SRIRAMAJAYAM
Dear Swamiji, please bless me to pen down the miracles we are experiencing in our day today life – everything is known to you and nothing hidden from you. It’s we, who need to realize your presence in our lives. To a large extent your miracles have helped us a lot in self-realization and we have a long way to go.
Here is one of my favourite bhajan which I used to hear and enjoy a lot during my school days:
Thoonilum Irrupan Thurmbilium Irrupan Thooya Jyoti Narayanan
Aanilum Irrupan Pennilum Irrupan Anandha Jyoti Narayanan
This song is cent-percent applicable to our Swamiji and we have no doubt that Lord Narayana has himself taken a avatar in the form of our Dear Swamiji and Swamiji is engulfed everywhere in this universe.
We can see and feel our Swamiji’s presence everywhere and anywhere – from a small wallet to a big wardrobe, to vehicles, in the flight and to in our heart. Like a sukshma roopa he sits quietly in our purse and like a virat roopa he travels with us wherever we go. He is around us everywhere and he is inside us and he is a driving force for all our thoughts and actions. His hints or recalling incidents happening in our lives is just to give us more confidence and comfort that he is aware of everything and no need for us to worry about anything or take tensions.
Swamiji knows in and out of us and no need for us to tell anything to our Dear Swamiji. Here are few incidences which I would like to share with Swamiji’s permission.
- After one of my visit to India – when swamiji visited our place, he said exact number of sarees I brought from India – and it turned out to be the same – nothing less or nothing more
- He knows how much money we carry in purse. Few times he brought this to our notice, cross checking with us how many 500 or 100 Dhs. notes we have with us.
- Our switching over of rice variety is not hidden from our Swamiji and he said that variety is very good and we are looking brighter after started taking this new variety rice.
- I always try to get Swamiji’s consent in anything I think or do, by simply looking at his photo. Everytime I see I will get different expressions from his face - some time he will be smiling, sometimes serious or other times with concerned look. My daily interaction with Swamiji’s photo is an encouraging one for me to carry on with the tough life we are facing now days. This also not hidden from our Dear Swamiji, during one of his visit to our place he asked – “you keep looking at my face” – beamingly I said yes Swami and that’s true - to get your approval in whatever I do so I look at your face, always.
- Last May (2012) before my short (just 4 days) visit to Chennai to be with my father on his 80th Birthday Swamiji predicted that I will visit Kabalishwarar temple at Mylapore – at that time I had no clue about it – and I never planned to visit any temple since my activities were jam packed for all the 4 days. How Swamiji’s words will go wrong – true to his prediction all of a sudden I had to visit Mylapore in connection with some urgent work near the temple and got an opportunity to visit the temple as well. This was a great miracle for me!!! At last one of my long time wish got fulfilled by His grace – so many times I had visited nearby shops in that area – located just behind the temple but never knew that this temple is located there itself!! It’s all Swamiji’s leela only.
- 3, 4 years back during one of his visit to our place, Swamiji pin-pointed that we had given some blank cheques and cautioned us to be careful while giving blank cheques to others. When he said about this I did remember that we had given some blank cheques to my in-laws but totally clueless for what purpose and which bank cheque etc. Also whenever we visited them later, due to obvious reasons we did not feel like checking with them . Fortunately, last year (again 2012) while travelling to Chennai from Bangalore, my mother in-law handed over couple of blank cheques I had signed before and asked me withdraw money and come. That cheque pertained to Post Office for withdrawal of interest money getting accumulated in our MIS deposits. This time I myself withdrew the amount and handed over to them – balance leaves are safe with them itself. During one of recent visit of Swamiji – I could share this information with him. He advised us to be careful in future and the consequences of giving blank cheques in case if it reaches any wrong hand. How fortunate are we to have a good counselor with supreme power to guide us in each and every step.
- So many times Swamiji has asked us about so many people from our family – giving their star or zodiac signs, their names etc. We sincerely apologies for not able to recall anyone or relate anything to Swamiji. Simple reason though both our family are very huge, due to circumstances we are confined to a very limited circle and we don’t have contacts with any family members apart from immediate siblings and their kids. We have the hope definitely Swamiji will provide an opportunity to meet all our relatives who are wide spread around the world.
Of late I find myself too much pre-occupied with various tasks in office and work pressure is on the increase. Due to this now a days I end up committing some or the other sort of mistakes quite often – either forget to do something, simple errors or misplace of documents. I myself can feel that my efficiency level is coming down – but hats off to our Dear Swamiji – who is always there to our rescue and saves our life in his own way. I should say this is purey his blessings that I’m still sticking to my job in spite of so many ups and downs. Couple of incidents happened recently at office and situation was getting out of hand, and I had to totally surrender to Swamiji to solve the same – here the story goes:
One relating to travel arrangements I had made. Real drama which took place on a Thursday – the day before Swamiji’s Birthday celebrations we had in Sharjah, this year (2013). It was for a new employee who was coming from Kuwait with his family. First the ticket was booked for that Thursday later passenger changed to Friday – I sent intimation to our travel desk to change the date of travel from Thursday to Friday. That staff never bothered to read my msg. and issued ticket for Thursday. This happened on Wednesday. Due to work pressure I never bothered to check date or day in the e-ticket. Next day – i.e. on Thursday morning I sent a msg. to my Abu Dhabi coordinator giving flight details and requesting her to send driver on Friday to pick up the guest & his family. Within few seconds I got a call from that coordinator who wanted to cross check the date and time when the passenger is arriving – as the ticket issued was for Thursday & not Friday and just 1 hr. left for passenger to board the plane. It came as a shock to me and regretted my oversight in not checking this detail. Since no one was available at travel desk, I had to beg to the travel agent to cancel the present booking and issue ticket for the following day. There was some penalty for cancellation – thank god I got saved from No show penalty, by swamiji’s grace. Later on that day travel agent sent me a revised ticket for the passenger to travel next day (Friday) – I was relieved that everything is falling in its place – and sent the revised e-ticket to the new employee. Later something prompted me to call this employee to tell him that I have sent the revised tickets – it was towards end of the day around 5.00 PM. When I called him, that new employee pointed out a mistake in the ticket. I had noticed that his son’s name was mentioned as “Miss” instead of “Master” – so I replied that we are aware of that and travel agent said as long as name is correct Miss or Master will not matter, it is OK to travel like that. He said that won’t pose any problem, but his daughter’s name got misspelt. It was a real bombshell for me to hear that his daughter’s e-ticket got issued in his name- and it will be difficult for her to travel with that ticket!! It was my mistake only, somehow by oversight I typed out that girls surname instead of her name while sending my initial message. What else I can do except to call our travel agents and point out the mistake happened. Believe me Swamiji, this type of mistake never happened in my 20 yrs. of service. Travel agent called me back around 5.15 or 5.20 pm telling me cancel the whole ticket and reissue the same and 100% cancellation charges will be applicable. At that particular point in time, Dear Swamiji, I felt the world is collapsing. So many things to be completed before the weekend and at this juncture, towards end of the day / weekend I had to hear this news? I didn’t know what to do. I ended up calling my immediate boss who was away on vacation – to get his approval for cancellation and told him I will bear the cancellation charges due to my mistake. He advised me – Srikala you have good contacts with airline authorities why don’t you talk to them directly – believe me Swamiji till that time it never struck me to call the airline officials, directly. It was nearing closing time and the travel agent had to pack up for the day. He kept on calling me what to do – since the passengers are to travel next day morning. I told him that I will manage myself. Later I called my contact at the airline on his cell only to know that he was out of station – and it took some time for him to SMS his colleagues number. Finally when I called his colleague it was closing time, though he got bit irritated he connected me to one of his help-desk staff. That sales lady was kind enough and said though they can’t change the name in the ticket, they will amend the PNR in the system and will send a message to the airline airport manager to allow this passenger to travel with the Surname. Later I called up her boss and he comforted me telling they will try to help us out but in the end it lies in the hands of airport manager to accept or reject. I prayed to swamiji’s photo, who sits just below my PC in front of my eyes and left this problem under his care and came home. Needless to say how much restless I was in till I got an sms from local airline staff that the passengers have checked in without any hiccup!!! Swamiji, definitely it’s your krupa drishti which helped me to tide over this unforeseen situation, by myself without involving anyone else from the company. Later that Friday I could attend Swamiji’s birthday celebrations with a tense free mind.
Another incident during April 2013 – though it was a tense moment for me, this time I was pretty cool with full confidence in our Swamiji that he will resolve the situation by himself. Since January 2012 – I was entrusted with an additional responsibility of handling petty cash – which was a totally new assignment for me. Though initially it was bit jittery and nightmare but over a year’s time it has become a routine activity for me and my cash inflow and outflow was going on smoothly till last month. During beginning of this month - April, one fine day when I was tallying the cash it was short by Dhs. 810/- to be exact. I went totally blank on how did I spend and to whom I had given. I checked with my regular colleagues, office driver etc. who keep taking cash from me for custom payments / buying pantry items etc. They all confirmed that they had submitted vouchers for whatever money they had taken. Due to work load I forgot to update my records immediately as to whom I paid this amount. Initially I spent sometime to search for missing cash or documents everywhere but could not trace it out. Though this issue was haunting me a lot, I left the matter as it is – with a total confidence somehow or the other it will get solved by itself. Week passed by – no sign of any clue, how long will I drag for this unaccounted money. I was not feeling comfortable to inform this to anyone in the office. As the days passed by it was getting bit restless for me and one fine Wednesday night I told Mohun, that next day before week closes – I will withdraw money and update my records and I know for sure that somehow this matter will get resolved. Next day morning – i.e. Thursday morning before leaving for office, I spoke to Swamiji’s photograph and asked him to resolve the issue for me. Parallelly it seems Mohun also sent a message in the chat room seeking Swamiji’s help to resolve this issue. That day usual routine was going on in the office, I wanted to check my mails – whether I got any approval to release this amount, but somehow I got pre-occupied with some or the other job and kept postponing this task. In the afternoon one of my colleague (whom I see very rarely in office since he is always working on-site) came to me asking for some help – while he was talking to me I just listened to him starring at his face. Once he finished his talking, I casually asked him whether he has taken any money from me, to my utter surprise he nodded his head and confirmed that he has Dhs. 810/- taken as advance from me for purchase of some items and due to some problem was not able to settle the amount before!!! One should have seen my face at that time!! Though I had e-mail approval for release of this amount, somehow I never bothered to check the approvals also. Swamiji its purely your leela only. If that person had not come before me that day, this play would have prolonged for some more days !! Happada, what a relief I got that day and that weekend was indeed a relaxing one for me. Swamiji, you are the savior and you come to our rescue in your own form. We just have to pray to you that’s all. Nothing is in our hands swamiji.
Dear Swamiji, how fortunate are we to be under your divine umbrella, you have accepted us as we are with all our shortcomings, we are very much grateful for that Dear Swamiji. Please do continue to guide us and keep us in the right track, always. Pleae shower your grace, blessings and protection to all your devotees at all times
Sri Vikraman Swamiji Thirvadigale Charanam
Jai Sriram
Srikala Mohun
Dubai - UAE