Year 1998 changed everything for the Lal family. Their eldest son died in an accident in the Delhi Cantonment area. Mr Kanwar Lal's wife couldn't bear the blow and fell victim to a heavy depression.
Then a friend of Kanwar's, Prem Singh, a former Indian ambassador to Singapore, happened to meet him. Prem naturally inquired about the family and was told of what had happened. Unknown to Kanwar, Prem Singh was a devotee of Guruji and he directed his friend towards Him.
Kanwar therefore went one morning to Guruji's place at Empire Estate. He showed the ambassador's visiting card and requested entry. He was told by a devotee at the entrance, Sudama, that this was not the time to visit Guruji. Kanwar persisted in trying to show the ambassador's visiting card to Guruji; Sudama was not impressed. He told the distressed father that many ambassadors came to Guruji's durbar, which was held only in the evening, and Kanwar should come then.
Kanwar returned and spoke to his friend, who advised him to retrace his steps. In the evening, Kanwar found his friend waiting for him at the Empire Estate gate and together they went in. Guruji allowed Kanwar an audience and the father was able to report his troubles to the
Satguru. Guruji blessed a copper tumbler which Kanwar's wife had to drink water from to get rid of her prolonged depression.
The remedy, simple as it always seems, proved vastly effective. Within 15 days, the bereaved mother had turned the corner. She stopped crying, her low blood pressure normalized and she felt okay.
It was May of 2000 and the family started coming to Guruji.
The family took a short break and went to Manali. When Kanwar returned to Delhi, he found that he had been reassigned jobs. He was going to be relieved from his custom duties at IGI Airport and had to join duty at custom house in New Delhi on July 15. But, when he went to Guruji's, the
Satguru suggested another break. The date was June 24 when the Master advised Kanwar and family to go for a week's holiday.
Kanwar's faith in Guruji was not yet steady - so he admits today. Disregarding Guruji's advice, Kanwar attended office. During that week, on June 4, a departmental inquiry was initiated against 48 customs officers. Kanwar was one of them. Had Kanwar obeyed Guruji, he wouldn't have been named.
Kanwar again brought his problem before Guruji. The omniscient master dismissed his worries and instead pointed to another area of concern: the customs officer was told that nothing would happen to him, but he should concentrate on his daughter's marriage.
This enigmatic comment did little to relieve Kanwar. But, events showed that his worry was indeed baseless. Of the 48 officers named, 33 were proceeded against.
Kanwar and seven to eight offices whose names came below him in the departmental list were not named. Later, when prosecution proceedings were initiated against the 33 officers, Kanwar was not even touched.
Guruji turns middleman for a marriage
On Guruji's advice, Kanwar had taken his first step in the old Indian marriage game - the hunt for a suitable boy. An Indian Oil engineer seemed a likely candidate and, following Indian customs, came with his parents to see the girl. Before the all-important visit, Guruji called up Kanwar and specifically asked him to offer the young man's father white
rasgullas (an Indian sweet).
The candidate's parents were presented a lavish spread. Then, one by one, first Kanwar himself, then his wife and then his son offered the boy's father the
rasgullas. Each time - and for reasons best known to the
Satguru - the candidate's father declined.
Kanwar's family had by now known enough of Guruji's ways to suspect that something was amiss. When they went in the evening for His
darshan at Empire Estate, Guruji made a pithy comment: "
Even beautiful roses have thorns." The family understood it to mean that the boy was not suitable for their girl. Moreover, the boy's family also dropped the matter.
Some time later, another likely candidate was found for the girl - a promising, young judicial magistrate in Delhi.
He came to see the girl and liked her, phoning up Kanwar as he was returning from the visit to make his affirmation known. He also asked the girl's father to get his parents' approval. The girl's parents went to the boy's parents.
Nothing came of the visit till one day Guruji phoned up the girl's worried father. Out of the blue, He asked His devotee where a good
chaat (tempting spicy Indian appetizers) could be had. A bewildered Kanwar replied that to his knowledge: a corner shop near the UPSC building at Shahjahan Road served very good quality. Guruji asked him to be there at 6.30 in the evening.
Following His Master's cryptic comment, Kanwar presented himself at the
chaat corner. At 6.30 pm, Guruji arrived with a few devotees.
Chaat was brought and Guruji gave a plate to Kanwar, congratulating him on his daughter's wedding getting fixed. Then the devotees felicitated him.
All the time Kanwar was wondering how he could have discharged the onerous Indian responsibility of getting a daughter's marriage fixed. For only he knew that there had been complete silence from the judicial magistrate's side, that too for nearly two months.
Soon, however, the good news too came. As usual, the Guru's words had proved prophetic.
Guruji's magisterial grace for son-in-law
Kanwar's son-in-law too benefited from Guruji's grace. The judicial magistrate had given his departmental exams and cleared every paper but one. His father-in-law brought the matter before Guruji. The
Satguru remarked that the boy should have cleared the exam and that he would.
Kanwar suspected that Guruji was hinting that someone had tried to thwart his son-in-law's professional advancement.
Soon a full bench of the High Court sat for the judicial review of the examination procedure of the candidate. Looking at his performance and his peers' comments as noted in the Annual Confidential Report, the bench ruled in his favour and adjudged that he had passed the exam.
Son has scratch-less accident
Kanwar's son, Rohit, was not getting hostel accommodation in the Apeejay Engineering College, which is located on the Sohana-Palwal road that winds out of Gurgaon. His son's death due to an accident in the back of his mind, Kanwar was worried about sending his son 65 km away to the engineering institute. But, Guruji reassured him.
As fate would have it, one day the Qualis in which his son commuted to his college hit a truck on the Sohana road. The driver lost an eye and all the other students were injured. Rohit, as Guruji would have it, had nary a scratch.
When Kanwar came to Guruji's in the evening, the
Satguru simply said: "
I have saved your son."
Guruji's benign grace continued to rain on Rohit. He was unable to enter the third year of his engineering course because he had not been able to clear one of the papers in the first semester of the first year. When Guruji came to know of the obstacle, He refused to entertain it, saying that Rohit would get into the third year.
Then, as divine providence would have it, Apeejay changed its rule. Now students were allowed to go into the third year if they had passed at least 18 of the 20 exams they had sat for during the course of their engineering studies. Rohit, thus, could go into the third year of his course.
That this was Guruji's divine will in operation was amply proved when a year later the institute reverted to its old rule. Clearly, even inflexible school rules had to bow to the
Satguru's will.
Healing without an operation
Kanwar's mother-in-law was slated to have an operation at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital on her right knee, which pained her a lot. But, Guruji expressly forbade the operation, going to the extent of telling Kanwar to not even take his mother-in-law near the hospital.
As per the
Satguru's direction, the copper tumbler water remedy was again given. The simple yet potent cure worked its wonder yet again. The knee stopped paining within a month and even regained its flexibility.
Kanwar Lal, Superintendent, Customs & Central Excise, New Delhi
July 2007