Sacrifice Alone Confers Immortality
Swami’s 97th Birthday Celebrations were being held in Colombo, and the annual award was announced. “This year’s Niroshan Memorial Award for the best Bal Vikas student goes to….”
My eyes were filled with tears. My mind went blank. In a flash, the memories came rolling in, one after another, as if I was in a time machine and the years were whizzing by fast. In my mind’s eye, I relived my first ever darshan of Sri Sathya Sai Baba in February 1982. I had traveled to Puttaparthi from the United Kingdom, where I had been introduced to Him in October 1981. Seeing Swami, listening to His discourses, and experiencing the serene atmosphere, I knew I had found my God.
A Child Finds His Lord
After I returned home to Colombo, I enrolled my 8-year-old son, Niroshan, into Bal Vikas (SSE) classes, and he took to them as a fish takes to water. He was soon singing bhajans, playing the tabla and the harmonium, much to the delight of his Bal Vikas gurus. In 1984, He had his first darshan of Swami in Puttaparthi, which changed him. He was convinced that Swami alone was the goal of his life. He immediately gave up eating non-vegetarian food and filled the walls of his room with Swami’s photographs.
His participation in Bal Vikas activities increased dramatically. As his father, it was a proud moment for me when the Hon. Late Mr. J.R. Jayewardene, the second President of Sri Lanka, praised Niroshan for acting well in the role of Shirdi Baba during an annual program. For Niroshan, though, it was an opportunity to perform in the omnipresence of his Swami, which made him happy.
The Lord Blesses His Child
As a young adult, Niroshan would go to Puttaparthi and Whitefield numerous times and join the Sevadal (volunteers) in the canteen kitchens. During one such visit, Swami materialized vibhuti for him and blessed him with an interview. As his offering of love, Niroshan prayed to Swami to establish a Youth Wing in Sri Lanka. Swami lovingly blessed him to start the Youth Wing, and he was the first Youth Wing Leader in the Colombo Sathya Sai Center.
He wanted to adhere to Swami’s maxim ‘service to man is service to God’ and decided to become a doctor and serve the underprivileged as a cardiologist. He wanted to “heal hearts and fill them with Swami.” However, when the results were announced, he was disappointed that he missed the qualifying cutoff for admission to medical college by just one mark. Instead, he was offered the option to pursue dentistry. Disillusioned, yet not wanting to give up on his dream, he asked me to accompany him to Puttaparthi for the darshan of Swami.
A Mysterious ‘Call’ From Puttaparthi
When we arrived in Prasanthi Nilayam, I got another glimpse of his love for Swami. He forgot his slippers in the auto-rickshaw we had hired and ran like a mad person toward the darshan hall. He managed to get a seat in the front lines, and we both had close darshan. Swami did not speak to us, but Niroshan was very happy just seeing Him. Tears poured down his eyes at the sight of Swami. As bhajans were going on, I prayed to Swami to do something, so my son could pursue a medical career in Sri Lanka. That night, we left for Bangalore (Bengaluru) and returned to Sri Lanka.
A couple of weeks later, the telephone began ringing when I was fast asleep around midnight. I picked up the receiver, and the caller said, “This is a call from Puttaparthi, India. Your son will be selected for medicine.”
The line then went blank! I knew immediately that this was a message from Swami! I woke up my son immediately and excitedly told him what had just happened. He was extremely thankful to Swami and was very jubilant with tears of joy.
Two days later, Niroshan received a letter from the medical college stating that he was selected for admission as another candidate had given up the seat!
What a miracle! It was simply the grace of our beloved Swami. Niroshan continued his service activities–organizing medical camps, visiting cancer hospitals and orphanages, and singing carols in hospitals during Christmas. He began to organize Swami’s Birthday celebrations and brought about a significant change among the medical students. He motivated them to stop the practice of hazing (a form of abuse, humiliation, and harassment) first-year students and plunge into service!
The Final Call
I was fully engaged with my family practice as a physician, and life went on smoothly without any problems. Niroshan was home, preparing for his final MBBS examinations, which were to be held in October 2001. We were living in our three-storied house in Colpetty, Colombo. We celebrated Guru Poornima on July 5 and were all resting peacefully at home. On the morning of July 6, at about 3 am, our house was burglarized by two men who started wielding huge, sharp knives. They seemed high on drugs and were about to attack and stab me. Niroshan freed himself from their grasp and came running to protect me. He fought the assailants while my wife and I screamed for help. The attackers panicked, stabbed Niroshan in the chest, and made a getaway.
Niroshan leaned against the wall, which had Swami’s picture, with a gentle smile of satisfaction lighting up his face. I immediately took him on my lap and tried to patch and stop the profuse bleeding. Without the slightest cry of pain or murmur of complaint, my son breathed his last on my very lap. He had made the ultimate sacrifice for his father!
Swami’s Acknowledgement
April 10 is Niroshan’s birthday. For his birthday in 2002, I wrote a book, The Vision Of Niroshan, outlining his life and achievements. In May 2002, I took two copies of the book to Prasanthi Nilayam. I mailed one to Swami and kept the other one on my lap during darshan. As Swami passed by me, He pointed His finger at the book and said, “He is with Me.” That made me very happy. Niroshan was in a place he had always wanted to be–with Swami.
In my heart of hearts, I always knew that Niroshan inspired and touched many a heart by the way he lived Sai’s ideals and quietly spread Swami’s love and message. He left a beautiful legacy as an ideal Sai young adult.
I would like to share excerpts from a letter from Dr. U. Anushka Bagga, one of his collegemates who went to the same medical college, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayawardenepura, Sri Lanka. She is now working as Assistant Professor in the Surgery and Trauma Division, at Loma Linda University in California, USA. Dr. Bagga poured her heart out in the letter, sharing her lasting memories, idolizing and admiring him. This is another sign of Swami’s continuing shower of grace and blessings on Niroshan.
Dr. U. Anushka Bagga sums up her memorable impressions in just two sentences, “I knew Niroshan only for a year and a half and still grieve the loss of not having known him longer so that I could have learned to be more like him. There is no doubt he merged with Swami, and Swami used him as His instrument to teach us, mortals, how to live.” She also wrote,
“Niroshan was truly the embodiment of Swami’s love. I first met him as a first-year medical student. Every year, during Buddha Poornima, the medical students would go around the wards of the cancer hospitals at Jayawardenepura and the Colombo South teaching hospital, singing Sinhalese devotional songs. I volunteered to play the flute to accompany these songs but wasn’t familiar with them. Niroshan, a brilliant harmonium player and singer, spent a whole day with me to help me learn the songs. We walked, played, and sang as a group. Even when everyone was exhausted, he kept us going with his energy well after midnight until we played at every in-patient unit. Kids from the cancer hospital would be trailing behind us like he was the Pied Piper leading his happy band. Any interpersonal tensions and misunderstandings would dissolve whenever Niroshan walked into a room, as he would infuse everyone with Swami’s love and compassion.
Whenever we had religious events at the university, a lot of food would go to waste. Despite being sleep deprived and having to work over 100 hours a week, Niroshan would stay till the very end of every event. He would then pack his car with all the leftover food and deliver it to the homeless patients at the hospital. He never publicized his good deeds and always worked quietly, unassumingly, and tirelessly in the background. This amazing, noble person knew every patient who did not have a family and brought them food when he was on in-patient rotations. His batchmates told me how the patients would applaud and welcome him like a celebrity whenever he walked into a medical ward.
Later, when I joined the Young Adults (YA) program in Colombo, I discovered that he had set up a nutrition project for at-risk kids in an impoverished Colombo neighborhood and brought them nutritional supplements weekly. He would track the progress of their growth and hold medical camps despite his hectic academic schedule. Every Sunday, he would go for Nagarsankeertan singing devotional songs while walking in the streets) at 5 am, and on most days, he would be the only one walking and singing! I heard from fellow YAs how he would play the harmonium and sing throughout the night and the day during Akhanda Bhajans and Maha Shivarathri. He would also be working tirelessly in the kitchen, hauling heavy pots and pans during Narayana Seva at soup kitchens.
I don’t know how a human being could do everything he did! Upon hearing that Niroshan passed away, the Professor of Pediatrics stopped his rounds in hospital wards, overwhelmed with sorrow. Busloads of people poured in from all over the country, sobbing in grief. This 26-year-old man positively impacted many people with his divine love, which was so profound and powerful! Niroshan’s Bal Vikas (SSE) Gurus and Senior Sai devotees of Colombo loved him so much that they decided to offer a ‘Niroshan Memorial Award’ annually to the best Bal Vikas student during Swami’s Birthday celebrations.”
I miss my Niroshan. But whenever I look at Swami’s smile in a picture, I see my Niroshan smiling. Every time a Bal Vikas student receives the annual Niroshan Memorial Award, I know that my son lives through every one of them!
Dr. Chanmugam Srideva
Sri Lanka
Dr. Chanmugam Srideva is a qualified Family Physician (MBBS, DCH, DFM, MCGP) practicing in Colombo, Sri Lanka since 1971. He had his first darshan of Sri Sathya Sai Baba in February 1982 and has been part of the activities of the Sai Center and the SSIO ever since.