When the Lord enters one’s life, all successes – spiritual and worldly alike – seem to come by, too. And that is what seemed to happen in Sachin’s career. The year 1998 proved to be the most successful year in Sachin’s entire ODI career spanning nearly 24 years. That year alone he made 1894 runs with the help of 9 centuries, a world record to date. He also made it a point to visit Swami and have his darshan whenever an opportunity presented itself. It was during one such visit to Swami’s ashram in Whitefield, Bengaluru, that he was blessed with an interview. After the interview, he spent a few minutes in the office of Sri B.N.Narasimhamoorthy, the then warden of the Brindavan campus of the Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. What he revealed there, during a short chat was simply amazing.
“Swami knows a lot about Cricket,” Sachin said, “He told me something that will remain etched in my mind.”
Naturally, the warden’s curiosity was aroused. Sachin revealed that Swami had told him that he was getting out unnecessarily because of his anger which led him to ‘go after’ a particular bowler. Swami advised him not to concentrate on the bowler but concentrate instead on the ball alone. That seemed like a whiff of fresh and fragrant air for Sachin and the world knows how meticulously he went about demolishing and demoralising opposition teams around the world with much greater consistency and perseverance after that. In fact, the great Erapalli Anantharao Srinivas Prasanna noticed this change in Sachin’s batting as he observed:
“In the early years, especially around the mid 90s, I had this feeling you could play around on his ego and get him out. He believed he could attack bowlers at any time and anyone who could bowl maidens to him stood a good chance. Things are of course different now…”
It seemed as if Sachin learned more about the game of cricket and the game of life every time he visited his Guru. And he visited Him in times of plenty and times of need alike. When he was unable to visit Him, he carried Him in his heart and his cricket kit. As another Indian cricketing great, VVS Laxman revealed,
“Sachin always carries a picture of Swami in his kit for each and every match. He also at times makes an altar and lights an oil lamp for Swami. At times, myself, Rahul (Dravid) and Sachin talk and discuss about Swami. Many youngsters too listen in awe and respect at such times. In fact, some of them also get a desire to have Swami’s darshan.”
One such occasion when the desire of the entire team got fulfilled was on the 23rd of November, 2005, during the 80th Birthday celebrations of Bhagawan Baba. The entire Indian national cricket squad made a “surprise” visit to Puttaparthi and wished Swami on His birthday. This was a moment when Sachin joyously held the mike and spoke a few words of love, reverence and prayer to Swami. The 200,000-strong audience in the stadium was thrilled. The whole team sat on the floor of the stage throughout the morning session which concluded with Bhagawan’s memorable discourse in which He emphasized on the divinity imminent in every being. Therefore, He said, one must always help the other and saturate oneself with love towards everything and everyone.