It is said that
Guru bin gyan nahin, but I would add that
Guruji bin zindagi nahin. (The truism is that there is no knowledge without the guru; however, truly there is no life without Guruji.)
We came to Guruji's
sharan in 2005 through my cousin, Shri Deepak. Shri Deepak told us that Guruji is the manifestation of Mahashiv and that His abode is more powerful than any other holy place in the world. We came to Guruji without any expectation, but without any firm belief as well.
We entered Empire Estate in Sultanpur and found the atmosphere was different and unique. We had Guruji's
darshan and felt that experiencing Him was far potent than what we had been told about Him. The peace and mental calmness that we felt that day inside Empire Estate cannot be explained in words. In fact, we felt as if we were imbibing energy, so much so that we were sweating even though it was winter. In the Mandir, we just emulated what our cousin was doing. First we went and touched His feet and after obtaining His blessings, got to sit close to Him. We had the
chai prasad followed by
langar and when we came out we had only one thing on our mind-that we would like to come again the next day. Guruji had instructed His regular
sangat to come only on specific days but there was no restriction for new devotees so we went to Guruji's Chotte Mandir quite frequently, in fact, whenever we were in Delhi or Gurgaon.
One day, I was in Farrukhnagar, which is 22 kilometre from Gurgaon, with a devotee, Shri Naresh. Though it was not his day to go to Guruji, however, I felt a strong urge. A friend of Naresh's turned up and as he was going to Gurgaon, I requested him to take me along. I went on his bike to Gurgaon and took a bus to Empire Estate. I was very lucky that day to be able to see Guruji in informal attire: a jeans and a T shirt. We could hear Guruji as He talked to devotees in a casual manner. At 8 pm sharp, Guruji went inside and came back in His divine dress.
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Once we had gone to Delhi and wanted to go to Guruji's Bade Mandir straight from Palam airport, before heading off to Noida. It was 11 in the morning when we reached Bade Mandir and since it was a non-sangat day, there was no one except for the head gardener and another devotee. We were five people and we asked the devotee whether we could get chai prasad. He informed us that the
sevadar had taken the kettle inside to heat it, but it held only two cups of tea. He added that he would ask if chai prasad could be arranged. A few minutes later, the sevadar came up with the kettle, which was small and could not have held more than three cups of tea. But with Guruji's blessing and to our utter surprise, we were served full glasses of the chai prasad and still the kettle was not empty. That is how we experienced first-hand the
mahima of Guruji's chai prasad.
Guruji helps team win a gold
I had been working in a multinational. There were six quality circle teams which were asked to participate in a competition organized by Quality Circle Forum of India's Bangalore chapter. These teams were strong contenders and had been practicing for almost six months. Around fifteen days before the commencement of the competition, two of my HR colleagues suggested that we should prepare a cross-functional team and participate in the competition. We came to know that a hundred teams with roughly five members each would be participating.
We did not have much time to prepare for the competition and had little hope of doing well, but nevertheless I took Guruji's name and accepted the challenge. It turned out that there were 221 teams with more than 1200 participants. We were stunned to see the huge crowd and I just prayed to Guruji: now only He could help us achieve our goal. When the results were announced, our team had won the gold medal. Guruji's grace was clearly evident, else given our late start and lack of preparation there was no way we could have secured the top spot. Guruji had to bless my other colleagues as well to place His devotee at the top.
For His Sangat, all roads are cleared
Guruji used to say that His sangat was special and should receive VIP treatment. We witnessed this when we went to visit Gangotri and Yamunotri. We attended Guruji's birth day function on July 7, 2011 and after taking His permission started our journey to Yamunotri. Many people discouraged us since the hills see frequent landslides during the rains. But we could not pursue the journey at a later time and decided to carry on.
During the journey we came across many landslides and were informed by fellow passengers that it was common for people to remain stuck at affected areas for at least 12 to 14 hours. But by Guruji's grace we were never stuck for more than two hours at a stretch. Whenever we came across a landslide we would start Guruji's
satsang in our car and immediately the way would clear. Once we got stuck in a bad traffic jam with a tourist bus in front of us and army trucks coming from ahead. Suddenly, an Army officer came on the scene and, pointing at our vehicle, ordered that it should have right of way so that other heavy vehicles could move out. Our car thus got out first from the traffic jam. When we looked back we did not see any vehicle behind us for miles. Guruji was showering His blessings on His sangat.
Satsangs @ Bangalore
After coming to Guruji's sharan we used to be in regular touch with the sangat at Delhi (mainly our relatives who used to attend satsangs at Delhi). They would tell us how they were going to the Bade Mandir or attending satsangs in Delhi, Gurgaon or Noida. They were lucky to be staying so close to Guruji and attending Guruji's satsang. We regularly prayed to Guruji to provide us with an opportunity to attend satsangs frequently. One day we got a call from our cousin, Shri Deepak, that Shri Hitesh Jethra, who was in Bangalore, was holding a satsang at his house. We contacted Shri Hitesh and attended our first satsang at Bangalore. In due time, devotees in Bangalore got associated with each other and could regularly hold satsangs. They had the privilege of consuming Guruji's divine langar, chai and
kada prasad every week. Guruji's statement--don't ask for anything, I know what you need and when you need it, just leave it to me to decide-was thus borne out.
Devotees have had many rich experiences in Bangalore. A colleague of mine was at her second satsang when my wife, Shrimati Shashi, narrated a happenstance where she quoted one of Guruji's maxims: "
Mango mat, Mano." (Don't ask, accept.)
My colleague told me that even though my wife had just cautioned us not to ask anything from Guruji, she had happened to ask something from Guruji. I just smiled and did not bother to know what her wish was. After three days she approached me and said, "Uncle, I want to share something with you."Apparently, she had prayed to Guruji that her office was very far from her residence and she wanted a decent job that was within Bangalore city itself. The very next day she received an interview call from an MNC based out of Bangalore city. Without too many interview rounds, she got the job of her choice--that too at a substantial salary hike. This is how Guruji grants the sangat's wishes. Jai Guruji!
Suresh Chand Khandelwal, a devotee
September 2012