A touching ceremony for my daughter
We completed the week in Dallas, visited New Jersey for a week and then flew to Columbus. When Swamiji was in Columbus we came to know that our daughter, then 13 years of age, Nithyananda Sree, had attained physical maturity. In Bharat this is celebrated since it symbolizes the transition of a child to a woman, someone who could become a mother. In Bharat, in the small ceremony conducted for this, the child wears a sari, the traditional Hindu costume for women, and all the elders of the family come and bless the child. Swamiji wanted to make sure that Sree would not miss out on this very important tradition. However He wanted to surprise Sree. He asked Sree to come along with a group of Oklahoma people who also started making the rounds from weekend to weekend following Swamiji. He said she should come with them to attend her ASP. In the meantime Swamiji went out with Ma Sachitananda and personally picked out her sari and gifts that He purchased Himself for her. They traveled all day and arrived towards the tail end of the discourse on Friday evening. Swamiji blessed Sree and presented her the sari in a simple but very deeply touching ceremony. Receiving such blessings is indeed great. It is only now we can understand the gravity of these blessings. A living enlightened master, is the rarest being and a true living sadguru and receiving blessings from Him is indeed the greatest thing one can hope for.
A mystical process at the World Trade Center, New York
After Columbus, Swamiji and the crew went on to visit New York City. Discourses were organized in Manhattan. I could not make it to New York, but this was the first time Swamiji visited New York. As soon as he reached Manhattan, Swamiji wanted to visit the site of the world trade center, where three years earlier, on September 11, 2001, thousands perished as a result of a terrorist attack. Swamiji was quite serious and in a contemplative mood as he approached the site. He spent over three hours at the world trade center site in deep meditation. After three hours of silence, Swamiji told the crew that He saw so many souls in deep pain that were not liberated. Since these souls died before their prescribed time, they were caught in deep agony since they still had a desire to possess a physical body, but could not do so. He explained to us that only an enlightened master can help these souls from this agony. He told us that he blessed these souls and relieved them of the pain and suffering.
As the mission was still new and was expanding in all parts of US, we requested Swamiji to come back to US the same year. He agreed to come back in September. After New York programs, the tour ended. It was end of May, and Swamiji returned to Bharat for a few months to attend to mission related activities and to be in Bidadi for Gurupoornima celebrations on July 2, 2004. Ma Sachitananda decided to travel to Bharat with Swamiji. This was her first trip to Bidadi.