Anything you offer to the Lord; He will give you back multi-fold

I was very fortunate to be part of Swami’s entourage to Kodaikanal in the summer of 1994. Often, while traveling, Swami used to grace us with His presence inside our bus. On one such morning when Swami was in the bus amidst us, He suddenly asked the bus to be stopped. He pointed to a poor man selling cotton candy and asked to buy his whole lot for all of us. When the payment had to be made Swami said, “See! I don’t have any money as I don’t have pockets. Who can give Me money to pay for this?” The bus chaperone (Mr. P), immediately took out his wallet and offered one hundred rupees to Swami. The cotton candy seller was paid, and we returned to Sai Shruthi.

In the afternoon, at around 2.30PM, Swami came out of His room, holding a white envelope. He enquired, “Who paid for the cotton candy this morning?”  Mr. P was ushered into Swami’s presence. Clasping Swami’s feet he prayed, pleaded and protested as Swami took out a crisp five hundred rupees note and said, “See! Hundred rupees is the principal. What you gave Me this morning and the rest four hundred rupees is the interest”. Swami then lovingly put the five hundred rupees note in Mr. P’s pocket as tears welled up in his eyes with this sudden torrent of grace. A senior devotee (Mr. M),  upon witnessing this immediately remarked, “Swami, You are such a benevolent God. You turned an offering of hundred rupees to five hundred rupees within hours! It’s great to do business with You.”  Beaming with joy, Swami immediately called him and gave him a five hundred rupees note and said “This is a reward for you”.  Enjoying this divine scene of cascading grace, another devotee (Mr. S) exclaimed, “What a Divine spectacle, Swami! You return five-fold to the bus chaperone and now Mr. M, who just praises you, you give him the same amount, how lucky we are to have witnessed this outpour of Divine grace!” Swami was so pleased upon hearing this that He went up to Mr. S and handed him another five hundred rupees note saying, “This is for you for enjoying this scene”.  Swami that day was a divine child surprising His playmates by taking peppermints out of empty bags like He used to do during His school days. It drove home a very important lesson, which I remember; Anything you offer to the Lord, He will give you back multi-fold.

Offer with love and it will be accepted

One evening, during a dinner session at Kodaikanal, Swami’s cook was setting up His dinner table and while serving a Chapati, he accidently dropped it on the floor. There was a sudden and awkward silence when that happened. Flushed with embarrassment, he swiftly replaced the fallen Chapati with another one. Swami noticed this and immediately went to the cook and told him, “Put the Chapati back. I will have that Chapati only”. The cook pleaded with Swami without success. The fallen Chapati was back on Swami’s plate. Swami continued to move between the tables of the boys, cracking puns that relieved the tension in the air as the boys were settling into their tables. As Swami turned His back to His table, the cook swiftly replaced the fallen Chapati with another one. As soon as He did this, Swami immediately turned back and went straight to the boy and said very sternly, “I will have that Chapati only. Put it back”.  The boy had to put back the fallen Chapati on Swami’s plate and our Lord had that for dinner that evening.

Few days later, Swami had invited some VIP devotees for lunch.  He had finished His lunch as usual very quickly and went and stood in front of their table. Suddenly, He beckoned to me and said, “Serve him another Chapati”. I went to the table and served the Chapati using the tongs. The chapati partially fell outside the plate onto the table.  Swami was very upset and reprimanded me for my lack of concentration and discipline. He immediately asked me to replace it with a new Chapati and throw the Chapati which had fallen off the plate into the bin.

Seemingly both incidents were unrelated. Upon reflection, I realised that even though the Chapati that offered to Swami fell to the floor, it was still fit for our Lord’s supper. However, when I served the Chapati to someone else without offering it to Swami, even though it had only partially fallen off the plate, it had no value, and was set aside and thrown into the bin. The lesson I took home was that if you offer anything to God, it will become valuable even if it’s imperfect from a worldly point of view. However, if you don’t offer it to Him and operate with a sense of doer-ship or ego, the work will not be of any value.

Swami says, “Remember, duties have to be done as worship, as offerings of one’s intelligence and skill, qualities, and thoughts and feelings to the Feet of the Lord in a spirit of thankfulness for the chance given, without a trace of egoism or a sense of attachment to the fruits of the actions.”

Sathya Sai Speaks Volume 2

Amitabh Das Gupta Grade 1 to MBA in Bhagawan’s institutions, 1982 – 1999. Subsequently he was chosen by Swami to work in the Ashram till 2005. Currently a Director at KPMG Melbourne, Australia, and is an active member of the Sri Sathya Sai International Organisation in Australia.