Divine Intervention - Part 1

I recently read a story of a man who set out, as a young lad, from Chennai to Prayagraj to get 30 barrels of Ganga water from the Sangam (confluence of 3 rivers - Ganga, Yamuna & Saraswati) there and how he got divine help in this task.

This inspired me to write about divine experiences in my life and I start with this story of my travel in the year 1982. I was doing CA Articleship then and was stationed in the town of Solapur along with colleagues doing the audit of a textile mill.

The audit would go on for 3-4 weeks continuously and weekends were spent in the company guesthouse reading, listening to music etc. When we came to know that the Senior pontiff of Kancheepuram Shankara Mutt - His Holiness Jagadguru Shri Chandrasekhara Saraswati (HH) was camping in the neighbouring state of Karnataka, three of us decided to visit Him and pay our respects over a weekend.

Accordingly, one Friday evening we boarded a train at Solapur to proceed towards Shahbad where He was camping. The train reached Shahbad in the wee hours of Saturday morning. We got out of the station to find desolate deserted dark streets. We sat at the entrance of a small building waiting for dawn. At around 5 a.m. we were awakened by the sound of Aazan coming from the loudspeaker of the same building. Turns out it was a mosque and slowly people started trickling in for their morning prayers.

Once the light from the rising Sun came out, we proceeded to the bus stand to board a bus to the ACC factory where HH was camping. We got into the last seats of the bus and started exchanging notes with a gentleman who was seated besides us. He wanted to know who we are and where we were proceeding. We introduced ourselves and explained our mission to have darshan of HH.

This person, Shri A H Kulkarni (AHK), was a grocery wholesale merchant from Gulbarga on his rounds of collecting dues from his clients. He was keen to help us and at the next halt, he enquired about the whereabouts of HH from the locals there. He was told that HH had left the camp a couple of days ago and was in a different location.

So, he advised us to alight from the bus and accompanied us to our destination. As the new camp was in a remote village, we got into the back of a lorry which was going in that direction. There were many other villagers in the lorry with their sheep, bundles of vegetables etc. This is the typical mode of transport in remote countryside even today where connectivity is poor. 

After a couple of hours, we arrived at the destination. After confirming that HH was indeed there, AHK took us to a nearby river for a fresh bath. The water was just knee deep and flowing well. After a fresh bath, we changed into clean clothes and proceeded for darshan of the Saint. AKH was with us throughout and helping us in the process.

HH gave us darshan from within a small room in the school where they had camped. We explained that we were from Mumbai but had travelled from Solapur to have His darshan. He raised His hands in blessing and looked at us with benevolent eyes.

After this, all 3 of us along with AKH hitched a hike on a truck proceeding to Gulbarga. This time we sat in the cabin of the truck along with the driver and the cleaner. After reaching Gulbarga, AKH took us to his home and gave us snacks and tea before escorting us to the train station for our journey back to Solapur. We expressed our heartfelt gratitude to him for his kind help.

For a stranger to go out of the way to help three unknown youngsters in their journey is unthinkable. This could well have been one of the many leelas (divine plays) of His Holiness Sri Chandrasekhara Saraswati of Kanchi. When one sets out in life, there are many such divine help that one gets. One may call it luck or providence or karma, but the fact remains that faith & positive mindset coupled with effort from our side, is sure to lead to us towards success in unimaginable ways.

On hindsight, it was a divine help that we received that day which became an experience to cherish and remember always....