You would have read in my previous post, how along with couple of Sai devotees from my centre, I went to this subtle body retreat during New Year’s eve in Australia with an open mind. The first and foremost question on our minds was who is this Swami’s student, who is claiming to see Swami in person and communicate Swami’s messages to others after Mahasamadhi. While I have great respect for most of Swami’s students for their exemplary character and humble nature, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this student of Swami who is claiming to communicate his subtle body messages.
I must point out that I am not a great fan of people who claim to see Swami in their dreams or receive instructions from Him in meditations etc. Anyway I will try to convey my first impression of Madhusudhan when I saw him sitting on the floor along with other devotees, close to Swami’s chair. I should point out that there was no special chair set of Madhusudhan or any attempts to garland him or give any special attention to him. He was wearing white clothes as most of Swami’s students do and sitting quietly on the floor close to Swami’s chair along with another of Swami’s well known student Kumar Venkat, someone I have known and interacted with previously.
After couple of speakers spoke about their experiences, Madhusudhan rose to speak. First he went to the Chair designated for Swami and took pada namaskar and then came to the dais and described what colour robe Swami was wearing that day as if he could actually see Swami sitting on the Sofa. He said Swami wanted to communicate in English as most people in the audience would not understand Telegu. It was a big relief for me as I never really liked listening to translated discourses of Swami. The people who translate Swami’s message always seem to struggle for the right words or worse get carried away and start adding their own little extra bits and pieces. He spoke fluently with a very clear diction and once the words started flowing, we knew in our hearts that Swami is speaking through him.
Now we all know about what Swami has said in the past that he does not speak through any mediums, intermediaries or channels. However this time, we felt that Swami is speaking directly to each and everyone of us in the audience with a special H2H line as his words resonated in our hearts touching the very core of our being. After the discourse, he encouraged everyone to ask questions which was a pleasant surprise as not many people in the audience like me had such direct access to Swami before. His answers were brief, direct and to the point. He answered most of the questions instantly without waiting or referring to any notes.
After the session was over, I looked around at my friends to see their reaction. They all seem to be convinced that none other than Swami can talk like this or answer questions so naturally and instinctively. The beaming smiles on most faces, (in contrast to the beginning where most people sat with long drawn faces including me, not knowing what to expect when they arrived) convinced me that large section of the audience were satisfied that Swami is communicating to them through Madhusudhan. Still some doubts remained in the our monkey minds as we went back to our hotels after having the sumptuous prasadam served by some dedicated volunteers at the retreat.
We got a copy of the book ‘Sri Sathya Sai Uvacha‘ available at the retreat and started reading it during the night. This was the first time, we read or heard about the experiences of Madhusudhan Rao Naidu. I have scanned the relevant pages from the book in the pdf file format below. You can click on the link below to read or download it.
How it all started by Madhusudhan Rao Naidu
Madhusudhan Rao Naidu
After reading his experiences, I became curious to find out more about Madhusudhan. He has received two gold medals from Swami for standing first in the University in B.Sc(Hons.) and MBA in Marketing and Finance from Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Prasanthi Nilayam campus. I was able to discover a few more things about his background and his tremendous faith and dedication to Swami. Madhusudhan is not only a good speaker but a brilliant artist as well. He was given this unique opportunity by Swami to paint the portraits of Mother Easwaramma and the father Sri Pedda Venkappa Raju. Even though there were some inconsistencies in the portraits of his parents, Swami was very hearty in approbation “Poor boy, he has not seen them so he found it difficult to paint.” Swami then decided to pose with the portraits and blessed Madhusudhan profusely. This article has been removed from Media Sai Servers for reasons better known to them. Click on the link below for a cached version of this article from the web archives.
Read about Madhusudhan’s Experience by clicking here.
Painting the portraits of Swami’s parents
The divine proximity
It soon became clear that Swami has been preparing Madhusudhan for this role (to communicate the subtle body message) for a long time. I was extremely lucky to find a rare audio recording of Madhusudhan sharing his experiences with Swami which was published in Hridaya Brindavan (alumni publication) on the occasion of Swami’s 80th birthday. This audio recording is done by Radio Sai capturing the reflections of former Sai students in a beautiful segment named as “Fleeting moments, Lasting memories by Madhusudhan Rao Naidu“. Click on the link to listen. Here are few excerpts from that talk.
“In all these years that have gone by, many times I have wondered as to what one can possibly give back to Sun as a token of gratitude for all the light that he brings to our dark homes even as he burns himself out. Perhaps nothing at all. However the least we can do is keep our doors wide open and not let his efforts go in vain. What can I possibly gift on the birthday of one beyond time. As someone aptly said
What you are is God’s gift to you.
What you become is your gift to God.
So I am here to offer myself in pray that I remain moist as clay for Him to mould and play; and when I grow hard and dry and wouldn’t bent how much you try; let me have the heart to cry with the tears of joy or pain that He shall ordain; and I be wet again for Him to play and cheer; not just on this day but the whole year.” – Poem written by Madhusudhan as a tribute to Swami to express his gratitude on the occasion of Swami’s 80th Birthday.
Epilogue: A brilliant student, an ardent devotee and a most humble servant of Swami, Madhusudhan Rao Naidu deserves all the accolades and grace that Swami has bestowed upon him. Just as a loving mother would bend down to pick up a small child, God descends on earth to forge a bond of kinship with humanity and facilitate its ascend to divinity. While it is true that Sathya Sai Baba does not need any mediums or intermediaries, he does need totally selfless and dedicated individuals such as Madhusudhan Rao Naidu and Sri Narsimha Murthy, willing to sacrifice their entire lives to become the most worthy instruments in the divine hands .
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Sai Uvacha 
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