Om Sai Ram
Its been long time posting an article on this blog. I just finished posting one article on my recent coimbatore trip with my mother. As & when i posted this article, i remembered one more such encounter with Baba that happened to us during our visit to coimbatore.
As already said, we reached coimbatore on Saturday 01st May 2010 Night. On Sunday May 02 th we went out with our family, friends & some of our relatives to Water Falls & Dam near Pollachi & returned back the same night.
On May 03rd Monday, we were very eager to visit the Naga Sai Temple at Coimbatore. My mom had visited this temple almost before 10years or so & she was very eager & asking me to take to the temple during this visit to coimbatore.
The back ground being, my mom is from coimbatore & till 1970 i.e till her marriage she was in coimbatore in Sai Baba Colony which is near to the Naga Sai Temple. Both Mom & Grand Mom used to visit this temple every thursday & get the blessing of Sai baba. After her marriage is 1970 she got relocated to chennai & as time went by we got settled in karnataka. so she could not visit this temple as her visit to coimbatore got reduced & during certain visits she never got time or no one was there to take her to the temple.
So as soon as we planned our trip, my mom was keen on allocating one day to visit Naga Sai Temple. So as per plan we started for the temple by evening 3:30pm after our evening cup of tea from our relatives place. our relatives place is too far away from the temple & i was not sure of the actual distance. but as & when we proceeded it took almost 1hr to reach a total distance of 25 kms in the traffic hit roads of coimbatore. we managed to reach Sai Mandir by 5 pm.
We purchased some puja articles & went inside the Mandir. My mom was like looking around all the direction to see the complete glimpse of the temple. She told me that the total temple was looking different than what she had seen long time back. She enquired purohit about few old timers that were working for the temple those days. So of them had retired from work & some had retired from this life. we saw all the sanctum. she explained me lot of things & shared lot of info on how the temple came to existance & the short cuts they used to take to visit this temple during those days. We waiting for the aarti to commence.
She also narrated about Satya Sai baba visiting this temple during 1961 for the 25th year & also installing the Shirdi Sai Baba marble Statue at temple that is there at present. She was stunned to See Satya Sai in White Robe with pitch Black thick bushy like Hair. It seems they had got an oppurtunity to stand close to satya sai & also do Pada Pooja to Satya Sai.
She Also Narrated the famous Cobra snake Story of the Naga Sai Temple & thus the Name Nagasai Etc.
After visiting all the sanctum & sharing lot of info, she was too very tired. She was also feeling very hungry as we had our lunch by 11:30 in the morning hours & that we just had a cup of tea before coming to the temple. I was literally thinking of some near by hotel to feed her. but when we came out of the prakara, they were serving Sai prasadam.
We were able to get Tamarind Rice as Prasadam for tht day. After eating a mouth full, i told my mom that the prasadam was indeed very nice. hearing to this the Person serving the prasadam, called me & gave one extra cup of prasad.
Mom was saying that during those days in the 1960's - 1970's on thursday very rich people of coimbatore came to this temple in thier, chevrolet, Plymouth, Ambasaddor, & other old classic cars. would bring lot of food as pradadam to Sai baba & after puja would serve in big plate. having the night prasadam would be equal to a full meal & they never ate any thing after returning home it seems. those were the days then.
It filled out stomach & our hunger had gone. we were able to go home & till then the prasadam took care of our hunger.
In all it was a different experience seeing the temple in a completely reformed state. Mom's narration was wonderful & interesting & i could feel the glimse of the era gone by.
Baba is as usual Magnificant. He makes people grow from normal to some thing special & some times Unique.
Baba Says: It is all but Improvement till the time goes on. So don't stop time or don't stop improving in your life time. A Healthy Positive improvement is always what baba wants us to do.Allah Malik.
