14 May 2022
[By Smt. Sudharani]
Padanamskaram Swami,
Saluting the Lotus feet of Shri Datta Swami, I express my infinite Pranams to Shri Swami. This opportunity to share my experiences with you all in the direct presence of Shri Swami is the greatest blessing of Swami. I am very well aware of all my defects; I know I am undeserving. Even then, Swami blessed me by accepting me as His disciple and also gave me an opportunity to meet Him in person. He let me hear his wonderful and beautiful Prajnanam directly in His own words. He also allowed me to touch His feet. This is an unimaginable gift of Shri Swami. The experience I got on the day I met the Satguru i.e., Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (AMMA) for the first time itself is one of the greatest miracles according to me. Because it is beyond logic. During my childhood, I had spiritual interests but as the time passed, I was totally involved in worldly activities. Although I was doing ritualistic worship to God, it was filled with aspirations. Every day presented a new problem to me and I used to think if these problems would ever stop in my life and would I ever experience happiness again? I used to conclude that my life is never going to change. Proving that my conclusion was wrong, a ray of hope came in my life in the form of a South India tour. My elder daughter Ms. Laxmi Thrylokya was studying at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham at Coimbatore. Through her, myself and my husband got an opportunity to get the Darshan of AMMA in Kerala. As per our daughter’s suggestion, we planned a small South India tour. Our plan was just to meet AMMA at Amritapuri and then get the Darshan of God Ananta Padbanabha Swami and come back. I thought that it was us who planned to meet AMMA but very little did I know that it was actually AMMA’s plan that we meet Her! Keeping our budget and time constraints in our mind, we just planned to visit only those two places but due to unexpected AMMA’s grace, so many dramatic changes happened in our plans and the trip turned into a wonderful journey to so many divine places and it gave us many divine experiences. We had visited 4 other places including Kanyakumari due to one of Her devotees' help. We experienced Amma’s care and love throughout that trip, there was not a single problem. With all that experience I gradually understood that the trip was AMMA’s plan but not mine. When I came back home, it was a miraculous arrangement of AMMA and I will never understand how all this happened. With all this experience, automatically I entered the spiritual path accepting AMMA as my Satguru. We were living in Hyderabad, so I couldn't be close to AMMA. So, the way is made that I was watching and singing Her bhajans, I read Her biography, I was following AMMA’s regular messages through Matruvani, the monthly magazine of Amritapuri Math. I was still left with more time after doing all this. I started hearing Shri. Chaganti garu’s pravachanam and became a fan of him.
Once I happened to listen about Lord Dakshinamurthy and realized that only Dakshinamurthy is the deity who can remove all my obstacles and also satisfy my heart. My mind was so fixed on Lord Dakshinamurthy. I don’t know how but I wanted to reach the Lord. In 2018, AMMA blessed me with an opportunity to be in Her divine abode i.e., Amritapuri in Kerala for about 12 days along with my younger daughter Ms. Bhanu Samykhya. Out of my inner aspiration, I enquired with many devotees and disciples of AMMA in the ashram, whether I can get any picture of AMMA in the form of Lord Dakshinamurthy. I got only Silence as the answer.
Before starting our journey to Amritapuri, Thrylokya gave us the book Mahima Yamuna. As my regular routine, I started reading that book in the bus itself and continued in the ashram also. I remembered the suggestion of my daughter Thrylokya. “Here onwards it is better if we follow Shri Datta Swami for the sake of our spiritual progress because He is Dr. Nikhil Sir’s Satguru and His knowledge is wonderful”. Though I didn't pay any attention, this was there in my mind.
This miraculous incident happened in the ashram when I was in the queue for AMMA's Darshan. Devotees of AMMA suggested that I keep chanting while I go towards AMMA. So, I was chanting various slokas and prayers. As a part of that, I also started chanting Lord Dakshinamurthy stotram and that exact moment AMMA turned Her face to me as if I was calling Her. AMMA looked directly into my eyes. That one look of AMMA was enough and I was totally into AMMA. I wondered and felt blessed that Amma heard me singing Dakshinamurthy Stotram! I am sure that Amma directly listens to my heart. This experience is enough for me to prove Amma is none other than God. The Divine state is blessed to me for 45 mins by allowing me to sit beside Amma. Amma was looking at me again and again, and was listening to everything that I spoke in my mind silently. As a mere soul I don't know what divine act of Amma was going on, but I'm sure that a silent conversation also happened parallelly between me and AMMA just like it happens between Lord Dakshinamurthy and His disciples.
I was in immense joy achieving this opportunity to be blessed with AMMA’s acceptance. I don't know how many births I was longing for. I didn’t want to lose it forever. That moment, I got a thought of my daughter’s suggestion about following Shri Datta Swami. So, I prayed to Amma like this. “It is impossible for me Amma! to get such a direct incarnation of God like You (AMMA) in my life. This is enough for me. I wanted You as my Lord Dakshinamurthy, my daughter is telling about Shri Datta Swami but I am scared to test my luck again”. I was saying this in my mind, suddenly Amma turned off Her face and from that moment, didn’t even look at me. Following Amma's untold instruction, volunteers humbly asked me to leave. I understood AMMA’s decision, that Shri Datta Swami is going to take charge here after. I realized once again my life-friendly formula, “Man proposes, God disposes” is reiterated. With that silent guidance of AMMA, I came back to Hyderabad and was blessed with the Divine Darshan of our beloved Sadguru, Shri Datta Swami’s Darshan along with Thrylokya on 23rd feb, 2019. SHRI Swami accepted me, again out of my expectations, Amma took me into her hands and put me at the Divine Lotus Feet of our Satguru Shri Datta Swami. Amma answered my prayer and blessed me Sakshat Lord Dakshinamurthy Himself as Shri Datta Swami. This is much more than what I expected. I was just looking for a picture of AMMA in the form of Lord Dakshinamurthy, which is the first step of worshiping Lord Dakshinamurthy, as told by Chaganti garu, but Amma, out of Her infinite grace directly showed me the Lord Dakshinamurthy Himself. Now I thank Lord Dakshinamurthy in both of the human incarnation forms for holding this helpless soul with an infinite ocean of love.
Jay Mata Rani ki.
Jaya GuruDatta Swami
Thank you, Swami.
I have no words to express my gratitude for Your innumerable boons.
Ananta Koti Pranamalu Swami.
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