The blind saint of Gangotri

I heard the story of the blind saint of Gangotri from Swami Hariomananda who taught us Bhagwat Gita and from a local man whom I met in shared taxi. I mixed the two and the mixture is something like this......
Once there was a saint who used to live in one of the caves in Gangotri. One night in winters, he lit the charcoal fire to keep his cave warm and closed the door of cave to retain the warmth. Next morning, he came to know that because of the excessive smoke inside the cave he lost his eye sight. Many of his followers asked him to go to doctor for his eye check-up. One of his follower was a rich industrialist of India, he brought the helicopter for him in Gangotri seeking special permission from government for that helicopter to enter in that area and spending quite large sum of money on it. He asked the blind saint, "Swamiji, Let's fly to Delhi so that your eyes can be treated in the reputed hospital." Surprisingly, the saint refused to come along him. He said, "Whatever God has given me is acceptable to me. It is God's wish and I accept it happily."

The guy who dispelled my tensions by sharing his own!

From the past ten months, I had too many problems in my business that were causing tensions to me. I was trying my best to sort out the things but the problems were increasing in size as well as in number.

Today, when I was in Mr. ‘V’s office, waiting for the paper work to be done, a person entered the office, he introduced himself as 'H'. With his way of talking, I guessed that he was a rich businessman of the town. Mr. 'V' and Mr. 'H' must be knowing each other well as they both shared their experiences, discussed their problems and the possible solutions of them. I was listening to them, as I have no other work to do. In conversation, Mr. ‘H’ explained about his some of the business problems. And what a coincidence! Mr. ‘H’ explained almost about all those problems that I was experiencing in my business from past ten months. After knowing that he was going through the same phase in business as I was, not all but most of my tensions evaporated. :)

“Whether one has the business of 1 crore or 100 crores the problems are the same! ;)” I thought.

Market of Uttarkashi

In Uttarkashi market, one can easily find each and every article of daily use and even unique articles used in worshipping of dieties. But surprisingly this tourist place doesn't have any shops with wooden handicrafts, embroidered articles, knitted woollens, crocheted things or any other antique or decorative items. It was just like a normal town market with grocery, sweets, bakery, utensils, clothes, shoes, vegetables and fruits shops. I couldn't find anything in the market to buy gifts for friends and relatives. But two things grabbed my attention. One was the orange coloured churners which I found very attractive and second was lemon and chillies totka (a ritual to keep evil eyes away from business) in plastic though before that I have always seen this totka in fresh lemon and chillies.

Utter surprise

“Yesterday, you know Chandrika, what happened?” Mr. ‘N’ said who was lively, energetic, cheerful, bubbly, witty and vivacious.

I looked up from the book that I was reading and softly asked, “What?”

“I told the Director, "I am registered for the next course of advance meditation." She was so surprised to hear this that she could not react to it for a few seconds. Her mouth was open in utter surprise.”

“hmm....”

He laughingly said, “It was so funny to see the expressions on her face.”

“I am also registered for the advance meditation course.”

“Ya. But you are quiet, calm, peace loving and too serious, perfect for that course.”

“If I tell you that I am like you (lively, energetic, cheerful, bubbly, witty and vivacious) you will be equally surprised as her!” I thought.

Shirshasana (Headstand pose)

"Daily you do shirshasana thrice a day even then you fall every time you try?" I said to Ms. 'M' who from the past 28 days was practicing shirshasana but couldn't master it.
"One day I will!" She said and winked.

"Sure. Just don't jump but try to balance with strength and control. I myself started here doing shirshasana from zero level. Although I could do shirshasana quite well before but here the way of doing shirshasana was totally different and I felt as if I started learning it all over again. Now, I can do even variations in shirshasana."

I

My spiritual name

After the initiation ceremony of mantra a spiritual name was given to the students by Swamiji to those only who were interested in taking part in that ceremony.
"What is your spiritual name?" Ms. 'F' asked me, unknowingly that I didn't participate in that ceremony.
I explained her, "My full name is Chandrika Shubham. Chandrika means 'moonlight' and Shubham means 'sacred' so I am 'sacred moonlight'."
"Wow! So it is your spiritual name."
"Ya. My maternal grandfather, Kaushal Saini named me 'Shubham' when I was born. Later in life, he blessed me with a spark of spirituality by placing his hand on my head just a couple of days before he left his body. His blessings totally changed my life. Only after that my interest in scriptures, spirituality and meditation grew many folds. It was still a mystery for me why he chose me and not any other family member or friend as I was not intelligent, didn't have interest in spirituality, didn't have saintly qualities as compared to other family members."

Love games – To make pairs with opposite sex

The teacher told the class, “No chit-chatting after the sansang class at night. Switch off the lights at 10pm.”

I returned to my room after the class. To relax, I opened the book and started reading while lying on my bed. I shared the room with other girls, all of them were damn talkative! Most of the time, their talks were absurd, illogical, irrelevant, contained inferior quality of romance, sometimes poorly erotic and occasionally sexual. I felt not only bored but also sometimes irritated with their poor quality talks. Moreover, frequent repetitions of such irrational talks made me sick.

Girl ‘A’ started the conversation and said to Girl ‘B’, “Today, In the fruit shop, you want to buy apples but Mr. ‘Z’ has taken all the apples. He was waiting at the billing counter for his turn and knowing that you want to buy apples. He offered one to you so lovingly. And you silly girl refused it.”

Girl ‘B’ “Was that an apple or his heart?”

Girl ‘A’ continued after a brief pause, “It was his heart in the shape of apple which he was giving it to you with so much love.”

Girl ‘B’ said while scribing something on her notebook, “No, he just asked normally.”

Girl ‘A’ said, “But he didn’t ask any other girl in the shop, some of the girls wanted apples and he was holding all the apples but asked only you and not anybody else. Because you are special for him! He has feelings for you!”

“No!” Girl ‘B’ made a face.

“Did he offer any other girl in the shop to take apples? No! Therefore, it is clear that he was giving it you only, my dear.”

I put the book down, as I was not able to concentrate and started applying oil on my  knees which were paining.

“If he was giving signals to me, then what?”

“You are from the same country and he is also from the same county. He runs the yoga school. You want to run a yoga school. You both have the same goal in life. Look he is offering you to work together, live together and have kids with flexible bodies like you both have.”

It seemed that she had not heard about the Mendelian inheritance that throws light on how recessive gene can appear in next generation.

Girl ‘C’ entered the room. Girl ‘A’ to Girl ‘C’ “Where were you, my darling?”

Girl ‘C’ told, “I was telling Mr. ‘Y’ that today he chanted beautifully.”

“It took you so long so say that.”

Girl ‘B’ said, “In the evening, you were not feeling well. You were having cold. And it has been raining heavily. You should have taken rest.”

Girl ‘A’ said, “After the chanting class she must be feeling well as Mr. ‘Y’ chanted for her.”

They all laughed.

Girl, ‘B’ asked “By the way, who is Mr. ‘Y’?”

Girl ‘C’ told, “The smartest Indian guy!”

Girl ‘B’ looked around like a fool and said, “Who? Today three Indian guys chanted. About whom you are talking?”

Girl ‘C’ eloborated his physical appearance.

When Girl ‘B’ couldn’t recall Girl ‘C’ showed her a photo of that guy in her mobile which she clicked with him when they last time went out together.

Girl ‘B’ reacted, “He is smart???”

Girl ‘C’ explained, “Ya, not that smart but the smartest in all Indian guys. A figure among ciphers!”

Girl ‘A’ said, “She wants to settle in India as she loves Indian culture and rituals. So she is tuning with that guy.”

Girl ‘B’ asked, “But you have a boy friend in your own country.”

Girl ‘C’ replied, “Ya, I am in serious relationship with him but just to pass the time and to have fun this guy. What’s bad in it?”

I thought, “Now I have to live with them for only 9 days more!”

The three of them loved to play love games – ‘to make pairs with opposite sex’. In general, the girls love to play such games in their teens but they were playing such stupid games in their late twenties or early thirties. They had not matured with age or might be I had matured more with age. 

This incidence is of not of just one day, they loved to play such nonsense games everyday with ‘this guy’ or ‘that guy’.