Features | Experience of the Divinity of Bhagavan by Devotees | Group I | Mrs. Krishna Shanmukharatnam

Mrs. Krishna Shanmukharatnam,
W/o Mr. Shanmukharatnam,
6-1-N.H.II, Marai Malai Nagar,
Chennai - 603 209
Tel: 0414-252535

Mrs. Krishna Shanmukharatnam (52), a housewife of Sri Lankan nationality presently residing in Chennai, narrates her experiences in her own words.

'We wanted to go to Australia in 1986 from Sri Lanka and disposed of our own house in Colombo. But we could not leave Sri Lanka as our application for visa was rejected. So we had to rent a house and remain in Colombo. We had to shift from one house to another changing in all eight houses in six years. We yearned to have a roof of our own.

During 1992, one of the friends of my husband gave my husband a pocketsize Photograph of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Though we used to hear about Baba and his miracles, we did not enter Sai family till then. My husband came to know of a vacant house on that very day. We went to see it. On seeing the house, my husband declared spontaneously, 'we are going to buy this house'. I was surprised, because we had no money to pay. Due to the grace of Bhagavan, some of his friends came forward to help us and colleted as much as Rs. 17.5 lakhs. We bought the house, got it renovated and entered on July 14, 1992.

Later we came to know that the owner was keen to sell it only to a Sai devotee. Strangely, from that day, we turned Sai devotees and began to attend Bhajans in our area.

Our daughters joined Bala Vikas and I, too, became a Bala Vikas teacher and worked for two years. We used to go for seva in Sri Lanka. We have switched over to vegetarian food.

Our eldest daughter, Vasuki, had a dream one day after we entered our new house. There was a Photograph of Swami in that house of ours - a bigger one with frame presented by the same Sai devotee who had earlier given a pocketsize Photograph of Swami to my husband. My daughter saw in her dream that vibhuti was coming from that Photograph. I did not believe her and chided her for telling lies. She said, 'mom! I am not telling lies. I saw it in my dream'. So we went to check her words. As we neared the said Photograph, there was vibhuti actually on that Photograph! After two to three weeks, vibhuti started coming from one or two Photographs of Bhagavan in our house. All this went to fortify our faith in Swami.

Some people, who are known to me, were going to Puttaparthi and asked me to accompany them. I wanted to go but they dropped their visit. I, too, had to drop the trip. I wanted to buy earrings for my daughter when I was in India for Swami's Darshan. As the trip was cancelled, the purchase of earrings also got shelved.

In 1993, my daughter went out to play. Outside our house she found a packet. In that was a pair of earrings wrapped in a paper. When she reported it to me, I asked her to go out and see if anyone was looking for them, having lost them earlier while going that way. It so happened that no one had turned up. I told my daughter to wear them as a gift from Swami, as they were found on a Thursday.

In 1998, some Sri Lankan entrepreneurs went to Chennai and started a biscuit factory there. They offered a good job to my husband. So we shifted to Chennai from Colombo.

As we are now nearer, we are able to visit Prasanthi Nilayam and Brindavan more frequently and have Darshan of Bhagavan.'

-- Mrs Krishna Shanmukharatnam

(As narrated to Mr. B.Parvatala Rao at Brindavan, Bangalore on 22.05.2004.)