Experiences from Indra and Rajesh Ramdhanie of Pierre Road, Charlieville, Chaguanas. This is the recount of Indra Ramdhanie and her son Rajesh Ramdhanie of Pierre Road, Charlieville, Chaguanas, humbly submitted to the divine Lotus feet of Pujya Dr Sri Sri Sri Ganapathy Sachichidananda Swamiji. Indra tells of her history with Sri Swamiji over the years. “ In 1991, I was first introduced to the Dattatreya Yoga Centre of Carapichaima, through my brother Ganis Mahabir(Ram), who suggested I seek blessings concerning my life situation. My brother had a stroke which left him with difficulty hearing in his ear. However, after attending one of Sri Swamiji’s discourses, he completely regained his hearing and so he especially urged me to go and seek his blessings. At the time, my family and I were having lots of problems in our life, concerning home, health, financially, etc. I had a dream a couple weeks after. In that dream, I saw the Dattatreya Yoga Centre like a big white shed, including details of places on the way to the temple. This is when I realized that I was destined to go there. One week later I went with my brother to the temple. To my surprise as I journeyed to the temple, I realized everything were exactly like I dreamt it. The details were as vivid as I had seen them even though I had never been there before. I first visited the temple on a Sunday evening whilst pooja was in progress. It hardly had anyone in the ashram at that time. I went and I perform pradakshina around the Dattatreya murti, after which I met pundit Boloji for the first time at the door as I was preparing to leave. He asked me where are you going, then he said we are going to do Sandhya puja, and he invited me to come and witness it. I decided to stay and witness the puja after which I took darshan of Lord Dattatreya and Anagha Mata murthi while praying. Miraculously, next morning by 6:00a.m., my problems that were created over the years just vanished. Imagine this miracle took place overnight, but this is what actually happened. My husband who was an alcoholic, told me he would not drink or smoke anymore. We started going to the temple as a family on Sunday evenings”. Her son Rajesh recounts “ I remember this as a big miracle in our lives, my father stopped drinking, smoking and he started to behave himself, so our lives became much better and easier. I was eight years old at the time.” Indra continues, “A few years later in 1994, I was suffering with a skin condition on both of my hands, which used to be cracked and required a lot of treatments. At that time we met with Acharyaji from India and I spoke to him about my hands. My health was not doing so well as I was suffering with a low blood count(anemia), and as a result I was of no use to myself or anyone. I was experiencing a lot of difficulty as I continuously felt very tired and drained. One night at 3:00a.m., I decided that I couldn’t take it anymore, and asked my children to take me to the doctor. I went to the doctor, who then asked them if they brought a dead person to see him. That reflected my health condition back then. He immediately referred me to the hospital. Before I went to the hospital, I went to the temple to seek blessings, then the pundit told me to go ahead. During this time whilst I was in the hospital, I kept the Bhajan Mala II book with me and I repeatedly chanted the Datta Stava and sang Sri Swamiji’s bhajans, as this was a source of solace for me because there were many people dying around me. Despite what I encountered, I still held on to Sri Swamiji in my mind and heart. I was still suffering from the low blood count. On the third night whilst I was warded in the hospital, I prayed and asked Sri Swamiji to help me. At 3:00a.m., I had a vision where I saw pundit Boloji walking around my bed doing japa, and after he left I saw Sri Swamiji himself watching me and smiling. I suddenly felt as if I became like a puppet on a string and I could feel him giving me back all the blood and strength I needed. As morning cleared and the doctors removed the IV, blood pitched out of my hand. The doctors were very surprised and remarked how strange it was because they knew that I had no blood when they previously checked various places on the first day for blood, and now I have all my blood when they check my blood count. I knew this was all Sri Swamiji’s doing. After that, I remained for a further nine days in the hospital. By Sri Swamiji’s grace, I was healed. Even my skin condition improved and I was able to come out of the hospital. We continued going to the ashram regularly. In 1998, I had a hysterectomy and during the operation the doctors discovered I had ovarian cancer. They could not completely remove it because part of the cancer was wrapped around the bowel and so was left behind. I remembered at the time of the first surgery, I again saw Sri Swamiji standing by the theatre door. I clasped my hands and said Jaya Guru Datta as I was carried in. After this I had to do three sessions of chemotherapy and have a repeat surgery four months later. After the repeat surgery whilst I was in the recovery room, the doctor woke me up and said to me with a look of disbelief in his eyes, “ You are a God send lady, we found no cancer when we reopened.” I knew this was all Guru’s grace. These are a few recollections of Sri Swamji’s grace in our lives over the years and I will not let go of him. I humbly pray that he grants me good health and strength so that I can be around to see my children settle in life”. Rajesh recounts his own experiences, “My father’s name is Basdeo Ramdhanie. He was born on April 16th, 1946. In 2008, he was extremely sick in San Fernando General Hospital suffering from a thyroid problem. He was extremely weak and a bit in and out of his senses. We strongly thought that he would have died because of his condition. Around the same time of that year, Sri Swamiji was in Trinidad. During that time, my mother gave Pundit Mukesh (a Trinidadian resident pundit) a letter concerning my father’s medical condition to give to Sri Swamiji whilst he was seeing devotees after the morning session. Shortly after that, Swamiji sent for my mother. She immediately went to Sri Swamiji and got the opportunity to bow to His feet. Sri Swamiji then raised his hand in a blessing position and told my mother "Don't worry, everything will be okay and he (my father) will come out". The next day when my mother visited my father in the hospital, he was looking a lot better and was being discharged from the hospital.” “For many years, my sister(Rajmatee Ramdhanie) who migrated to New York in 2001, was having a lot of problems settling her residency and as a result she was unable to travel out of the U.S., so we were not able to be together as a family. In September 2016, I went to the 85 feet Karya Siddhi Hanuman murti every evening for a few weeks, and during that time I would chant the Sri Hanuman Chalisa and make my offerings of fruits and flowers and pray in her name. Within one month’s time, things suddenly moved forward and she got settled and was able to come to Trinidad and we spent our first Christmas together as a family after many years apart.” “Another episode occurred in 2015. Sri Swamiji was having the consecration of the murtis at the Penal ashram. In the morning I was helping to do some errands even though I had the virus. In the evening before I went back to the temple, I took Panadol but I did not realize it was the drowsy panadol that I had taken. After the evening program was completed, I left the Penal ashram and was on my way to Barataria to drop off our dholak player and my ex girlfriend. Halfway down the highway, I became extremely drowsy because of the panadol and I had to stop on the shoulder and rest for a few minutes before I continued to drive. After I dropped off both of them at their homes in Barataria and was on my way home, I was feeling extremely drowsy. When I reached Aranguez on the highway whilst in the car all by myself, I fell asleep. The next thing I knew when I opened my eyes is that I was parked safely up under the shed at home in Chaguanas. This I knew could have only been the grace of Sri Swamiji. To our beloved Sadguru we offer our humble prostrations".
Jaya Guru Datta
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