Features | Experience of the Divinity of Bhagavan by Devotees | Group IV | Mr. K. Ramachandra Rao

Mr. K. Ramachandra Rao
Ponnekallu – 522018
Guntur District
Tel: 0863-2281219

Mr. K. Ramachandra Rao (73), who retired as a Senior Officer in the Social Welfare Department, relates a few of his experiences of the Divinity of Bhagavan in his own words.

‘This was around the sixties. I was then working at Gannavaram. We had no children even 12 years after our marriage. My wife, Mrs. Umadevi was worshipping all the gods and goddesses in the temples she came across.

‘You have gone to so many places’, one of my friends who is a Sai devotee asked me at Gannavaram one day, ‘have you gone to Prasanthi Nilayam? Please do go there and have Darshan of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba’.

My wife was keen to give the advice a trial. I applied for one-month leave and went to Prasanthi Nilayam in 1969 along with my wife. We used to go there daily morning and evening for Darshan and bhajan. Swami was calling many persons for interviews, but He did not call us. We learnt a few bhajans there and returned to Gannavaram after a month’s stay at Prasanthi Nilayam.

At that time there was no bhajan mandir at Gannavaram. We started one. Gradually it picked up strength.

We went to Prasanthi Nilayam again in the same year. We stayed for one month. Though my wife prayed to Bhagavan intensely, Swami did not call us for interview. We returned. By that time we shifted to Eemani. There also we founded a bhajan samaj. We also formed a bhajan samaj in our native place Ponnakallu and also in Telikonda.

We went to Prasanthi Nilayam again in 1970. This time Swami called us for interview along with another 40 members. Except we both, all others were from abroad. As we entered, Swami, who received us at the door, told me, ‘you please be aside for a few minutes as I talk to these people’. So, my wife and I sat in a corner. At that moment, a thought crossed my mind, ‘here are people from different countries speaking different languages. How does Swami talk to them?’

Swami called each of them and talked to them. I could not understand the language in which Swami was conversing with them. All of them were showing prompt response by way of smiles and excitement as if all of them clearly followed what Swami was telling them. After talking to all of them, Swami called us.

He looked at me and asked, ‘has your doubt been cleared?’

I was stunned. How did He know what I was thinking a few moments ago?

‘He did not study beyond primary classes. He does not know any language except Telugu. How can Swami talk to foreigners? This is what you were thinking. Isn’t it? Now your doubt is cleared, I hope’, Swami told me with a smile. I felt so dazed by this astounding Divine experience that I forgot completely what I had wanted to ask Swami.

My wife, however, prayed to Swami, ‘Swami, we have no children…’ Swami began, ‘I know’; Swami replied, ‘you are dong good work in conducting bhajans and participating in seva activities. Your husband is attending to his official duties well. Continue like that. Forget about children. Because of your karmic load, there is no chance for you to beget children’.

We were very disappointed.

My wife did not leave things at that. She clung to the Lotus-feet of Swami and began to pray and cry almost hysterically for children. Swami is mercy personified. He relented and said, ‘all right. You will have children’. We returned home happily.

In 1973, we were blessed with a daughter. We took her to Prasanthi Nilayam. ‘Call her Sai Lakshmi’, Swami told us performing namakaranam to our daughter. When she was five years old, she went to Prasanthi Nilayam with my parents.

‘Sai Lakshmi!’ Swami called her when she was playing a little away in the sand opposite mandir. When she came to Him, He took the new slate and wrote ‘Aum’ on it and thus made aksharabhyasam to her.

We came to Prasanthi Nilayam after this once. During Darshan, my wife thought, ‘if Swami blesses us with son!’ Swami granted her prayer, perhaps. We were blessed with son, Sai Krishna. He too went to Prasanthi Nilayam when he was five years old with my parents. Swami called him by name and did aksharabhyasam as he had done to our daughter earlier.

In 1983, we celebrated the anniversary of Sri Sathya Sai Seva Samithi, Ponnekallu. I was taking photographs. I took photographs of the speakers as well as audience. When the film roll was developed and printed, we were amazed to find Bhagavan seated among the audience. What our eyes could not notice, Bhagavan allowed the eye of the camera to spot.

I do not remember exactly when this occurred. Once I went to Prasanthi Nilayam and overstayed there. That was the time of payment of salaries. The office of the District Public Relations Officer, Machilipatnam sent me the salary by a cheque through registered post. They sent it promptly by the 1st of the month. But I did not return from Prasanthi Nilayam till the 10th. I was concerned about the cheque. Normally the postman has to return the registered post after seven days to the sender, if the addressee is not available. I was afraid that my absence without leave would be established beyond doubt if the registered letter went back.

On return, the first thing I did was to contact the post office. Instead of my apologizing to them for my absence, they began apologizing to me. When the registered letter came, some one in the post office misplaced it. Only on the day of my return, they noticed it. ‘Kindly sign on the acknowledgement with back date’ they asked me. Here I went to them fearing risk to my job, and they came to me fearing risk to theirs. How wonderful are Swami’s leelas! Swami, in His infinite compassion, made the clerk in the post office misplace the letter, and allowed it to surface only after my return!’

-- Mr. K. Ramachandra Rao.

(As narrated to Mr. B. Parvatala Rao at Prasanthi Nilayam on 07.05.2005)