Fond memories of bliss – Part 46

Ambur is a beautiful town on the Chennai-Bangalore highway. This town occupies a special place in our Sri Swamiji’s heart because numerous residents of this town are in love with the Mahamantra, and have a special regard and love for our Guru Maharaj.

Recently, there was a plan to organize a prayer session in this town. Unlike a mass prayer event, a one-on-one prayer event was organized here, on the 28th of March this year.

As a part of the prayer session, many devotees came forward to share their experiences of how the divine grace and power of the Mahamantra have played unbelievable miracles in their lives.

Each and every experience that was narrated came right from the hearts of the devotees and in turn touched the hearts of all the devotees present.

Here are a few of them….

A lady who spoke had her son living abroad. He had gone abroad for his job more than 12 years ago, leaving behind his mother in this town. During the first few months of his travel, he regularly spoke to his mother over phone and wrote letters to her. After a year or two, that stopped. There was absolutely no communication from her son. Being a mother, she could not remain peaceful without knowing about the well-being of her son. But, unfortunately she knew neither the phone number nor the address of her son. So for her there was simply no means of reaching out to him. When our Sri Swamiji visited Ambur, she cried out to Him stating her helpless condition. Pregnant with the love and compassion of a million mothers, which is indeed the nature of Guru Maharaj, He patiently listened to her and said, ‘Don’t worry. He will call you.’ In a very few days, the lady got a call from her long lost son and now the mother and son are regularly in touch. The lady’s face reflected the unbounded happiness that divine grace has ushered into her life as she narrated the touching incident.

Our Sri Swamiji says that the greatest roadblock in our endeavours is lack of faith. It is this lack of faith that blocks divine grace from descending on an individual. Indeed, faith in the words of a Guru can do wonders. A gentleman narrated his experience that substantiated this. Having been married for about twelve years, this couple did not have progeny. They had resorted to all possible medical treatments but with little success. When once, Sri Swamiji came to Ambur, they poured out their heart to Sri Swamiji. Sri Swamiji asked them to offer a ‘thulabharam’ (offering of fruits, ghee etc. equivalent to one’s own weight) to Lord Sri Guruvayurappan. With faith, the couple carried out the ‘Thulabharam’ as per Sri Swamiji’s bidding and very soon, the lady conceived their child. It was an emotional moment, as the proud father showed the little one – the fruit of their faith and divine grace, whom they have named Janani, to the entire audience – a standing example of how divine grace can make the impossible possible.

We say, ‘Nama Sankirtan can bring in inner transformation’. Is it just a façade? Or is it really true? The answer is right here…
Nama Sankirtan satsangs are regularly held in this town and people from all age groups – infants to seniors – attend it. There was a school-going young boy who attended the satsangs regularly and truly fallen in love with the Mahamantra. As he chanted the Mahamantra, he started feeling that he should not take non-vegetarian food any more. Everyone in his family was non-vegetarian, and as is the case in every other non-vegetarian household, it was a practice for them to cook meat on Sundays. This young Bhagavata would refuse to take meat. This would often bring in an argument at the lunch table in his family, as his mother would force him to take it. One such Sunday, when the boy strongly refused, the argument between the mother and son heated up and eventually the latter declared, ‘If Mahamantra were true, it will, one day, make you a vegetarian too!’

In a few days, this young lad who went to school did not return. His parents frantically searched for him. They did not leave any stone unturned to find the boy, but in vain. The mother now started attending the Nama Sankirtan satsangs regularly. The very Mahamantra that she chanted in the satsang increased her faith and conviction in Nama. During one such satsang, she prayed, in her heart of hearts, sincerely to the Almighty for her son’s return. After having established this beautiful relationship with the Lord through the medium of prayers, she had a strange feeling in her heart – something told her that if she stopped taking non-vegetarian food, her son would return. As this thought came to her quite often, she undertook a promise – that she would abstain from taking non-vegetarian diet once and for all, if she got back her lost son.

‘The very next day was the most unforgettable day in my life’ – the mother said as she was narrating the story to the assembled devotees, with drops of tears rolling out of her eyes… ‘My son got back home, all by himself and he was standing at the doorstep smiling at me.’

Listening to and reading these wonderful experiences, it is only gratitude to the Sadguru and the Almighty that wells up in our heart — for having given us this rarest of the rare gem – the Mahamantra. All we can do is strengthen our prayers for giving us more and more taste in this nectarine Mahamantra and chant it more and more…. Is it not?