The Walter Cowan block of the hostel in Brindavan was being readied to be inaugurated by the President of India. As we were standing around Swami, one of the senior students expressed a prayer that echoed the sentiment in all our hearts. “Swami we would like to express our gratitude to You for the boon of proximity that you have conferred on us (the new hostel was to be located elsewhere in another compound and acceding to the prayer of students Swami agreed to have it within the Ashram itself). Please permit us to bring out a book containing our experiences in this beautiful Home – Brindavan”. There was a twinkle in Swami’s eyes as He graciously blessed the prayer with a “Yes”. Immediately Swami started enquiring about the book, the authors, the cover page and the photos to be included. He even took us outside the bungalow and took a group photo with all of us to be included in the book. His enthusiasm was palpable and infectious. “What will you call the book?” He asked. We were at our wits end. To encapsulate within the confines of a few pages our wonderful experiences by itself was such a challenging task. To capture the contents of such a collection in a pithy title was beyond us. We prayed to Him for a suitable title for the book. “Hridaya Brindavan ani pettandi”, He said and went on to explain the reason why it should be so named. “Today, you are all sitting in the sacred precincts of Brindavan enjoying the cool breeze and the Ananda that it provides. A day will come when you will be out in the wide world. As you face the tumultuous and turbulent world outside you can seek refuge in and keep returning to the cool comfort of Brindavan within your hearts. Brindavan in which you are sitting today will then be sitting within you…”
Every student who comes to study in Swami’s Institutions gets the greatest boon. As one student said in his speech on our very first day of college, “This College is unique as it confers on us not merely a BA degree, but, more importantly, it connects us with BABA”. While the college trains us to become experts in the art of swimming in the waterways of the world inhabited by sharks, BABA takes us across the ocean of life. Every student of the Sathya Sai Institutions gets a close peek into the divinity that Bhagawan is. Each section in this book was named with a purpose. Just taste a drop of the ambrosial love that He is and your world then turns into ‘My Baba and I’. As one keeps pondering ‘Why do I love Bhagawan’ and ‘What does Bhagawan mean to me’, one realises that this is an ever expanding chapter of a book that is endless! When one passes out of the portals of the Institute and looks back, decades later, with the benefit of experience in the day-to-day world, one realises the tremendous ‘Impact Bhagawan Has Made’ on one’s life and the eternal ‘Lessons Learnt at His Lotus Feet’.
“I keep feeling your love in me over and over again; and it gets sweeter and sweeter as the days go by…” reads the lyric of a popular song sung by Sai devotees. Why do we love Bhagawan so intensely? We love Him not only for what He is (who can deny himself/herself that Ananda!), but for what we are when we are with Him! Being in Bhagawan’s presence we discover facets of our personality that we never even imagined existed in us. Through this association with Him, Bhagawan has helped us to build out of the lumber of our lives a temple, else, a mere tavern it would have been.
One evening during a discourse in Trayee Brindavan, Swami posed this question, “How can you show your gratitude to Swami?” Being the merciful mother, Swami also provided the answer. “In My presence, you have experienced noble feelings and sacred thoughts. Share these with ten others. This is the way you can express your gratitude to Me.”
On the occasion of the sacred Aradhana Day, we pay our homage to our Divine Mother through the medium of this book, sharing our thoughts and feelings about Swami with our brethren. On this thrice holy day, Sai Ma, we offer at your tender lotus feet, the blossoms of our heart dipped in tears of love and gratitude. Please accept these and bless us. We are yours forever.
Dr. Ravikumar Thyagarajan
Warden, Sri Sathya Sai Hostel, Brindavan