Fond memories of bliss – Part 24
We have often heard from Sri Sri Swamiji about events where He would get divine visions in His sleep or dhyana and subsequently find the same incident taking place. Let me narrate once such recent incident.
Sri Sri Swamiji has been tirelessly traveling across the country towards realizing His cherished dream of having the Mahamantra echo from all directions. On one such trip, Sri Sri Swamiji camped in a place called Ongole in Andhra Pradesh.
Earlier, while at Ashram Sri Sri Swmamiji used to have a strange dream. In His dream, He would often see a small deity of Hanumanji in a corner of a place that resembled a temple, which housed other deities too. On one such night, Sri Swamiji was shocked to see in His dream, Hanumanji’s face forlorn and tears flowing from his eyes. At once, He asked Hanumanji the reason for his sorrow. Hanumanji replied, ‘I was being worshipped in the old temple. Now they are remodeling the whole area and constructing new sanctums for other deities and I have been ignored and forced to this corner. No one worships me anymore and I am deserted. Please do something about it.’
In the dream, Sri Swamiji also heard people around speak in Tamizh and Telugu. As He was now at Ongole, He set out in search of such a temple in and around there. Even though he found many such temples, something inside Him told Him that none of them were the same as the one seen in the dream. Hence He prayed to Hanumanji to reveal Himself.
Last week, Sri Sri Swamiji camped in Hyderabad for a Bhagavata Saptaham discourse. During His camp, our Guru Maharaj visited Pandarpur, had a dip in the Holy Chandrabhaga and had darshan of Vittala. That evening, in Hyderabad, immediately after the discourse, a Vaishnava devotee approached Sri Sri Swamiji and requested Him to visit the temple of Sri Lakshmi Nrisimha which was then under renovation.
The Vaishnava devotee was persistent in his request and Sri Sri Swamiji yielded. He paid a visit to the temple under renovation. When Sri Sri Swamiji was about to leave the temple, He heard Hanumanji calling Him! Hanumanji was telling Sri Sri Swamiji that he was there, indeed! Immediately Sri Sri Swamiji enquired where the sanctum of Hanuman was and rushed there.
Sri Sri Swamiji was pleasantly surprised to see the beautiful little form of Hanumanji in exactly the same corner as He had seen in His dreams. He shed tears of joy and embraced the Lord and told Hanumanji, ‘You found Seetha and I have eventually found You!’
The idol, however, looked new and when asked, the authorities informed that the idol had become too old. The idol had paled. Therefore, they had washed and cleaned it repeatedly so as to give it a fresh look.
Sri Sri Swamiji was overjoyed about the divine grace of the Lord.
The next morning, He visited the temple once again and offered Vada Maala and curd rice to Hanumanji.
