As students of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, we often witnessed Swami bringing many western devotees into the interview room and we would frequently hear bursts of laughter from the interview room. I was particularly curious about how overseas devotees interacted with Swami. During my Post Graduation at Prashanti Nilayam, some of us were called for an interview along with devotees from Germany. Swami was talking to us in Telugu and Tamil. He then turned towards a German devotee and asked, ‘What do you want?’. When the devotee did not respond, I assumed he hadn’t understood Swami’s accent and repeated the question slowly. The devotee remained puzzled. I had mistakenly assumed that all overseas devotees who came to Swami spoke English, not considering that many might not understand the language. Swami then started talking to them in German and had a wonderful interaction with them.

One morning, the hostel warden informed a few of us that Bhagawan had summoned us to the Mandir. That afternoon, Swami took us into the interview room and explained that He was our mother and that anything we received from Him was a blessing, not a mere give-and-take transaction. He then announced that He would cover all our hostel fees. Although there were no educational fees at Swami’s colleges, there was a nominal charge for food. We expressed our gratitude, took His Padanamaskar, and left.

I was troubled about why I was receiving financial assistance since my father was still the family’s breadwinner, and I didn’t seem to qualify for an exemption. A few days later, I received a letter from my father revealing that he had accepted voluntary retirement from Railways and had relocated to our hometown. It was an awe-inspiring moment – Bhagawan had addressed my financial situation even before I became aware of it. His timing was perfect – preempting our needs before we realized them ourselves. This incident highlighted not only His omnipresence but also His infinite compassion and His perspective of seeing the giver and receiver as equals. In the Divine eye, such semantic distinctions hold no meaning.

Once during our MBA interview, Swami created a beautiful, huge diamond and spoke about it including the physics of light passing through it. He then got up and walked to each of us and showed us the diamond up close. After showing all of us, He said, “How foolish of all of you, that when I walked so close to each of you, you focused on the creation, paying your respects to the diamond when the Creator was right in front of you.”

On contemplation of this, I realised how important it is to see the world through Swami’s eyes and not see Swami through the eyes of the world. That is the way to cut through the noise which can easily come with assumed ownership of the happenings of life.

Working with creation is pressure, but working with the Creator is pleasure. We can practice this by dedicating everything that happens to us as gratitude to Bhagawan – both positive and negative. Everything, then, that we go through is His Blessing and slowly this dissolves the difference between His view and our view. I believe that this vision protects us with the omnipotence of Bhagawan, and we can stand facing the world with service in our hands, compassion in our speech, and love in our hearts.

(The author is from Coimbatore, India who joined the Brindavan campus (Bangalore) for 11th Standard in 1982 and graduated with an MBA in 1991. In his student days, he was blessed to be part of the Sai students’ music and drama group and had the good fortune of accompanying Bhagawan to Chennai, Kodaikanal, and Mumbai. He has been instrumental in organizing Sai alumni and young adult sessions in Sai centers in the US, Canada, India and West Indies to share Swami’s glory through music and speaker sessions. He works with children at Ashraya (Home for underprivileged children in Bangalore) along with his friends providing support and guidance for the children. He is currently President & CEO of Lasatek Solutions based in North Carolina providing technology solutions to the clients globally.)