This was a daytime dream. I was pregnant with my daughter Gayatri and I was anemic. I remember it was a Wednesday afternoon. I don't remember the date. Gopal and I were lying on the living room floor of our apartment in Milwaukee. I was telling him the story of 'The three bears and Goldilocks'. I must have dozed off. Now the dream:
I was in the huge bhajan hall in Puttaparthi. I arrived late and realized that the bhajan was over and everyone had left. I apologized to Swami who was standing right in front of me as I entered the hall. I said " Swami, I am so sorry that I am late and missed the bhajans." He said " you are never late. As long as the two of us are here, you did not miss anything. Come on, sit down here. I want to teach you a slokam". I sat down crossed legged on the floor at His feet. He made me repeat the slokam three times and said "now, say it". "Sorry Baba, I did not get it. I did not remember it" I nervously replied. Baba put his thumb and ring finger on my temples and made me repeat. I woke up suddenly and found myself still talking to Gopal and Gopal was still nodding listening to the story. But, I did not remember the slokam. I remembered the meaning of it though. Rao suggested that if I meditate upon the incident, I may remember it. But I was not into meditation - so I ignored that suggestion.
Epilogue to the dream:
We used to recite thousand names of Lalitha every Friday. My family doctor, who later delivered Gayatri initiated this. Each Friday, she and another friend with her two daughters would come to our house and our session would last from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. That week, after the others left, Dr. Alwa asked me to give her a pen and a paper. Because I was anemic, I thought that she was going to write me a prescription and then wondered who would honor it if it is not on a letter head with her credentials. So, I asked her "Is it a prescription?" She replied "No. Since yesterday, something had been telling me to write this for you. I am not a Sanskrit scholar. There could be errors. But I have to give it to you. I gave her my note book in which I wrote the 1000 names of Lalitha and some Sai bhajans. She wrote the slokam in English. I still have that note book. My husband and I could not identify the source. But because of it's meaning I knew that it was the same one that Swami tried to teach me. We left it at that. The following Friday, when the doctor came again, she had a red hard bound book in her hand. She gave it to me and said "I brought this for you". It was Soundarya Lahari published by the Chinmaya mission. After she left, I opened it randomly and my eyes fell on the third slokam and just could not believe my eyes. I was excited, it was the same slokam. I gave that book to Gayatri. She was born in 1977 and in 1979, when I took up a job with a consulting Engineering firm, Rao sent her to India to be under the care of his brother and sister-in-law. I brought her back in 1980, after we moved to Littleton, Colorado. One day, as she was playing in the family room, I heard her recite the same slokam. Shocked, I asked her how she learned it. She said, the disciples of Kanchi Swami (who camped near Hampi ) taught her the slokam. I immediately, realized, that Swami meant that for Gayatri. Without my prompting, later on, after she finished her undergraduate degree, She started memorizing the whole book. I am still mystified with Baba's ways !!!!
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