How to surmount obstacles-II

Divine intervention at last

My sweet child, I had gone for a YSS weekend spiritual retreat at Igatpuri near Nasik in Nov’ 2004. It was a period of catharsis and I was consumed with a sense of deprivation, grief and loss because of which I had an emotional outburst on the 9^th morning as I was unable to find and appoint a divine godhead or a spiritual entity to sort out my life and ease my problems a wee bit.

There was anxiety building up because I was certain by now that I will not be able to sort it out myself and tide over my complicated ongoing  life-crises. I desperately wanted a Guru to hold my finger like a loving Father and make me walk on my path as I knew that the long, slippery and arduous path of emancipation and salvation was impossible to trek alone. I wished to be initiated by someone so that I could start  as soon as possible and reach my destination fast . My frenzied burning desire to find God and then talk to Him directly reached a crescendo and I was inconsolable. I was weeping bitterly in my bed and praying fervently to find my spiritual mentor when just then a very auspicious incident took place in my room in Igatpuri that morning…

Sri Paramhansa Yogananda

Divine appearance of the loving Spiritual Master and Yoga expert, Sri Paramhansa Yogananda appeared at the threshold of my room. He was wearing a flowing ochre robe, his curly hair were left open on the shoulders and there was an aura of divinity all around Him. His divine face was full of compassion and genuine sympathy and understanding. Though not surprised, I was relieved to see Him and I was released of ongoing painful agony. I took a sigh of relief as  I was being heard at last and with His appearance at that moment, the feeling of being abandoned in me disappeared like a gust of thin air. While still sobbing, I made a very earnest request  to Him by asking- Who is my Guru?  With a gentle smile, He answered- “The Guru is ordained and appointed by God. I am your Guru.”

I was very perplexed at His reply. How can he be my Guru I thought to myself. During those days, I was practically having so many  visions of Divine beings and of celestial beings of astral world that I was unsure who  would be my Guru after all. I was a bit confused now because I did not know what would become of me if I completely surrendered myself at His sacred feet.

It has been my strong conviction since the beginning that once you appoint a Guru and harbour Him in your heart, we must never step back. It was for keeps. Therefore, I wanted to tread my path very carefully and take one step at a time. All this while I was ruminating over this fact,  when he first looked at me with a fixed gaze, smiled at me cryptically. He raised both his hands in the air to shower his godly blessings and  left me. It took me a while to move my body and think of anything else but him. Anyway, I felt comforted after that and I slept soundly for a few hours in the afternoon and all the emotional exhaustion was washed away. I felt better by evening and wished for good things to develop soon. The retreat got over by Sunday afternoon.

I reached the house from the retreat in late evening that day on 10th November and there was nobody at home. I retired early to bed and I was resting by closing my eyes when…

Effulgent mellow light of pale yellow colours and hues began to scatter everywhere in my room and it soon engulfed me. I was bathing in the warm and yet soft genteel rays of Cosmic Light. I became tranquil and serene while the  mind became tuned in with Supreme Consciousness. I was elevated to very subtle divine vibrations and  there was no sense of body consciousness.  I was transported to a far off  world, far away where there was no pull of gravity. I felt very, very light as though I was floating in the waters of the measureless depth and silence of a vast expanse of an ocean! Everything was quiet there…

I must have remained like this for some time when I saw Mahavatar Babaji’s form appear before my closed eyes in radiant golden light and glimmer. I recognized Him instantly though this was a new phenomenon much beyond my wildest expectations and dreams. I was ecstatic and became overjoyed and I began to stir. As Babaji asked me to lie still with a gesture of his hand,  I recalled and connected myself with the incident of Sri Yukteshwarji who saw Babaji one sunny morning, under the shade of the banyan tree on a river ghat after he completed the book ‘Holy Science’ . Recalling that, I became cautious and remained still and my restless mind was firmly reinstated.

(Chapter 36 of Autobiography of a Yogi) (I later visited this river bank and I have mentioned about it in the post-Expand your Consciousness-II) 

Babaji was wearing an ochre coloured dhoti on his waist which ended on his left shoulder. He was walking  swiftly with a long stick in his right hand on a mountainous terrain while his disciples were following him with quick steps. He approached me and I saw his glowing  face and flowing  shiny copper coloured loose long hair uptil his calves. It was still very difficult for me to believe that He was present there with me in  my room. I thought to myself, “How come of all the people He is visiting me? What good have I done in this life to earn this?  What could be the purpose behind his darshan?”

He came a little closer to me and I could get his  close up view. He had a big, dark black serpent coiled around his neck and He looked like Lord Shiva in the snowy mountains. He eyes were so peaceful and benevolence radiated from his face profusely. His face was extra-ordinarily calm and softness in the form of compassion emanated from it. I tried to absorb and retain this holy picture in my mind very intently. I considered  myself  very, very blessed in those peerless moments of being with God.

He came forward  to pick up the serpent from his own shoulder which He did, and then he flung it towards me. Next moment the serpent was in my neck coiled and sitting up harmlessly with his face upright on my right shoulder. I was very frightened to feel its sensation of  heavy spiral weight over me. The sensation of the coiled big snake was very real- heavy to feel and  soft and slimy to touch. So I lifted my left hand in scare and raised it a bit  to remove it from my right shoulder. Babaji scurried forward and made a firm gesture with His hand not to do that at all and  I obeyed Him.

Then His blessed words began to flow, ” You are very fortunate and truly blessed. You are reaping the harvest of your stock of virtuous acts from the reservoir of many lives. From now onward don’t cry. You have taken my refuge, may God bless you. This is not your house, this is tapa- sthal. (A place where penance is to be done.)  Do tapasya.  Be victorious.” With these kind words and  supreme divine blessings, the exalted Maha Siddha Yogi and Immortal Guru left my place for His abode in the high snow-capped Himalayan mountains through the molecules of ether.

Let me now express myself that apart from feeling exhilarated, I had no idea whatsoever what could be the repercussions and impact of such a great spiritual experience over my life. I was still in disbelief and in a shocking daze. But with passing years the mystery around this experience slowly unfolded and I have understood that the serpent was not an ordinary one. It was a kind of a protective armour in the form of a mythological serpent that Babaji gave me to shield the avalanche of physical, mental and emotional onslaughts and harmful surreptitious scathing attacks from people that I faced and encountered later on. To me, it felt as though the serpent was Vasuki, the king of Nagas, also known as Nagaraj and not an ordinary one. But all said and done, throughout my prolonged illnesses that followed later, I did experience and realize that I was very much protected with Babaji’s intense grace and mercy on me, otherwise I would not have been able to survive the lashing of the whirlwinds of typhoons hovering around me for many years.

I assumed that my difficulties were mitigated and will be over from now onward because Babaji had come and blessed me. But alas no! I was naive in dealing with human life problems of huge complexities in nature. In fact, they worsened and what I described to you in the last post is just a small glimpse of the trying ordeals. In fact, Babaji could foresee my impending upheavals in  future and had come to my rescue and to forewarn me so that I would imbibe his spiritual power and mental strength to put up with all my problems and go through it. And after I saw Babaji on 10th Nov 2004 night, rapid significant developments took place.

Swami Nityananda with his disciple Swami Dayananda Shaligram

Soon after, by Babaji’s invisible will, I and your Papa went to Ganeshpuri in May, 2005, where there are samadhis of Swami Nityananda and his foremost disciple  Dayananda  Shaligram Swami. We visited  Ganeshpuri and found the precinct so peaceful and spiritually charging. The moment my eyes fell on  an old photo of Swami Dayananda Shaligram in his room where He once came and stayed, I traveled back in time and history and recognized Him as my very own and felt a kind of affinity for him. The soul remembers everything even if it means things that happened thousands of years ago. That is ‘smriti‘ as explained in one of the previous articles. The soul has a unique power of retention in the form of  memory and it felt so good to recognize and meet my beloved one from distant past once again!

For me life took a beautiful turn at this juncture and grace and blessings began to pour incessantly in my life after my visit to Ganeshpuri.

With Nityananda Baba’s blessing, my soul’s mute voice began to speak to me and my intuition developed. I could now communicate through the media of telepathy and extra sensory perceptions on various levels in the astral world with the blessed souls. I could now depend on them through my new medium of communication and started being  fearless. I became empowered and charged as there was no confusion and doubt any more. Faith in myself and God was re-kindled and re-established. My attitude again became positive and at last I could see rays of hope at the end of the long, dark dark tunnel. They took up charge of me and my family. Nityananda Baba told me not to worry ever again  as they will carry all my burden. I no more felt abandoned and was relieved that after all I was not alone in this big complicated world. I began to make future plans and self assurance and courage was built up. I learnt many life skills, developed new interests like finance, planning, management, life management etc. I took responsibility and control of all the spheres of my life. I resumed my passion and interest in music, building health, participated in social activities and so on. I stopped looking back thereafter and life smiled upon me when…

One early morning in June 2004,  in my dream I saw Nityananda Baba’s benevolent face, he was smiling sweetly and compassionate love radiated from Him. There was golden aura of light dispersing around him and he called me affectionately with his one hand towards him. I went up to Him like a little girl. He gave me a beautiful smile which burnt away all my sorrows. In his hand were four glittering pens which He very lovingly  handed over to me. I clasped them with my fingers and looked at them with fondness. He then pointed towards a wrist watch tied to his left wrist and made a sign to tell me that there is still time for it and that I should wait. At that time, I had no inkling that one day I will ever write down my very intimate and personal spiritual memoirs as a blog open to all to read. I had my reservations and  inhibitions regarding it from the very start. But as it is their wish that I share the prasad or grace with others,  so be it!

Spiritual-Lessons learnt from life -experiences

Due to man’s ignorance and lack of knowledge of God’s laws of action and reaction, he is unable to distinguish between right and wrong, good and evil and righteous and wrongful actions. He sows all sorts of  seeds of actions in the cosmic universe which sprout  and manifest as harmful reactions in the form of suffering and illness of various types over a long period of time. The type and quality of our actions done gives shape and quality to our present and future lives.

There are 3 categories of karmas inherent in the humans, out of which he goes through one type at one point of  time in his life. They are:-

Inevitable karmas: These are the irrevocable and unpardonable karmas of the past (sanchit karmas) as well as those done in present life (kriyaman). When we have more negative karmas than the good ones at a particular time in our share, we undergo a tirade of rough weather patch and storms. During such times, the Guru comes forward to help the disciple liberate by carrying some of the weight of his excess baggage. Knowing that they cannot be nullified and preempted now and it is in the interest of the disciple to exhaust the bad effects of the actions done in the past. The disciple’s path is cleared and cleaned by this procedure and exercise. The circumstances cannot be altered now but the perception and outlook of the person in concern can be. Hence, the Guru gives his disciple a new mental perception, a new approach to look from at the existing  state of affairs. Big lessons are learnt by grave mistakes of past as now the devotee obeys the spiritual laws with submission and humility. Penance helps in purification of the soul and redemption is the outcome. Peace is inevitable.

Evitable karmas: When the collective karmas are in 50:50 ratio of bad and good ones they are evitable- the number of count of good karmas equals the bad ones in our pool. So when we are faced with hardships, obstacles, sickness and sorrow, the Guru advises us to do good acts like charity, donations, poojas, forgiveness, spiritual practices by which the adverse effects can be either mitigated or minimized. This is a mild punishment for the man. A mild  slap on the cheek so to say and he is released from the karmic ties. He realizes his mistakes and becomes careful for future and understands that it was a warning from the speechless God.

A reservoir of deeply sunken mass virtuous karmas: Towards the end and pinnacle of the human evolution cycle, when all the negative karmas are to be burnt once and for all, a whole lot of seeds of incredible virtuous karmas which are buried deep inside are waiting to rise up and manifest. The devotee is unconscious of this fact while the guru can see it coming with his divine insight. He understands that the impact of mass good karmas have to be taken advantage of.  Depending on the faith and nature of his disciple, the Guru intervenes and shows him the guiding path by hinted suggestions via telepathy, clairvoyance and other mysterious suggestions. By making his dear devotee carry out specific actions of high degree and quality, the good ungerminated seeds are awakened by creating right environmental conditions consciously. After germination and manifestation of meritorious acts, the impact of the supremely good selfless acts are visible in the disciple’s life soon. They come in the form of good health and fortune, overall prosperity and achievements, exceptional accomplishments, fame and popularity, success in material as well as spiritual world and a forward march in spiritual advancement by leaps and bounds. There is no force to stop the disciple now as the forces in nature are with him. The disciple with his new found freedom and self realization dedicates his life and works for his beloved God and is at last free of every bondage and misery. His soul is at last purified and he takes a deep respite.

In practical life this translates as:

• Take responsibility of your own actions. Have trust in God’s justice. Have unending patience.
• Endure. Face life. Put up with whichever tests comes to you. Do not try to run away from your destiny. Accept it with a smile.
• Have faith in God. He listens. He is impartial.
• Don’t quit. Never ever give up.

Conclusion

Our whole life is a melting pot of a spiral chain of events leading us upwards and towards our goal of God-realisation. Whatever happens, happens for good, it is for our progress. It is with cultivation of our skills and abilities, proficiency and accomplishments that we blossom. By working out our destiny agreeably, we are purified and shine at last. We are ready to seek the attention of God. The blossoms of the sweet flowers of our devotion are then to be offered at the sacred feet of our Guru who opens the door to heaven and God. We enter the House of our Lord and attain indescribable inner peace and Supreme Bliss!

My many, many pranams to all my Gurus and Param Guru Shri Mahavatar Babaji who has given  me refuge, protection, peace, God’s knowledge and salvation. The objective of human life is fulfilled and is being lived with a sense of purpose- of serving God and Gurus. May the fragrance of Divine spread everywhere, everywhere and everywhere!

Om Namo Bhagwate Vasudevaya!

“I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their  principles unto death.”   Leonardo Da Vinci.

Picture of Paramhansa Yogananda: google images