Swamiji once mentioned – There is no one on this planet who has not experienced miracles or the presence of God in his/her life. (He is so true about it, can’t agree more)

I will narrate two major incidents from my life and also how the ignorance prevailed until recently.

Before I was born, my mom had a vision at a time of major crisis in our family. One day my dad didn’t return home after work and my mom was very much worried, after a long wait throughout the night she laid down praying to God all the while, for his safe return. At around 4am in the morning she had a vision that Shri Vaishno Devi Ma (Hindu Goddess) woke her up saying – ‘Go open the door, I have brought your husband back home safely this time but make sure you do not let him hangout with such people ever again’. My mom abruptly woke up and at the same time heard a knock on the door. Found my dad soaked in blood, injured, almost unconscious and was held by two watchmen of our community. With the help of other family members she managed to get him to the hospital and with God’s grace my dad recovered in a couple of months. Her faith further strengthened in God and after I was born we used to visit Mata Vaishno Devi Mandir (temple) in Katra, J&K every year (for 7 consecutive years).

I recall, during our 6th visit to the temple, we gathered on the rooftop of the hotel to get a glimpse of  morning Aarti (prayers) at the Devi temple. It was hard to see the temple because it was still dark for a 4am winter morning but rather what we saw was incredible. The view goes like this – Between the two nearby mountain peaks a stripe of white light appeared, followed by formation of a Loin on one end of the stripe, then twinkled 3-9 lamps around the stripe, and lastly Devi Ma appeared seated on loin’s back while the loin walked the stripe through the other end and disappeared in thin air. My whole family saw this, all of us still remember and cherish the vision. It may sound like a laser light show but well this was in mid 1980s, the route to temple was unpaved, there were no street lights and moreover no cellphones to even take a picture (forget about a laser projection at that time in a remote temple setting). Credit goes to my mom, it is because of her we got lucky to see this miracle.

Lets fast forward to early 2004, my mom and few other relatives planned uttrakhand’s char dham yatra (The four temples that comprise Chotta Char Dham are Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath Dham). The trip was adventurous, rough terrain and slippery roads, we miraculously got saved from a major accident. Next, we started at Yamunotri dham, drove to Gangotri and then reached Kedarnath. When we reached the hotel near Kedarnath temple for our evening stay, in the parking lot, at around 5pm, as soon as I got out of the jeep I heard one of my aunt say loudly – “Aha, lucky we are, Shiva has appeared himself.” I looked up in the sky and saw Shiva and Parvati (with child Ganesha sitting on Shiva’s lap). Only three of us could see the vision, that lasted for a few seconds, and by the time other people turned around the formation vanished in clear sky. For this vision I give credit to my Guruji – I was initiated in Shiva mantra that I had been repeating for the past few years at that time.

So, veil of ignorance kept all this (and many more incidents) covered until 2017.. that’s when I regained consciousness and started questioning my mind – ‘Enough of this bull crap, what the hell am I doing with my life?’. The veil lifted, focus reset and journey resumed after a long break.

More to follow..