The Cost of a Blessing

Last night I had a shock. Usually the way for me to proceed is clear and I proceed quite well from one point to the next. I came back to my room after dinner, booked a hotel room for two nights in south Delhi and then phoned the people whom I was to meet there, for confirmation of our meeting. They had told me that they would be leaving on the 23rd and if we were to meet it would have to be before then. No problem. I had planned it out well, 1. Spend one day in Haridwar on the 20th, 2. Hire a car to take me to the hotel in Delhi on the 22nd which was near the area where they live, 3. Have a meeting with them and then 4. Leave for Assam on the 24th. What could be easier???? But if you've been following these blogs, you already are knowing that it has all the earmarks of an adventure.

Sure enough, after the hotel bookings, a phone call to the people whom I was to meet, yielded up an awareness that they were not going to be able to to be available for any meeting because they were getting ready for their trip...Okay........I phoned the hotel, but no, they would not give a refund for the 22nd...Sorry. So, there I was with everything in place and no where to go...I couldn't help but see God's hand in this.

So, I yielded to the idea that I had lost the cost of a hotel in Delhi for one night, changed the date with the driver for the next day, extended my room for one more night in Haridwar and settled into myself and watched and listened with delight for the real reason of this extra day in Haridwar to be revealed.

I spent the day on the banks of the Ganga; watching an array of Saddhus smoking chillums and strolling along the ghats. Some were taking naps while others were either eating or chatting.

As the day was beginning to come to an end and moving along quickly now I realized that I really wanted to return to Anandamai Ma's ashram for the puja at 6:45. The driver did not arrive and so I jumped in a rickshaw, so late that I was almost certain that I would miss it, but in fact only 5 minutes had gone by of the grand puja and I was there for 'almost' every delicious moment. On my way into the ashram grounds I had noticed a small group of foreigners huddled around a Saddhu who was wrapped in orange. He was slumped in the plastic chair and seemed to be having trouble raising his head to the left side. All the foreigners were glued to his every syllable and the 15 or so of them seemed to be very familiar with him. You can always tell by people's bodies, whether they are connected to each other, and some of these people had been together for a very long time.

I hurried by them, making note of the group and then walked into the blissful handful of equally entranced pilgrims who you could see LOVED Ananadamai Ma.

Finally the puja was over and after lingering to get some prasad, I walked outside. The group of foreigners was still there on a small spot on the steps in the courtyard. I paused; listening for the telltale signs of TRUTH, and it was truthfully still and real. What a delightful change from the banks of the Ganga. I moved away, finally and went to look for the driver, who surely must be there by now...; he was still no where to be found, so I returned, put my shoes neatly back into the shoe stall and joined the small group who were glued to the Saddhu. When it came time for him to be carried in his chair back to his room I seized the moment and bowed at his feet; touching my head gently to his feet. He put his two hands right on the top of my head three times. He asked me where I lived and had I seen the Kumba Mela?, because this year was Maha Kumba Mela (meaning every 12 years). He knew my name before I told him what it was...........I asked him his name; it is Swami Vijayananda, and as it turns out, he was a disciple of Ananadamai Ma's. I watched him being carried off and the French-speaking group disperse quietly and thoughtfully. Now I knew this was what I had been meant to do; exactly this. And, as if by magic, the driver appeared and off we went, back to the Ginger Hotel.

When I came back to my room I looked up Swami Vijayananda on the web and there he was. He lives at Anandamai Ma's ashram and is a revered teacher. Some of the foreigners there (who were mostly French) told me that he is French...

So I figure the cost of having these loving and powerful blessings (that are still radiating in my head from his blessed touch), was 7000 rupees. Cheap at the price. How nicely this was so lovingly orchestrated...JAI MA!

(these two photos are night shots of buildings at the ashram; the one with the OM sign is the bookstore and the other is the entrance to the temple where Anandamai Ma's body is buried, just below her marble statue. You can double click on them and they will enlarge if you want to see them closer)