On my first meeting with Swamiji in Delhi I asked if I could visit him at the ashram and he said yes, however he told me he would be away for some weeks. I decided to go travelling to Gujarat in the meantime with an interesting person I met in Paharganj Delhi called Kali Das, a Doctor. who had spent a lot of time in India, my time spent with him is another story.
I found my way down to Pilani a town in Rajasthan three weeks after my first meeting with Swamiji . Each day following the meeting, the anticipation of seeing him again grew inside me. Pilani was the town closest to where Swamiji’s Ashram was, when I arrived, I was told to go to Mr Subash’s textile store. I felt Swamiji’s presence with me the whole time that I travelled to Pilani. On arrival I wandered around the dusty town looking for my point of contact; Mr Subash’s Textile store. Most of the stores in this town looked like make shift dwellings where a strong wind could easily blow them down. When I saw Mr. Subash’s store I was pleasantly surprised, it was the nicest and cleanest looking store in the whole town so far. Inside, there was a magnificent framed picture of Yogi Raj hung in the store, I knew I was in the right place. It was the same enlarged photo that Professor Ratur had showed to me the first time I had laid eyes on Swamaji. I told Mr Subash that I wanted to get to Swamaji’s ashram and I was wondering how this was to be organised. Mr Subash smiled and just said “Swamajj come”,I concluded Mr. Subash didn’t quite understand my needs to get to the ashram so I asked how should I get there and Mr Subash simply repeated, “Swamajj come”. I was thinking this could take some time before he understands that I need a taxi or something to get to the Ashram. Mr Subash said “You come, Swamaji come, God Come.” And with out looking gestured to the window where I saw Swamaji pull up in the Gypsy Suzuki waving to me out of the passenger window he gleamed in his immaculate white gown, with his black flowing long hair and his Ray-bans sunglasses. I headed out of the shop toward him, Swamaji embraced me and gave a soft and loving kiss upon my third eye. I reflected how Mr Subash knew Swamaji was about to come? I concluded that Swamaji must have phoned. I noticed shortly after that Swamaji didn’t have a phone, there was no phone line to the ashram as yet. Before going to the ashram we went out to lunch Swamaji brought me a Vegetarian Thali, a man from the Punjab accompanied us. The man asked me did you come here alone, before I had time to answer Swamaji said “no” and gestured that he had travelled with me.
He later told me that from the moment I saw his photo at Professor Ratur’s home he had called me to him. The image of the photo is a powerful doorway for the guru and part of his unfathomable consciousness had recognised me and he was able to create the circumstances that led me to him. Over lunch this day he had shown me that my feeling of his presence was authentic, that he had actually been accompanying me from Delhi.
Siting in the back of the white 4wd we drove out of Pilani and headed into the countryside. The land was flat and arid but supported fields of lush green mustard seed crops that produced a vivid yellow flower. Things felt so surreal – I was travelling in a car with an avatar in a strange land heading to his home somewhere in the desert of Rajasthan, it was both familiar and foreign. Later I asked Swamaji if we had known each other before in a past life and he said many many times. It was nice to know that I’d found him again for all that had appeared to have gone wrong in my life finding myself with him again felt like it was the single most important factor in getting my life on track. While I felt clumsy awkward and self-conscious in his presence, at the same time, everything felt so perfect.
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