"
Bhagwan ke ghar main der hai andher nahi." In short, justice may be delayed but not denied. However, in Guruji's house, there is no delay.
I can testify to this after coming to Guruji's
sharan in December of last year, when we went for a regular Saturday
satsang organized in Bangalore. Though we would have liked to regularly attend the satsangs, we could not because our youngest son is only one year old (though my eldest son, Arjun, is six) and cannot sit for the duration of the satsang. However, a satsang was organized very close to our house on 11
th January and all of us went for it.
Arjun saw his elder cousin doing seva and collecting glasses that had been used to serve
chai or
jal prasad and began doing the same. For the past few days, he had bad breath but we thought little of it. Within two days of his doing sewa, his neck became stiff. We initially attributed it to a sprain but his body temperature rose to around 105 degrees Fahrenheit and we took him to a paediatrician, who thought it was a bacterial infection. For a thorough examination, we went to an ENT specialist the same evening. He confirmed that it was a very severe bacterial infection and recommended that we admit Arjun immediately to a hospital an hour's drive away from our home. Arjun was admitted that very night and put on injectable medicines.
My wife and I were patient during the entire process because we believed that whatever was happening was due to Guruji's blessing. The following day, as if to reconfirm our faith, Vineeta, a devotee, came to the hospital and handed over a pocket-sized photograph of Guruji. A day later, the attending doctor suggested that a small incision be made on Arjun's neck at the site of the infection to remove the accumulated pus. The operation would be done under general anaesthesia. I agreed though I have always been hesitant of putting a child under general anaesthesia. The operation was slated for the afternoon, and my wife and my brother and his family were informed.
In the meantime, I prepared Arjun mentally for the operation. We knew that he was under pain, because he was not having us touch his neck, which had become very stiff. He was okay with the operation but did not want to stay in the hospital anymore. But the post-operation stay was for two days. I told Arjun to talk to Guruji about this and gave him the photograph which the devotee had given me. Meanwhile, the anaesthesiologist had already done his pre-operation examination. Arjun talked to Guruji in his heart and requested that he be allowed to go home immediately.
Just before the operation, the attending ENT doctor thought of consulting with his senior--the same doctor who recommended we admit Arjun to the hospital--who was on a short vacation. The senior doctor ruled out an immediate operation and suggested that injectable medications be continued for three more days. He then added that Arjun should be discharged immediately and that he would check on Arjun's status when he returned the coming Monday.
Clearly Guruji had granted Arjun's wish within minutes of his heartfelt prayer. We took Arjun home that very Saturday-the day of the regular satsang. However, we could attend it because I had to take Arjun at that time for his injectable dose to the hospital.
But Guruji's grace was with us. A special satsang, we learnt, was being held on Sunday at devotee Sanjeev's house. I asked Arjun if he would like to attend, but he could not since the timing of his medication, at three in the evening, conflicted with the satsang's duration. We decided that I would go, but if I overstayed at the satsang, my brother and wife would take Arjun to hospital.
All satsangs of Guruji are blessed by His presence but this one turned out to be very special for me. First, I got to sit next to Guruji's
swaroop at a devotee's request. Within minutes, I smelt His fragrance and kept on smelling it for nearly a quarter of an hour. And during this entire duration, I saw Guruji standing in front of me in white
chola!
I was confused as Guruji's photograph showed Him wearing yellowish-orange chola and I thought Guruji would be present in the same dress in the satsang. Yet there He was. His body was fully made of light, like thousands of small bulbs enclosed within a transparent covering, which itself was covered in a white dress. I bowed down and touched His feet and He put his right hand over my head.
I wanted to tell Guruji about Arjun's illness but having heard several times that one should not ask anything from Guruji but rather surrender to Him, I thought against it and sat there with bowed head. Guruji rhetorically asked me what I was thinking, and my mind immediately went to Arjun. Guruji then gave His words of immeasurable blessings, "
Don't worry", and lifted His left hand in the direction of our home (towards Arjun and rest of my family). Soon Guruji disappeared from my vision. A weight lifted from my heart; I knew Arjun would not have pain anymore. It is hard to say how much time had elapsed, but everything seemed to have happened within a few minutes.
Although Guruji says that you cannot voluntarily dream about Him, and, of course, it is only through His blessings that you can see Him, I still doubted whether the vision had been a product of my intense desire to have Him bless my son. But it also has long been my earnest desire to see the God in the form of light.
Though Guruji does not have to give any signs of His blessings, He takes the trouble to clear even the tiniest doubts of His followers. That is what happened. After the
arti, a devotee Shri Akshay told us why a special satsang was being conducted at Sanjeev's house. During the last satsang, Akshay related, he had gone into a
samadhi and was with Guruji, who had asked him the location of Sanjeev's house and had asked that He be taken there. Then Guruji had said: "
Aaj bahut bada kalyan kitta hai. (Today a great blessing has been given.)" An inspired Shri Sanjeev had decided to conduct a special Sunday satsang at his home. To top it all, Shri Akshay said that Guruji was present in this satsang in white dress.
Another devotee, Shri Nitin, spoke up. He too said that he had dreamt of Guruji the last night and had seen Guruji in white dress. Another sangat member mentioned that he had felt Guruji's fragrance for nearly a quarter of an hour-and that happened to be the duration for which I had smelt it too. No less than three devotees had confirmed my personal visitation of Guruji; the last vestiges of doubt lifted from my heart.
After having
langar prasad, I asked for Guruji's permission to leave and join my family, as it was already past Arjun's medication time and my brother and wife had taken him to the hospital. But I heard a "
No" from Guruji, which again surprised me a bit. I stayed put but was again eager to take Guruji's permission within a few minutes. At that moment, a phrase began to buzz inside my head: "
Sanjeev nu das ke ja. (Tell Sanjeev and then leave)." I got hold of Shri Sanjeev and told him that Guruji was present in the form of light in today's satsang--only then did the inward prompting stop.
Shri Sanjeev asked me if I had eaten
kadha prasad, and it was clear why I had not been given permission to leave: Guruji wanted me to have kadha prasad too, which I hadn't partaken of since it had been served at the beginning of the satsang. Only after having the prasad could I leave. Learning that my wife was returning from the hospital, I made way for home.
As soon as I entered home, the first thing Arjun said was: "
Papa saara dard chala gaya aur pus bhi khatam ho gayi hai." (Papa, I am free of pain and the pus has also vanished.) He proved it by moving his neck freely and asked me to touch his neck at the spot where the pus was getting formed. I mentally thanked Guruji for His
darshan and blessings and told Arjun what had come to pass at the satsang.
My son has been coming to every satsang since. This experience of Guruji's grace has firmly rooted not only my belief in Him but my entire family now believes that their lives are in the secure and benign hands of Shri Guruji Maharaj. We all aver that this is the best way of living this life.
Ajay Deep Garg, a devotee
February 2015