Sri Sathya Sai and the stars of the world

Travel epad:

Swami can take you through a joy ride. 
A few days back we were sitting along with a few advasi families, sharing food with them, and today we were at the Governor of Punjab's house having breakfast in a royal setting.

Now I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth, but i did have one in my mouth today. The cutlery was silver, embossed with the 4 lions emblem. Well dressed waiters presented varieties in different courses. Any effort to express that we had already had our breakfast was met with a response of "Please consider it early lunch."

All this simply because H.E. Shivraj Patil is an ardent devotee of Bhagwan and was more then happy to be interviewed by and meeting Sai devotees on a working day.

During breakfast we spoke about Swami (well who else!) and here's what we learned. 

Sri Patil mentioned that years ago when Prince Charles visited India along with Lady Diana, the then Vice President Sri Shankar Dayal Sharma invited them along with the Speaker Sri Patil for a dinner. As the 4 of them conversed, Prince Charles asked out of the blue "Do you know who Sathya Sai Baba is?" Surprised by the question they both replied in the affirmative, and then some other talk resumed. 

Some time later the Prince asked again "How far is His ashram from here?" They replied 'some 1500 kms.' Lady Diana curiously looked on as the Prince held his ground,  "Have you ever been there?" Both, the VP and the Speaker replied in the affirmative. He asked again "Can anyone go there?" "Yes" replied the Vice President and added that if he liked, they could make arrangements for the Prince to travel to Puttaparthi to have darshans. 

Mr Patil said the Prince looked very interested but then added with a tinge of disappointment "Perhaps on my next visit. My visit is tightly scheduled this time, also I do not know how the media back home will react to my visit to Baba."

This reminds me of a trayee session where Swami asked the All India President Sri Srinivasan to speak and he mentioned how on one of Prince Charles's visit to India where he came to a high level meeting with the top industrialists of this country, Prince Charles's secretary pointed out Sri Srinivasan to the Prince and whispered something. Prince Charles thereupon made way through the rows of chairs to where Sri Srinivasan was sitting and asked ~

"Are you associated with Sri Sathya Sai Baba?"

"Yes Sir, I am"

"Can you arrange a meeting with me and Him?

"For that you will have to come to Puttaparthi sir."

"I have a packed schedule on this visit, is there no other way to manage this?"

"No Sir, you will have to come to Parthi!"

Back to the Governors house.

Shivraj Patilji's son, Sri Sailesh recounted an interview. 
Swami called him in. There was an American couple already sitting there. Swami asked Sailesh "Do you know who they are?" 

"No Swami"

"She is Clinton's sister and her husband. They do a lot of work for Swami in the States.. they do Narayana seva and Bal vikas work."

Swami then waved His hands and materialized a beautiful pair of diamond earrings and gave it to her husband to put in her ears. Clinton's sister was weeping tears of joy.

We all know that both Bill Clinton and Hillary had requested permission to visit Parthi. Gene chipped in that Chelsea Clinton always has a photo of Swami by her side.

"So did Micheal Jackson." said Sailesh. "Micheal had written to Swami that he would like to come there and perform for Swami. To which Swami replied that people come here not to perform but to pray." As Shivrajji nodded his head in agreement there were smiles all around.

We conducted a wonderful interview, by the end of it we were all so friendly that there were high-fives all round (Just kidding :) ) But it sure felt like a meeting of Sai family.