Conversations with Sri Swamiji – 33
September 6th, 2009
It was a typical September evening in Chennai.
Sri Swamiji took me to ‘Suprabatha Sabha’ in West Mambalam. They had done a lakh of Sahasranama Archana and had sought Sri Swamiji’s divine presence during its culmination. It is truly wonderful to travel with Sri Swamiji as we get a chance to listen to His Holiness elucidate finer points of Spirituality and religion as he observes various things during the travel.
Sri Swamiji reached the Sabha on exact minute he was expected by the organizers! There was a flurry of activity as Sri Swamiji reached the pooja hall! Sri Swamiji sat on a chair on the far extreme of an adjoining room. His Holiness’ gracious glance fell on a boy who was just in his early teens! Sri Swamiji was looking at the boy for quite a while and did I notice his eyebrows arching upwards?
The boy slowly drifted towards Sri Swamiji and he was sitting close to Sri Swamiji.
The event came to a close and Sri Swamiji signalled His departure with a side glance to me and I was ready and in a few moments we were in the vehicle.
As we were inching towards Premika Bhavanam, I could not contain myself and asked Sri Swamiji about the boy who was very fortunate to have received Sri Swamiji’s graceful glances.
Sri Swamiji gave a warm smile and what He said sent a thrill all through!
‘ The boy you are referring to… Krishna showed me a divine spark in him.’
I could not hold myself to ask, ‘Swamiji can I ask you a clarification?’
Sri Swamiji looked back with a warm ‘Yes’ all over His loving countenance.
‘Swamiji said ‘ Divine Spark’. Was it a mere figure of speech, or did Swamiji actually ‘see’ something!’
We knew, we were going to be enlightened on a spiritual aspect, which one cant find in books!
Sri Swamiji was happy with the question!
‘Krishna showed me a divine spark, a light, a flash, like a star from him. It just flashed and revealed a lot about the boy!’
‘Oh! Swamiji, does this mean he is going to be a great bhaktha in future?’
Swamiji replied:
‘It does not necessarily mean only that way. When Krishna shows a spark in someone, it could mean that (s)he is capable of great penance with perseverance and forbearance; in some cases it could mean that (s)he has a heart which can melt and hence capable of deep devotion – even in that case, in some cases it would be devotion to sagunam and in other cases to nirgunam…’
Seeing our puzzled look, Sri Swamiji continued, ‘You may have a question as to how to determine the person’s unique ability from the divine spark….’
(We thought, ‘ God! Swamiji has virtually read our minds by his loving understanding of how we think!’)
‘How Krishna shows this is very subtle (‘sukshmam’ is what Swamiji said)!’ His Holiness concluded…
‘How deep and subtle is the path of Spirituality! What an insight do Mahans have!’ I was musing quietly.
The vehicle came to a halt in front of the Premika Bhavanam abruptly putting my thoughts to a close!
‘This certainly was no ‘typical’ September evening’ I thought as I got out of the vehicle…
