Story submitted by: TAMMANA SAIPATHUDU
OM SAI RAM
What to mention of myself? There is nothing worth mentioning as I am a complete zero. Victory be to our Shree Ever Loving Shirdi Saima. Now I want to tell you Her entire greatest miracle in my life and hope you will all taste the sweetness of Her bliss. Please note Shirdi Saima devotees, I have mentioned our lord in the form of our Mother; hence I have written the whole thing considering Him as our mother. Hence the name is ever loving Shirdi Saima. If there is any mistake in the penning down of Her Leelas, ever loving Shirdi Saima devotees, please pardon me.
I came to know of our Ever Loving Shirdi Saima in the year 1992. Till this moment, I was not able to remember how I got that beautiful portrait of our Ever Loving Shirdi Saima. Days passed by and tragedy struck our family by the expiry of my loving mother. I lost interest in everything and sank in the sea of depression. What is amazing is that the fact that She caught hold of me while I lost all hopes of living this life and if it had not been for Her timely intervention, I dare not to imagine what would have had happened to me. She became my father, mother, friend, philosopher, and guide henceforth.
When we returned to Chennai from Gudiyattam in the year 1996, I started applying for jobs. But I couldn’t get any as I was just a science graduate. Again, she made a miracle by making me take up the medical transcription profession. And till this date, this profession is only filling my stomach and that too still being unfit to stay in this profession. I manage to be in this profession only by the grace of another staunch devotee of Herself. Without our Ever Loving Shirdi Saima, I am a complete zero by all means and till this moment I am alive means it is nothing short of Her grace than any other thing for that matter.
Here only one staunch devotee, Mr. Ganesan by name, of our Ever Loving Shirdi Saima befriended me. Thereafter we both used to go to Mylapore Ever Loving Shirdi Saima temple frequently. Then our desire to go to Shirdi grew up slowly and steadily and She created a situation with a Picture Perfect Precision for us to visit Her holy place. Then we were reminded of Her words that if we have Unstinted Faith and Patience, that she Herself will show us a way in the right direction. We were really astounded by Her Bliss on us as we are not having that much Bhakthi and that it is Her “SAULABYA” that gave a meaning to our lives.
In the year 2001, by Her Showering Bliss and Grace, we (along with my Mr. Ganesan) made a trip to SHIRDI. Right from the beginning point of our journey, our Lord extended Her helping hand as and when required. This Great Saint of all the times guided us throughout our journey and helped us to the greatest extent possible at all times as we do not know the Hindi language that much well. Here, I want to tell you all one thing. Ever since I came to know about our Ever Loving Shirdi Saima, like every devotee, wanted to see Her in Person. Is it that much easy? Nay, but this “Divine Mother” is ready to fulfill the wishes of even a dreadful sinner. That is the Special Characteristic of our Divine Mother. I just made a simple prayer to Her asking Her to appear in Person and She fulfilled my wish. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect that to happen, but it happened only by Her Bliss.
Finally we reached Shirdi on Thursday and I started searching for Her. After we got down from the bus, one person came to us and asked us if we were searching for the lodging and we nodded our heads. In the meantime, we asked him that if he can take us straight to the temple to see the Shej Aarti as it is Thursday. We stood by the side of main entrance of the Presiding Deity and saw the Shej Aarti through the window and our joy knew no bounds at that moment. Then one of the devotees started distributing prasadams to all of us standing there. After I took the Prasad, I searched for the guide, who came with us and he was sitting nearby. I went near to him and gave him some of the Prasad, which I have received from the devotee, but he did not take the Prasad. I did not understood at that moment as to why he refused to take the Prasad despite himself looking very devotional. Then he took to us to a decent lodging and also told us that he would be coming the next day early morning to accompany us to the temple and also help us with the purchase of pooja items as we are not that much fluent in Hindi. I managed to speak with him with a little bit of Hindi I know.
After we attended the morning and afternoon Aarti, we returned back to our lodging and took some rest. Then on Friday evening, we went to the temple street to buy some pictures, photos etc. I went to the shop (where we purchased all our pooja items) and inquired about the guide, who accompanied us as we thought of giving him some money to him for his guidance, which is of great significance to both of us. But, to the amazement of us, that shopkeeper told us that he did not know anything about that guide and that he has not seen him before here. We were wonderstruck and after a moment we understood the reason behind Him refusing to accept the Prasad and thanked our Ever Loving Shirdi Saima in assisting us this Unforgettable, Sweet Journey to Shirdi. Tears came down after realizing our ignorance in failing to recognize Her as it not that much easy for us like ordinary mortals, which we both came to know later.
But I made continuous requests to Her to appear in Person in my mind. Suppose if anyone appeared like saint in knee-length robe, I think if it was She who was coming in Person, but it was not so. To my disappointment, Friday passed without Her appearance. We are starting to our homes the next day viz., Saturday, and we came to bus stand to leave Shirdi by a bus to Pune. There was huge crowd for all the buses and we struggled quite a bit to get seats in the bus after a long time. That bus started and nothing happened. She appeared to us, but still there is an intense desire to see Her again and I felt I was losing something and I don’t have words to describe the state my mind was in. I was speaking with my friend something, but my mind is searching for Her time and again. Then after crossing the Shirdi temple, pain in my mind increased manifold as nothing had happened.
But, I felt something different when that bus stopped for a while near a hotel. Some passengers, who reserved their seats before hand, started getting into the bus. Ever since the bus stopped, my mind started feeling that something is going to happen. Then that MIRACLE happened. Actually we were at the rear part of the bus, I sitting by the window side and my friend next to me. I saw an old man in torn clothes asking for Bhiksha. As we were seated at I clearly saw him beforehand and something is happening in myself. I don’t understand what is happening within me. After asking Bhiksha in the front side of the bus, She came near to the window of my seat and did not speak anything for quite some time. When I saw Him so closely, I was little bit shocked because I saw His head bent as like our Ever Loving Shirdi Saima in the picture. Then She uttered “FAKHIR” (Oh! my GOD, what to say!!!) Those words reverberated in our ears and our joy knew no bounds. Our senses will always take a back seat at that moment and we will not understand what is happening in front of us for quite some time.
When I tried to give Him something (at that time I was astounded to see a 2 Rs. coin in my hand despite the presence of lot of one rupee coins in the pocket, and this two rupees is very significant because it is what She expects from us, which is Shraddha (unstinted faith in Him) and Saburi (patience till we get His bliss), which She got from both myself and my friend.
I was really shocked on seeing that 2 Rs. coin and I gave Him that coin and still we thought Her to be an ordinary person not knowing His greatness and even my friend got 2 Rs. coin miraculously and he also made the offering and She blessed us both. All of a sudden She vanished proving beyond doubt that She came to us in person. The place where the bus stopped is actually situated at a center of the junction.
Actually it is a known thing to all of us that when God appears in front of us, the next moment we will be under Her control and She will nullify our mind till She goes away from us. After Her disappearance from that place only, we will be regaining our senses, which means that we will start thinking normally, which is what happened in our case. But we will remain in the divine ecstasy even after She left us away and that is for sure. After we came back to our senses, myself and my friend were searching for Her, but She has already vanished in thin air after receiving Her Dhakshina from us.
The point (UNFORTUNATELY) worth mentioning here is that I told this miracle to a lot number of persons and the ones, who believe are less than the ones, who don’t believe. Anyway, I left it to Herself, after all, my intention is just to spread the message of our Ever Loving Shirdi Saima and nothing more than that. Whether to believe it or not, I left it to the concerned people's discretion.
Since it is a junction and no old man can walk quickly and go to another street or out of this road. Since there is nothing like that in that area as the area is quite open to some distance, we came to know that it is She, who appeared in person and our joy knew no bounds and out came the tears from our eyes for not realizing Her AGAIN as the Supreme Force. We were under sweet shock and as well as depressed (for missing Her) for quite a long time. And finally we were satisfied that at least She made us realize about Her after the disappearance. And this supreme force is our Jesus, Allah, Vishnu, Shiva, and every other name of a god that the people in the world can call.
And hence the name (SAIPATHUDU—Complete surrender of myself at the feet of SAIMA) has stuck in my friend’s mind, who coined that name to me with Her blessings. She will always consider everyone of us as Her children closer to Her heart and will always run to our rescue at any point in time to protect us from problems that are there present to crush us at anytime. She responds to us INSTANTANEOUSLY whenever we call Her wholeheartedly SAI, SAI.
Here are Her golden words to all of you. “Life is a series of problems. Some of them are apparently unsolvable. Do not try to solve problems. Meditate. Repeat my name. All problems solve by themselves”. May our everloving Shirdi Saima’s bliss fill all your lives as well as the lives of all the people in this world with everlasting happiness, good health, peace of mind, wealth and prosperity. May our ever loving Shirdi Saima’s bliss bless the entire universe.
Regards,
Saipathudu.t/Srinivasan.t
Om Sai Sri Sai Jaya Jaya Sai