My tryst with Ike-2

We live a little away from the coast. However, the effect of the hurricane was not negligible. I could just not catch any sleep that night, thanks to the howling winds of the hurricane. I just held on to the tulsi mala that Sri Swamiji blessed me with and chanted throughout the night. We lost power in our house, but there was very minor damage to our fences, while, we could see so many grave damages to the cars and houses in our neighborhood because of uprooted trees and crashed branches.

As we have a 20 month old, we went to our friend’s who had power. We planned to return to our home in a couple of days. When we came home, we discovered that we still did not have power. We chanted Mahamantra for a few minutes. We had forgotten the keys. So we tried opening the garage door, but without much luck. Then we thought – well, its incorrect to chant with any selfish prayers in mind. Let’s just take it as God’s way and we drove back. In less than 30 minutes, we got a call from our neighbor that power was restored in our house!

This is when more than 80% of Houston was still out of power.

– Sriram Ramanujam & Family

Tomball, TX

My Tryst with Ike-1

By the immense grace of the Sadguru and by the immense grace of Lord Krishna we survived the gory Hurricane Ike.

There was no power on the night of Sep 12, the night of the hurricane.  At about 3 am, one of our windows broke, owing to the 110 mph winds that were rattling the city.  It was a miracle that even though the glass in one of the windows broke, it fell completely outside of the house!   We had one tree uprooted and yet another window damaged. By the grace of God, not much water came inside even after the windows broke.
It is only the limitless Krupa of Lord Krishna that can do this type of miracle!

In fact the grace of the Lord and miracle did not end there – When the Houston Mayor was saying that power will take 2 to 4 weeks and Pearland being closer to Galveston we thought that we will be without the power for a very long time.

However just around 3:30 pm on Sunday (the day after the hurricane) about an half hour before our weekly Maha Mantra Sankirtan time our lights flickered as if the Lord was giving indication that things should okay before the Sankirtan. Shortly after that we got the power!   It seemed to us that the Lord facilitates the Sankirtan at any cost!

A day after a major hurricane, we got the power and part of Pearland still doesn’t have power; what to say of the Krupa of Krishna and the Power of the ‘Hare Rama…’ Maha Mantra!

Power of Mahamantra brings electric power (and all other types of so-called powers) so easily – What else should one do? Just Chant, Chant like our Guru Maharaj says!

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare
Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Our koti koti pranam to our Sadguru and Sri Krishna for giving us shelter and giving us opportunity to do Maha Mantra Sankirtan during the wee hours of Ike in complete darkness (since we had lost electricity) with the howling wind giving the tala :).

The next day we did the Sankirtan in the car for the benefit of the Pearland community (it was a different type of Nagara Sankirtan).

Here are the links for the Sankirtans:

– 2 AM Nama during the Hurricane (the tape is very dark because there was not power at that time and we were hunkered down within two feet of each other)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dPx2D3UUkY   – “the Nagara Sankirtan around Pearland, TX.”

— Shri Narayan Dave & Family,
Pearland, TX

Sep 19: Post-Ike Nama Satsang

The satsang on Friday started off with prayers with Mahamantra led by Smt & Sri Ramani and the young Rudra Ramani.

Then we had a round of introductions after which Sri Ramaniji narrated a story from the famous Akbar-Birbal series to bring out the glory of Rama Nama.
The story goes as follows:

“Once Akbar set out to go hunting.  He asked his able minister, Birbal to accompany him, to which the latter agreed.  They went deep into the jungle.  That was when they discovered that they had lost their way in the forest.  It was past lunchtime and hence Akbar was extremely hungry.  He said to Birbal, ‘Oh Birbal! Let us go and find some food.  I am hungry!’  But that was Birbal’s routine prayer-time.  It is common knowledge that he chants Rama Nama as part of his prayers.  He sat down in a place and started chanting the Rama Nama.  Akbar was confused as to why his minister was doing so.   Birbal simply said, ‘I cannot forego my daily practice of prayers. So I cannot come along with you.’.  Hunger begets anger. Angry that Akbar was, he chided Birbal.  He told him, ‘Alright!  You sit and chant Rama Nama here.  I am going it alone. I will find some food.  Let me see how your Rama Nama brings you food.!’ And Akbar set out to the nearest village.

As soon as he saw a hut in the vicinity, he went and introduced himself.  The inmates were very pleased to entertain the king.  They welcomed him, provided him with as much comforts as possible and also fed him sumptuously.  Soon Akbar’s hunger was appeased.  He also got to know the directions to the city from the house inmates.  Now that his appetite was appeased, he was not angry with Birbal anymore.  A compassionate Akbar requested for some food to be packed up for Birbal too, and then returned to the place where Birbal sat, chanting.

At the very sight of Birbal, Akbar mockingly laughed at him.  He called him out, ‘Oh! Birbal! Did you know? I found food for myself.  I had a sumptuous meal, while you have been foolishly sitting here and chanting the Rama Nama!  Tell me now, did Rama Nama feed you?’  Birbal could not help noticing the packet in Akbar’s hands.  He asked, ‘Oh! King! What is it that you are holding in your hand?’

Very innocently, Akbar replied, ‘Oh my dear minister, I remembered you when leaving from that house. So I got some food packed up for you. Here it is!’

Birbal replied, ‘Oh your highness! Yes, Rama Nama did give me food!’  A muddled Akbar sought clarification.  Birbal replied, ‘What else but Rama Nama could make a great emperor like Akbar bring food for this lowly soul, that too in the thick of this forest!’

Akbar realized the power of Rama Nama!

Soon after Sri Ramaniji was done with the story, Ms. Nirmala Giri from Chennai joined the call.  She spoke a few words about Sri Swamiji.
You can read an extract of her talk here.

Then Poornimaji’s trip was announced. And Yaminiji from Chicago gave a brief of the programs at Chicago.  This was followed by our Houston satsang members Sri Narayan Daveji’s and Sri Sriramji’s experiences of the hurricane Ike-

Daveji’s tryst with Ike

Sriramji had his account of how his family braved the Ike hurricane with Divine help:
Check it out here.

Then Sriramji announced about the Mahamantra mass prayer satsang that was being planned for the next three weeks, praying for recovery from Ike at different temples in Houston:
Sri Lakshmi Narayan Temple in NW Houston – Sep 21
Sri Radha Krishna temple at Sugarland and Sri Meenakshi Temple at Pearland in the subsequent weeks.

The 60 minute-long eventful satsang closed with prayers for Ike-relief and Mahamantra Kirtan by Sri Ramaniji’s family!