Divine Intervention - Part 2

It was in the year 1997 when we visited Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh on a holiday cum pilgrimage. It was in early November during Diwali holidays. My son Surya had just celebrated his first birthday a few months earlier. 

At Vrindavan, we went to various temples before coming to Nidhivan. This is a 4-5 acres plot of land filled with shrubs & stunted trees compounded by high walls. In the middle of this place is a small temple where Lord Krishna is believed to visit every night and dance with the Gopis. People keep articles of new clothing, perfumes, make up etc. in the evening and find it used / disturbed by next morning. The gates of Nidhivan are closed by 6-6.30 p.m. and no visitors are allowed to remain inside during the night time. It is said that a few people who sneaked in during the time of the divine dance (Raas) lost their ability to speak or lost their mental balance.

Vrindavan is full of monkeys that are fairly bold and do snatch away your bags, spectacles etc. Nidhivan also has a large number of monkeys roaming around freely. We were warned to remove spectacles and hide bags before entering this place. When we reached it was almost 5.30 p.m. and getting dark.

I was carrying my son in one hand and my wife was carrying his new spare clothes which was purchased for Diwali a few days earlier. My spectacles were in my pocket and in the fading light I could hardly see anything clearly.

It was at that time a monkey came near my wife and snatched the shorts of my son that she was carrying and jumped into the bushes. My elder brother, who was near her, chased the monkey only to find the monkey going deeper into the shrubs. Within no time the monkey had literally vanished. There was no way we could retrieve the shorts of my son.

We continued walking through the narrow pathway towards the temple inside Nidhivan. I just thought and prayed to Krishna and mentally said to Him, 'If you return my son's shorts, I will put some money in your Hundi'. It was a stupid thought and normally I never seek anything in my prayers but this came in my mind abruptly.

After we reached the temple in about 10 minutes or so, we stood before the small idol of Lord Krishna. 

Suddenly, a small boy of about 7-8 years of age came to us and said, "Is this yours?". In his hand he was carrying my son's shorts! We were wonder stuck as this boy had come directly to us although there were hundreds of visitors walking around at that time. We gratefully accepted it from him and the boy quickly moved away. The only mark in the shorts was a small tear indicating that either the monkey had bitten it or some thorn had pierced it.

The other members of my group were thinking we were lucky to have got the shorts back. Only I knew of my prayer and the instant response from the Lord. He proved it that He is always listening to our sincere prayers and fulfils it whenever He so chooses. I did put a small currency note in the Hundi of the temple by way of fulfilling my promise.

Such is the power of that place where Lord Krishna visits every evening even today.

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....