Features | Experience of the Divinity of Bhagavan by Devotees | Group II | Mr. N. V.N. Somayajulu

Mr. Nanduri Venkata Narasimha Somayajulu,
43 Talackerstrasse,
8152 Glattburg,
Switzerland
Tel: 0041-1-8109663

Mr. N.V.N. Somayajulu (64), a retired officer of the Indian Postal Service, relates a few of his experiences of the Divinity of Bhagavan in his own words.

'My father, Mr. Pala Sankaram, a long time devotee of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai, translated into Telugu Murphet's book Bhagavan's miracles as well as the book of Mr. Karanjia, the Editor of Blitz, written after his interview with Bhagavan. Therefore, it is my good fortune to have been brought up in Sai environment since my childhood.

In 1960, I joined service in the A.G.'s office, Hyderabad. Though I wanted to appear for the All India Civil Services Exam, I could not initially muster the required self-confidence and inspiration. Then, one day during the year 1964, I came to know that Bhagavan was participating in a function at Nampalli, Hyderabad. I went there and had Darshan of Bhagavan. Someone was selling Bhagavan's Photographs at the entrance and I bought one. As I was appreciating the Photograph, I received a pat on my back. When I turned back, I found my Superintendent in the office. 'You will get into the IAS, I tell you', he remarked seeing Bhagavan's Photograph in my hand. From the moment the photograph came to my hands, I began feeling confident in life.

I used to keep the Photograph in a book, and pray before it whenever I set out on any important work. Invariably, I used to succeed. My brother passed Health Inspector's exam but remained unemployed for 3 years. One day, I prayed before Bhagavan's Photograph, and went and met the then Chief Minister, Mr. N. Sanjiva Reddy through the good offices of a MLA. Mr. Reddy passed orders on the spot on our memorandum for appointment of my brother as a health inspector.

In 1965, I appeared for the All India Civil Services Exam, and was selected for the Indian Police Service securing the 10th rank in the order of merit. However, in medical exam, I was found to be suffering from an ailment requiring surgical intervention. One of the members of the Medical Board wanted to help me by surgically correcting it. But unfortunately the problem continued, and I could not be appointed to the Indian Police Service, as I could not satisfy the required medical standards.

I was finally appointed to the Indian Postal Service. After a stint at Rajahmundry and Vijayawada, I came to Hyderabad on transfer in 1973. I used to go to my office after a visit to Sivam, and offered prayers there every morning. As I was approaching Sivam one day, I saw three cars leaving Sivam. Bhagavan was in the middle car. On the spur of the moment, I decided to follow the convoy. Swami's convoy had to slow down or even halt at a few places where devotees congregated for Swami's Darshan. So, I had no difficulty in catching up with the cars even though I was following them on my scooter. But, I was afraid that I would not be able to continue it for long as the petrol was touching the reserve. When I was toying with the idea of turning back, the convoy suddenly swerved into a side lane raising hopes that, after all, the destination of cars might not lie far off. So it was.

The convoy stopped before the residence of Mr. Valluru Venkateswarlu, a legal luminary and then Standing Counsel for the State Government. I parked my scooter by the roadside opposite the residence of Mr. Venkateswalu and stood looking at Bhagavan as He was ascending the steps into the house. Then Swami turned towards me and made a gesture, which I could not comprehend. Mr. Prasada Rao, a devotee who came there along with Swami told me, 'Swami wants you to go in'. So I went in.

There was a big hall in which Swami was standing on the other side. I was very hesitant to go in, as there was none else except Swami and I. Then the host, Mr. Venkateswarlu, who seemed to have been taken by surprise by Swami's visit, perhaps unscheduled, hurriedly came into the hall and prostrated before Bhagavan. Taking the cue from Him, I, too, followed suit. When I touched Bhagavan's lotus feet, I felt as if I had had an electric shock. I muttered, 'Baba! I am a devotee. I feel immensely happy'. 'Santosham (glad), Bangaaru!' Swami replied. Swami addresses devotees as Bangaru affectionately.

I did not know what happened to me, but I was dazed and came out literally crying out of happiness. By that time, Mrs. Venkateswarlu came with a glass of milk for Swami. But Swami began to move out of the hall. I waited by the side of the main door, when Swami came out. I watched Swami picking a rose flower from one of the rose plants in the front yard. He did not appear to have nipped it. In fact, to pluck a rose from the plant is not as easy as many think. But Swami plucked it so effortlessly that the rose seemed to have come into Swami's hand on its own. It was, indeed, a miracle.

Soon the convoy moved on and I returned home still quite dazed. Though I went to the office, my mind was blank and I felt benumbed mentally. I asked my staff not to disturb me and shut myself in. I can only describe my then state as blank, pleasant and tranquil - the like of which I had not experienced earlier; I was in that state for the whole day.

Though I had received orders of transfer by that time to Maharashtra, my superior officer kept them in abeyance unofficially without relieving me because of his soft corner for me. He himself was expecting a transfer to Sikkim. Two days after I met Bhagavan, my superior officer phoned to one of my colleagues, from Delhi. He had a message for me that I was posted as Assistant Director-General (Planning) in Delhi - a coveted post. He wanted me to accept it. Though I was hesitant to move into a more expensive place like Delhi, I had to agree lest I should be posted to a worse place. So we shifted to Delhi in 1973.

In 1974, I was sent as a delegate to an international meet on postal services held in Switzerland. In 1977, Swami came to Delhi, and we went and had His Darshan. One day, I had a dream at around 4:30 a.m. In it, Bhagavan appeared and gave me a rose. I woke up and told my wife about my dream. At about 5 a.m. I went out of the house to fetch milk. Before I could go a few paces, I saw a fresh rose in the middle of the road. It was still a little dark in the morning and there was fog, too. It is a wonder how I could notice it. When I took it, it seemed to me as fresh with dew on it as if it was plucked just then from the plant. I returned home and showed it to my wife, 'see!' I told my wife, 'this is a dream come true!' The rose remained fresh even after four days!

In 1977, we began to perform bhajan in our house with the help of taped songs. Once, when we were doing bhajan, 'ting', the sound of a small bell was heard. None of us rang the bell. My wife used to keep an oil lamp on an empty box of chocolates. We found some viscous liquid like caster oil on the box. My wife's sister's son present at that time touched it with his finger and tasted. 'It is honey', he cried joyfully. We all tasted it. It was sweet like honey. After sometime, it coagulated to form a thick layer, which remained like that for some days. Later, we scratched it off, partook it and gave a part to our relatives and other devotees.

In 1978, our Additional Secretary told me that he would recommend my name to a vacancy in Switzerland where I would have to work in an international organization. It was a lucrative offer for which there would be stiff competition. But I was hesitant to say 'yes' in view of my son's poor health. He was vulnerable to cough and cold being a patient of esonophelia. After a few weeks, the relevant vacancy notification came on my desk mysteriously though I was not in-charge of the subject.

At once, I took the notification to my Additional Secretary. He forwarded my application with his recommendation to the concerned before his transfer. I thought that all this was taking place owing to Swami's grace. I was selected subject to being found medically fit. The medical test for UN jobs is very stringent. Even if I managed to pass the tests for the first time in India, I would have to undergo them periodically there. In the event of my being sent back on medical grounds, I would become a laughing stock among my colleagues. Besides, I ran the risk of losing my job in India also on the same grounds. I was in a dilemma.

I sat before the Portrait of Bhagavan in my pooja room and began doing pooja praying to Swami. Then I had a feeling that someone told me, 'meet Balwant Singh Rajput'. There was nobody around. At once I noted down the name I heard. 'Who is this Balwant Singh Rajput?' I could not make out immediately. On reflection for a considerable time, I could remember one person by that name. I never met him personally. But he was in the UNDP office and only once telephoned me on some official work. That was 3 or 4 years ago. I did not have any contact with him afterwards.

As soon as I could recollect who he was, I rang him up for an appointment. He readily recognised me on telephone even after a lapse of 4 years and even without seeing me personally. 'I am leaving for Jaipur in another hour' he told me, 'can you come immediately? Or, you can see me after my return'. 'The matter is urgent', I replied, 'I will be with you in half-an-hour'.

When I was face-to-face with him I told him my problem. He was very friendly and kind to me and asked, 'who is on the Medical Board?' I told the name of the doctor. That doctor was a big shot being the honorary physician to the President of India. 'I know him very well', Mr. Rajput said, but wondered whether we could meet the doctor before his flight to Jaipur. He ascertained the flight timings and, owing to Swami's grace, the flight was delayed by a couple of hours. He took me to the doctor. There was a red light on the doctor's room indicating that the doctor was busy. He did not hesitate, pressed the bell once and entered. After a few minutes he called me inside. The doctor was doubtful if he could help me at all in view of my earlier problem that resulted in my disqualification for the IPS. 'You have got to do it', Mr. Rajput told the doctor emphatically. 'I don't know what you do but you must clear his case'.

'Can you get your x-rays of that time?' The doctor asked me, 'if you get, I may be able to help you'. But the x-rays were in our village in Andhra Pradesh.

In those days, phone facilities were not as improved as they are now. So I could not contact my father on phone to send the x-rays. I remembered an official of the Telephone Department who was our neighbour at Hyderabad. 'This is urgent and important', I told him, 'you have to pass on this message to my father who is in my town and ask him to send the x-rays immediately'. The message miraculously reached my father in my town. A registered letter or parcel would take at least 6 days to reach Delhi from our town. But it was a miracle that the parcel of x-rays sent by my father reached me just on the third day after I had sent the message via Hyderabad.

I immediately handed over the x-rays to the doctor who obviously gave a favourable report though he did not reveal the contents of his confidential report. By Swami's grace, I could overcome all the obstacles and I could finally join duty at Bern in Switzerland exactly on the day of Vinayaka Chaturthi in August 1978.

Before our travel to Switzerland, my wife wished that we should have blessings of Bhagavan. I told her that it was not easy to have personal audience with Swami, and suggested that we should go to Bangalore. If Swami was in town we should take it that He blessed us and approved the assignment. So we went to Bangalore along with my parents. My father had translated a few chapters of Karanjiya's book by that time. We went to the Brindavan Ashram at Bangalore.

I saw Mr. N. Kasturi there. I went to him and paid respects. 'He is my father, sir!' I told Mr. Kasturi, 'he translated Murphet's book into Telugu. He translated a few chapters of Karanjiya's book also into Telugu. He is old and running temperature also. Can you help meet Bhagavan?'

'Young man', Mr. Kasturi told me, 'if Swami wills to see you He will see you here. I am nobody to recommend to Bhagavan. Pray to him with love. That's all'

Next day morning there was a function at the Arts College, Brindavan Campus, in which Swami was participating. All went there. We too went there. We could not get in and stood outside. We had Darshan of Swami and could listen to His discourse. My father who was running temperature could not stand. 'You be here', he told me, 'I have to go to bathroom'. He left me and began walking towards the main road. After a few minutes, I felt a sense of remorse that I had sent him alone with fever. I decided to go and keep company with him. I went and met my father. We both walked towards the Brindavan Ashram. We reached the spot where the previous day I had met Mr. Kasturi. 'I can't walk further', my father said, 'I will sit here'. He sat on the side of the road inside the Ashram. There was no one there except a sevadal, my father and myself. All were in the Arts College.

Suddenly we saw Swami returning in His car from the Arts College to His residence. My father took the draft translation of Karanjiya's book, held it up and stood by the side of the road. Swami stopped His car exactly at the spot where Mr. Kasturi had spoken to me the previous day. The windows of the car opened. 'He is my son going to Switzerland', my father told Bhagavan, 'he came for Swami's blessings'.

'Shubham, Jayam.' Swami blessed me tapping me on my head as I bowed down. The car moved on. Swami met us exactly at the spot where Mr. Kasturi was talking to me the previous day and said, 'if He wills, He will see you here.' Yes, He met us exactly there. This event left on me an indelible impression of Bhagavan's mysterious ways of doing things. Bhagavan, when His car stopped by us, looked at the manuscript in my father's hands. It was enough. Owing to His grace, my father could complete the translation, and the book saw the light of the day.

While we were in Switzerland, we started bhajan in our house in Bern on the suggestion of a staunch devotee based in Geneva. We were not aware that the day we started the bhajan was Vinayaka Chaturthi. But later, I was going through the International Edition of The Hindu, and came to know that the day we started the bhajan was Vinayaka Chaturthi.

By the grace of Lord Vinayaka who is no other than Swami, our Bhajan Mandal grew in size with the attendance soaring beyond a hundred compelling the shifting of the venue to a big public hall. While the bhajan was conducted in our house, my wife used to host the participants with Indian dishes like idli. We always feel grateful to Bhagavan for making us instrumental in starting the first Bhajan Mandal in our house in Bern in Switzerland and in running it till it was shifted for the convenience of devotees to a public place. We could not sing bhajans on our own and were making use of taped bhajans, till a devotee from Geneva taught us how to sing.

Though we were happy in Switzerland, the fear of a periodical medical exam was lurking in my mind. A year after we arrived in Switzerland, I saw an advertisement about herbal medicines and went to a pharmacy. The pharmacist gave me the name of a doctor who referred me to another doctor. I told both the doctors categorically that I did not want any surgical intervention but only an herbal cure because I had undergone surgery long back, and which was of no use. Yet I was operated upon with local anaesthesia without being told about it. Even that was done in the consultation room and not in the operation theatre, as it should normally be. I lay on the table with Bhagavan's Photograph in my hand praying intensely. I was worried of the fate of my wife and children in an alien land if something untoward happened to me. By Bhagavan's kindness and grace, I was rid of my ailment once and for all.

Exactly at that time when I was undergoing treatment in Switzerland, my wife noticed drops of a liquid (amrit) splashed on the big Photograph of Bhagavan in our house. Thus Swami removed my fear of periodical medical exam forever.

While I was attending an International Meet at Hamburg in 1984, I noticed that I was getting temperature of 101 degrees F daily at 11 a.m., which used to linger till 11 p.m. Leaving children alone at our house, my wife joined me to help. I was there for 45 days and the fever showed no sign of abatement. Back at Bern, I underwent tests and took treatment in vain. I was advised to go on vacation to India for a change of weather. So I applied for home leave and arrived in Madras. There I underwent all tests. Doctors failed to diagnose the problem. I went to my hometown Kakinada where I stayed for one month. The doctors of the local medical college could not diagnose the ailment and advised me to go back to Switzerland, as better facilities would be available there. So we returned to Madras on our way to Switzerland.

From Madras we went to Prasanthi Nilayam for Darshan of Baba. The son of the proprietor of the hotel where we were put up in Madras drove us to Prasanthi Nilayam though he was a non-believer. I used to get Padanamaskar on my earlier visits. But this time I did not get. After I came out of Darshan, I saw an army officer, a Brigadier, distributing vibhuti given to him by Bhagavan in the interview. He gave me also a pinch of it. I was happy that Swami gave me vibhuti prasadam in this indirect way. Later I went to the University Campus to see if I could get some seva opportunity so that I could settle down at Prasanthi Nilayam. There I was shown the footprints of Swami on a part of the paved floor. It seems Swami visited the place during its construction when He stepped on the freshly cemented part of the floor leaving those marks forever. I thought this way Swami gave me Padanamaskar also that day.

On return to Switzerland, on a Sunday, we all felt exhausted and depressed. For the last two months and a half I was running 101 degrees F daily without any diagnosis. I bought three thermometers suspecting each of misreading. As my wife and sons were sleeping in the bedroom, I sat before Baba's Photograph in the living room reflecting on what lay in store for us, and praying. After a while, I took a thermometer and took the reading of my temperature. It was normal after 75 days! Lo! It must be wrong, or, I had taken it out of my mouth too soon. I took another reading keeping the instrument in my mouth for over two minutes or more. It was giving the same reading. Normal! I woke up my wife and told her.

'You seem to have been upset', she said, 'are you seeing things?' She was implying that I was mentally upset and imagining things. 'You take the reading yourself', I said. She got up reluctantly and took the reading. She could not believe her eyes. She broke down and wept as I also did, out of gratitude to Bhagavan. The reading was consistently normal! Normal after 75 days! I went to office next day. As usual, life began to move normally. Bhagavan's grace saved me from embarrassment in the office and granted me a new lease of life.

In 1979, a year after our arrival in Switzerland, we developed friendship with three families who were also interested in Bhagavan Baba's bhajans. My wife and I wanted to present them Photographs of Swami, put in a small steel frame, on the occasion of Deepavali 1979. We happened to buy these small steel frames in a local shop. The steel frames were very attractive with a typical Indian design, which would normally be not available in Switzerland. We brought the small frames of the size 3" x 3" home. But then we realised that the frames were too small to fix any of Swami's Pictures available in our house, even if we resorted to cutting the pictures to half their size. We were tempted to buy these frames because of the beautiful design not realising that they were too small to fix the photographs. The Deepavali festival was fast approaching and we became restive that our desire to present the Pictures of Swami to our friends could not be realised.

On one Saturday morning, I went to our bedroom and found on the dressing table a vibhuti packet. I wondered how it came there as we used to keep all the vibhuti packets only inside the dressing table. However, a thought occurred to me that I could use the Pictures of Bhagavan on the covers of the vibhuti packets to be fixed in the frames we had bought. The size of the picture on the vibhuti packet suited the frame. So, I began emptying the vibhuti in three packets in order to fix the pictures in the frames.

To my great surprise, nay, my shock, I found a small coloured Picture of Swami inside each vibhuti packet. The pictures were exactly of the size of the three frames we had bought. I screamed and called my wife to witness. She was also pleasantly shocked. We immediately opened all other vibhuti packets lying in the dressing table to find out if they too contained similar photographs. We opened all the 12 packets available and none of them contained any photograph. Not only that - I made enquiries with friends and fellow devotees if they ever found any pictures inside vibhuti packets. Thus far no body had noticed any pictures inside vibhuti packets. This incident confirms what Bhagavan says often that if the intention is selfless and the prayers are sincere, Bhagavan would fulfil devotees' wishes. We happily framed the three pictures inside the three frames and presented to three families just in time before the Deepavali 1979.'

-- Mr. N.V.V. Somayajulu.

(As narrated to Mr. B. Parvatala Rao at Prasanthi Nilayam on 26.12.2004.)