Though I have been associated with Guruji since 2013, Guruji keeps us in His
sharan at all times. My most recent
satsang relates to an overseas air trip I had with my mom and two kids. I was extremely anxious about it because of the stories I had heard. My paternal aunt and her husband, my sister-in-law and then her daughter had suffered at the hands of airlines and airports. The first incident occurred when my aunt and her spouse found one of their bags missing when they landed in the US. They had goods worth INR 3 lakh in the bag, but could get only USD 500 as compensation. My
bhabhi too lost her bag (and USD 300 worth of shopping) when she landed in Delhi. Her daughter came off relatively unscathed on her trip. She only lost some books and old clothes.
I was understandably scared when it was our turn to travel to the US to meet my sister. I had with me my 65-year-old mom, my infant daughter of four months and my four-year-old son. I booked a flight via Rome, but was extremely skeptical about that airline. As it turned out, my daughter's visa was refused, despite assurance by a visa officer during the obligatory interview that she would be granted a visa. I wrote an email to the US embassy and they replied that visas were at their own discretion. I decided to save some money and take the middle course: Send my mom and daughter to the US and cancel the rest of the tickets. But privately I wondered how my mom would manage the trip, as did she, but we never discussed it among ourselves.
My sister in the US was troubled too. Why was Guruji doing this, she wondered. The answer came when she looked up the airline's reviews and found that they were bad. That prompted me to cancel the remaining two tickets. We had just spent USD 1700 in vain!
My sister was angry. She wrote to a senator, questioning why an infant had been denied a visa. The senator got back quickly with assurances and there was action. We received a call from the US embassy in Delhi to submit the baby's passport for the visa. We got the call on a Thursday and the next Tuesday we had a visa. We had been worrying about the wasted money, but Guruji had averted a very bad experience. It was a blessing in disguise.
Now, we were happy and booked the tickets again. But I still worried about losing bags. I needn't have. All through our journey, at airports and airplanes, our luggage was cleared on time and boardings were smooth. In the US too, we had an abundance of His grace. At my sister's place, we enjoyed no less than three satsangs.
When it was time to return, my anxieties too came back. I had done a lot of shopping—and didn't want to lose the bags. A day before the return trip, I was very tense. My back started aching and I realized I would not be able to lift my daughter up. I could not do anything to lessen the pain, as I am allergic to pain killers. My packing went for a toss, and all the suitcases felt overweight. On a sudden prompting of faith, I decided to write 'Jai Guruji' on all of the baggage items. Guruji will take care of everything, I firmly thought, otherwise, I wished hard, this flight should be cancelled. I did not want to travel in paralyzed confusion.
We woke up at 4:30 in the morning the next day. My mom inquired about the packing, and I shook her off saying we would tackle everything at the airport. We will cross the bridge when we come to it, I pronounced, Guruji must have thought of something for us.
At the queue to the airline counter, everyone was checking their baggage. A female staffer came to us and asked us if she could help. She took our passports, got the luggage tags and had them in the conveyor belt without weighing them. I shared a 'Jai Guruji' with my mom and was ecstatic that the bags weren't checked. Our flight time, via Hong Kong, was about 15 hours. We prayed to Guruji that no one come and sit with us, so that the kids could be comfortable. Guruji answered our prayers. The seats next to us remained vacant and the children gave no trouble.
We landed in and Delhi ran to immigration, since I was still afraid we would lose our bags and our shopping with it. At immigration, we were at the infant line and got through in five minutes. Our baggage was intact, and we were out of the airport in half an hour. 'Jai Guruji, Mom,' I said 'We made it.'
A devotee
November 2019