summer and those of us who want to participate in the Grama Seva may come back. That was the first time we had Grama Seva and from my batch all of us came back and for a week or so we participated in Grama Seva, the village outreach program where Sai university students go into villages and serve the rural population.
Every day we got up at 4 a.m. or so, and by 5 we would have breakfast in the South Indian canteen, get into the buses parked in front of the canteen ladies’ side. Swami would come on the balcony to give us darshan and see us off. And then we would leave singing bhajans, go to the villages, and do everything that Swami told us - clean the temples, clean the villages, teach them about nutritious food, cleanliness, sanitation and we would also go to the wells and clean all the slush and water, carry rocks and then set them right and come back in the evening by 5.
By this time Swami’s darshan would be over but we used to be yearning to catch a glimpse of Him. So we always hoped to reach back before Swami would retire for the evening.
Thankfully even Swami seemed to be waiting for our return. He would finish His darshan very soon and walk from this side to that, as though waiting for us. He would be so fidgety and restless like a mother who is waiting after she sends her little babies to nursery or play school.
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As our buses approached the Gopuram gate, our bhajan singing could be heard in the mandir. And Swami would be right there at the verandah waiting for us. We would rush and settle ourselves down very quickly beside the mandir, and there would be our Swami in front of us asking, “How did you all do? I know you did this... I know you carried rocks; you are girls so don’t do that; make the boys do that. You girls are very tender. I know you did this, you did that,” and before we could relate to Swami our day's schedule, He would have finished relating to us everything we had done that entire day.
And then Swami would ask, “Did you have curd rice and pickle that I sent for you and I sent raw, cut onions specially because it was very hot and that will help you release the heat, so did you all eat? You must take that.”
Mr. Jayakumar would carry big vessels with curd rice, pickle and raw onions for us and then and there itself we used to eat, take little rest and then take to work again.
Upon our return in the evening, after Bhagawan had inquired about our day and was convinced of our timely food intake and other details, He typically gave us good advice and then He would say, “I am really happy, very happy” and give us mangoes, those Banganapalli mangoes. And Swami’s aim was perfect! For He would throw mangoes to each of us. He would make it a point that each of us got it from His divine hands, no mediators, and invariably it would land either on our laps or in our hands. Then Swami would say, “Bangaru, I am giving only one mango to each of you, this is holiday time, you are supposed to be with your parents, if you were home right now, your parents would have given you so many mangoes to eat. Swami is giving only one mango”, and then we would say with tearful eyes, “No Swami, this is more than enough that you are giving, this is enough Swami, don’t say that to us”.
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Swami would then send us off to have our dinner and retire for the day, as we had to get up early next morning for another day of Grama Seva. We typically would eat the mango given by Swami along with the peel because of Swami’s divine touch. Sadly we couldn’t consume the stone of the mango... if we could, we would have eaten that also! Again in the morning we would get ready and would enthusiastically set out for grama seva once again.
Every day went on like that and we used to go to different villages. Our drivers were very carefully driving the buses on those very narrow roads that were in poor condition. The hills along with way looked desolate with dull and dried up bushes. The vegetation in the villages was mostly the stale looking thorny bushes. But our enthusiasm for Grama Seva was ever fresh. We were very happy to serve, especially for the love that we got from Swami at the end of the day!
On the last day Swami accompanied us. In fact He led our convoy and we were following His car in the bus and when we were climbing the serpentine road winding along the hill, Swami's car was a few bends higher than our bus. That's when He held out His hand from the window, waving His handkerchief at us.
And in the bus, all of us rushed to one side to wave back at Swami and the bus driver was alarmed, “Amma, Pillalu…. What are you doing?” he would say.
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This was happening on a rocky, hilly road in a lopsided bus ... naturally the driver was all scared but we were not bothered, as we were thinking only of Swami. We couldn’t see Swami inside the car, only His hand and the handkerchief were visible and He led us like that all through and the most interesting was that the nature was all ready to welcome its Creator. All the plants were in full blossom.
KM: How did that happen overnight?
SP: That’s just Swami’s grace. They were waiting to welcome Swami.
KM: The same area you had been to before?
SP: Yes…earlier it was full of thorns, steel grey leaves, but now not only plants, but even the trees were full of blossoms.
KM: Nature came alive! Instant rejuvenation?
SP: Yes! Just wanted to welcome the Lord I guess, therefore even Nature was so happy. It was wonderful! And then we reached the village and Swami gave a short talk to the villagers. We didn’t have seva that day, we just accompanied Swami and after the programme He went ahead. We heard that in between He stopped in some villages and stood on top of the car to give darshan to people, He accepted garlands and distributed laddus (sweets). We were not close by, we were far behind Swami. He reached earlier than us. That’s how the grama seva started then…
KM: With Anantapur girls leading the way. Let that be recorded for posterity. There are some things that we are very humble about at Anantapur but let's not overlook the fact that our Swami gave us many pioneering opportunities be it Grama Seva or starting the Sports Day tradition.
He was as Protective as a Mother But Discipline was Important too
SP: I remember that time brothers used to give programs on the stage and we too wanted to, and Pushpa madam would ask Swami if girls also could sing on the stage. Every time He would say, “Oddu” or “don’t want, don’t want”.
Then once during an interview, I don’t know from where I got that courage but then Swami was so close. So I said, “Swami You are partial. Why are You not giving chances to the girls, You are giving only to the boys and brothers are giving so many performances on stage. Girls are talented, girls also are there”. Then Swami said, “Kaadu Bangaru, Alaga kadu Bangaru... It’s not like that my child, not like that. Girls are very delicate. They are sensitive to various vibrations. Different types of people are there in the audience and their vision has power and I don’t want girls to get exposed to those varieties of negative vibrations. So don’t think that way, My blessings are always with you. I am always with you. Never think that way that I am partial to the boys.”
He Himself had told me this. Since then I never questioned Swami. I have never felt that brothers have more opportunities than us. Swami is so protective of His daughters. When He wants to take care of us, then there is no point of arguing with Him or questioning His wisdom.
Another thing that Swami started with us was granting interview to the outgoing students. We were in the final year, 1984 – 85 and Swami gave interview to the outgoing students and He took photographs with every group. We were only 38 of us in our batch and in each group there were very small numbers. Even though there were two in one of the Arts groups Swami clicked photos just with them.
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It was very very very gracious of Swami. He spoke to each of us. He told us to ask questions, anything we wanted to ask Him. Each of the students asked what she should do next. I remember Swami told me to do M.A. Philosophy, so I continued doing M.A. philosophy and I studied with His grace. The very innocent and ignorant girl from Berhampur, Odisha who didn’t know to speak a sentence in English, earned a gold medal in M.A. Philosophy!
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It was absolutely Swami’s grace, and nothing else. I always followed what Swami said, the way He taught us to study and the way to surrender to Him; to do our best and leave the rest to Him. Till date, as a teacher I tell my students the same thing and I teach my children the same - to do our duty as well as we can and leave the rest to Swami. He will handle it as He has always done for me.
During our Anantapur stay Swami showered us with an abundance of His divine love. He also taught us quite a few lessons in discipline through simple examples. Once around the period 1983-84, when we came to Parthi, and were sitting next to the mandir, Swami didn’t turn to our side nor come towards us. Instead He went directly to the public and gave darshan. Two-three days after being ignored thus, we were naturally heartbroken.
All of us started shedding tears. In our dormitory, we started special bhajans, prayers and rigorous penance... Then one day Swami came to the line and asked, “Why are you all crying? Shall I provide you buckets and handkerchiefs?” and we started sobbing all the more. He continued, “You want me to come to Anantapur but you have built a gate, a huge gate of iron that I can’t cross”. And we wondered what Swami was talking about. Then Swami said, “You know what this gate is? It is indiscipline. You all talk a lot. Only talking, talking, talking all the time, you all talk such a lot in the hostel. I don’t want to come. Unless you become disciplined I will not come. Go back to hostel be disciplined children, then I will come to Anantapur.”
- Radio Sai Team
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