My first encounter with the Acharya dates back to my childhood when I attended a sihiva pooja in chennai. I was awestruck by the godliness of the Paramacharya when He offered the “MAHADEEPARADHANAI”.

Every time I paid homage with a thousand others, He would cast His eyes around. All of us felt as if He had personally communicated with each one of us and a sense of inner peace descended upon us. Each encounter strengthened my belief in Him that He was a divine medium. On some occasions, when certain miracul ous events happened in my life, I believed they were guided by Him.

My late father-in-law was an ardent devotee of Maha Periyava and I was told that he had approached the Acharya for guidance in selecting me as a daughter-in-law. Apparently, he had identified me as the daughter of so and so (my father was also a devotee of Acharya), and uged my father-in-law to proceed with the alliance. I believe the Acharya had some reason for having helped select me, which became manifest later when my son (whom we believe is a re-incarnation of my father-in-law) and later my daughter were born.

When we made a trip to India in 1990 to celebrate my son’s upanayanam, I had wanted to pay homage to the Acharya, as I believed I would not get this opportunity again. We went to Kanchipuram the day before my return to the United States. At Kanchi, we gathered in the courtyard in front of Paramacharyal’s small hermitage (or prayer room), trying desparately to get a glimpse of the small, shrivelled figure crouched silently in meditation. A disciple announced to the large throng of devotees of different nationalities and backgrounds, that the Acharya had just begun His after-noon prayers and that it would be quite a while before He could be with us. Imagine my agony and frustration when I realized that we had to head back to Bangalore in a

couple of hours as my children and I had to board the flight the next morning.

I was very disappointed and my children, who had not recovered from the gastro-enteretis and a fever since the day we arrived in India, too, were impatient. I prayed, silently, to the Paramathma. Within a few minutes, the disciple announced that the Acharya had decided to interrupt His prayers as He felt He needed to bless His devotees. “especially the ones who have come from afar”. During the next 30 mts, we felt, an inner peace and happiness.

After a brief introduction, He enquired whether “Rajappa” was present. This came as a complete surprise to us, as the Acharya, no doubt, recalled my father-in-law, who was known as “Rajappa”. As my son, Raja, prostrated before Him, He gently smiled at him and then closed His eyesand offered a fruit as a blessing. My daughter followed suit and she, too, received, a mango fruit, which, we all shared.While the Acharya was answering questions and offering His blessings, I ventured to the back of the crowd, hoping to get a final look at Him.

As I craned my neck and tried, the Acharya asked His disciple to request the men in front of Him to move aside “so that He may have a look at the lady standing at the back”. Imagine my surprise as all eyes turned towards me. We looked at each other silently for a few minutes and during that time, I was completely engrossed. The “man-god” raised His right hand in blessing as if He were telling me that He was aware of my devotion to Him and that He would always guide me.”

There are a few other similar experiences, but I wish to share the most unforgettable of them all.

On the most auspicious afternoon when the Jagadguru attained the “mahasamadhi”,it was during the early hours of the morning in the US and I was suddenly awaken by a dream. I saw the image of the Paramathma clearly adorned with garlands of flowers and where He raised His right hand as if He were blessing me.

It so happened that instead os smiling I was overcome by uncontrollable sobbing. I woke up with a start and it became impossible to fall asleep thereafter as His image kept coming up repeatedly in my dreams. The answer came next morning when my mother-in-law called me from Oklahoma and informed me that she had just got the news from India that Shri Paramacharyal had attained “mahasamadhi” at around 2.00pm local time the previous day.

To this day, whenever I think of this dream and the Acharya, to whom I continue to pray everyday, it humbles me but at the same time flatters me, to think that I was one of the fortunate devotees who got His “darshan” before His samadhi, even though I was many miles away. I am sure there are others who might have had similar experiences and I do know of a gentleman in Bangalore who had been ctually touched and blesed by the Acharya just before His samadhi.

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Thanks a ton to Shri Kumar Ramanathan who had posted this in Sage of Kanchi group in Facebook.