Kuwait – 15 November 1999
AUM
SRI RAMA JAYAM, JAI SRI RAM

GO FORTH AND PROCLAIM TO THE WORLD THAT THE LORD OF THE UNIVERSE ONCE AGAIN IN HANUMAN FORM WALKS THE FACE OF THIS EARTH

Swamiji had said that we could plan an evening of shopping with Swamiji around is always an eventful and fun filled affair and worth looking forward to.

On my return from the office I was informed that during the day an old devotee by the name of Anuradha Ramkumar who had last met Swamiji in 1991 had spoken to him over the telephone. That on hearing her voice Swamiji had inquired as to who resided in Nandanam to her utter amazement. That this was the area that she had resided in at the time of her last meeting with Swamiji. That time appeared to have been swept away and it was as if the intervening 8 years had not been at all.

Of the wonder that having failed to meet Swamiji despite repeated efforts since the last meeting, the desire had been fulfilled not in Madras in Kuwait; of the joy in the recollection that Swamiji had told her who was childless at that time that a daughter would be born; of how this had in fact come to pass; of Swamiji sending word through another devotee that the child should be christened Rajeshwari; of how this was indeed a confirmation of the name chosen by the parents. So much was seen, so much was heard by the devotees who were witness to the conversation.

Swamiji showed a great reluctance to get ready for shopping and in fact asked if we could not bring forward to that eveing the visits to the houses of two devotees planned for the next day.

The reason for this change was soon to manifest itself. The arrival of Anuradha accompanied by her husband Ramkumar and their daughter Rajeshwari. The joy that had followed the telephone call of the morning was relived and savoured in the face to face meeting that followed. The food that they had brought by Mrs Ramkumar as Prasad was enjoyed by all. It was not in the partaking of the food alone that the joy lay. It lay also in the manner in which Swamiji fed the little child with tiny morsels of food. No mother could possibly have done better. The little girl also behaved with Swamiji in such a way as to suggest a long acquaintance.

The party that had assembled during the course of the evening and had been witness to this joyous drama moved with Swamiji to Mr Sudhakar’s house. Here Swamiji lit the lamp and started speaking. Toward the end of the Puja, he made the statement that the present Yuga was coming to an end and another one in which Hanuman Swami was the Brahma was beginning and how the World would now bear witness to the 11th Avatara.

The words  “GO FORTH AND PROCLAIM TO THE WORLD THAT THE LORD OF THE UNIVERSE ONCE AGAIN IN HANUMAN FORM WALKS THE FACE OF THIS EARTH” found utterance then.

It was in 1965 that I had heard of the fortelling of the event. It was the time of dusk. Having finished our play for the day, my friends and I had gathered as was usual around the senior boys, who would begin to assemble at about that time, in order to listen to their discussions on politics, football or whatever had attracted their fancy that day.

Much talk centered around Mr Shastri the then Prime Minister of India and as often happens during a lull in the conversation, the subject changed abruptly and one of them spoke of reading in a magazine of the day, the prediction that there would be born in the South of India, a man who would remove the barriers between the religious of the World. A sheer thrill of joy passed through my body, even as I heard this statement.

Little did I realize then that the Avatara had already commenced nor could I have in my wildest dreams ever visualized the sheer drama that would bring me in such intimate contact with Swamiji.

The prediction lay forgotten only to be revived in memory in the early hours of a morning one day in Abu Dhabi. We had set out the previous evening from Sharjah to AL Ain where Swamiji held a puja. The puja had finished well past midnight and was attended by quite a few devotees from Abu Dhabi as well. We then drove from Al Ain to Abu Dhabi and my most definite recollection of the drive was the number of speed breakers that dotted the highway. I had not had sufficient sleep the previous night and the speed breakers did definitely keep me awake and focussed on the lead car.

After reaching Abu Dhabi, Swamiji, my wife Radha and I were seated drinking tea and engaged in some small talk when the prediction I had heard of almost thirty earlier came to the fore in my mind. Swamiji looked at me at by way of confirmation and said YES in an almost inaudible tone. Let this matter rest for now appeared to be the message.

This evening, there was no holding back.

As we came out of Mr Sudhakar’s house we were greeted by a gentle rain. So gently did the raindrops fall that the skin felt as if caressed by petals. A Pushpa Varsha indeed. The very Heavens were rejoicing.

JAI SRI ANJANEYA
 

Venkatesan
Kuwait
 

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