It was the year 2002. In one of the Poojas
here in Dubai, Swamiji asked if I had heard of Siddhivinayak
temple at Mumbai. I replied in the affirmative and then he asked as to when I
would be visiting the same. I was surprised when He said that, as I had heard
of the temple and perhaps been there in childhood, if I do remember. As an
adult, I had never been there, nor did I plan visiting .This being so as my
native place is Pune, which is the Home of Ganpati and whenever I visit Pune,
I usually visit the Lord Ganesha temple at Saras Baug. Knowing that there
would be a reason as to why Swamiji has asked this question, I replied
"Swamiji, whenever you send me, I will go."
On 12 July of the same year, I attended another Pooja. There too Swamiji asked the same question and I too
replied as before. At this he told "Sandeep you
will visit Siddhivinayak Temple and you will see me
in a different form. You will hear someone calling for you. Can you believe in
what I say?" I mentioned," Swamiji, if you say something, I know it
will happen"
On 2nd Aug 2002 I along with my sister landed at Mumbai and enroute to Pune, we visited the Siddhivinayaka temple as told by Swamiji. Those were the
days when I was a bachelor and I used to visit India regularly to look out for
a suitable match. We went to the temple and after offering obesciences
to Lord Ganesha , we started for Pune. At the temple nothing happened as Swamiji mentioned
and I was a little surprised and disturbed, for I have faith in what Swamiji
says and Swamiji's predications never go false. I got married in 2003 and life
went on and I had completely forgotten about the incident.
It so happened that this year (2009) I had to change my visa
status. My residence visa got cancelled on April 13. As per the law of the
country, I had 30 days to leave. I could go anywhere and return by next flight,
but the law says one must leave the country. Suddenly out of the blue my sister
informed that this year Angarki falls on 13 May and
her colleague planned to go for darshan of Siddhivinayaka and she too was contemplating on going
there.
The Siddhivinayak temple is located at Prabhadevi, Mumbai. A huge number of worshippers visit the
temple every Tuesday, which is considered to be the day of Lord Ganesh. This number
turns in lakhs during Sankashti
Chaturthi which falls on the fourth day of the second
fortnight of the Hindu Calendar Month . And more than
15 lakh devotees visit the Siddhivinayak
temple on Angarki Chaturthi, . Angarki Chaturthi
falls on the day when Sankashti Chaturthi
falls on a Tuesday. Devotees start forming a queue as early as 6pm from the
previous day. The queue can be seen right up to Dadar
station which is about 30 minutes walking distance.
Since I had to leave UAE latest by 13 May, I planned to go to
Mumbai, have darshan of Lord Ganesha
and return same day or perhaps next day. This thought of going to Mumbai and
not some other country to change visa status came to my mind just 3-4 days
before my visa was due to expire. I called the Siddhi
Vinayaka Temple authorities and asked if there is a
possibility of special darshan on Tuesday as I was
coming all the way from Dubai and it would be perhaps difficult, if not
impossible to visit directly come from the airport and wait in the queue for
12-14 hours and then return to Dubai. They mentioned there are passes available
but cannot be given on the same day and have to be collected at least a day in
advance. I started calling some friends in Mumbai to find out if anyone could
collect passes. One friend volunteered but there seemed to be a problem. Once
he got the passes from the temple, I would have to collect from him as not much
time remained for him to courier to Dubai. Now, we had plans to go to the
temple straight from the airport but this would have been at odd hour of about
2 am. It would neither be practical nor wise to visit someone’s place at odd
hour at night to collect the passes. I prayed to Swamiji to make a way. It so
happened that my aunt from Pune decided to come for darshan and meet us too and so I gave her the number of the
temple from where to collect passes. Still the problem of collecting the passes
all the way from Pune remained. Again I prayed to
Swamiji. My aunt spoke with the authorities and requested one sevadhari to keep the passes with him and she would collect
the same on the Anagarki day. She requested this
because she would be coming from Pune and we would be
coming from Dubai. The sevadhari mentioned to her
that as a special case he would allow us to do that and told we can travel
without any worry.
So early morning on Anagrki we landed at
Mumbai, met my aunt and other relatives at the airport and from there we went
straight to the temple. Once we reached there, my aunt called the sevadhari on
his mobile to inform we have arrived and is at the car park area. The sevadhari came near the parking and announced WHO ARE THE
PEOPLE FROM DUBAI WHO HAVE COME FROM DARSHAN? Hearing this I was amazed! I was
speechless too as I remembered Swamiji's prophesy made years ago. We collected
the passes, and visited the temple. We had lovely Darshan.
Once that was over, the sevadhari met us again and
gave prasadam. We took the same and it was early
morning by now. We thanked the sevadhari and
proceeded to visit other places in Mumbai. That evening I bade good bye to my
relatives as I had to return by the night flight to Dubai. As soon as I was sky
bound, I thanked Siddhivinayaka and Swamiji! I
realized whatever Swamiji says, it will happen. If not today, it will take few
days, perhaps years! We as devotees should have the faith and be patience, as
always told to us by Sai Baba.
Jai Siddhivinayak!
Jai Sai Baba!
Jai Vikraman Swamiji!
Sandeep Budhrani
Dubai