I had heard of the amazing experiences of sadhaks from their international travels with Yogi Ashwini and had this strong desire to be a part of such a trip. When Yogiji’s trip to US got decided, it was just the opportunity I was waiting for. He was going to the very city in which my company had organized a conference, and the dates were just suitable so that I could be with Him and then attend the conference. In short, everything fell in place by His Grace and I got to be in his sanidhya for 3 full days.
When I was leaving for the US, Yogiji asked me to find a vehicle to rent as we had to visit a nearby city which was about 2 hours away from where he was staying. I was thrilled at the idea of driving in the US, I had always wanted to rent a powerful vehicle and zoom on the wide and smooth roads in the country…Excited, I looked for rentals for a big 4 wheel drive vehicle and found a good deal for a week’s rental. The company was sending the car to the airport itself from where it was a 30 minute drive to the hotel. I landed at 11pm and due to some system glitch, it was past midnight by the time I got the car. I had never driven in the US, leave aside alone and in the middle of the night; however, I was confident that with Yogiji’s grace everything would be just fine.
But, that day at midnight, neither could I start the car nor figure out the GPS. A strange sinking feeling starting taking over me. I called the lady who issued the car and asked for assistance. It turned out the company had forgotten to issue the GPS to me and instantly did it, so atleast the problem of how to find my way to the hotel got fixed. Now the second problem was that even though I had switched on the ignition of the car and the engine was running, the car refused to start. At this stage I just connected with Yogiji and said you have to get me out of here. There, that instant, something told me I needed to press the brakes. You see, in the USA, they are so particular of safety, that the car will not start even if the ignition is on and to put the car in ‘Drive gear’ first the brakes have to be ‘on’. So I confidently pressed the brakes, changed the gear to ‘Drive’ and entered my destination in the GPS and lo and behold in 30 minutes I reached the destination.
Next morning, I had to drive Yogiji along with some sadhaks outside the city. I took a deep breath, and took to the wheel when Yogiji noticing I have no idea how to drive, made me practice by taking ten rounds in reverse. This done, we set off and with some hiccups reached our destination after 2 hours. By the time we were done from there, it was only 1.5 hours from sunset. One of the sadhaks had to perform a yagya at sandhya time, which meant we had to be at the hotel before that. Yogiji assured him we would reach in time. Behind the wheels, I was already sweating! To add to the pressure we got stuck in a terrible jam with traffic not moving for 45-50 minutes. Now the journey which took 1.5hours in the morning was to be completed in 35-40 minutes. Tension mounting, I looked at Yogiji and he smiled.
What transpired in the next 35-40 minutes is a blur to me. All I remember is Yogiji’s image. I was told later by sadhaks, that Yogiji was giving instructions and I was following them mindlessly, racing the car at 130-140miles per hour, braking-turning-slowing only when He said, and that it seemed as if the SUV was flying few inches above the road. We reached the hotel gates at 7.02pm, sunset was at 7.06pm. That is when I made a mistake. Yogiji asked me for the room keys to open the gates to enter hotel complex. I told Yogiji, room key is not required as the gate was already open for the car ahead of us. Mantra moolam guru vakyam, had made me traverse the 1.5 hour journey in 40 minutes, and doubting it at the nth hour, made us lose precious 3 minutes in clearing the gates. Now the sadhak had hardly a minute to take the lift, do the setup and start the yagya and I am told by sadhaks who were sharing his room, that when he put the first ‘ahuti’ it was exactly 7:06pm.
The thing about this entire episode is, that with Yogiji by our side, even though I failed my task at the last minute, the sadhak was able to perform his sadhna, because Yogiji had assured him it would happen. Questions like why we didn’t reach 5 minutes before or 2 minutes after and how come we reached such that the first ‘Ahuti’ was put exactly at 7:06pm can never be answered by a logical mind. But as Yogiji says, the journey of the spirit begins only where logic ends…
Auhtor: Nandini Maithiani
