His Portrait is Him!
It was a sunny morning. Sri Sri Swamiji had just returned from a tour. After his morning ablutions, He started out from Alapakkam and beckoned me to drive to Premika Bhavanam. As we were on our way, suddenly Sri Sri Swamiji summoned me to go to Sridharji’s home.
Sridhar is one of the earliest devotees of Sri Sri Swamiji, who devoted his life full time towards serving the Master. He takes care of the Madhurapuri Ashram and is a personification of Guru Kainkarya. His mother had the fortune of having Sri Sri Swamiji’s darshan quite often. She had then recently undergone a surgery for a fractuerd leg, and was recovering from it.
I immediately changed the route and got on the street that led to Sridharji’s residence. No sooner did we reach the house than Sridharji’s mom started jumping in joy! She was pleasantly thrilled and just could not control her emotional outburst which wetted her eyes, on seeing Sri Sri Swamiji at her doorstep. As Sri Sri Swamiji entered the house, she screamed, ‘Sridhar! Did I not tell you? I knew Guruji would hear me!!’ and Sridharji nodded in acceptance. I slowly nudged towards Sridharji and asked, ‘So Sridharji, what is amma saying? Why is she so excited?’ Then Sridharji explained the whole story…
Sridharji’s mother had not had Sri Sri Swamiji’s darshan since He was out of station and she was recovering, and yet she strongly desired to have His darshan. As her physical condition did not permit her to move out of her house, she kept telling Sridharji, ‘Why don’t you let Sri Sri Swamiji know of my desire for darshan?’ and Sridharji simply responded, ‘He has so much of divine work to do, so many places to go and spread the Maha Mantra, so many devotees to take care of, all over the world. We should not take up one bit of His time, as His time is very precious.’ The matter did not stop there, thanks to her strong will. The argument reached its peak and finally Sridhar remarked, ‘Well! Sri Swamiji often says that He is no different from His portrait. Walk down to the pooja room and talk out your desires in front of His picture’. She earnestly walked down and spoke out to Sri Swamiji’s portrait expressing her thirst for Sri Swamiji’s darshan.
I realized that it was at that very instant that, out of the blue, Sri Sri Swamiji made me veer the car to the direction of Sridharji’s home!
Haven’t we read about such incidents in books about Mahans and Saints? It is indeed true that the portrait of a Guru is no different from Him. Wherever we are, in what ever state we are, if we think of Him with earnest faith and devotion, it reaches Him immediately.
