I offer my most humble salutations at the lotus feet of Bhagawan Baba. It was in the month of May in 1991 I received a telegram - out of the blue - from Prof. Sampath, the then Vice – Chancellor (VC), Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, asking me to come to the Brindavan campus to address the Summer School. Some days prior to that Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated because of which a sense of unease and uncertainty prevailed in the country. However, an invite from Swami is too precious to be put off because of fear. I reminded myself what Swami used to often say, “Why fear when I am here”. I made up my mind to go. Loving and gracious that Swami always was (and is), return airfare was offered to me for my travel. On reaching my office at IIM, Lucknow, I contacted our travel agent and requested him to buy my journey tickets, Lucknow – Delhi – Bangalore (now Bengaluru) and back, within the next two to three days. As I had a committed program after about five days, I had to be back by then; necessitating me to perform both onward and return journeys within the next 3-4 days. Remember, in those days there was only one airline – Indian Airlines – that could take you to different places. No other airlines existed at that time except for Vayudoot, which used to operate a few small aircrafts in select short-distance routes.

My travel agent got back to me after some time and told that he is not getting any confirmed seat for the next day or the day after. Lucknow – Delhi sector seats were available, but not Delhi – Bengaluru sector. On hearing this I asked him to send me via Bombay (now Mumbai). This time he reported that while he can get me a seat in Mumbai – Bengaluru sector, Lucknow – Mumbai would be wait – listed. I was not inclined to take a wait-listed ticket because much confusion used to prevail in those days at the check-in counters with wait-listed tickets. Getting desperate, I asked the travel agent to reroute me via Calcutta (now Kolkata). Travel agent enquired and got back to me to say, flights from Lucknow to Kolkata operate on alternate days; and, given the timings, I may not be able to connect to the Kolkata - Bengaluru flight, ticket for which too would be wait-listed. Next day was Buddha Purnima when my office as well as that of the travel agent would be closed. Seeing no other alternative I decided to send a telegram to Prof. Sampath, profusely apologizing, and regretting my inability to come because of non-availability of confirmed tickets.

With a heavy heart I got back home, feeling totally dejected. On reaching home I told my wife, “If Swami did not want me to come, why did He send a telegram inviting me there?” A pall of gloom descended on us, as we had no option but to accept that as a fait accompli. Next day was holiday, but the mind and body were not relaxed because it felt something is amiss. We all experience such intense, poignant moments in life that compel us to question many things because these moments are often consequent to some form of disillusionment.

Here is what happened thereafter. We sat for dinner some 15 minutes after 9:00 p.m. As I was nearing completion of my dinner the doorbell rang. Since my wife had completed her dinner by then she went over and opened the door; came back and said, two gentlemen have come to see me whom she did not know. On completion of my dinner I came to the sitting room to meet them. One of the two was a Lucknow University professor and was known to me, but not the other person. The professor introduced me to the stranger and said that the person, who was a corporate manager, came with a request.

This person was the Training Manager at HAL, Lucknow, who came to request me to take a session in some training program of his on a date some 20 days later. I agreed to his request for which he profusely thanked me. Before leaving, he was expressing his satisfaction for being able to see me because he was told that I go out of town very often. In my response I said, situation permitting I could have been away. He enquired if I was to go somewhere and, if yes, where? When I said Whitefield in Bangalore, he further enquired “Where in Whitefield?” I mentioned Sai Baba’s Ashram and narrated my sad tale; he asked if he could try to get seats for me. I was hesitant because I did not have enough cash at home to give him for the tickets. He asked me to give a cheque drawn in favour of “Indian Airlines (IA)”. I pointed out to him that IA does not accept cheques; also, I did not know the cost of the tickets. As you would know those were pre-internet days, when it was not possible to know the fare amount, before the IA office opened the next day. He heard all that and asked me to give him a blank cheque and promised to try. I did as he suggested and handed over a blank cheque to a total stranger, holding my faith on Swami. Before leaving he said, he would let me know on phone the next morning whatever happens, by about 10:00 a.m. I did not have any telephone then, so I gave him the telephone number of my close friend and colleague who used to live next door. After they left I began to wonder whether a new window of hope is opening up for me. However, I could not convince myself thinking that if seats are not available what can he do? Little did I realize then that doubts, questions, seeking are all predicates of duality. They are victims of intelligence, shackled by cause – effect paradigm in the confines of a spatio–temporal matrix.

It was an uneasy night for me as I waited with baited breath for the clock to strike 10:00 a.m. The scheduled time finally arrived, but no message – positive or negative - was received. I kept enquiring with my colleague practically every 15 minutes till about 12:00 noon, but of no avail. At about 1:30 p.m. we sat for lunch and when I was nearing completion the doorbell rang. My wife offered to open the door; came back to the dining room and said the gentleman has come. Restless that I was I asked her if he said anything. “No”, said my wife; but she felt his body language was positive. Very quickly I gobbled up whatever was left on my plate, washed, and rushed to meet him. On seeing me he said, “Sir, your tickets have been arranged.” I asked him, “where are the tickets?” In response he said, those would be delivered to me that night. He said tickets were for the next day and the return tickets are for two days later; and the routing was Lucknow – Delhi – Bengaluru and back.

My surprise knew no limits, as I wanted to know from him how was it made possible. He said, there were no seats available for the Delhi – Bengaluru flight, and IA refused to accept cheque. In other words, it was exactly the same story I told him the previous evening. I asked him, “then?” He said, he went to his General Manager (GM) and narrated the tale. Incidentally, both he and his GM were Sai Devotees, which I came to know during this conversation. I was told that the GM at Lucknow spoke to his counterpart at Bengaluru and the two together could somehow get a seat for me. Further, what was done thereafter is unthinkable. GM, HAL, Lucknow arranged cash to buy my tickets. At this point, the Training Manager returned the cheque I gave him the previous night, took a fresh cheque - for which the exact amount was now known - drawn in favour of the payer. I was totally bewildered at this bizarre development; cannot quite describe what was going through in my mind. All I can say is, I felt a kind of seismic effect uprooting the foundation of my belief system.

Now, the next phase of waiting started for having the tickets in my hand. It was the dinnertime again when the doorbell rang. This time I opened the door to find the Professor coming in and handing over the tickets to me. I quickly looked at the tickets to find OK written against each one of my four flights. That is to say, my onward and return journey tickets are all confirmed for the desired dates. What is more, I noted that my outward journey ticket from Lucknow to Delhi was in a Vayudoot flight so that I am able to reach Delhi in time to take the Bengaluru flight from there. My wife said, “what if the Vayudoot flight gets delayed?” I said that would not happen because I am in Swami’s hands and He will make sure everything goes well.

Next morning, holding on to Him, I left with great joy and supreme confidence; went to Delhi and thereon to Bengaluru landing at about 4:30 p.m. After picking up my bags I went out and took an auto rickshaw. That was the first time I was visiting the Ashram at Whitefield, did not know the whereabouts, hence told the driver to take me to Sai Baba’s Ashram. He took me there and dropped me exactly in front of Ashram gate. As I was entering the gate, I came across a faculty member of the MBA department, whom I met couple of months earlier at Prasanthi Nilayam. He smiled and asked, “Swami invited you?” when I said “yes”, he took me to the VC. First thing I told Prof Sampath was about the telegram I sent him. To this Prof Sampath said, “what telegram, I received no telegram”. I realized Swami would have withdrawn it. VC then asked me how long I might be staying there. When I mentioned about my need to return early, he said he is scheduling my talk the very next day. It was evening by then, I was taken to my room inside the Ashram, and thereafter for dinner. Before leaving me back at my room, the person who escorted me told that the morning Darshan would be at 7:00 a.m.

Though I retired to bed soon after, it took me long to sleep as I was recounting the events after I received the telegram. The next morning I got ready and came down at about 7:10 a.m., by which time Swami was already in His Darshan round. The Sevadal volunteer outside of the building asked me to hold on there, as Swami was coming in that direction. Within a minute or two He came that side, looked at me and said, “Kab Aya?”(When did you come?). What answer do I give now as the all-knowing Bhagawan is asking me when I came? After the Darshan hour got over, I had my breakfast and proceeded to the hall where the talks were to take place. There I learnt that two other persons – Sri S. B. Chavan, then Minister in Central Government, and Sri Ajit Haksar, then Chairman ITC, would also be addressing the gathering in that session. Looking at these formidable names I began to feel a bit nervous, and also because that was the first time I was to deliver an address on “Indian Culture and Spirituality”. I consoled myself thinking that it is Swami who brought me this far; therefore, it is Swami who will hold my hands when my turn to speak comes. Also, in front of Swami we were all students irrespective of the kind of office a person held.

Sitting in the hall I was organizing my thoughts before my turn to speak came. I decided to speak my heart out and did so when I was asked to speak. Apparently, the talk was received well by the audience, making me realize that the dark night of the soul removes the dense cloak of ignorance to reveal the light of eternal awareness within. Obviously, this was possible because Swami was guiding me while I was speaking.

After the morning session got over I was advised to have my lunch, take some rest, and come to the auditorium at about 4:00 p.m. In this session Swami was present and a student summarized before Swami what each of the three speakers spoke in the morning. After that, Swami spoke and brought out many important insights from the various thoughts shared in the morning. Before the start of Bhajan Swami came down from the dais to take a seat among the select audience. I was seated in the front row. He came and stopped by me, gave a pat, and said “Bahut khus” (very happy). When Swami speaks it is not easy to figure out what He means. Therefore, I did not know who was ‘bahut khus’. Certainly, I was; but was Swami ‘khus’?

Next day I performed my return journey with a feeling of great joy and bliss. The journey was one of the smoothest I ever had. However, all through my journey I was recounting the many events from the time I received the telegram to the time of my return. A so-called educated mind always looks for reasons because that is how we are trained. However, a situation like this shakes the foundations of our belief systems making it quite clear that the trans-conceptual can never be accessible to concept. At that moment I remembered what Swami asked me in a personal interview couple of months earlier at Prasanthi Nilayam. He knew I used to be in Mumbai, working in another place, before joining IIM, Luckow. He asked how is Lucknow in comparison to Mumbai. After that He asked me “Steering kiske hath me hai”? I thought He was asking, “Who heads the institute?” A realization, though late, is, we are all in His hands. Curiously, I never met that Training Manager in all these 25 plus years after my scheduled session a few days later though had been going to HAL regularly. Do I need to say, “who sent him to me and why?”

Pray to Swami that He continues to hold our hands, and keep guiding us eternally.

My most humble pranams to our beloved Bhagawan. Jai Sai Ram!