I am writing about my experience with Swamiji and his miracles, with his blessing & guidance. These few paragraphs will not justify what he has done for my family and me, but I am delighted that it gives me an opportunity to share those moments with you and other devotees.

My dad always believes in hard work and Lord Anjineya. He had a reasonably good job at Trichy, while we (rest of family) were at Madras. My dad’s close friend, apparently was a strong devotee of Swamiji. During that period, Swamiji had mentioned my father’s name to him and asked us to see Swamiji.

But my father was postponing the visit for about a year, during which period he faced some problems in the official front. He was asked to pay a bribe of 40,000 Rupees to get transferred to Madras. But my father was adamant to face the challenge without giving any bribe. During that time my sister’s journalism admission and my medical admission were pending. We had to face most of it without our dad being around. My mother convinced my father to meet Swamiji. And we finally did in 1990.

I did not believe in Swamiji’s in general at that time. I was impatiently waiting in the front room because my mother was waiting too. We waited for 8 long hours and then Swamiji called us in. The first few sentences he uttered to me were "You are going to get an admission to Medical College. Your name is eight on the list". Until then, my perception about Swamiji’s was that they dress up in an orange dress with a beard & a stern face. When I saw this Vikraman Swamiji, I thought that he would probably know nothing about us. Then he started asking us about the mixie, watches, our vehicle registration number and so on. We were shocked .We left the pooja room with all our questions answered and a lot of predictions about the problems that we had at the time.

To our surprise every problem was taken care of precisely as he had predicted. I got my medical seat, my sister her journalism and my father got his transfer as well. We started attending the pooja’s regularly. I can never ever forget the first Hanuman Jayanthi celebrations I attended in 1991. I have been noticing an exponential growth of the crowd each year. I strongly believe that only a supernatural power can organize and conduct such a big function, so well.

My Experiences at Chicago

Swamiji’s predicted in early 1996 that I would see him in the United States, precisely in Chicago, along with my husband. In 1998, he said my husband’s name would be Venkataraman and held all other details to be surprise. You must be kidding yourself if you don’t believe that Swamiji met us at Chicago in August of 1999 together with my husband.

We did not have any idea of buying a second car even though it was essential for us at that time. Swamiji mentioned that we will buy a car and it will be an "OLD-NEW car". He added that others will not know it is an old car unless you tell them it is, and they will be surprised". Sure enough, that same weekend, we were waiting for an oil change to be done at the auto dealer, we were just walking around looking at used cars just for fun. An elderly gentleman walked up to us and asked us if we were looking at new or old cars. We answered we were not sure but we are just browsing. He said well, I have a car for you. And showed us the car that was within the budget we had in mind. He allowed us to take it for a test drive alone (usually they come with you on the test drive and bug the hell out of you and pressurize you to buy the car). It was an old car (more than 50% life over) yet had all highway miles that it did look new. In the next week, we looked a few others and bought this car. The first day my husband took it to office, 4 of his colleagues congratulated him for buying a NEW car.

Couple of month’s back, I had parked this car in the parking lot of a university library. It has a sticker blessed by Swamiji in its windshield one facing out and another facing inside. When I returned back to the car to go home, I saw one american gentleman staring at the sticker in the front of my car. I got really panicky, and started walking fast towards my car. When I approached this stranger,

Stranger: Can you tell me who is this Swami in your car sticker?

Priya Well, He is a Holy Man from India. He is like our "Guru" or Teacher.

Stranger: Can I see him?

Priya Yes of course, He is in the US now.

Stranger: You know what? I vividly saw and can still see my JESUS in him in this sticker. I wish I could meet him.

And he quickly left the place. I am really proud of Swamiji after this conversation and am happy that I am his devotee.

About 3 months back, Aravind and myself had gone to the temple in Chicago. There was no one in the temple at that time as it was in mid afternoon on a weekday. We were standing in front of Hanuman Swami praying. There were a lot of things going on in my mind seeking an answer right then out of frustration. All what I prayed was " Show me one sign that you are listening to my prayers. I just can’t take it anymore". When I turned back, a lady was standing there behind me smiling, came towards me and gave me an orange. We swear there was not a single person when we entered the temple and this lady could not have entered the temple after us, completed dharshan and was ready to leave out. It happened to be the same day when Swamiji landed in USA. These small experiences show that he is watching us every moment.

A month ago I had been to the temple close by. It was about 2.00 PM on weekday. When I entered the Sannadhi, it was dark inside. Nobody was there. I happily walked towards the idol when I saw a lady, stepping towards me uttering " Was the door open?". I said "yes". She said No, it can’t be, because she and her daughter had checked it twice, as they were in charge of the temple till the priest comes back from his break. They had just finished 108 pradakshina’s and that is why the priest had given them the keys as the Durga Sannadhi was supposed to be closed and the priest did not want to interrupt their prayers. I could see clearly that she was scared to let me in, as she was responsible for the safety of every thing there. She looked at me and said "Can I believe you, as I feel that Durga has opened the door for you". I was stunned. I said "Yes of course!! You can trust me". She then told me that I could take my own time in the sannadhi. She gave me instructions how to close the door, and with great concern asked me to take care of myself, as there were some people working on the construction outside and she left. When I finished my 108 pradakshina’s and came out, I saw her waiting in the cold like a guard. When I asked her why she was still waiting outside?. She said, "I just got out. I realized I couldn’t get back in. So I thought I could wait out here to see if you are okay". I did not know what was happening. But clearly Swamiji’s presence was felt on that day.

Yet another instance about 2 months back. I was down with a severe ailment that was a surgical emergency, the cause of that was unknown. The doctors decided to wait and see if the unbearable pain subsides as it was not possible to operate with so much pain. We made a frantic call to Swamiji and were fortunate enough to reach him. He calmly asked about the problem. Swamiji asked us to call back after 15 minutes so that he can pray in his puja room in Madras and also asked us to spread "Vibuthi" over the affected area in Chicago. In 10 minutes (No exaggeration here, precisely 10 minutes) the pain decreased to be bearable and in half-hour it was gone. We were so relieved needless to say and I was discharged that same morning without surgery. The doctors are still not able to believe it. But we know what happened and Swamiji saved us yet again.

We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to have lunch and dinner with Swamiji at a few Chinese and Thai restaurants. Every time, we requested him to open the fortune cookies. Please do realize that we do understand that these cookies are pointless and the messages there are very mundane, generic and meaningless, mostly with spelling/grammatical mistakes. But 3 times so far, Swamiji chooses one cookie, selects a person around the table and reads it out loud and the message will be apt for that person. The last cookie he opened was for him and it was always very apt for our beloved Swamiji and could not have been better. For example, it goes like " Your Teachings of Today are the Philosophies of Tomorrow" and "You are the Greatest Person in the World". Think about it, even if the messages are correct, what is the probability that he chooses the right person for the right cookie. If you are aware of the concepts of statistics and probability, you will not doubt even for a second that this is one of the miracles (simple, yet profound) of Swamiji.

Words cannot express Swamiji’s affection for his devotees. It is amazing how he asks about everybody in the midst of everything. It is surprising, in deed when we observe how much Swamiji cares for each and every devotee. Swamiji is a good counselor too. And the message/answers he gives to various people at the same time, without others knowing what the question was and how the answer was given is yet another supernatural act of Lord Anjineya and Swamiji.

Sri Rama Jeyam.
 

Priya Venkataraman

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