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Swami took out a spatika suryan and gave that to the priest

   It was Sunday, 20^th August and in the morning the priest Koteeswaran had made all the arrangements for the pooja and kaappu for Krishnan. Swami told him that my husband and myself would personify Krishnan's parents and fulfill their role in the marriage. Twelve silver cups symbolizing lamps were materialized by Swami and placed along with other items for the morning vedic rituals. As the rituals ended, Swami gave darshan of Kali with two teeth coming out of his mouth. All present were stupefied seeing Swami in the form of Kali. At 9 am, we all proceeded to the temple. The temple door number was 1, Koteeswaran's date of birth was 1, so also that of the temple priest. The temple was open and Suprabatham was being chanted by those who had assembled there.

   Swami along with all of us entered the hall and instructed that the bride and her party be received, seated and offered chandanam and kumkum. The bride and the groom were asked to stand face to face and exchange the flower garlands. They then proceeded to the dais. There, the bride was given a plate in which a special mangal suthra which had a lingam on one side and a holy cross on the other side materialized by Swami. We then proceeded to the Venkateshwara sannadhi. The priest was requested to place the mangal suthra at the feet of the Lord. He took it and placed it on the right foot of the Lord. Swami at once indicated that everything was going right. Archanai was performed and as directed by Swami, the mangal suthra was tied around the neck of the bride by Krishnan. Vishalakshi, the sister of the groom was also asked to tie the knot as per the custom. After that, the priest went to the Padmavathi sannadhi to perform Lakshmi ashtothra archanai. While archanai was on, Swami materialized a Gayathri idol for the priest and asked him to place the same at the feet of Goddess Padmavathi. A little later, the sun shone ever so bright and it's rays fell directly on the Gayathri idol which appeared ever so luminous. Swami then took out a spatika suryan and gave that to the priest. The priest was overwhelmed. After taking prasadam, the couple was told to perform pradakshanam to all the deities of the temple and then proceed to the hall. Back in the hall, the couple interchanged the old flower garlands and wore new garlands. Vishalakshi was asked to garland the bride and the bride garlanded the groom. The couple proceeded to the dais and there, on a plate were twelve silver cups, symbolizing lamps. Swami asked the bride to light two of them, following which Krishnan was asked to light two, my husband was asked to light four, me two and Vishalakshi, two. The dhoti of the groom and the sari of the bride were tied together and both of them were asked to go around those lit lamps seven times, holding hands. The bride was asked to light twelve candles which were arranged on one side of the hall along with two bigger candles which were lit by the bride's sister, brother-in- law and mother. The bride was asked to read out the prayer handed to her by Swami. The prayer was from the Bible, Jeremiah 33-2-3 sent to Raman by his friend. Swami added one more sentence which read — If God can be with us, who can be against us. The bride and their family then carried out their part of the marriage rituals and later, the bride was asked to kneel in front of the lit candles and pray to Jesus as they do in church. Meanwhile, Swami materialized a dollar of Mary and gave it to the bride's sister. The dollar was placed in front of the lit candles. After the marriage rituals, the couple was blessed by Swami who then sang the Kalyana Bagavathi song. He then gave jyothi darshan and Kali darshan to all present.

   The couple was told to do namaskaram to us, who were representing the groom's parents and to all the elders present. A little later, a north Indian priest came to meet Swami and he said that his date of birth was 28 totaling 10. Swami at this point, materialized a ten faced rudhraksham and gave it to him. The priest fell at Swami's feet crying out "Amma". It was interesting at this stage to note that the sequence of events involving number 1, appearing on the temple door, the birth dates of Koteeswaran, the temple Tamil priest and the north Indian priest were the same. It was also the indicative of complete approval of the marriage in the divine presence. It was time for Swami and the two of us to leave after food since we were to take the flights to Newark and Orlando respectively.

   The entire experience was full of gaiety and joyous festivity. The married couple could not have asked for a more auspicious beginning to a very happy married life. They were fortunate that their marriage was conducted so beautifully in Swami's august presence.

   Let me now relate some incredible incidents that occurred during Swami's visit to St. Marteen. Swami had gone there at the invitation of Mr. Raman, Krishnan's elder brother. He and his wife took Swami out for a drive to look around the island. They first went to the French side of the island then to the Dutch side. At the French side, they stopped at a particular point where a small hill was shaped like an elephant with water all around. There, Swami performed certain mudras and addressed the sea god saying that if the water had true powers, he should get in his hand a shanku (conch). They crossed a road which was called queen conch road. Here, Swami materialized a conch, a small one, valampuri and said that he had contained the forces of the wind in that conch to grant protection from the bad effects of hurricanes in the island. Ambal had told him that there would be one hurricane, a big one. They then proceeded to the Dutch side. Incidentally, the first place where they stopped was on the west side of the island. They came across a very good location where they saw water in a fabulous greenish blue hue. Swami again performed mudras and materialized one more shanku, a smaller one. Then he said that Devi had told him that one big hurricane would occur but due to his prayers, the force would be very much reduced as indicated by the smaller size of the conch. At that time, Raman's wife said that the newspapers had predicted seven hurricanes for that year. Then, Swami said that the day being 7^th August, the seven hurricanes had got nullified and reduced to one, that too much reduced in vigour and force. Later, they came home and were totally surprised to hear the news on the weather channel on television stating that the hurricane, the first one, which was about to hit them the next week had changed its direction.

   Later, they went to Mr. Sethumadhavan's (Raman's friend) office where the printing and embossing of t-shirts was done. They had a plan to expand into software development and towards that end, they were collaborating with an American company. As they entered, an American lady came and went in along with them. Mr. Sethu introduced the lady to Swami and told her about Swami and asked her to seek Swami's blessings. It seemed that the lady had wanted to meet Sathya Sai Baba for a long time but could not fulfill her wish. She told Swami who was clad in white dress that she had researched and discovered a potent medicine which could create special vibrations in the body and beyond the body layers. She went on to quote the example as to how a caterpillar as a worm changes into a butterfly through metamorphosis. Similarly, she believed people also could feel the change and she wanted to ask Baba how to proceed in her research. Swami at once took out a Baba dollar and gave it to her and told her that she had the full approval of Baba to go ahead. He also told her that someday when she happens to meet Baba, he would refer to her meeting with Swami in this island.

   Swami was taken upstairs by Sethu to show his new set up for the software company and he told Swami the proposed name of the company was East West Technologies Inc. One might recall that they had just visited the sea on the east and the west just that morning. Swami asked Sethu whether they had a symbol for the company. Sethu said it was two arrows one going from east to west and the other from west to east with a globe in the background. Swami went near a glowing electric bulb and took out a spatika sooryan and told them to keep sooryan as the symbol because the sun goes from east to west and since they were starting the new company in the first floor, the company would rise and shine like the sun. He gave the spatika sooryan to Sethu. Then, Swami was taken around the shop and into a particular room where there were many automatic sewing machines. At machine number 10, Swami was introduced to a lady known to be very hard working and sincere. Swami blessed her and took out a few Kali dollars and distributed them to her and some staff members. The underlying purpose was to make all think of Kali or Durga so as to strengthen the prayers to Ambal, the shakthi peetam (the abode of energy), so that the adverse effects of hurricanes on the island would be reduced.

   When they returned, Swami suddenly noticed a crystal turtle in their showcase and asked Raman about it. The lady at machine number 10 at Sethu's office reminded Swami of Dasami day of Navarathri. He took out a spatika meru and kept it on top of the turtle and it got stuck to the crystal turtle without any adhesive. Swami brought this to the peetam for the Navarathri festival.

   It is a fact that after Swami's visit to Florida and St. Marteen, though severe hurricane warning signals were given out in the news media and television, they were all weak and quickly fizzled out without causing much damage. Moreover, for the past two years, no major hurricanes had developed. We can only surmise that this is because of the divine grace of Swami. It is as if Swami has complete control over mother nature.

   There have been many other foreign visits of Swami, with numerous miracles and fantastic anecdotes at different places outside India. It is clear that Swami's grace and blessings are not confined to any particular place or a set of people. His realm is the entire world, his language, universal and his mission, divine.

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