My wife and I live in the US while my mother-in-law lives in India. She told us she was visiting the temple of a certain Guruji and that she felt energized whenever she came back from the temple. We didn't pay attention to her. India has many saints and holy places, we rationalized, so it was not surprising that she was feeling good visiting one. We did not feel any kind of devotion towards God in a human form, which we associated with stories we had been hearing since childhood.
Two years later, in 2018, my wife and I turned to the net to know more about Guruji. Mother-in-law is not a tech savvy person and had not shared with us any website or any other source of information. "Guruji" is not a unique keyword and fetched many links. Based on her information, we narrowed down our search to the Bade Mandir website. That was the gateway to Guruji. My wife and I then wanted to find out about a
satsang in our area. Our wish was granted within a week. We were nervous to join the first satang because we had no idea what to expect or what to do.
Devotion to Guruji did not begun after the first satsang. It took some time, but there was one decisive incident. In July of 2018, there came news that a few school children were trapped in a cave in Thailand. I took the incident to heart and set a condition for my faith in Guruji. If He saved those children, I would believe in Him. The children were saved within 24 hours of my prayer. I have never since questioned the existence of Guruji.
I started reading satsang posted by devotees on the Bade Mandir website. Devotees had experienced Guruji in dreams or via a fragrance. I did not have any such visitation and was disappointed. Perhaps my karma was not good enough to have experiences similar to other devotees. I stopped wishing and left it to Guruji. Months later, I dreamt of Guruji meditating in extreme hot weather, squeezed between large stones and telling me "
Mahapurusha do meditation like this." Although I could not decode the message, I was happy that I had seen Guruji.
A few days later, early in the morning, I stepped out of my front door to bring in the newspaper. I felt like I was walking in heaven. I do not have words to describe my experience. There was a strong rose fragrance, the birds were chirping and I felt very light. I went inside the house. Then I thought about what I had experienced and stepped outside, but everything looked normal.
My daughter's allergies go away
Our daughter was suffering from food allergies for many years. We took her through medical tests and food-elimination strategies even as we ensured she got homemade food. But nothing helped. My daughter was on steroids regularly, and we were only able to reduce their frequency by giving her organic food and disallowing all preservatives. We wanted her to stop taking the medicines. This came about in a rather curious way. My wife was watching a TV serial, where she heard the name of a character — "Pranshu" — though she told me, there was no such person named in the TV show.
The next day, we listened to a satsang, about a child named Pranshu who had food allergies but had been blessed by Guruji. We did not detect the co-relation between the same names in two different settings.
After a few weeks, my wife, daughter and I attended a satsang. After
langar prasad, Pranshu's satsang was played over the Internet. I did not pay attention to it as I already knew the contents. My daughter, however, did. While returning home, she told us that since Guruji had blessed Pranshu, she too would emulate what he had done: Place the steroids in a piece of cloth before a swaroop of Guruji's lotus feet and let Him heal her. My wife and I got goosebumps.
However, we were skeptical. If we stopped the steroids, our daughter could suffer. Still we chose an auspicious day and with full faith in Guruji, packed our daughter's medicine in a piece of cloth and put it before Guruji's swaroop. We prayed to Guruji: "We do not know what we are doing, but do not let our trust break." It has been one year since and our daughter has been free of allergies.
Only Guruji can nullify our bad karma and then bless us.
Guruji has changed my attitude towards life as well. We are in this world, so we have to go through some problem every day, but now I can handle them easily because Guruji is with me.
I have read this shloka: Even if the whole earth is transformed into paper and all the trees are made into a pen, if the water of the seven oceans is transformed into ink, even then the glories of the Guru cannot be written. My wife and I strongly believe that Guruji is protecting us not only in this birth, but since all of our previous births. Oh Guruji, where I will find you in my next birth.
[Following section added January 2023]
String of sevens shows surgery is right
In December 2021, I was diagnosed with inguinal hernia and my doctor told me that surgery was the only solution. It was a setback. I am a healthy person and did not have any symptoms associated with the hernia. The surgery, which I was not ready to accept, was not required soon.
I consulted multiple doctors and every doctor had the same answer for this condition, which occurs when tissue, such as a part of the intestine, protrudes through a weak spot in the abdominal muscles. I did not want to go under the knife and prayed to Guruji to do something for me. I began reading satsangs on Guruji Maharaj's website in hopes of getting a hidden answer. I found a single satsang where a devotee, suffering from hernia, recounted how Guruji, during his visit to Empire Estate, had directed him to move large potted plants from one place to another.
A month later, my viewpoint had changed. I reasoned that Guruji would nullify my bad karmas by making me undergo surgery. I got so much positive energy that my wife was surprised at how keen I was on being operated upon. Another setback awaited me though. One week before the surgery, the doctor explained that a metallic staple, a titanium tack, would be inserted inside to secure the hernia mesh inside my lower abdomen as part of the procedure. Yet the thought of carrying a metallic part inside my body for the rest of my life bothered me.
I began losing my positivity. A significant association of the numeral seven bolstered it up again: the hospital address had a numeral scheme that summed up to seven, so did the surgeon's name, and the number of the surgeon's office suite. The surgery was scheduled for Thursday and in the morning hours of seven.
Guruji had shown me that He had laid down this path for me, and I should not worry. Everything went well, and I recovered quickly. For more than a year, I have been leading a normal life with no physical restrictions. I can only thank Guruji for giving me the shelter of His Lotus Feet. Jai Guruji!
P Kumar, a devotee
January 2023