Fond memories of bliss – Part 19

The incident that I am narrating now had taken place more than twenty years ago. But even today, it is still fresh in my memory. It was a time when His Holiness was staying in my place in Kumbakonam. One morning, He complained of dysentery. The situation was terrible and He was quickly draining out His energy owing to the non-stop dysentery. I pleaded Him to take pills for the condition, but Guru Maharaj completely refused to take any medication.

About three days later, I accompanied Sri Sri Swamiji to the temple to have the darshan of the presiding deity, Lord Aaraavamuthan. In the temple, we happened to meet the family of Sri Vishnurata Bhagavata, who is an ardent disciple of Sri Sri Swamiji. As soon as his sister saw us, she prostrated to Swamiji and said that three days back, she had a severe dysentery. As the condition was worse, she had cried in front of Sri Sri Swamiji’s photo, and to her surprise, the dysentery had immediately stopped.

That is when I realized the actual significance of the words from great Mahans and incarnations, when they say, ‘Leave your burdens unto me.’

It was a few years ago that Dr. Bhagyanathan, myself and a few others were traveling with our Guru Maharaj up north on a particular tour. During the return journey, as we were driving down, there was a telephonic call from one of Swamiji’s devotees that he was down with severe fever and was admitted to the hospital.
Sri Sri Swamiji spoke to the person on the other end, and after listening to the whole story, in the end said, ‘There is nothing to worry. The fever will soon be reduced.’ The telephone call ended there.
However, minutes after the call, Sri Sri Swamiji felt very uneasy. His body temperature soared high and He was shivering with fever. In addition, he had a severe headache and vomit. We were all terrified. The journey was broken there and we stayed in that town overnight. The situation continued for a few days after which He was back to normal.
All through the physical turmoil that Sri Sri Swamiji was going through, he did not complain once about his ill-health nor utter a word about it.

Witnessing the stream of events, I could very well understand that He had indeed taken up the fever from the devotee