Features | Experience of the Divinity of Bhagavan by Devotees | Group II | Mr. Niresh Daryanani

Mr. Niresh Daryanani
P.O. Box No. 887
Santa Cruz De Tenerife
Canary Islands, 38001,
Spain
E-mail: nireshdaryanani@yahoo.com

Mr. Niresh Daryanani (45), a businessman from Spain, narrates a few of his experiences of the Divinity of Bhagavan in his own words.

I first heard of Sri Sathya Sai Baba when I was about 12 years old. During that time, Swami came to Bombay. My uncle's wife went and had His Darshan. Then Swami materialized a small silver Ganesh idol and gave it to her. She was very excited, told us all about it and showed us the idol.

At an early age, I was initiated into Kriya Yoga. Having my own Guru, I did not evince much interest in Swami. My elder brother, Mr. Ashok had been a devotee of Swami for quite some time. About 16 or 17 years back, when we were in Venezuela, three or four Trinidadian ladies came to meet my brother. They brought some photographs, which they had taken during the Birthday Celebrations of Swami. When my brother saw them, he called me to see the photographs. In one of the photographs, Swami was seen as Lord Sri Ramachandra (head only) while the rest of His body including the robe was of Swami. In the second one, the head was that of Lord Sri Krishna while the body including the robe was that of Swami. In the third, the head was that of Lord Siva. In those days, technology was not developed to such an extent so as to manipulate the photographs. When I saw them, I began to think seriously of Swami.

It so happened that all people from my wife's side have been devotees of Swami. For sometime there was some reluctance on my part to visit Prasanthi Nilayam. Being in Kriya Yoga, I used to think that, when God is within me, why I should go to Prasanthi Nilayam to visit a living Guru. What could that Guru have to offer me, which I could not realize through self-realization as taught in Yoga.

Gradually, Bhagavan, out of His boundless love, began to draw me nearer. In 1988, I went to Brindavan to have Darshan of Swami, but by that time the Bhajan was over and Swami retired into Trayi.

In 1999, when we were in Spain, a lady customer of mine, about 63 years of age, broke down and wept as her brother was seriously ill and might not last beyond 3 to 6 months. That was in August.

She started, by asking me, 'you are from India, and can you not help me?'

When I asked her how I could help her, she told me that her unmarried elder brother, almost 69 years old, was very ill; and he needed help. I was not aware of the type of his illness.

Initially I told her I was sorry and was unaware of any help from India

On her persistence, I recollected about Dear Swami, and told her, 'yes, I know of a saint who lives in India who may be able to help'.

I agreed to send her 2-3 small booklets of Swami's sayings in Spanish, which I sent her in the next few days. She informed me that her brother wasn't a believer and would not read, to which I told her that even if she read the booklets it would be helpful. She agreed

One month and a half later, in September 1999, on my next visit, she told me weeping that she was losing her brother who deteriorated further, and might not last more than a month or so.

'Please take this,' I told her as I handed her a packet of Swami's vibhuti, 'you can put a little on his forehead, a little in his mouth and apply some on the affected part of his body. It is absolutely harmless. Kindly repeat Om Sai Ram which is the way you can connect to Dear Swami, and then, in Spanish, tell Him your problem and pray for His help'.

Her brother was one of the 30-member group of patients suffering from terminal cancer. He had to undergo dialysis once in 15 days for which he needed to travel by air to a specialized hospital away from their town. This had been going on for about 2 years. In each session he was being given between 9-12 bags of fresh blood during an entire day, allowing the removal of the impure blood in his body

I could go to visit their store again only in February 2000. The lady was not there but her daughter was there. I started the business discussion straight away so as to save their time as well as mine.

'Don't you want to know how my uncle is?' she asked me.

I clean forgot about him and was about to ask, 'why? What is the matter with him?' Then I recollected.

'His was the only case in the entire group which showed improvement. The malignant patch was shrinking in his case. Doctors were surprised. What was it that made the difference? Was it any change in diet, or use of other systems of healing or exercise? They wanted to know.

'He needs to come for dialysis only for 8 times more, that means, for only 4 months more, after which the successive follow-up could be done in your own town', they said.

Her mother did not disclose to the Doctors that her brother had been receiving Swami's vibhuti lest they should mistake it for some occult practice.

On one of my successive visits to her store almost a year after Swamis Vibhuti had been given, she took me aside and told me

'In his group, there were 30 terminal patients being treated every fortnight; and 29 did not make it. He is the lone survivor. The improvement has been striking and sustained since I started using the vibhuti you gave me. But I lost my nephew who was one of the 30 in this group. I didn't have the courage to disclose to my own family what I was doing for my brother so as not to be ridiculed. Now I lost my nephew of 45 years of age. This is something that I will have to live with till my last day.'

I thanked Swami for the miraculous cure He had effected for a non-curable ailment. That was the first time I had given vibhuti to anyone.

One day one of my customers, a middle-aged lady named Angela, told me that her son had contracted a peculiar eye problem. He was hardly 3 years old. Unless he was operated upon, his eyeball, which had a crack, might fall out which would be irreversible. She was skeptical about the diagnosis and consulted two other experts who, too, confirmed the need for surgery indicating exactly the same diagnosis to the affected eye.

The date for surgery was fixed on a Wednesday while she met me on the preceding Friday. My elder brother, also a staunch Baba devotee, was present. Suddenly, words came out of my mouth, which, I was aware, I did not utter: 'I think it's time we talk to her about Baba'. We told her about Bhagavan.

'I am a non-believer', she told us frankly, 'but I think I wouldn't lose anything if I try the vibhuti you are talking about'.

We returned to our place the next day and drove back the 75 km route to her place and handed over Swami's vibhuti. Later, we received a call from her on Wednesday (the day on which the surgery was scheduled) afternoon.

'How is your son?' I asked, 'hope the operation was successful'

'No operation', she told me in a jubilant voice, 'the surgeon came to me from the operation theatre in his sterilized clothes of the operation theatre and asked 'who is Angela?'

'It's me', I answered, and demanded, 'what have you done to my son?'

'Why did you bring him to me?' he asked me, 'there is nothing wrong with his eyes'.

When she insisted that his eye had a problem and, to confirm this, showed him the medical reports of the other specialists she had visited. He was dumbfounded. He claimed that as he had been instructed to perform this delicate surgery to cure the ailment (non-existent), he had even invited other eye specialists in the hospital to explain the diagnosis in reports and the patient's actual condition.

On Angela's insistence that he should go and check both eyes once again, he went in and returned saying, 'now both his eyes are normal except that, in one, there is a light cataract'. He said, obviously puzzled and perplexed, 'he is under anesthesia. You can take him home soon after he regains consciousnesses'. It is, indeed, incredible how Swami cured of the boy's eye problem sans surgery.

Usually December is a busy month for us, as sales during the festival season would soar high. But I had to leave for Bombay to attend on my father-in-law who had a heart attack and a spinal problem from which he was recovering. So, my wife and I came down to Bombay leaving the burden of the business to my elder brother. My father's house is about a km and a half from that of my father-in-law.

Though my father-in-law recovered from his cardiac problem, progress from his back injury was much slower. He had been advised bed rest as Doctors felt surgery was of little use and relatively risky at his advanced age.

On December 24, 1999, I took my children on a sightseeing drive on the Christmas Eve. While we were at Hotel Taj, each of my young children aged 5 and 9 complained to me of earache and the elder of stomachache, too, all in the first few minutes of our at least two hour program to visit all the main well lit-up sights of Bombay for the millennium celebrations.

They both complained to me. 'Papa, can we go home, please can we go home', they said.

'Ok, if you are both feeling unwell, better we all go back', I said reluctantly, knowing that they would never again get to see the city so well lit as for the millennium celebrations

Ten minutes in the taxi on our return, both children miraculously got better, and their pains vanished. It was too late to turn back, and we all continued towards home. Surprisingly, the moment we turned back, my children's uneasiness disappeared.

At about 12 midnight that night, the maidservant of my father knocked frantically on my door, and wanted me to rush to my father's house. He was on the toilet seat in the lavatory and was not getting up. My father normally used to live in Bombay with his eldest son and his family, and they had all left the same night a few hours ago for the U.S. and he was all alone at home with the servants.

Immediately, I called one of my Doctor-friends who was in a Christmas party, and got my father to the Hospital where he was treated for heart attack. He could get medical attention immediately and survived.

God knows what would have happened had I been in Spain. On the pretext of my father-in-law's illness, Swami brought me to India. Because of his fall and continued bed rest, I had to extend my stay. As my children complained of uneasiness, I had to cut short my Christmas-eve sight seeing of Bombay. They became all right the moment I turned our taxi homeward as if their illness was a pretext posed by Bhagavan to bring me home just to be handy when my father had a heart attack. Thus, Swami made sure that I would be available near my father when he had the heart attack so that I could rush him to the Hospital in time. Above all, Swami wanted to demonstrate to me how He would fix it all when, finally, He meant to extend my father's life.'

The main lesson that I have learnt this day is that when Swami tells us ¨leave it all to me', it is so true. He takes care of it all. We must only trust in him.'

- Mr. Niresh Daryanani.

(As narrated to Mr. B. Parvatala Rao at Prasanthi Nilayam on 13.08.2004 and confirmed on email on 03.09.2004.)