A Collection of True Stories
A Lord doing Duties on behalf of his absent Devotee
Sounds Strange, Yet a true story of a Railway Officer!
(The Railway Officer Quit His Job, When Realized the Truth) <Part –I>
By Vijay Khosla (from blog: aisleofmiracle.blogspot.com)
Spring is the most lovely and lively season in India, when the entire ambience blooms in beauty. The nature blossoms the flowers of varied colours and fragrance during this season. A slightly fragrant breeze starts dancing on the wings of wind. It is the sweet south wind... carrying the pleasant smell of flowers and refreshing aroma of soils to us. These winds invigorate every living being on this living earth.
On a day, when there was freshness in the air and we were enjoying a cup of hot tea, the ‘Ba’ (the Gujarati lady to whom I had started calling ‘Ba’), asked to come along to visit the ashram of a devotee of Lord Krishna. Since ‘Ba’ had suggested it, I accepted it then and there.
Dear reader, in one of my earlier stories, I had introduced a middle aged, religious Gujarati lady who used to get premonitions about the people known to her and usually warned them well before the mishaps. She had become a highly respectable lady and gained immense popularity for her declarations, which used to come true within 48 to 96 hours.
Therefore, when ‘Ba’ asked to get ready for the visit, I was more than ready to accompany. We hired a rickshaw and proceeded towards the ashram. Later on, when ‘Ba’ was comfortable and got into her ‘mood’ of telling the things, she told an interesting story of a devotee of Lord Krishna, whose real name was Mr. Gupta (I don’t remember the full name).
The story of Mr. Gupta, as was told by ever loving dear ‘Ba’:
Mr. Gupta was a high ranking railway officer who was posted at Allahabad. He was a married man and lived happily with his wife. Apart from being a married man, he was also an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna from his childhood. It was said that even after joining the Indian Railway Services, there never was any leniency on his part towards his daily regimen of meditation.
Mr. Gupta had converted a small room in to a temple for his meditations at his house. The room was tastefully decorated with the artifacts befitting to a small house temple. The walls of the room wore fresh paint to give it a fresh look and framed pictures of different deities were hung on the walls. All the framed pictures were covered with garlands of different hues and color. The main deity of the place was a marble statue of Radha-Krishan placed in the north-eastern direction of the room on a wooden dais. The statue was covered with silver and golden brocaded beautiful clothes and complimentary jewellery made of semi-precious stones. The expression on the face of Lord Krishna with his flute was playful, as if he is about to play his flute the very next moment! It was a beautifully carved statue. The energy in the room was pious and peaceful.
I have said earlier also that the city of Allahabad is a pious city. Therefore, it is a fact that after getting transferred to this city, the meditations of Mr. Gupta took a new turn and grew so steadfast that at times he went in to a ‘trance’ like thing, popularly known as Samadhi.
His tentative beginning to gaining the state of Samadhi was naturally noticed by his wife at the first instance. As it happened, one fine evening he was carrying out his Mantra-Jap with his Rudraksha Mala in his Pooja Room. While meditating on his mantra, he went into a trance, when and how, he himself never knew…..
When more than an hour had passed and Mr. Gupta did not come out of the ‘Pooja Room’, his wife certainly grew curious and she went to the Pooja Room. The room was filled with an aroma of fresh flowers and the burning incense sticks. The air was thick inside the room.
She found Mr. Gupta sitting in Padmasana facing the deity of Radha-Krishan with his eyes closed. His body weight was some what rested on the right hand arm-rest. This arm-rest is usually used to facilitate the movement of Jap-Mala by the fingers to avoid it touching the ground. His face was peaceful, but his fingers were not moving the Rudraksha Mala. He was almost sitting still, without any bodily movement.
Though the fragrance of burning incense sticks was there in the air, but there was also a sort of very strange refreshing fragrance permeating the room. Mrs. Gupta couldn’t put a finger on the kind of that peculiar fragrance or the name of flower. She approached her husband and called out softly. Since she was nearer to her husband now, she could feel that strange refreshing fragrance swirling around Mr. Gupta. It felt like an envelope of fragrance covering Mr. Gupta from all around. She was astonished at that and called her husband again…
No response from Mr. Gupta.
She bent and touched his shoulder to draw attention.
Again there was no response. Mr. Gupta remained seated in Padmasana with his eyes shut.
She got worried and was about to shake his body to wake him up, when something within her deep soul made her to look at the face of Mr. Gupta. She saw a wonderful radiant face of her husband. She had never witnessed that kind of radiance on his face before. There was almost an invisible aura around his head and a beautiful innocent smile was dancing on his face. He seemed comfortable and peaceful.
Though she wished, but could not gather courage to touch her husband’s face… in fear of disturbing that beautiful aura dancing around his head.
She wanted to wake him up to reassure herself that everything is fine. Then her attention was drawn to the small movement of his chest while inhaling the air. She quickly placed her forefinger under Mr. Gupta’s nose to confirm respiration. Simultaneously, she placed her fingers on his wrist to feel the pulse. And she was finally satisfied. She exhaled a great sigh of relief upon the realization that her husband was well and no harm had come to him.
She had heard about the Samadhi, but was not sure of the fact. She had never seen a person in such a state earlier. She was unable to make a decision between waking him up and calling a doctor for help!
At last the wisdom prevailed and she decided against taking any action in this regard. She felt the best option was to wait for some more time… and she sat by the side of her husband... looking anxiously at him!
Shortly after this travail, Mr. Gupta came out of his trance and woke up. He looked energetic and did not remember a thing of his going into trance. It was just a normal evening prayer for him until his wife retold the whole story! When Mr. Gupta heard the whole story, he was astonished at first. Then the realization of achieving the great feat of going into Samadhi on his own stopped him flat in his tracks!
His eyes welled up and tears started flowing through his eyes. A great boon had been bestowed upon him by his Lord! These tears were of great joy… and his joy knew no bounds. He was profusely crying with joy. Like a child he opened his arms and called for his Lord…He knelt on the floor and offered his thanks with folded hands in the form of Sakhshaat Dandawat Pranaam as per Hindu philosophy. He was weeping and weeping and kept on offering hundreds of thanks to his benevolent Lord!
Seeing her husband crying…Mrs. Gupta too started crying. She was a noble lady and understood that her husband was not in pain and paying a tribute in the form of his tears to his Lord. And when she saw her husband offering Sakhshaat Dandawat Pranaam… she too followed suite and lay down on the ground to offer Sakhshaat Dandawat Pranaam to their Lord!
Now, both husband and wife were lying on the ground, side by side and offering Sakhshaat Dandawat Pranaam. It was a noble and pious gesture on the part of husband and wife as both were offering their thanks in their own way!
Finally, the room became quite when their sobs subsided.
Om Shanti! Om Shanti!! Om Shanti!!!
Cont’…d to Part II
