#442 Certificates of Encouragement from Reflections

 

#441 My association with Sai

 

My Association with Sai

 

OM SHREE SAINATHAYA NAMAH

I am a small devotee of Saibaba who has instilled faith in him since 2011. I had seen my mother worshipping him for ages. Being a kid, I used to accompany my mother in the evening Aarti every Thursday, but I developed little devotion then. For me, as a kid, prayer meant duty and discipline which one had to perform daily without fail. This article is dedicated to the incidences and miracles of Saibaba which have strengthened my devotion and faith in him and made me believe in his existence in this materialistic world. 

 

Experience 1: Felt the presence of Saibaba in my hostel room

It was back in the year 2018 when I joined IITK as a research scholar. One night during winter, I was feeling lonely in my room. I was in search of someone with whom I could chit-chat and feel relaxed. My wing was completely vacant then and I tried to contact one of my best friends in the same hostel, but she had slept as it was around midnight. I switched on my laptop and browsed meditation music on YouTube. To my surprise, I found Saibaba’s picture in one of the videos in the thumbnail. Without wasting a second, I clicked on that and started doing meditation by closing my eyes. That chanting of Saibaba’s name had a soothing effect on my brain that I forgot everything for a moment. I went into a state of thoughtlessness. After a few minutes, I discovered that some white light passed in front of me, though my eyes were closed. I got a chill and opened my eyes, then I noticed a matchbox that was kept in front of Saibaba’s idol fell suddenly without being touched or disturbed by anyone. How could it be even possible? There was no one in the room except me. The room was closed, and so were the windows. No movement of wind was there as the room’s ceiling fan was switched off. I got terrified and slept. Did Saibaba visit me to free me from the loneliness that night? He could only answer this question. I was amazed at the Leela of Saibaba. 

 

Experience 2: Saibaba in my dream

It was October 2022; I had an argument with my husband then. It was in the evening and Pooja was going on in my in-law’s house. He left the room out of anger. I kept crying and went to my room. I had intrusive thoughts then. I felt numb and extremely pressurized. I browsed YouTube for the meditation music of Saibaba and told him about my pain and anger through meditation. I got instant relief. I had my dinner and then slept. On Thursday afternoon, while taking a nap I had a dream. In that dream, I saw my grandfather, whom I had lost twenty years back, was present and was wearing white coloured clothes just like Saibaba. He started asking me about my well-being and my in-law’s family to which I answered positively. In the end, he asked, “Are you okay? Aren’t you hiding anything from me?” Then he started weeping. I was consoling him in my dream. After that, I came back to the real world when my husband knocked on the door. Is Saibaba omnipresent? How could he know my state of mind, at that time?  

 

Experience 3: Saibaba in my mobile as a pic 

It was 24 Dec 2022 at midnight, I was in my lowest state mentally, lost and broken completely. I was going through a series of failures in my career. There was not a single person who could understand my pain and console me. Members of my husband’s family were very dominating and demanding, in all most everything, which made the matter very worst. I took refuge in Saibaba. I was crying like I was in hell and unable to come out of the situation. I meditated on one of the music videos of Saibaba. In my prayer, I expressed my agony to him. Like a father, he would protect me, this was my expectation. My meditation lasted for half an hour. I prayed to Saibaba to show his darshan(presence) to me. I repeated this many times. “Show me your presence, Saibaba”. To my surprise, the electricity went off for a few minutes at around 12:30 AM, and just then I could feel someone’s hand over my back, caressing me. I knew that he would never be my husbg75dand because he usually sleeps around 10 PM. I mustered my courage to look back to find that he was sleeping peacefully without knowing anything. I was so terrified that I used my blanket to cover my face and slept silently by chanting his name. 

 

The next day, in the morning, while browning the gallery I found a few photos clicked from my phone. When I checked the detail, it was clicked at 1:01 AM. I could also figure out baba’s blurry image clicked on white background. How could this be even possible? At 1 AM, I slept. If it gets clicked by mistake from my phone, then how was the flash section of my mobile on? I have a habit of sleeping by keeping my mobile near my pillow. It never happened before that photos would be clicked from my phone automatically. It clearly showed that Saibaba heard my prayer and showed his presence in form of an image clicked from my phone. It was incredible. I got emotional and bowed my head on his lotus feet and prayed to him to solve my problems. 

 

Then I decided to visit Shirdi as I felt that it was baba’s wish to attract the devotees to his holy land. He can only decide the date and with whom one can visit the place. I started my journey with my paternal uncle on 10^th Jan 2023. Again note the date, it’s 10.1.2023. This date contains 10.1 which is exactly the same number on which the photo was clicked from my mobile. I still think it as a dream comes true.

 

Bow to Shri Sai — Peace be to all

 

Sweta Sarangi

21-01-2023

 

 

 

#440 Memories

 Memories

Can't label you

Good, bad or neutral

You make me travel

Through the nostalgic sequence of events 

Of a known person

Who is now a stranger to me

Those letters, those giggles

Those promises and endless calls

Are all Incoherent

Which once made my days 

Was it love , lust or fantasy

Still figuring out but in vain.

Why do you always remind me

Memories that I want to forget

Like the scent of flowers 

diffuses with passage of time

Helpless me, who already moved on 

Found out to be tangled

In the cobwebs of thoughts.

Confused me, a silly creature 

Made up of blood and flesh

Of course, brought to earth

By the superpower, who is 

Omnipresent and omnipotent

Bow my head daily to feed 

My mind with the answers

To never ending questions

Ifs, buts , when, how and why.

Why it happened 

When it was not meant

 to happen forever 

Forever is perhaps , 

hypothetical in this world

People come and go but some

leave deep scars on heart

In the end, you find the new you

Lost, broken yet shinning brighter

Because you understand peace 

with the past is vital. 

10-1-2023

Sweta Sarangi 

#439 Early Morning and Sudoku

 Early Morning and Sudoku

Hi Readers,

Hope you’re well! Sending you all a lot of good wishes for this brand-new year.

May all your dreams come true, and you achieve everything that you desire.

From the heading of this post, you might be wondering about the association of early morning with Sudoku. Yes, these two were so associated with each other during my childhood days. Today when I found Sudoku unexpectedly in the newspaper, I couldn’t control myself but to solve it. This revived a lot of fond memories of mine, from my childhood days. Let me take you back to the year 2005, May-June to be precise. It’s so difficult to believe that 18 long years have passed after that. I can still, vividly recall some incidents from that time because I thoroughly enjoyed my school days.

Let’s come back to the incident now. 2005’s summer vacation was (Summer vacation would last for 1.5 months from mid of May to July) the break for class VII, to be precise. It was in class VII, We(me and my sister) got to know about the rules of Sudoku from the cousin of one of my friends. From her, I also got to know that the Sudoku could be found in the daily Newspapers. My restless mind wanted to try the rules that I had learned then. The next morning, I got up early, so early to pick the newspaper up from the outside of my door that the newspaper vendor would drop off around 6:30am. I sat with the newspaper to apply the rules of Sudoku. As the level was easy, I could solve it easily and that boosted my spirit. Till then it was always my father who picked up the newspaper from the door and read it religiously every day. After he was done with reading, I would pick the newspaper only to browse through the page which contained the channel-wise program list of that day.

That day, on seeing me indulged in the newspaper, my father enquired what I was doing with the newspaper. I showed him Sudoku and explained the rules. Little did, I know then, that, my act of revealing the rules to my father would reduce my chance of solving it. The next day, when I got hold of the newspaper, the blank blocks of the Sudoku had already been filled. Later, my sister got added to this race of grabbing the newspaper and solving Sudoku before both of us. Surprisingly, the fire of solving Sudoku was so intense that it motivated us to wake up early even during summer vacation when my other friends would get relaxation in the time of their wake-up.

We no longer remained the competitors of the father as school reopened after the vacation but would often compete during weekends, mostly on Sundays. Slowly and steadily my father gained expertise in solving Sudoku and started solving higher levels on the ladder of difficulty. I remember, the newspaper that we were subscribing to, was The Times Of India. My father surprised us by solving Sudoku of any difficulty level within a stipulated time frame and we were really excited by his eagerness to keep learning new things at any stage of life.

Those were the days when we were not enslaved by technology. Technology had a limited impact on our lives. We thoroughly enjoyed everything in our lives, amidst lack, imperfection, and reflection. Sudoku remained an integral part of our lives. We, referring to me, my sister, and my father, embraced Sudoku from Newspapers in physical form to websites in the online form, then apps on our smartphones. The joy that we got from solving Sudoku with a pen on the newspaper was simply unparalleled and irreplaceable. I don’t think, those memories ever flashed back, to when I solved Sudoku in one of the mobile apps on my smartphone. Today, after finding Sudoku in one of the old newspapers lying on my dining table, even though I live abroad, I am instantly transported to the container, of one of my zillion beautiful memories; Quarter No-277 where I spent glorious years of my childhood, learning, dreaming, and aspiring for a bright future.

Solved it :) It was an easy one

All Rights Reserved

Swati Sarangi

09.01.2023