Bade Mandir opens up blessings for us

Devki Hoshing, December 2020
We live in the US and our aged parents and siblings live in Pune, so our India visits meant we went to them. We never had an opportunity to go to Bade Mandir. My niece's wedding was set to take place in India in March of 2020, giving us scope for a visit to which my daughter too agreed to come even though she would miss school. We nursed the hope that we would be able to visit Bade Mandir and Shirdi and other holy places revered in our family. I earnestly prayed to Guruji to call us to Bade Mandir.

Our niece's in-laws-to-be wanted the wedding to take place in Delhi, where the groom was from. This made us extremely happy as it would give us a chance to go to Mandir. Then they pointed out that the Delhi weather gets hot beginning March, so the wedding needs to happen before February-end. We immediately booked our to and fro tickets for the dates of February 19th and March 7th.

Thus, we could visit Bade Mandir on February 27th, and it turned out to be the most divine experience ever. At 4 pm, an Uber driver picked us up at our hotel and greeted us with "Jai Guruji". We were elated. The driver told us about his experiences with Guruji. Since it was Thursday, we wanted to reach the temple early and sit inside the meditation hall for a long time. When we did, by Guruji's grace, we were seated right in the front of His durbar.

Guruji's kripa began to unfold. After having chai prasad, a lady devotee sitting on my left tapped me on my back and handed me a swaroop of Guruji. She gave one swaroop to my husband, too. I smiled at her, took the swaroop, paid obeisance to it and held it in my hands. That swaroop was new for me; my favourite swaroop has always been one where Guruji is attired in a white chola and His cheek rests on His right hand. Some minutes later, the devotee tapped me again and handed me the same one. I was overjoyed.

My daughter had not got a swaroop and hoped she would, too. Part of the reason we were on this pilgrimage was to seek blessings for her, as she was poised to enter college, opening a new chapter in her life. When it was almost time to get ready for langar, the devotee told us to turn around and face her. As we did so, she saw my daughter and immediately handed one swaroop to her and told her to keep it safe.

When langar was served, I was sharing it with three people unknown to me, one of them an old-time devotee. He shared with us his family's experiences of Guruji's amazing grace. Guruji can cure anything, he said. I had occasion to remember his remark.

We felt Guruji's presence everywhere as we went to India's many sacred places. We knew He had planned our trip. Days after we returned to the US, Covid-19 was making its presence felt. My son's college in the Bay Area came under lockdown and, since we had returned, he could come home safely.

Guruji can cure anything

On March 16th, my 85-year-old father's condition in India turned serious. He was unable to breathe. When my brother took him to the family doctor, the doctor said there was water in his lungs. The following day a lung specialist removed 1.5 litres of water from his lungs, but also found malignancy in them. Some medicines were prescribed and my father was sent home.

My father is a doctor himself and he refused to take the medicines, saying these were bad for him. My mother and brother thought he was acting like a kid, so they prevailed upon him. But his health did not improve. I immediately told my bhabhi to keep Guruji's swaroop under father's pillow and I began praying to Guruji.

My father was taken to another specialist. Though the hospital was crowded because of coronavirus patients, my father's health was deemed critical and treatment began. The specialist told my brother that the problem was with my father's heart and not in the lungs. He prescribed new medicines, which my father readily agreed to take. Within a few days, his breathing issue was gone, and his health improved. It has been more than four months since as of writing, and my father is feeling better each day.

As the old-time devotee had said, Guruji indeed can cure anything.

Devki Hoshing, a devotee

December 2020