Alok Kumar

Om Sai Ram

Before sharing my thoughts I would like to offer my humble prayers at the divine feet of Lord Sai and lets pray that His soul rest in peace.

I am really shocked to hear the sad news of His departure today morning. Who knew that lord will depart for his Heavenly Abode on the day when Jesus rose from the dead (Easter Sunday).

My association with Lord dates back to the day I entered Sri Sathya Sai Vidhyapeeth, Sri Sailam, my school in kerala. It was the year of 2000, I was unaware of Sathya sai baba and only knew about shirdi sai baba. From that day I started listening to numerous stories, incidents, and miracles of sai baba from my friends and teachers. Some times I thought is that really possible in modern world or is it just a myth. There were also deviations in faith among various friends and my mind always toggled between between faith and myth. As time progressed one day came when we were heading to puttaparthi for Divine Darshan. This was my first face to face interaction with the Divine Guru. Though I didn't get a chance to get anywhere closer than three rows behind the front one... but that Divine Presence left a deep impact on my mind. I felt like The Divine Aura around him engulfed me. And after that my faith in Him started building day by day. I witnessed some of the miracles like bibhuti, chain and ring creation..Well some may think of this as Magic or trick but to me it has always been a way to encourage spiritual beliefs among devotees and attract others to follow the Divine path.

I was just a student of 7th grade but my mind started exploring more about Him. After that I joined Bal Vikas classes that was conducted in my school and learned various lessons of spirituality. Slowly and steadily I developed immense faith in Him. Though there were various negative stories floating around and some friends didn't believe on His Divinity, But all those negative thoughts failed to deviate me from my Faith. By the time I was in XIIth I had chance of visiting Puttaparthi Four times. And these Holy trips have strengthen my believes more and more. I also had a chance of Sai Seva in a Meical Camp in a village near Puttaparthi.

And after leaving my school when I was away in Ranchi for one year, I experienced that my Faith on Him went on increasing. Now I felt that as I was moving away from the Sai Circle I was more and more eager to come back to the Divine Presence. And that eagerness kept my Faith alive in Him even though I was away from Puttaparthi and Sai Trust.

I joined Bharath University in Chennai for pursuing Engineering and I think it was a Golden Chance for me to visit the Divine Place as it was so near. But I could not capitalize and transform these opportunities into reality. Even though I have spend past four years living so close to The Divine Presence but have not been able to visit and have Divine Darshan.

Now after this incident of His Divine departure I am in a state of mind where I am not able to console myself that I have lost the Golden Opportunity of His Darshan by my own ignorance. I should have gone there some time and taken the Divine Blessings. But that is a part of History now. Opportunities don't wait for us, rather we have to utilize our opportunities. And thinking and regretting over the lost chances will only push us back into darkness. I wish I overcome this very soon .

Will continue sharing my experiences. Till then Jai Sai Ram