Experience with Venkateshwara – the Lord who Sustains and Maintains the Universe
I got a story to tell. Lord Venkateshwara not only sustains the universe but also you and me. My guru, HDH Sri Nithyananda Paramashivam, aka Swamiji, briefly spoke about Lord Venkateshwara during satsangh. He told that when Swamiji gives to Venkateshwara at the Tirupati Temple in Andrah Pradesh he gives a lot of money. Giving to Venkateshwara will come back to us many times he said. But, he added, you don’t believe me – and he looked as if he was speaking to me. Yes, I indeed was very sceptical. I had my last $15 in my pocket. To top it off I had to move again, so in between moves with 3 different places at 3 nights to lay my head, even in the car…. I thought, what do i have to loose? I gave about half of the money that I had left to Lord Venkateshwara. It really did not make any difference anymore, I was simply broke.
No Price Tag on Paintings
A few days later or so I got a call to show my art to a person I had never met before. He had found my business card at a yoga studio and said that there was an urge to meet me and that I should bring some of my art work along. The next day I took a few of my pieces to meet with him. I did not have to explain the bindu art to him. He just looked at it and one by one he told what he saw in the art work and immediately connected with it. It was an amazing experience. When the time came to negotiate the sales price, I instead of naming a sales price said something like, ‘How much are the paintings worth to you?’ (where did that come from?) He mentioned a figure that far exceeded my expectations. Not only did I receive a much higher compensation but also confidence about selling my art at a price that was more appropriate than what I had valued it for.
Needless to say that part of the compensation went right back to the feet of Venkateshwara…
Reflecting on this, I came to realize that when I shared the last few dollars I had with the Divine I was in a space of surrender. I believe that this made all the difference… gratitude to my Swamiji and Venkateshwara to showing the path, and to the art lover for his generosity… Namaste!
