This is about the first time I visited the Art Of Living Bangalore ashram; I had gone there to do the advance course in the year 2000. I had reached late the first day – the day before my course began, and so the accommodations were filling up fast. I got this ‘kutir’ (cottage) and till date I don’t know how many people we were there in that room. All the beds were already occupied and I just got this ‘gadda’ (mattress) placed down on the floor. I had such a big bag with me and so I just placed it there in front of my bed. My friend had also accompanied me on the trip. She got a ‘gadda’ next to mine and put her bag by her bed too. However she liked to sleep and come on time for the course, whereas I like to go before time for the course every day. Because when I do the course I want to sit at my teacher’s feet. So I needed to get up early to be there to get a place ahead. It was a 6 day advance course and there were over 1000 people from Maharashtra. The session would start at 6 o’clock and so the first day I thought I would get up at 5 o’clock and be there before the session starts. Well, at 5 o’clock the next morning I saw many people already ready and moving toward the Vishalakshi Mantap (meditation hall). I realized I was late and I got ready fast and left. So after that the next day of the course I decided to get up earlier, at 4 o’clock. It was quite early; while walking from my ‘kutir’ to the VM it used to be really dark and there weren’t too many lights. And everyday till I reached the venue I would pray to Sri Sri. There were a lot of trees and greenery around and the path was not properly lit; so I would pray ‘Jai Gurudev Jai Gurudev, please look after me’. After reaching the venue I would lay down my bedsheet as my ‘aasan’ and next to it would be my friend’s ‘aasan’. She would come in at 6 o’clock just on time, walk through the entire Vishalakshi Mantap filled with participants, come ahead and sit next to me and then we would do our ‘aasanas’ (yoga exercises). But I would go there early and sleep there. And every day I ended up waking up and reaching the venue earlier than the previous day. The last day I woke up around 2:20 or so and got ready and reached the VM (Vishalakshi Mantap) around 3:40. I was outside praying hard, and even the ‘gurkha’ (security guard) didn’t let me inside because it was only him. There were two dogs there and back then I was really scared of them; and I was really praying ‘Oh Guruji look after me, there are dogs here’. All the time I kept looking at the dogs and praying and wondering when the ‘gurkha’ would let me in. Later that day, Guruji came in at 11 o’clock for the session and the first thing he said was “kuch log do teen baje uth kar naha dho key yaha aa jate hai” (Some people get up, have a bath and come here at 2AM-3AM early in the morning). And my friend literally lifted my hand up, pointed to me and exclaimed ‘Her.My friend. She comes everyday!’ And Guruji looks at us with his knowing smile. And we were just in shock. And I wondered – so many lakhs of people and devotees and how does He know that we are in pain; that we are calling to Him for help. Many ask Guruji, ‘how would you know that we are in pain?’ And Guruji always says that even though you have so many hair oh the head even if one is pulled you obviously know! And I realized that even if there are millions all over the world, He just always knows. This incident happened to me and after that I just knew. I knew He was the one. He was the one who was going to look after me all the time. Jgd.
- Charu
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