Dr. Hanumantha Rao (sharing in the early 2000) his meeting with Swami Rama :

It was in 1974. I was a resident of surgery at Massey hospital, a hospital in Chicago. One Saturday I was driving down one of these highways, the Michigan highway in the US and saw a big poster flashing a conference on yoga by a Swami Rama. The word yoga attracted me and I thought I should attend this but I did not know anything about Swami Rama then. So I told my colleagues I would not be working that Saturday and Sunday and took leave. Saturday morning I was at the conference hall, about five minutes late and the hall was packed, thee must have been more than a thousand people. There was hardly standing room and I squeezed myself into a place near the door.

Swami Rama was already on the stage, a tall handsome figure. He spoke about yoga for about 30 minutes.  After his talk, I went after him, trying to catch up with him but he went so fast, he was not walking, it was like as if he was flying. He did not seem to be on the ground, and then he was gone. It was like he had disappeared into air. My God! All this happened in seconds. I remember thinking, I cannot and should not try to catch up with him.

Then one morning, he was having his breakfast and he had given me time to see him at breakfast. He was having dosa I think. I went and greeted him and said my pranam and he replied, “Aao beta, come son,” and took a piece from the dosa on his plate and put it into my hands and said, “Eat it”. For me it was like prasad and I ate that small piece with reverence. While I was sitting with him, this Canadian lady came and she had brought him a gift. The gift was beautifully wrapped and tied with a nylon string. The string was so strong, I could not have broken it with my hands. The lady said, “Swamiji, open it”. And Swamiji just lifted it with his hand and the string just snapped apart. So much strength he had. How could anyone break that string with his hands just like that.

When he left his body I was very sad, really depressed for a while.  That night I had a dream where Swamiji was sitting and talking with me. I wished this could be a real experience, not a dream. For about a year I was depressed, couldn’t eat or sleep properly, until my work became affected. My colleagues (Dr.Rao was a surgeon by profession) used to say I had become lazy, but I just did not have the mood or energy to do anything. Then one day he came in one of my dreams and said, “I’ve not gone anywhere, I’m here with you. Do your job, do your sadhana, don’t worry about anything”. But again I used to think it was only a dream although Swamiji had before that when he appears in one’s dreams, it is not a dream but its real. But still the doubts are there, is it real or is it a dream.

So I continue to do my sadhana and some day I’ll see the light again.