THE WORLD had come crashing down for me. Everything was a blur. Life seemed bleak and unsteady. I didn't know where it would take me from here. I had lost my confidence, my interest in and zest for life, and forgotten what it would be to start off again on the same note, with the same fervor. Precious years of my life were just sinking away.
The story of my life is what I will unfold. I would like to break it into its many phases and many miracles.
Finding Him on my lonely road
I went through a terrible ordeal. A car accident of the severest kind left me on a lonesome road. Being in a coma for two months, surviving on a heavy dose of steroids, heaps of medications, endless tests, innumerable incisions, glucose drips, and long physiotherapy visits: that was life in a nutshell.
I was a victim of ruptured carotid arteries, blood loss, weakness and paralysis. Getting the right treatment 14 years ago for such a case was a task in itself.
I did not see the face of my school for a year. My friends broke down and cried in front of me, and I did not see a mirror lest I be shocked.
While I was going through this episode in my life, the entry of the Almighty in the form of my Guruji turned the chapter the other way round. I now entered a world of bliss and happiness. I was showered with love and warmth from God Himself. He was standing in front of me and His hands were stretched out in front of me, engulfing me in His protective fold, sheltering me from the world.
Guruji has ever since held my hand and taken me higher and higher. Guruji opened my eyes to the world, bounced me back on my feet within no time.
My mom and I were the first ones to meet Guruji in our family. That one visit changed our life. The first step into Guruji's
ashram in Jalandhar was as if we were stepping into heaven. Our first
darshan of Guruji told us that we had met God.
Guruji just put the whole story of our life in front of us: the past, the present, the minutest of details that could be known but only by the person concerned himself. He made us realize that He is the one who has come to earth to bless us all. He put the entire file of our life in front of us the very first day. We were only too dazed with the Almighty's presence in front of us.
Day after day Guruji just kept blessing us. As Guruji directed, I buried the basket of medicines, never visited the doctors again, and never went through the operations I had to undergo. I surrendered to Guruji.
And YES! I did return back to normal health and sailed out of the mental agony I was in. The doctors had pronounced a four-to five-year span for the recovery. With my Guruji, it was just a question of about two months.
So two months after meeting Guruji my recovery signalled itself: From being completely bald I began getting normal hair; my paralysis and weakness disappeared; my hearing returned to normal; the double vision vision went away; my haemoglobin climbed to 12 from a low of 6; I began playing sports much against what doctors had in mind; excelled in my academic curriculum; and began doing well in my boards.
What do you think this can be termed as? Complete divine intervention after I completely surrendered to Him, my Guruji.
The Master Plan for me
I moved out of this phase and entered the next phase of my life. Guruji had my career and education in mind.
After dealing with the pain and horror of my accident, after making countless trips to numerous hospitals, I too wanted to make a difference to the world in my own way. I wanted to select a career which would give me an opportunity to lessen people's sufferings and show empathy. Guruji, however, had already chalked out my future years well in advance.... as He does for everyone.
With Guruji's blessings and direction, I got a seat in a physiotherapy course in Bangalore without any formal preparation. I completed my course with ease and managed to get a seat in the prestigious Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi for my internship, too. I worked with the best orthopaedician in India, the former director of AIIMS.
With such a neat career in front of me, clearly Guruji had me close to Him all the way through. Before I could think more or plan out more for myself, Guruji again gave me the green signal for pursuing my masters in physiotherapy. So here I am, doing my masters in physiotherapy in sports and orthopaedics.
I was sent for my Masters with Guruji giving me the
aadesh (command) to do so with only three days left for me to react. I followed His direction and found that I was going absolutely in the right way.
There was a time when my parents weren't there with me and I was staying alone at home. I developed a boil on my hip, which aggravated to the extent that it crippled me and I found myself completely on the bed. Alone with exacerbating pain there was not a thing I could do. "Guruji is always there with me" is all that I said. Guruji's
sangat - our closest family - started visiting me regularly. I would do Guruji's
satsang with them and the wound would keep healing with the infiltrates getting removed slowly and steadily. The doctors, who had suggested an incision, were stunned since the healing was happening in some miraculous way not known to them.
Finding a soulmate
This was a topic that I would never go near and it never ever crossed my mind too. I had so much to do, so much to achieve.
But Guruji, my God, had my life all chalked out for my good without me knowing about it. So at the tender age of 23 (according to the standards nowadays), Guruji gave me only a month's notice to get married. That deadline was stunning. From a point where I was not even thinking about such a major decision to actually getting married in just 30 days looked like a mountainous task.
However, in most amazing and astonishing manner, all the things started falling in place, guided by Guruji's blessings. My family approved the boy, who happened to be known to me and was in many ways sent by Guruji to my world merely 20 days before we got married. Within this short time-span, all the preparations for the wedding, which normally would require some two-three months, were completed with ease. With Guruji's
kripa, the wedding was a grand affair and every bit of it carried a distinct flavor of Guruji's blessings. Everyone who attended it, was left admiring the ambience, food and every other aspect of the complete setup. As we got married, Guruji sent me a message through a
sangat member that we were meant to be together for life. What bigger gift can you get in life than this. When Guruji has blessed the biggest decision of your life, there is no worry.
The wedding venue deserves a special mention as well. In Delhi, it is advisable to decide on and book a venue at least a month, as availability is always a problem. In my case, the notice was short, but it never became an obstacle. The venue that was finalised, Ashoka Hotel (one of the top Hotels in Delhi), was exactly the one which Guruji had told me about 12 years ago! At that age of 11 years, I had paid no attention to it. But those words, put forward in a casual conversation, just show Guruji's omniscience and His immaculate planning for His devotees. Further, I learnt that even His apparently casual words also carry an unfailing impact and thus are not to be taken lightly.
My life is Guruji and will always be Guruji. I needed someone who would understand this always and be with me in this. I wanted a family who would be with me in this. Guruji made it possible. My sister-in-law, mother-in-law, my husband all believe in Guruji. This has made things simpler for me thanks to Guruji.
Guruji is constantly showering His blessings on my family. Be it my husband and his profession or be it the peace in a family, be it my sister-in-law's life or my in-laws. He knows all and is constantly there with them.
Getting our visas without going to the embassy, directing us on our property dealings, paving the way for my husband's profession: Guruji has never left our side and He never will.
Taking care of my family
After the accident, my parents were in a wreck mentally and emotionally. Their life was devastated. Their daughter had gone through a traumatic phase, and they had seen it all.
My mother's life had come to a halt. Everything now revolved around me and my condition. A woman of elegance and vivacity had now become emotionally torn.
My Guruji pulled my parents out of the shell they had gone in, gave them the push they so desperately needed and showered their lives too with bliss.
My mother's aches and conditions to which she had submitted herself disappeared in no time. My father, an army officer, was in the thickest of situations and times, fighting in Punjab or Srinagar. He would be out there in the battle fields to serve the nation, exposing himself to consistant life threat. My mother would be worried no end here, but our Guruji would give her the assurance that everything would be fine. Be it in the form of some darshan or a dream or His heavenly aura. He was there all the way through, with mom as a reassuring force and with dad as a protector safeguarding him from all troubles.
My younger brother's heartfelt desire was to join the Army. Guruji welcomed it with love and pride. Guruji also made his dream a reality. Getting through the medical round was not a piece of cake. He was rejected twice. Doctors diagnosed colour blindness - which never disappears nor gets cured. Guruji had, however, given us the assurance that my brother would get through and so he did. The colour blindness had just disappeared by the last medical round.
Amazing, amazing
We all had come to visit Guruji in Delhi from Bikaner. We were slated to go back by the 9 o' clock train to Bikaner, which would see us reach there by 8 am. However, we never think of leaving the mandir without Guruji's
adesh. We were sitting in front of Guruji knowing He knows; however, time was running out. Guruji finally told us to leave by the 11 o'clock train, which would reach Bikaner by 10 am. We asked for our official vehicle at some station before Bikaner to save us some precious seconds.
With all these preparations, we were speeding into Bikaner by 8 am. We were delighted at having made up so much of lost time. In fact, we saw the 8 o' clock train chugging into the Bikaner platform at only around 9 o'clock. It had been delayed on account of fog. Now we knew why we were sitting with Guruji all the time.
Guruji took care of my father's career and will always do so, too. Guruji is with dad whenever he needs Him. There are slips in one's career; often it is the deserving people who suffer the most. Also with dad being in the army there were issues regarding postings and settling the family.
On my dad's first visit to Guruji after the accident, Guruji stated everything that was running in dad's mind at the time of the accident. He told me exactly how dad had tried his level best to halt the accident. This was something that was innermost in my dad's mind and only he knew. Guruji, our God, had to know since He was there with us even at the time when we hadn't met Him in person.
My dad was suffering from low back pain for many years, and he was finding it extremely difficult to sit down and get up from the ground. As we had gone to Guruji for graver problems in our life, no one mentioned this trivial issue. As God knows everything, Guruji called my dad one afternoon and said: "
Come uncle, I'll cure you of your spondylosis." He used a steel spoon from the kitchen and touched him on either side of the spine. He then patted him and said, "
You are cured of your back pain." My dad has never since had the problem again.
When he was a colonel in 1994-95, with all the love possible, Guruji said: "
I have made you a general." However, one of the important courses the Army has for a colonel is Higher Command/Long Defence Management Course (LDMC). Dad didn't get nominated for either course, though he was an outstanding officer. He was then posted as Deputy Commander of an Infantry Brigade at Leh. His brigade was moved to Kashmir for counter-insurgency operations. His tenure there (by Guruji's grace) was so outstanding that it laid the perfect foundation for his promotion to Major General. He was also nominated for the National Defence College (the only Brigadier to have got through this without having done the LDMC)
His promotion was also miraculous because from the artillery only three Brigadiers have made it to the rank of Major General.
Amazing continued
Reaching the land of the rising sun
The greatest day of my mom's life was when she had
darshan of Guruji. For her it remains the most unforgettable day. It so happened, that after the car accident, our well-wishers who used to go to Guruji would keep telling us to come to Him. But my mother was not a religiously inclined person so she never went. One fine day, one of her friends, a devotee, was on her way to Him early in the morning. This raised all kinds of thoughts in my mother's mind. "Doesn't she have anything better to do? How can she leave her house and walk out like this early in the morning? How can she go and visit
babas in an age such as this?"
However, since she used to pester my mother everyday to come with her, my mother thought she might as well get it over with that day. My mother went to Guruji knowing the two things her friend had told her:1) the need to have faith; and that 2) He knows everything. With these two things in mind, mom followed her friend to the land of the rising sun.
My dad's experiences: On a ghost train
We used to come to Jalandhar and have Guruji's
darshan and move back at night on Sunday to be present for work on Monday morning. Since the bus service at night was unavailable in Punjab in those days, we would generally catch a train, the last leaving at 2.30 at night.
One day while we were at Guruji's, my father needed to be at the office at 8.30 next morning. However, Guruji told us to keep sitting well past the time for the train and told us to leave at 3 am with the rider that we must catch the train from Jalandhar Cantonment station. The next train was due only at 4.15 am, which would be far too late for my father to reach office in time. However, we obeyed Him and reached the Cantonment station at 3.15 am. My father strolled into the station's inquiry window, which he fully expected to be shut at the time. It was open though, and when he asked the person behind the counter if there was any train for Ambala before the 4.15 am one, the person told him - to his complete surprise - that a special train was waiting outside the station for a signal and would probably go towards Ambala. My father quickly called everyone in, and as we moved onto the platform, so did the train - a completely vacant train. We got a full compartment to ourselves. It was a bit frightening to be the only ones in the compartment (and probably on-board that train too). We latched both the doors of that compartment to ensure safety. As the train rolled over, our anxiety rose further, as nothing about that train seemed usual, including the way it ran. On its way from Jalandhar to Ambala, throughout the journey, instead of rolling on the track, we could feel that the train was floating in air, as it cruised towards the destination. When we reached Ambala in a couple of hours, we breathed a sigh of relief. My father went up to the station-master to enquire about the train's whereabouts, but he knew nothing about it. Just imagine a station master not knowing where a train is heading!
We thanked God and our journey continued. As we got out of the station and looked for a bus, we walked right into one. What good luck! We were in Chandigarh in another 40 minutes. Before we knew it, the driver decided not to take the bus to the main bus-stand and instead dropped off the passengers at a circle with not one of them making a fuss of it. This de-tour presented us with an opportunity to get down very close to my father's place. When my father approached the bus driver, he promised to drop us off at the Chandimandir gate and sure enough we were there in another 15 minutes. Finally, when my father made a call to the transport cell for his vehicle, he expected a prompt response that would locate and bring his driver to him immediately, as he had no time to spare. To my father's surprise, the person who picked up the phone was his driver himself!
With every step falling right, my father considered himself lucky to make it to the office well in time. However, normal beings as we are, we thanked Guruji without making a big fuss of it. Next week, when we returned to Jalandhar, the first thing Guruji asked us was: "
How did you find the ghost train?" That was when my father realized how our travelling time had been the bare minimum that day - which was definitely impossible without Guruji's divine intervention. Guruji is great!
This is my and my family's story in a nutshell. What did it require from our side? Only faith and surrender. Was it too much to ask for? God is there in front of us. Guruji is our God. It's time we realize it and recognize it - for our own good.
There is a miracle every minute, every second. I could go on and on. Everyone must come and enter the blissful world and receive the love of God. He is calling every one of us. What are we waiting for?
Nikki Malhotra, devotee
July 2007