In April 2015, I followed a tour to Shirdi that was arranged by one of Swamiji’s devotee.
We landed in Cochin airport and we saw Swamiji was already waiting for us. Seeing Him, I felt some kind of attraction towards Him that made me to take glimpses of Him now and then while waiting for our next flight to Pune. I did not get an opportunity to talk to Him as our group was big and He was surrounded by others. Moreover, I am not so interested in meeting Swamiji yet during that time.
In Pune, we travelled to Shirdi by van and there were 3 vans in total. I was grouped with Swamiji and few other devotees. I was upset that I was not grouped with my other friends as I felt that this group was more matured and spiritual. On the contrary, I enjoyed the journey so much. It was fun and interesting listening and sharing spiritual experiences with Swamiji and His devotees. In fact, I have never imagined that I will like this group so much.
In Shirdi, Swamiji with four other devotees and me went to the Neem Tree (Gurusthan) and Swamiji told us to meditate. When all were meditating, I was looking around as I was not familiar with meditation at that time. Then I saw a person offering green grapes at Baba’s oil lamp/altar. In my mind, I was telling Baba that I want that grapes. After a while, I saw a security guard taking the grapes and walked towards me as though he wanted to give the grapes to me. Seeing Swamiji beside me, he gave the grapes to Swamiji instead. Swamiji took it and said to me, “you wanted this” and gave me a bigger portion before sharing to others. I was so surprised as to how he had read my mind.
Later on, we went for book shopping and Swamiji suggested some books for me. After that, we went into a hall and sat there chatting. I took the opportunity to ask Swamiji how He knew what was in my mind. To that, He sat in one of Shirdi Baba’s pose and asked me, “now you know who am I?” When I looked at Him, I saw Shirdi Baba’s face on Swamiji’s. I cried out of happiness and devotion. Swamiji said, “when you saw Me at the airport, you did not believe in Me right?”
I shared my experience with Swamiji to my other friends on the same tour. I started to believe and started to have faith in Swamiji. During the morning arathi at Samadhi Mandir, I closed my eyes and was praying and when I opened my eyes to see Baba’s morthi, I was startled to see Swamiji face on Baba’s. I felt extremely happy to witness that. From there on, my believe and faith grew stronger as I know Swamiji is Shirdi Sai Baba.
Another incident was when we visited Saptashrungi temple. I had difficulties to climb the steps as it was quite a distance to the temple. I wanted to give up and halt there when Swamiji said to me, “why you think you can’t climb?” and He did something with his hands towards me (actually He was transmitting energy to me). After that I managed to climb the stairs on top of having a back pain. With Swamiji’s help, I was able to witness Saptashrungi Matha’s darshan.
This trip has given me a chance to go to Shirdi and found a genuine Swami which is the only one I believe in.
After meeting Swamiji, I began to experience a miracle. I was very sad and was crying in front of Swamiji’s photo when I heard a voice in my mind, “why are you sad?” When I looked at Swamiji’s photo, I saw His hand moved and gestured as though blessing me. I was speechless and blessed to receive Swamiji’s everlasting blessings.
