The Rescue

This was exactly a week before going for Guruji’s Birthday Special Advanced Course at the Ashram. This time, I had planned to go to Rishikesh ( city in Northern India) for an adventure trip with my friends.

On reaching Rishikesh, post checking into the hotel, we all decided to go for Rafting, for which Rishikesh is famous. We then gathered more information about the same from the Room Service employee, before jumping into it. He informed us about the mishaps that took place in the last two months which made us extremely apprehensive about our rafting plan. So we decided to step back.

Couple of hours later, suddenly, it dawned upon me that we had come to Rishikesh only for adventure sports, and returning back without completing it would not be fair. Following my mind, I asked all my friends to do the Kriya before leaving for rafting, as I had this very strong faith that no matter what, Sri Sri is there with us.

On reaching the spot, just before stepping on the raft, I sensed something wrong, for which I had no logical explanation. I had no idea as to what would follow. But with faith in our hearts, we all held down the grip and started our raft, with a loud “Jai Ganges”. As we approached the most dangerous rapid of the entire raft, which is called “Roller Coaster”, our coach ordered us to hold down the grip tight and act upon his instructions.

As the Roller Coaster arrived, we were all stuck in the rapid stream while our raft turned upside down, and I, along with another guy, fell into the water. The other guy was rescued immediately. But I was still struggling to keep my head above the water and keep breathing. As much as I was trying, I would keep getting pushed down by the enormous force of the river. I then realized that I was the only one floating, in the middle of the river, with no traces of the raft. All I had with me was an oar (which is used to row a boat), which I had held on to while falling into the water.

I had reached a stage where I was ready to give up all my efforts, as I could not even breathe properly. Just then I remembered Sri Sri and prayed to him. Suddenly, the words of my Part 1 Teacher came to my mind. He had told me that no matter what happens in life, don’t ever give up. That we must never lose hope and give our 100% to everything we do. So with the oar in hand, I started rowing myself in water and moving ahead, surfacing to keep my breath going. In just a few moments, I realized that there were two boats at a reasonable distance, which were trying to rescue me. As I was moving towards the boats, slowly and steadily, the coach of one of the rafts threw a rope into the water for me to hold onto. I then gripped onto the rope and the coach pulled it towards himself with all his might. The place where I was rescued was a mountain corner. It seemed as though I had been floating in that water since ages.

My rescue made me realize the importance of this beautiful life and the treasure that we have “Our Breath”. I thanked Sri Sri with all my heart and soul for taking care of me when I most needed Him. Once I returned to Gurgaon, the very next night, Gurudev came in my dream and I had a flash of the same incident that occurred with me in Rishikesh. I saw Him sitting exactly at that same place where I was rescued, on a bed of stones. My rescue was nothing short of a miracle for me.

Tears rolled down my cheeks and I was filled with immense love and gratitude for my Master. He is taking care of us at every single moment. He is always there. We just need to have that faith and give every situation our very best. And He will take care of the rest. I realized that every challenge that we face in life is a stepping stone towards success, when we have a Master in our lives.

JGD
Mayank Singhal