MY BEST FRIEND :):):)

Only those who tied Friendship bands
were considered best friends! 

"Amma! I tied a friendship band for her yesterday and today,she took another girl's side when she was copying. I asked her and she told me to shut up!", saying thus I started crying. It was 1st August 2003 and I was in grade two then. My mother just did not know how to console me. She said,"Swami is your best friend. Just become friends with Him and speak to Him everyday. You won't have the need to have friends at school" As a kid of 7, I did not take my mother's words seriously.

Then 3,4, and then I'm at grade 5, now a kid of 10. I had a lots of disappointments from my friends. The so called 'gang' we had was now broken for a girl came from no where and grabbed all my friends to form her gang! That's exactly the way I spoke to my mother then. She, all through these years kept reminding me that Swami is my best friend and no one else. I never took it seriously. What happened now was too much for me to take! I had a heated fight with my friends that day, the 18th February 2006. I came home running and crying. It was two days before my final exams. This time too my mom told the same thing so patiently, sure enough that I will take it seriously. Those were the days we used to live in a single bedroom flat and since we had the Sai Centre at my home, the second room was completely dedicated to Swami. The four of us lived in the first room. I normally used to study in Swami's room and that day I locked myself in that room and cried uncontrollably and eventually dozed off.

It was the most memorable sleep I ever had for the dream I had during the sleep continues to drive me even today. I had slept on the cushion kept at Swami's feet with the question 'Why me?' in mind and this question made me cry so inconsolably.

"I'm your best friend. I don't need your friendship bands but
 still I am your best friend!"

 In my deep sleep, I heard a voice, so soothing, so Motherly that said."Why do you cry? Because you feel lonely? Because you don't have friends? I am your best friend. I don't need your friendship bands but still I am your best friend. Talk to me whenever you need." The dream ended there. 

 I woke up very happy and I realised that I had literally pulled the cushion off Swami's feet and was hugging it now in the excitement of a dream where I got a best friend who didn't need friendship bands! . I said sorry to Swami and placed it back at its place. I was so happy and believe me, I jumped up and down in the room. But still as a kid, I did not know who was this 'new best friend of mine'. But something told me not to take it just as a dream but as the reality.

So whenever I wanted to speak to my Best Friend, I called Him like this, " New Best Friend!"

Since then I've always spoken to Him everything, my mistakes, my good deed, my disappointments, my happiness, my desires, my dislikes and everything in that order.

 It was not until I was in my grade seven when I had enough sense to co-relate the voice of Swami singing a bhajan and the voice that spoke to me in my dream, that I realised my 'Best Friend' was none else but our Dearest Sai to whom I prayed to, everyday to make my friends become good and become friends with me again. Now, He Himself is my BEST FRIEND!!!!! Mother, Father, Guru and now my BEST FRIEND!!! What more could I ask of Swami?

 Most importantly I need to thank my mother, for it is because of her that I cultivated the habit of studying in Swami's room and that is the reason to an extent why Swami is my Best Friend.

 To this day, I thank Swami with lots and lots of love for, if He hadn't embraced me then, I'm sure to have faced many more disappointments looking for a best friend. He ended my thirst for a best friend!