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A family of seventy-ve

Guntur, July 2000

M

y uncle Balakrishna Gupta moved to Ongole in 1984. It was there that

he met Guruji. From then on whenever I met my uncle he couldn’tstop talking about Guruji, referring to him with much awe and admiration,

quoting him with glowing eyes. I wanted to meet this extraordinary man

who occupied such a large place in his heart.

My marriage to a niece of mine was arranged by our families.1 Our rst

child, a much wished for son, was mentally disabled. A daughter, born

four years later, turned out to be severely physically disabled. My wife and

I cared for our children to the best of our abilities, but their conditions

weighed heavily on our hearts, causing us much anxiety and unhappiness.

When my uncle introduced me to Guruji, I talked to him about the biggest

worry in my life – my children.

Guruji listened intently and then, looking at me with much love, said,

“Baba is here for us. He will look after everything. Give all your anxieties to

him and stop worrying.”Was it what he said or the way he said it? I don’t know but something

in me responded to him very strongly and simply trusted him. My wife

and I brought our children, then aged 8 and 4, to Guruji, who gave us

homoeopathic medicines for them. Our son, Vinay, who was extremely

restless, excitable and uncontrollable, slowly became more balanced and

quiet, thanks to Guruji’s grace.

Our daughter, Haritha, died a year later. She was playing and then

suddenly started to cry and passed away very quickly. As much as we

were sad, we were also relieved because life would have been extremely

difcult and painful for her.

We still longed to have one more child, a healthy one, but fear held us

back. We told Guruji about our wish for another child.

One day when we saw Guruji, he gave us his blessings and reassurance,and told us to spend three days in Shirdi. In less than a year my wife gave

birth to a beautiful, healthy boy whom we named Sai Chaitanya. As he

was born with Guruji’s blessings, we knew he would be ne. In fact, he is

growing up as a healthy intelligent boy, and a great joy to us. When Guruji

entered our lives the dark clouds began to part and rays of sunshine lit our

minds and hearts. Knowing that he is there to give his love and help andto lighten our burden has given us great happiness and security. We are

immensely grateful to him.

Guruji’s power and compassion and the effect he had on us began to

attract other relatives of our big joint family. Now, seventy-ve of us, we all

belong to Guruji.

Siva Gopavarapu, born in 1960, is a businessman who lives in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.

1 Marriage between a daughter and the mother’s brother is legal and not uncommon in SouthIndia. Considerations of social class, keeping property in the family, and the security of being withsomebody whose character is known, are some of the reasons for this custom.